Fighting For Life

by Kylie Alyssa Forte

  I didn’t want to have the real conversation here, in my favorite place. Not now, not ever.

  But, like always, Bella knew me too well. She could see emotions I didn’t know I had from a mile away.

  “Nike, please. I’m here for you, and I always tell you about all of my problems. I would honestly like to know about what’s going on. This has been going on for quite some time, and I don’t know anything. You haven’t even told me what Declan did or why you aren’t talking to him anymore. I’m worried this is too much for you to carry alone.”

  “Thank you for your support,” I replied, my voice sounding almost robotic to my own ears. “I appreciate what you are saying, but I don’t want to talk about what is going on with my brother.”

  “Nike, please,” she begged.

  But I was already standing up and walking away from her. I had known Bella since we were young girls with pigtails and crooked smiles. We had gone through everything together, from first break-ups to first college classes, but I couldn’t let her see how much this was bothering me. I couldn’t let her see the tears in my eyes. Talking about it made it real all over again.

  After only four strides, she was beside me.

  “Come on. I bet you the Indiana Jones ride is dead right now.” It was her way of waving a little white flag between us.

  “It’s never dead.” I sniffed.

  “Then it will be worth the wait. I know it’s your favorite,” she encouraged with an apologetic smile.

  This conversation would never go away until Bella got what she wanted, but, for now, I had been given a free pass. I would once again enjoy the bliss that this magical place offers.

  If you enjoyed this sample, look for

  The Girl with the Mouse Ears

  on Amazon.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Café Latte

  “Morning, Aspen. Your usual?”

  My tired eyes drifted up to the perky bartender, Vivienne. Her black hair was tied into a high ponytail as her pale fingers rested above the cash register. I gave a weary smile in return.

  “You know me too well.”

  She flashed her pearly teeth at me, typing in the order and accepting my money, then returning my exact change. I made my drowsy way towards an empty table. While Café de Fleur was a gorgeous little café that made the best soy lattes in town, it wasn’t the most popular, so finding a table was easy for me.

  As I took my seat, I couldn’t help but let my eyes drift over to the table beside me, hidden in the very furthest corner of the café. Isaac Hensick sat alone at his usual table, his long tanned fingers slid a graphite pencil across a small sketchpad, about the size of his palm, hidden from my sight.

  Beside his muscular arm sat an untouched cup. His soft green eyes fluttered across the page, one step ahead of his hand as he marked the paper with his pencil.

  Isaac is a classmate of mine, although he was barely seen in class. To be completely honest, my morning visits to the café were the most I had seen of him all day. He was a popular boy, well-liked—if not loved—across the entire school, but he was definitely not the studious type.

  Every morning for the past two years he’d sit on that chair, too focused on his drawings to notice me, and too absorbed in his own world to even sip the coffee he always ordered.

  Black coffee, three sugars.

  “You’re staring again, Aspen.” Vivienne’s booming voice woke me from my thoughts. “Here’s your latte.”

  I looked up to see Vivienne in front of me, her arms extended with a takeout coffee cup in one hand and a small brown bag containing my usual biscotti in the other.

  I flashed an embarrassed smile, taking my order from her hand.

  “Thanks Viv,” I mumbled gratefully, taking a long sip from my coffee. Almost instantly, my pounding headache was relieved. I let out a sigh in relief as the burning coffee slid down my throat and scalded my tongue.

  I grinned up at Vivienne and she sent me a knowing smile.

  “Have a good day at school,” she said before returning to her counter, busying herself by tidying up the cake display.

  “You take care,” I replied, my eyes subconsciously moving back to Isaac.

  He was in my French class, meaning he’d have to leave now to get there before the bell, but he made no effort to move from his seat. Instead, he stayed occupied with whatever he was drawing. His coffee remained untouched beside his scribbling hand, the steam long gone.

  Turning away from him, I opened the door to exit the café and make my way to school. He could miss class as much as he wanted to, but I was going to turn up on time.

  As I began my walk to school, I watched the people on the street with familiar faces of neighbors and classmates who probably didn’t even know of my existence.

  I guess I was what you’d call a wallflower. I was never involved with any school dramas or the subject of the grade’s daily gossip. It’s not like I minded it, though. It was always fun to observe, to not get caught up in all the drama, even if it made my life completely uneventful.

  “Aspen, Aspen!”

  At least I had my friends.

  I turned to see my best friend Riley bounding through the hallway to reach me at my locker, her little blonde ponytail flying around the back of her head. For a such tiny person, she was always filled with nothing but energy, the exact opposite of me.

  We’ve been friends since the fourth grade, when she stabbed Billy Johnson’s hand with a pencil after he spent all lunch pestering me. She received a week’s suspension and was forced to begrudgingly write an apology letter to Billy and his family. Ever since then, she was my closest and oldest friend.

  “Good morning, Riley.” I sighed, closing my locker and turning towards her with an exhausted, lopsided grin.

  “Aspen, guess what!” she squealed, not even pausing for me to guess. “Arthur Andrews got a haircut!”

  My grin turned into a sarcastic smile.

  “Great.”

  “I know right!”

  I chuckled at my best friend before turning to the sudden sound of a horde of teenage girls’s squeals.

  What do you know, Arthur Andrews really did get a haircut. Riley let out a sigh of admiration, leaning against my shoulder with a dreamy grin.

  Her eyes followed Arthur Andrews in all his muscular, tanned glory; his cropped brown waves sitting neatly atop his head. He was the soccer team’s captain, and Riley had been crushing on him for months.

  “He’s so cute. I’d love to go out with him.”

  I snorted at her, shoving her off my shoulder. “You and a hundred other girls.”

  “I can dream!”

  A laugh spurt from my lips when a hand gently tapped my back. Turning, my eyes met with our other best friend, William.

  William was a lanky boy with black hair that fell just above his brown eyes. We had become friends in our first year of high school, when Riley had dragged him out of his introverted bubble to sit with us at lunch.

  “Aspen.” He inhaled hard. He reached a thin arm out to loop around my shoulders.

  “Ew, you’re sweating!” I exclaimed, shoving his hand away as he panted frantically.

  “I had to run for the bus,” he explained, leaning against the lockers as he struggled to catch his breath. His face was all red, and a bead of sweat traced its way down from his forehead. He wiped it off, still wheezing.

  “Yeesh, how far did you run for it?” Riley joked, nudging me with an amused look.

  He gulped air down hungrily, his cheeks still flaming red.

  “Well, I missed the bus,” he continued, out of breath. “So I had to walk to school.”

  We stared at him in silence as I took a sip of my coffee. His story itself was tiring me out and I was already on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. It had been a long week of minimal sleep, as most could probably tell from the purple bags lining my bloodshot eyes.

  “But I saw Mitch on the way,” William paused to turn to me, “that’s my mom’s dag o
f a boyfriend.” He faced Riley again to continue, “So I went the long way behind Picasso’s and since it’s so long I had to run.”

  I stifled a giggle with a final sip of my coffee. I wrinkled my nose at the taste—it already turned cold from the short walk to school.

  “You’re an idiot,” Riley scoffed, rolling her eyes at William. “You know, you’re going to have to speak to him sometime.”

  “Over my dead body!” William spat, causing Riley and I to laugh in unison.

  “William,” I began, resting a hand on his arm. “It’s not so bad. Give him a chance. I refused to talk to Sabrina’s boyfriend for half a year, and now they're planning on getting engaged.”

  William’s face contorted into an expression of horror.

  “If my mother marries that buffoon . . .” He took a sharp breath through his nose. “I’m moving to Canada.”

  Riley found this hilarious, evident through her loud, high-pitched laugh. She squealed in short giggles, slapping William on his back. He fell forward, his lanky body no match for Riley’s enthusiasm.

  William smiled, clearly proud he had been able to make Riley laugh so hard, and I rolled my eyes at the pair. The warning bell soon rang throughout the hallway, alerting us to start making our way to our classes.

  “I’m going to go work on that runaway plan,” William muttered, turning to follow the trail of students trudging to their classrooms. “See you at lunch?”

  I nodded, and Riley started walking with me towards our French class. William had chosen to take Spanish this year, claiming girls loved a Spanish speaking man which earned the silent treatment from Riley for a week for “betraying our friendship.”

  I took a step in the opposite direction, my shoes squeaking against the floor and causing her to pause in her tracks.

  “I’ll meet you there,” I said to Riley, holding up my empty coffee cup.

  She sent me a curt nod, turning to walk towards our class alone as I headed towards a nearby bin.

  Before I knew it, the hallways were cleared, with me being the only person left as I made my way towards the closest rubbish bin. I quickly tossed the empty cardboard cup into the trash can before making my way back to Riley before Mrs. Dubois arrived.

  My legs felt heavy as I dragged myself across the hallway. The sound of my shoes squeaking against the linoleum rang through my ears, contributing to the throbbing headache that had returned just behind my eyes.

  I pressed my eyes shut, wishing I had gotten a second coffee to get me through first period. My body ached with fatigue, and my arms felt heavy by my side.

  Six hours to go.

  The sound of running footsteps snapped me out of my self-pitying daze. I peeled my eyes open a second too late when I collided with a sudden well-clothed wall, causing me to shout and trip backwards. Before I could fall, an arm snaked around my back to hold me back from the impact.

  I squinted my eyes open, blinking through the confusion the collision caused, only to see the dazzling green eyes of none other than Isaac Hensick, who was studying my face with concern.

  His hand gripped my waist tightly, his hair falling in messy locks over his forehead as he leaned forward to hold me. His brow furrowed as he watched me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice raspy.

  I nodded, speechless, stumbling out of his arms and on to my own two feet. His eyes sent shivers down my spine, preventing me from looking away. I felt locked, frozen in place, and quickly forgot about my fatigue and the pain coursing through my head.

  How did he get to school so fast?

  His perfectly pink lips parted once more, letting out that gorgeously raspy voice that I had only heard from a distance in Café de Fleur. His cheeks imprinted with those famous dimples as he spoke.

  “Do I know you?”

  My heart fluttered from nervousness. I never thought I’d see him this close before. I watched with fear as he narrowed his eyes, scanning my face, a hint of familiarity and confusion lingering behind them.

  He was even more gorgeous up close.

  Up close, I could see the brown lining in his eyes, blending with the green as it glittered beneath the fluorescents. I could also see the grooves of his dimples in the corners of his grin.

  Silence settled between us. I swallowed thickly, my chest swelling with anxiety as I realised I had left an awkwardly long pause since he asked the question.

  My throat felt tight and, unable to speak, I shook my head wildly, causing him to frown and wrinkle his brow at me. It felt so strange seeing him up close rather than our usual encounters at the café, if they could even be called that.

  “Are you sure? I swear I’ve seen you before. Are you new here?”

  I chewed on my bottom lip anxiously, shaking my head once more and clearing my throat.

  How could he not recognise me? Despite being a wallflower, I expected him to at least be aware of my existence from the English class we share. Or the French class; or the art class; or literally from just walking around the same school for the past four years.

  “No, I’m sure,” I squeaked out, desperate for this awkward encounter to end and my heart to stop pounding so hard.

  I clenched my fists, my nails biting into the skin of my palms.

  He opened his mouth, ready to speak, when the final bell sounded. My heart began to race as I took the chance to escape.

  “Well, that’s the bell, better get going!” I rushed, stepping around him as I began to power walk towards my class. “Don’t want to be late!”

  Mrs. Dubois was way past retirement age, meaning she often turned up to class a little late, but I didn’t want to be with Isaac for a moment longer.

  I sent a thin-lipped smile and began taking long strides, sliding down the hallway as fast as possible.

  His brows rose, and his mouth fell open—ready to speak, but with no words to voice. I kept walking, feeling incredibly awkward and watched as I moved through the halls, rushing to get to my French class nearby.

  Nevertheless, I could feel his eyes on my back, tempting me to turn back.

  Sending one last glance behind me, I noticed him still staring at me as I sped away from him just as I had suspected.

  But I didn’t expect his wide eyes to be swimming with one emotion.

  Recognition.

  If you enjoyed this sample, look for

  Caffeine

  on Amazon.

  Prologue

  I looked at my reflection with dull eyes while drops of water were dripping from my hair. The steam from the shower was fogging the mirror, but I could still see myself through it. I sometimes thought that maybe, just maybe, one day I would see a different person with happiness and confidence.

  I looked in the mirror to see my flaws that I have grown to accept. The flaws everyone used against me, but why should I care?

  Yes, I could be a better person. I could walk to school every day with so much confidence that would bring everyone to their knees.

  But why haven’t I done that yet? Why did I keep on staring at myself every morning as if it would make things better or make a difference for everyone to like me?

  My chubby cheeks and fat belly were one of the reasons why nobody liked me. I was the chipmunk of the whole middle school. I would walk around while everyone called me names, emphasizing why I stood out so much.

  It had been like this since elementary school. Probably because I was not much of an active person. I would usually stay home all day and watch TV. I didn’t like most things except eating. I mean, who wouldn’t? It helped ease the stress. My dad owned a pizza shop that was quite known in our little town of Strawberry Forest in California.

  Yes, I knew it was a weird name. Our town was known for growing strawberries in the old days that covered our land like a forest.

  I used to go to his pizza place every Friday just to have a bite of heaven, which was probably another reason why I became chubby.

  I wrapped the towel tighter around my body as I let my short, s
traight hair fall down to my shoulders.

  I really needed to let it grow.

  Walking out of the bathroom, I then headed to my closet. I grabbed a pair of baggy jeans and my favorite sweatshirt that my mom bought me on my twelfth birthday. My fashion sense was another thing I needed to fix.

  But should I really care about what everyone would think of how I dress?

  I put the clothes on, let my wet hair fall down naturally, and climbed down the stairs to smell the scent of my mom’s amazing pancakes. I inhaled it happily and skipped towards the kitchen to see my dad sitting down, reading a book while my mom works at the stove.

  My dad was the first to notice me and gave me a smile as he put his book down. He then motioned me to come over.

  “Good morning, pumpkin,” my dad said, catching my mom’s attention. She put the pancake she had on the pan into a plate and turned the stove off. She wiped her hands on the towel next to her and turned to look at me.

  “Good morning, mom and dad,” I said as I kissed each of them on the cheek. I then grabbed the chair next to my dad and sat down, licking my lips as I stared at the plate in front of me with hungry eyes.

  “Is my little girl excited to finish school today?” my mom asked.

  Who wouldn’t be? School was a living hell because of the constant bullying from none other than Tyl—

  No! I promised myself I would never bring up his name as long as I’m alive!

  Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a bit. Could you blame me when everyone constantly picked on me just because of how I looked, especially if it was only because one person started it?

  “Mom, I’m not a little girl anymore.” I groaned playfully as I cut a little piece of my pancake and shoved it in my mouth. The delicious taste in my mouth made me want to moan.

  My mom took a seat in front of me and smiled as she pinched my cheek.

  “Oh, but you’ll always be my little girl,” she said, attracting my father’s attention. He put his book down again and glared at my mom.