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Prologue
Summer
Tauntinglaughter and hurtful insults being chanted pierced my heart as I laid in a daze on the floor. My fog-filled eyes slightly registered the disgusted faces of some of my classmates, who were looking at me as if I had a disease they were liable to get if they got too close, while others were wide-eyed like they were witnessing an alien encounter.
Possessing no energy and with shame washing through me, I remained boneless on the cold, hard ground and wished with all my heart that I was normal, even just for a day. That’s when I heard her. Something shifted inside me the moment she spoke.
“You stupid idiots, get away from hernow!”
Who is shouting?It was only a few weeks into the start of junior high and I didn’t hang out with anyone from this school. The kids I knew were either from the private school I used to attend, or the country club my parents belonged to and all their friends' children. They were all privileged snobs, which is why I had begged to come here, but now I wasn’t sure that had been a good idea whatsoever.
“Back the hell up before…”
The lioness cut her sentence short, no doubt tempering her choice of words so she didn’t get herself in trouble, though she didn’t seem to care how loud she was. I inhaled sharply as small hands gently touched my face and a pair of bright blue eyes suddenly peered into my blank stare.
I didn’t know the fierce girl who was staring down at me, and I wasn’t sure why she was helping me, but I was grateful. Jerking her head up, she released a mighty roar of warning. Everyone moved back, some even skittering away completely. It reminded me of a mama lion protecting her cub, and as confused as I was, a sense of security which I hadn’t felt in a long time, buried its way deep inside me, replacing the biting hurt from seconds before.
Pretty and tough. Those were the first two things that I’d thought about the savior of mine.
Struggling to gain my bearings, with my vision, and feeling fifty shades of emotion, tears gathered in my eyes and the beautiful face in front of me swam like a mystic deep blue sea. Then, unlike the harsh tone she’d used seconds ago, the musical words like a mermaid’s song floated to my ears.
“You're safe, it will be okay. I got you.”
Wanting desperately to believe what she said, I shakily swiped at the tears falling freely down my face and tried tipping my mouth up in a tentative smile, one I didn’t quite feel, but that the girl deserved.
“T-Thank y-you,” I stuttered, my throat tight. “But w-why are y-you h-helping… me?”
Nobody helped me. Not ever.
Life was always a competition and filled with jealousy where I came from. Beauty pageants, fancy restaurants, those country clubs I mentioned, and everything else only money could buy. My parents belonged to that world, but I didn’t. I despised it. Inside me, there was something wrong. The seizures that took over my body made the outer beauty people saw fade, and I always became something hideous in their eyes when I had an episode.
And everyone, including my parents, never let me forget I am not good enough. So how can I believe that I am anything else?
The one person I could always count on was my brother Landon. But he was older than I was and he was the firstborn and a man, so my family was even harder on him than they were on me. We were still close though, and he had always been my rock for as long as I could remember.
But I think I just found another one.
“You needed me,” she said with a shrug, like it was no big deal, breaking through my tormented thoughts. A flash of what could come played in my head. Things girls who were true friends would do together, like talk about boys, their dream wedding—if I ever find a guy who likes me damaged and all, which is highly unlikely—help each other with homework, and be there for each other through everything. It was an amazing picture of what I had always wanted. Then her soft voice grabbed my attention once again.
“My name is Alley,” the raven-haired beauty said to me. “What’s yours?”
“I’m-m Summer,” I managed to get out, still shaken up and having a hard time finding my words.
As I gave her my name, a smile broke out across her face that I had a feeling most people didn’t get to witness. Staring at one another, I knew something special had just transpired and that Alley just let me into her world.A world I think I will like.At that moment, our souls synced with one another.
I was one of the lucky ones.
Chapter One
Summer
Twelve Years Later
Shocked at the sudden contact,I gasped and the kiss changed course as it spun slowly out of control and my body responded by pressing closer, even as my mind screamed, ‘Step back now before you get burned.’
In the middle of another intense conversation with Gyth I didn’t want to have, I hadn’t been paying close attention to my surroundings. The man was insufferable and didn’t know when to leave damn well enough alone. It was a trait I was sure he had always possessed, but I’d only been privileged in dealing with it since I’d embarrassed myself and ruined a special moment at my best friend's wedding reception a few months back.
I knew I couldn’t exactly help it, the seizure snuck up on me out of nowhere and struck my body with lightning speed. I also knew Jurnee didn’t hold it against me, she’d told me as much, countless times since then. She and Braxton expressed they had just been concerned about me, and yet every time I thought about the incident, I wanted to sob.
