OKAY, EVERYONE. I AM HONESTLY FUCKING DYING RIGHT NOW OF FUCKING HAPPINESS. I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA HOW TO SAY HOW HAPPY I AM.
BUT HERE IT GOES:
A Wattpad novel of mine is going to be self-published within the next year through CreateSpace after writing completion, and this project is something fairly new, and I would love some feedback on the novel, so I am going to post the first chapter here..because honestly having y'all read it and offer thoughts, that would be amazing, and I shall also provide the link to the novel in the comments.
Summary:
Abuse exists. Don't ignore the S I G N S.
~**~
Grief was a word that was nothing but familiar to Katherine. After losing her brother and best friend in an uneventful movie shooting, two years later, she still has yet to overcome the pain and suffering it has brought. Getting her first job at nineteen proves to be a "way of coping", as said her counselor. It is there that she meets Xavier, a boy who seems to have struggles of his own. Sweeping Katherine off of her feet proves to be no hard feat, but eventually a darker side of Xavier is revealed, and gone is the boy she once knew, instead replaced by someone so unrecognizable it is hard to believe it's the same person. Katherine soon finds herself trapped in this abusive relationship with the person she cared for the most, but what she fails to realize is that the person you love the most can be the one who destroys you. Losing herself in the passion, Katherine denies anything being wrong with the relationship, but how long can she pretend, until something terrible happens that can no longer be fixed?
© Katlyn DeRouen 2017
The cover and chapter one are next.
Chapter One:
Jᴜʟʏ 4ᴛʜ is a day for celebration. Fireworks, laughter, hot dogs on the grill- the whole shebang. Celebrating the day of Independence for the country you lived in should be enough to make you feel absolutely grateful and count your blessings every day that you live where you do, and smile about it at least, but I don't smile.
I haven't smiled in two years.
Sitting on my windowsill in the dimly lit room, I peer outside. Children across the street are hanging out on the Keya's front porch. A little girl with mousy hair licks her cherry flavored popsicle messily, and she continues enjoying the sweet treat, unaware that her blue shirt now has traces of it.
They say the grass is always greener on the other side. That even from a distance things can look better on one side when you aren't in it directly. Looking at the girl, and how carefree she was, I finally understood what that meant on a personal level.
I could feel memories of the past, memories of my childhood, crinkle behind my eyes until it fanned out into a huge picture, too large to diminish, and too blinding to ignore. The girl running beside me in the garden, flowers tickling my feet as I chased after her, giggling and exasperated. The boy entered the scene, chasing us with the water hose, all the while screaming obscenities at our retreating backs. I could see the past crystal clear with no difficulty. Seeing the future was my struggle.
"Katherine?"
I turn my head at the sound of my name, light slowly flooding into the room because of the open door.
Mom stands, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Her eyes look golden in the contrast of the room, her body casting shadows on the closet door.
"Dad's cooking hamburgers. They're almost done. You hungry?"
I shake my head at her. "No, honestly."
Her eyebrows raise, and I avert my eyes to the floor, although I can still feel this presence of concern shooting into me, but I won't give in. I know what she's trying to do, what she's been trying to do for the past few months whenever she saw that nothing was changing. Whenever she saw that the medicine wasn't working. That I still hadn't left my room since the incident.
Suddenly, she's in front of me, and my eyes close, shielding myself from her. I feel her hand hovering above my scalp, feel the brush of her fingertips, only for them to pull away as quickly as she lets them stay.
Then, she's gone.
The room is once again dark, and even through shut eyes I let the darkness envelop me. The sun falls, the moon rises. Through the darkness is when we develop our truths and our fears come to light because denying they aren't there is impossible.
The boy and girl from the garden flash again in my mind, clearer than they were moments earlier. But it doesn't matter.
They're gone now.
PLEASE COMMENT THOUGHTS AND FEEDBACK. IT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!
- Katlyn