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AprilWord
Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Publisher: Xulon Press
Type: Fiction
Pages: 116
Copyright: June, 2008
ISBN-13: 9781606474822
Does Carrie find her forever family?
Carrie was looking forward to her junior year in high school. She was hoping this would be the year she found true love.
Was Danny her true love? Or just a fantasy?
Maybe it was her new friends that love her unconditionally.
Would Carrie ever find a love that was true? A love that she had heard about and knew once as a child.
Carrie never imagined she would be taken for a ride, a ride that would show her about the power of God’s divine providence. Her journey takes her far away from home, but strangely, straight into the arms of her forever family.
Excerpt
“It’s so hot out here I can’t stand it! And look, it just got even hotter!” Carrie and her friends Josie and Katie sat outside the Sonic sipping their shakes. The sun had been beating down on them all afternoon and they were grateful for the fast food joint’s aluminum umbrella attached to their round, waffle holed table.
As Carrie stared out at the blazing blacktop shimmering from the heat of the day, Danny rode up on his motorcycle. Carrie had a crush on him ever since she moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, her freshman year in high school. Danny, a Seahawk, played on the school football team. She wasn’t sure what position he played, and didn’t care. She just liked to watch him run the field in his shoulder pads, which, because of his muscles, she thought he really didn’t need…and oh, those tight football pants.
Danny could throw a ball farther than any of his teammates and caught anything thrown his way. A natural at football, Danny was. For two years Carrie stalked him. At practice, she sat in the bleachers and watched him work out, doing push-ups harder and faster than any guy on the team. He was tall and lean, all muscle. Since there were always other people around, Carrie knew she could stare at him unnoticed. She cried at his graduation, wondering if she would ever see him again. He stayed on her mind all summer. Some said he had run off to join the army, but Carrie knew he was still around. She could feel his presence, her “woman’s intuition,” she called it.
That summer before their junior year, the three friends thought it was the hottest they had ever known. Outside the Sonic in the heat, their shakes had melted into a warm creamy mess, but Carrie had heard that Danny frequented this particular Sonic, so here they sat. Too chicken to go it alone, Carrie conned Josie and Katie into hanging out there one afternoon with her. Just as Josie and Katie were about to succumb to the heat and head for the beach, they heard the roar of his bike.
“Oh my, there he is!” Carrie whispered to the others as Danny pulled himself off the bike. Carrie watched with a racing heart, as he kicked the stand down with his left leg and swung his other leg over the bike in one fluid move. He took off his helmet and shook his wavy shoulder length hair until every layer was in its perfect place. Carrie’s face, already burned from the sun, grew even redder as he approached. Normally, she would withdraw her eyes from his face, but for some reason, this time, she just couldn’t turn away. It was as if a huge magnet had locked her eyes on his incredible physique and even the earth reversing its rotation could not make her look away. As her lungs began to ache from holding her breath, he looked back and beamed his golden smile at her. Her milkshake wasn’t the only thing melting in the heat.
“Hey, Carrie, Josie, Katie.” Danny tossed a greeting toward the girls as he walked to the window to place his order.
Whether from lack of oxygen or simple shock and awe, Carrie felt as though she was going to pass out. Her head was spinning and she swore her heart skipped a couple of beats.
“He knows our names! He knows my name! How? Why?”
“We do go to a pretty small school, silly!” Josie suggested.
“But, we’re nobodies!”
“Speak for yourself!” Katie interjected.
Just as Carrie was beginning to regain her composure, Danny sauntered over to their table. “This seat taken?”
“No, have a seat,” Josie replied all too eagerly, for she knew the size of Carrie’s crush.
Carrie’s figure filled out over the summer. Once straight as a stick, she now had curves. Her toothpick legs had acquired muscle. Her jaw line was strong and cheekbones high and elegant. She’d worked on her tan, which produced beautiful blonde streaks in her light brown hair, which she wore pulled back away from her face. Her white spaghetti strap tank showed off her breasts. Now as Danny gazed at that very part of her, Carrie felt embarrassed and exposed.
But it was hot, and she had a right to wear what she wanted. Danny just sat there smiling and gazing at her as the other girls tried to make small talk around them. In fact, the other girls noticed too that it was not Carrie’s face that held his attention.
“So, what are you doing tonight?” Danny asked her. Carrie never noticed when Josie and Katie got up from the table and left for the bathroom.
“Uh, not much, I suppose. We were going to a bonfire on the beach…” pointing to her two friends she had just realized were not there anymore. “But…”
“Great, I’ll meet you there. Wear that pink bikini I saw you in last week.” And he rose from the table without much effort. Too shocked to ask when he saw her last week, Carrie sat with her mouth open as he walked away. “See ya,” Danny called back as he sauntered away, unbelievably gorgeous, in his torn-off jeans and white tank. She stared at him as he put on his helmet, threw his leg over the blood red Harley, revved it up, and tore out of the parking lot.
“So, what happened?” Katie and Josie questioned as they hurried back to the table.
“He’s going to the bonfire tonight!”
The girls clapped and did their stupid giddy dance after making sure no one they knew was watching! Carrie hugged her friends goodbye and slid into daydream mode as she floated all the way home.
Carrie had been waiting for this moment for a lifetime! Her parents were out of town, again, so no curfew. Aunt Linda had her cell phone number so no matter where she was, she could find a quiet place when her aunt called to check on her to make sure she was in for the night. Her aunt was too afraid to drive at night to come over and check on Carrie anyway. She’d been in a terrible car accident at night and was convinced that it would happen again the moment she left the house in the dark, which she never did. So, Aunt Linda posed no threat.
Carrie’s parents trusted her or, more likely, they really never bothered with her at all. Boy, were they easy. Sometimes Carrie wished that they would be concerned about her but had learned that wasn’t going to happen.
Her mom never seemed to care about her daughter. When Carrie was younger, she pushed her off on babysitters or neighbors. Sometimes her mom didn’t come home for two or three nights at a time. Carrie had learned, by the time she was five, to make mac and cheese. Most of the time she made it without milk because her mother rarely bought food, just liquor. Things got really tough when her mom was between committed relationships. At least when there was a boyfriend, he sometimes cared for Carrie. Carrie overheard her mom telling one of the many men she invited over to the house that she wished Carrie had never been born. She would have gotten an abortion if she hadn’t had three already, making Carrie wonder about the older brothers and sisters she might have had.
But, her mind was elsewhere today. Tonight her dreams were coming true! She was finally going to a party with the most handsome man in the world! She would make sure Danny spent time with her alone tonight. This was going to be it! Carrie knew that once he got to know her, he would never want to live without her!
When Carrie reached home, she unlocked the door and ran upstairs to her bedroom. She pulled out her pink bikini, wondering when it was that Danny had seen her in it. If he had been close by, she knew she would have felt him watching her. She knew when he was around. She felt his aura. And his look! Any guy that could make her feel that way with a mere glance, well, he had to be “the one.”
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