Chapter 1
“Sometimes I wish I could just inherit or take someone’s experiences. Life would be so much easier. You would know which roads to take and which ones to avoid. Most pain and especially disappointment would be eliminated. You would know which people were trustworthy and which ones would break your heart. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely possible. You can listen to older ones tell of their experiences, but that’s not quite the same. So we continue the age old process of trial and error. We live through pain, disappointment and various strong emotions. We gain many friends, but outgrow many more. This is a pain I’ve lived through many times. Either outgrew, moved away, or never had any classes with them again. Losing something, especially a close friend is hard. It can be painful, but once you get through it, depending on the former friend, you may actually feel relief; a burden lifted from your shoulders. This I have experienced also…”
“Harper! Come on, we need to leave now! If we're late I'm takin' it out of your paycheck!” I rolled my eyes, not that it was an empty threat Edward always keeps his word, but that there was no way we were going to be running late. We had plenty of time, but I wasn't going to try his patience. He was a big strong man, and I know from experience he does make exceptions for girls when it comes to violence. I jogged down the flight of stairs and out the door, as he was already making his way tto the truck. “What takes you so long to get ready ? You're going to get dirty anyways,” he stated. As if I didn't know working in the dirt was going to make me dirty. “If I'm not there five minutes before schedule I swear to you every minute I'm behind its $20 from your paycheck.” Edward was both my boss and step-uncle, and despite his good reputation among customers, he was an extremely greedy man. He just kept on their good side with the little things like being early to a job. To tell him he was over reacting about the time or to tell him that his threat was unfair would be useless. I was fortunate enough for him to hire me for his lawn service company and I didn't want to risk losing it.
We got there ten minutes ahead of time, and as soon as I was directed where to go I got to work. Soon after Edward's other employees arrived and got to work. No one messed around, we had several yards to do today and the lawns we did were rarely under an acre. I was on my hands and knees pulling weeds out of a flower garden. Others were mowing the lawn or trimming the bushes. Edward left soon after everyone got started to confirm another customer. He never did any of the actual labour, he just directed everyone else. His muscles were just for show that he got in an air conditioned weight room in the house. His tan wasn't even real, he got it professionally done. Have fun trying to get him to admit that though. I only know all this because he lives in the same house as me, with his older sister, my step mother.
We were on our third yard and my stomach was growling like crazy. No one could stop for lunch though until Edward says its lunch break. Sometimes we don't eat at all until we are done with all of our jobs. It didn't slow me down though I was use to dealing with not eating for long periods of time, I didn't have much time for eating so I could go a day between each meal. Friday evening was the last time I had any real food and it was now Sunday afternoon.
“Lunch break!” Edward finally yelled. I got up wiping my blackened hands on my worn out jeans and made my way to the cooler.
“Yo Harper, catch!” I looked up to see a water bottle flying towards my face. I quickly grabbed it from the air before it could smack me in the face. Jason groaned in aggravation, “How do you always manage to catch it?”
“I jus' have awesome reflexes like that,” I told him while giving him one of my famous smirks.
“Whatever,” he scoffed shaking him head, annoyed with me already. I've known Jason since I was six. At one point he was my next door neighbor. We had always hung out and helped each other, even though he is two years older than me. He was my closest friend, but right now he was taking to long at the cooler and I was starving.
