Young Adult/Teen

259

A sensitive but explicit character portrait of one persevering young couple facing the difficulties of surviving teen romance and sexuality while coming of age amidst an era of AIDS, date-rape, drug proliferation and partner abuse.

Chris Casanova is a rising young track star who wants to make it to the nationals and break world records. He'll get these both if he can shake the specter of his crack-addicted older brother and contend with, not only the more clear and present threat of a steroid-enhanced teammate with a mean score to settle, but his own over-protective C.O. father, Malcolm. Malcolm Casanova, a disillusioned war veteran who sees his firstborn's descent into the drug culture as a personal failure and an assault on his parenting abilities, will do anything within his power to avoid his remaining two sons falling prey to the streets. Even if this includes alienating them with hisdisapproval of their relationships with unsuitable wild-things from his own worst nightmares.Enter Tori Damiano, an intelligent non-conformist skirting the fastlane and hiding secret pains behind a wall of foul-mouthed bravado and false indifference. She hates jocks and though she's trying to escape her own past and her divorcee mother she blames for her current emotional straits, she wants to show Chris that there's more to life than running.  

Excerpt
She headed back onto the track at a slow jog as Chris advanced. He didn't have time to stop, barely had to time to slow down before he collided with her back, hurtled them both towards the tarmac. He unconsciously thrust out his arms, encircled her waist as he tried to cushion her descent to the floor.

"Get off me! Get off!"

"Sorry. I'm sorry." Jesus.

Chris tried to disentangle his arms and legs from hers but was having a hard time with her wildly wriggling and squirming as if he were a knife-wielding attacker trying to have his way with her instead of an innocent bystander trying to cushion her fall. Everywhere he put a hand, he'd encounter soft flesh--a breast, a thigh, a crimson cheek.

"Gimme a break. Calm down. If you would just stay still a minute..."

"Leggo of me!"

"All right already, geez." Grudgingly, Chris complied, releasing her as he stared up into her furious eyes. God, you'd think it had been his fault and he'd done it on purpose.