A Life, Redefined (A Rowan Slone Novel Book 1)
Page 18
He was so handsome, I almost lost my breath. He’d always been very good looking; but something about the way he was dressed tonight, about the way he looked at me, made my knees go all wobbly and my stomach do flips.
And for a moment, just a brief moment, there was no one else in the world but me and Mike.
But then Mr. A. cleared his throat and we all laughed. I actually laughed, something I’d done more of lately. Pictures took about thirty minutes and included every pose imaginable. There were a few of Tabitha and Mike, of Tabitha and me. I took pictures of the four of them together. It was all so easy and relaxed, it felt alien somehow.
I still had trouble accepting their hospitality. And I didn’t know if I would stay or not. Mike would graduate in a few weeks and though he’d spend the summer here, he’d leave in late August for college on a soccer scholarship. I didn’t know where that left us; didn’t want to think about it.
Right here, right now, I was okay. My scars were still there, but they were healed as well as they would ever be. I hadn’t held a razor between my fingers in a month. And it felt good. If I was sad, or upset, I would go for a walk, or play with Levi and Scout. Or curl onto Mike’s lap and let him stroke my hair.
Mrs. A. had gotten me an after school job at the animal shelter. I threw myself into that job with an earnestness that had me getting there early, leaving late and coming in, unscheduled, on the weekends. But it felt right. Just me and the other unwanteds of the world.
But I didn’t feel unwanted. I felt, if not a part of a family, at least a close friend of one. And that was okay.
“IT’S TIME for you two to go,” Mr. A. said.
“Oh, just one more!” Mrs. A. scurried toward us. “Now, Mike, you stand here. Rowan, face him.” She posed us inches apart, face-to-face. She placed Mike’s hands on my waist and mine on his shoulders.
“Uh-oh,” laughed Tabitha. “Here it comes.”
“Here what comes?” I pulled my lip between my teeth.
“The kissing picture.” Mike groaned as he put his head in his hand.
“What?” I pulled back.
“Oh no you don’t.” Mrs. A. laughed as she gently pushed me back into his arms. “Just a little peck.” Then she swatted Mike on the shoulder. “Just a peck.”
It was the chastest kiss that had ever occurred on Prom night.
Just as we walked outside, Jess and Justin, her date for the Prom, were leaving his house two doors down from Mike’s. She was still dating Paul, but they had talked about Prom and decided he couldn’t be the one to take her. So, Mike had set her up with Justin, and Jess was going to meet up with Paul later. I still didn’t approve, but I was so glad to have her here tonight sharing this with me that I decided to keep the Paul comments to myself.
Justin was dressed almost identical to Mike, and almost looked as handsome. Almost. Jess had on a short dress that fell mid-thigh. The top was black satin with thick shoulder straps. The skirt was multi-layered with alternating sheets of deep purple and black. Her cherry red hair had rainbow streaks in it and for tonight, she wore her contact lenses. She looked amazing.
“My God, Ro, you look incredible!”
“Oh, Jess, you look beautiful!” We hugged while the guys laughed and shifted on their feet, growing warm in their heavy suits.
“Come on, ladies. It’s a sauna out here.” Justin wove Jess’ arm through his, pulling her from me. We didn’t release our hold on each other, though, catching hands while the guys escorted us toward the black limousine Mr. A. had rented for the night.
We piled in and I felt almost giddy, like Cinderella going to the Ball. When it turned midnight, would this all become a dream? An unreality that I had conjured in my desperation?
Then Mike was kissing me. Long and sweet, with promises of more to come. Much more to come, though when I didn’t know.
As the car pulled away, I broke the kiss and looked out the window. It was a cloudless evening, the sky colored powder blue. My heart lurched at the sheer perfection; only this time, I didn’t clutch my arm and my heart didn’t wither under the pain. Instead, I said a prayer for my sweet baby brother. I pulled his image into my mind, not the one of him in death, but the one of him in life: gurgling, cooing, wrapping his chubby fingers around mine, smiling his first smile.
Then I looked back at Mike and found his eyes on me. With a whisper of a touch, he brushed his fingers over the top of my hand, sending shivers up my arm. He smiled. I nodded and didn’t have to force the upswing of my lips.
We sped down the road with the past trailing us, if not far behind, then at a distance and nothing but open road ahead.
Tracy writes Young Adult and New Adult fiction as well as Adult Romance. She lives in the mid-east with her family, a goldendoodle, a bearded dragon, and four curiously antisocial fire-bellied toads. Visit her at www.TracyHewittMeyer.com.
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Table of Contents
Book Description
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Poem
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
About the Author
The Butterfly Project