75Rated M for adult content (adult language, violent situations, and sexual situations)
Chapter 1
"Why do we always come here?"
Thanks to the pounding bass beat from the blaring music in Pulse, his town's local night club, Liam could barely hear Aidan complaining, and Liam was thankful for that. Aidan always got cranky when "da ladies in duh club" weren't responding to his moves and tonight was no exception. Aidan's problem, which Liam frequently teased him about, was that he was barely 5'6" tall, and he tried to overcompensate by having an enormous ego. Not surprisingly, women were turned off by the combination of his big ego and tiny stature, so they always ending up sending Aidan away, his tail between his legs, back to Liam, his best friend. Liam usually watched Aidan from afar, trying not to openly smirk as his friend got the brush off repeatedly. Occasionally he tried to suggest that Aidan could be more of a gentleman, but Aidan was adamant that he knew what he was doing, so Liam usually stood back and let him make the same mistakes over and over again.
And why did they always go to Pulse? Because Aidan always insisted that they go there, then got pissy when he got repeatedly rejected by women, and blamed Liam for dragging him there.
Liam, meanwhile, just wanted a beer. They had been in Pulse for fifteen minutes and Liam had spent five minutes scoping out ladies and ten minutes at the bar, trying to get the bartender's attention. Come on… he just wanted one beer. He wasn't even planning on drinking much more than one beer since he had to drive Aidan home.
Liam glanced at his friend and smirked. "Come on, Pipsqueak. Don't be so touchy." Aidan looked away, grumbling, as Liam tried once again to signal the bartender, who was steadfastly ignoring him while giving all of his attention to the trio of lovely ladies next to him. Liam had already offered to buy the closest lady a drink, but her answer had been a silently indignant snarl (How dare he try to speak to her!?), so he had quickly backed off. His limited patience was already draining away. All he wanted was a beer! It was hot inside the club and he could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the back of his neck into his long sleeved, collared dress shirt.
Suddenly, he was roughly shoved into the bar as three dudes joined the ladies next to him. Unfortunately, the dudes didn't realize that Liam was a former Marine and didn't take too kindly to being shoved. The dude that shoved him yanked one of the girls against his chest territorially… well, that explained the nasty look on that girl's face: she was taken, they were all taken. The dudes loudly high fived the bartender, who was still not paying any attention to Liam, and Liam's patience finally drained completely away.
"You got a problem?" Liam snarled down in the face of the nearest dude, who responded by bringing himself to his full height and then shoved himself in Liam's face. Too bad his head barely brushed the nose of Liam, who was 6'4", unlike Aidan.
"Whoa!" Aidan shouted at Liam, grabbing his arm and pulling him back. "Wait a minute!" It was not the first time Aidan had needed to intervene. Aidan was Liam's wingman and was tasked with calming down Liam, who only needed one tiny match to ignite into a rage.
"I was here first." Liam snarled at the dude, pulling against Aidan, chomping at the bit to get at this douchebag.
The dude laughed humorlessly as his buddies flanked him, which didn't intimidate Liam, who had learned how to snap people's necks with his bare hands when he was a Marine. Seriously… did this dude not see how big Liam was? Apparently not since he next threatened: "Do you want me to break you?"
"Break me?" Liam laughed right in the dude's face. He ran five miles and lifted weights everyday… and this guy thought he was going to fight him? This guy— no, not just this one, all three of these guys, they were nothing. They were just the same as all the rest of the average dudes who congregated in clubs on the weekends, draping themselves on sleazy women who stroked their egos to get free drinks. Liam already knew that he could knock them all out in three seconds flat. One second for each dude: bam, bam, bam. They were nothing.
But the dude was too proud and he was adamant: "Yeah! Break you!"
"Break me? Come on, man." Liam laughed humorlessly again, folding his muscular arms across his chest. It wasn't lost on him that the tension in the air thickened substantially every time he laughed in this dude's face. Their girls were squawking behind them, putting pathetic hands on their men's arms as they tried to convince their men to walk away. But now the dudes had something to prove: they needed to make Liam pay for challenging them. This should be amusing. Liam shook his head with a smirk as he remarked, "Get real. I'd hate to embarrass you in front of your girl."
"You're going to take all three of us?" The dude continued to challenge him right back. "You and what army?"
Unfortunately for the dude, the word "army" completely finished off Liam's fuse. "I don't need an army behind me." Liam hissed, starting to pull back his hand as his fingers curled into a fist.
"Dude!" Aidan grabbed Liam's arm again and yanked him back, hard. Suddenly Aidan was in his face as he shoved Liam again. "You've already been kicked out of here twice for fighting! Remember? And the bouncers said that you won't be able to come back if you get into another fight! Plus there's three of them… you may be huge but I'm not!" He shook his head at Liam.
Liam looked at Aidan and then glared at the dudes, considered his options. Were they really worth his time? No… not really. He had better things to do. He smirked, shaking his head. They weren't worth it… not right now. Maybe he would take them on in the parking lot, at the end of the night, but not now. Aidan still needed to score with the ladies and Liam usually tried to be a good best friend. So he put his hands up and said, "You assholes aren't worth my time." The dudes answered with some choice profanity and empty threats as Aidan pushed Liam away. "Aw, come on, man!" Liam complained as he begrudgingly allowed Aidan to shove him along. "I could have taken them!"
"Yeah, sure." Aidan snapped back, obviously peeved, pushing Liam toward the door. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"Oh come on—" Liam tried, looking over his shoulder, but Aidan shook his head firmly. He had no choice but to leave since he had driven Aidan. "They were challenging me to a fight!"
"Yeah, and you were the one who almost took the first swing." Aidan countered.
Liam saw the door quickly approaching and turned back, trying to fight against Aidan's pushing. "Yeah, but I didn't actually—" Unfortunately, Aidan wasn't exactly looking at who was in front of Liam, so when Liam turned his eyes forward, he saw someone right into his path. "Whoa! Wait, Aidan, stop—" Unable to stop, he slammed into a petite brunette, who let out a small shriek and started to tumble backwards, her hands grasping at nothing. Without a second thought, Liam wrapped his hands around both of her wrists and yanked her forward. But that was too much momentum, so she fell into him, against his broad chest. Her big eyes got wider as she stared up at him while her small fingers wrapped around his shirt. "Sorry," he said quickly, squeezing her wrists. Her small, slender wrists made Liam feel like his hands were enormous. "I wasn't looking."
She stared up at him, her eyes glowing in the blue light of the club, and Liam felt the sizzle of lust shoot through his body. She was pretty… her hair curled softly around her face and she was wearing a small, tight, and very revealing dress. Who knew what she really looked like without the bad club lighting and the make-up on her face… Liam didn't really care. But he was interested in finding out what she looked like when she was in his bed, lying under him on top of his navy blue sheets—
But then a tall blond woman, who looked vaguely familiar to Liam, appeared out of nowhere, squawking indignantly. "There you are!" She took one look at Liam, set her mouth into a firm line, grabbed the brunette by the shoulder, and yanked her away from Liam.
"Wait—" Liam began to say as the blond woman glared at Liam while dragging her pretty friend away. The brunette woman looked over her shoulder at Liam, obviously confused and a little wishful.
"Shit, those guys are following us." Aidan exclaimed, shoving Liam forward again.
"All right! All right!" Liam complained, now annoyed that he had missed his chance with that girl. "That girl—" He tried to catch one last glimpse of her behind Aidan… there she was, still looking at him over her shoulder, a small smile on her face.
Her ass, in that dress—!
"There are plenty of other girls, Romeo." Aidan remarked. Then he snorted before he added, "Although I'm not sure how many are left, considering how fast you've been moving."
"Shut up." Liam snapped back as they finally reached the door. The bouncers glared at Liam as he passed them, obviously remembering his last altercation a few weeks ago. Well, how else was Liam supposed to respond when some dude cut in front of him at the bar? Now disappointed that the evening had yielded nothing, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans as they made their way over to his truck. There was a bit of truth in what Aidan was saying… lately he had been going through women pretty quickly. They were a nice distraction from his life, which was currently in shambles.
The cool evening air felt good on his hot face… he loved living in northern California. The best part of northern California was that no matter how hot it got during the day in the summer, it was always cooler at night. This kind of evening was one of the many things he had missed when he had been deployed overseas in the roasting desert. He had lived in the same small town his whole life, except when he was a Marine for eight years.
Still annoyed, he turned to Aidan. "I can't believe we each paid a twenty dollar cover charge only for you to drag me out of there after twenty minutes." He shook his head.
"I had to! You challenged three guys to a fight!" Aidan retorted, sounding weary. This was not the first time he'd forced Liam to leave before Liam was ready to go. "They were going to—" Then one of the dudes from the club appeared in the parking lot, grinning coldly at Aidan and Liam. Liam stopped in his tracks, recognizing this expression: they were about to get ambushed. He had been ambushed more than once when he was in the Marines. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw the other two dudes closing in on him and Aidan. Maybe ambush wasn't the right word… cornering was a better word.
Aidan, meanwhile, had assessed the situation and now loudly groaned, already knowing what was about to happen. Conversely, Liam set his jaw, planted his feet, curled his fingers into fists, and got ready for the fight he knew was coming. Aidan grumbled to Liam, "I really didn't want to get my ass beat tonight." Then he looked at the dudes, raised his hands in surrender, and announced, "I don't want any trouble."
"Then your friend shouldn't have been such a dick to us." One of the dudes growled back before taking a swing at Liam. But Liam was ready for him, tense and ready to spring, so he ducked from the punch and then slammed his fist into the dude's face. The dude let out a howl of pain as he reeled backward.
An innocent but bloodthirsty male bystander standing nearby in the parking lot screamed eagerly, "Fight!"
As Liam took a swing at the other guy, he briefly wondered if this was going to count as fight number three… he didn't really want to get banned from going to Pulse. Aidan would never forgive him if he got them permanently banned from Aidan's favorite "pickin' up da ladies" location. Well, maybe it a ban would be for the best… Liam hated Pulse. If he was no longer welcome, maybe Aidan would pick a new bar, preferably a quieter bar that didn't pump repetitive, bass pounding music.
Liam swung again, connected solidly with the other guy's nose, and heard the sickening crunch of bones breaking. Served him right—
No.
No… no…
Suddenly, he was no longer outside the club.
Suddenly, he was standing in a shack in a tiny village in the mountains of Afghanistan, trying to disarm an armed Afghan man. The man held on tightly to his automatic rifle as he tried to fight Liam off… but then Liam caught one of the man's arms and pried it away from his rifle while quickly twisting. The man screamed in pain as his bones audibly crunched, just like the nose of the dude Liam had just punched, and then his gun dropped to his feet while he shouted angry words, too quickly for Liam to guess what he was saying (not that Liam was anywhere near fluent in Farsi). Liam ignored the screaming as he raised his own gun, ready to shoot—
Then Liam heard the plaintive wail of a child.
No.
No.
He spun around, his blood running cold even though he was sweating heavily in his fatigues, and found a woman and two small children huddled in the corner. One of the little boys was screaming and crying while the other one buried his face into his mother's clothes… Liam had been in Afghanistan long enough that he knew the little boy was screaming "dad" in Farsi. His stomach twisting, Liam looked back and forth between his rifle and the man, who was crumpling to the ground…
He'd just snapped the bones in a father's hand in front of his children.
He had almost murdered this man right in front of his family.
But he was a Marine… he wasn't supposed to hesitate. He raised his rifle, ready to finish it, and found that he couldn't pull the trigger.
His rifle still raised, Liam took one step back, and then two, as the children screamed for their father, who held his arm but now stared at Liam in confusion. This man wouldn't be the first person Liam had killed… but… how could he just…?
Outside the shack, he could hear everyone shouting, which was punctured by loud gunfire. He couldn't remember why he was in this remote village… he was just following orders. He could faintly hear a helicopter in the distance. Hopefully that was the chopper that would get them out of there… hopefully he could get home. Would he ever get home? He didn't—
Too locked up in the flashback of his past, in the present Liam never saw the punch from the dude coming.
Inside Pulse, the petite brunette took a big sip of her drink, trying to cool her overheated body. Then she pushed her curled hair back from her face and demanded irritably of her blond best friend Chloe, "What was that all about?"
Chloe tore herself away from her boyfriend and asked irritably, "What?" Then she rolled her eyes. "Sara! That guy was trying to grope you!"
"No he wasn't!" Sara retorted, using her thumb and forefinger to pull her tight dress up higher on her chest so that her breasts weren't spilling out so much. Chloe had forced her to wear this ridiculous dress ("You look hot!") and Sara was regretting it since it kept sliding down her body, each time almost exposing her nipples. "He wasn't trying to grope me! He bumped into me, almost knocked me over, and then helped me back up!"
Well, that was mostly true…
He had really slammed into her, rather hard, but had instantly caught her as she started to fall. Just as she was marveling at how quickly he'd caught her, he'd pulled a little too hard on her wrists, and she had ended up flush against him, against the solid wall that was his chest. He was huge… he was more than a few inches past six feet tall, with a broad chest, and, judging from the hard chest pressed up against hers, he had not a single scrap of fat on him. When she had taken her first real look at him, she had been surprised to discover that he was hot… really hot. His blond hair was longer on top, shorter on the sides, and she briefly wondered how it would feel if she ran her fingers through his hair. Even in the terrible club lighting, she could see that he had a strong jaw, full lips, and intense, piercing eyes. Her lips had parted, about to thank him—
But then Chloe, who had obviously realized that Sara was no longer by her side, had backtracked and found her. "There you are!" She had grabbed Sara's wrist and dragged her away.
"But—" Sara had tried to complain, but the music was too loud for Chloe to hear her. She had stolen one more glance at him over her shoulder and found him looking right back at her. She smiled at him, hoping that he would follow her… no such luck. They had found their group of friends at a table where one of them had sprung for bottle service and she had been distracted by greeting the rest of her friends. But once she had a cocktail in her hand, she had remembered that hot guy and had turned to Chloe to get down to the task at hand: upbraiding her best friend. Now she asked, "Why did you drag me away? That guy was hot!" She'd seen a matching spark of interest in his eyes too… at least she thought she had.
Chloe made another face as her obviously bored boyfriend Daniel draped an arm around her waist and took a pull from his beer. "Trust me, stay away from that guy." Then she ran a lazy finger along the top of her short, strapless dress, and her no longer bored boyfriend grinned at her eagerly. Gross.
"Why?" Sara demanded. Why did she always think that she knew what was best for Sara? Why couldn't Sara make that decision by herself? Chloe wasn't paying attention to her now. "Why?" Sara pressed, trying to get Chloe's attention back. But she appeared to have engrossed herself in her boyfriend instead. Thanks, Chlo—
Then Sara's friend Jen joined her side. Her long dark hair was already a mess and her dress was also dangerously low, but she obviously didn't care. She was already a wreck. "Oh my goodness, there are some hot guys here tonight," she slurred to Sara. "Look at that guy over there, by the DJ booth." Sara sighed under her breath and then obediently scanned the club, trying to spot these supposedly hot guys that Jen was trying to show her... no luck spotting them. They could have been out there, but Jen was poorly explaining who Sara was supposed to be looking at since she was already so drunk.
Then, as she scanned the club for these hot guys, she saw him.
Evan.
Evan, who had been her Evan for two years, was coming over to her. He had a tall, beautiful woman in a black skimpy dress right behind him and he was holding his hand. Now Evan was her Evan. He was bringing her over? Sara's insides froze up at the idea of meeting her ex's new girlfriend.
Their split hadn't been a particularly nasty one. Evan hadn't cheated on Sara, but he had met her and then broken up with Sara two weeks later. "I've found someone else." After two years… just like that, he'd found someone else. Sara had been spending the last month moping and throwing herself a very long pity party. But tonight, after a month, Chloe had finally intervened when she had gotten home from work. "Enough mourning! You didn't even like him that much!" She had yanked Sara off her bed and pushed her over to her closet.
"I did too like him!" Sara complained. She'd liked him enough to spend the weekends on the couch with him since he didn't like going out— wait, what was he doing at Pulse? Evan hated nightclubs… apparently that was no longer the case. Maybe she liked nightclubs… and he actually wanted to do something that his significant other wanted to do.
Chloe hadn't listened to Sara's complaints as she had stuffed Sara into a tiny burgundy red dress, curled Sara's hair into soft ringlets, and applied way too much makeup. "Enough of this pity party shit. We're going out." She had ignored Sara's complaints about the too tight dress, too much makeup, and the too tall high heels. Chloe was a force to be reckoned with… that was the nice way of saying that she was bossy. Sara had stopped fighting her a long ago… it just took too much energy. After all, she was right… enough mourning.
But now, as Evan approached, Sara wished she had stayed home like she had planned.
"Sara! Hey!" Evan smiled as he leaned in and gave her a one armed hug without letting go of her hand. When he had dumped Sara, he had mentioned that he wanted to be friends… friends, after he'd dumped her for someone else… yeah right. Sara tried not to stiffen under his arm but she couldn't help it. When Evan pulled back, his eyes under his shaggy brown hair were sad and a little hurt. "How are you?"
"Fine." Sara barely managed to answer evenly.
"Hey Evan." Chloe said quickly, interjecting herself between Sara and Evan. "Long time no see."
"Yeah." Evan nodded and then gestured to… her. Sara could barely bite back a nasty remark. "This is Gabrielle. Gabrielle, this is Sara." Gabrielle? Sara fought with all her might to not make a face. What kind of name was Gabrielle? Gabrielle smiled thinly at Sara as she tossed her thick hair over one shoulder… she obviously knew who Sara was. Probably from the Internet, which made it very easy to stalk your new boyfriend's ex. Sara wanted to reach out and give that shiny hair a yank.
The combination of Evan, his new girlfriend, the heat in the club, and the pounding bass in the music was too much for Sara. She set down her drink on a nearby table and announced, "I'll be right back." She knew they all saw through her; she knew that they knew she was running away. But she bolted anyway, like a coward, making her way through the club and dodging advances of groping men until she was outside. She leaned against the wall, which was throbbing from the music inside the club, and then took a huge breath of the cool air. Then she fought off an overwhelming rush of emotion as she stared out at the parking lot. She hadn't really cried since Evan had broken up with her… would she start crying now?
Across the parking lot, she noticed a small crowd dissipating and two guys lying on the gravel. Concerned, she pushed off the wall, and then watched three guys pass her, high fiving as they grunted something about "totally beating those dudes' asses." Even though she knew it was probably none of her business, she began walking a little faster over to the two guys lying on the gravel.
She couldn't let someone just lay there, hurt…
But she had no idea that she was in for a rude surprise.
Aidan and Liam let out identical groans as they landed on the gravel in the parking lot. The three dudes high fived, casting off a few more lame insults, and then walked away. The small crowd dissipated as quickly as it had formed. Aidan let out a loud groan. Then he mumbled, "If we live, I'll kill you for this." Liam grunted back. After a beat, Aidan started complaining again: "What the hell? We just got our asses kicked! Don't start a fight unless you're going to finish it!"
Liam's face flushed with embarrassment and he hoped the parking lot was dark enough that Aidan didn't notice. "Got distracted." Liam mumbled back, sitting up slightly on his elbows with a wince as he felt his mouth. Was that blood? Hopefully not… he didn't want to see the disproval in his father's eyes tomorrow morning. He spit and eyed his spit in the dim lighting of the parking lot from nearby headlights… great, that was blood. He ran his tongue along his teeth and was relieved to feel them all still in his mouth… but when he flicked his tongue out of his mouth, he tasted something hot and metallic… blood. His lip. Great. Did he need stitches? Probably not… but his father was probably going to spot it instantly.
He looked at Aidan and felt a little guilty when he saw that his wingman had a cut below his eye that was bleeding and his eye was already swelling up. He should stop picking fights only because Aidan ended up suffering more than he did. Aidan was his only friend left from before he joined the Marines… and while Aidan could be a dick sometimes, he was still a good friend.
Just as Liam was trying to convince himself to stand up, he heard the sound of approaching high heels. Great… some girl was here to witness his moment of weakness. Liam hated feeling weak… he'd spent more than enough years being a tough Marine, where weakness wasn't allowed. Then a female voice asked him anxiously, "Are you okay?"
Are you okay? Liam rolled his eyes. Only a girl would come over to two guys after a fight and ask such a stupid question. "I'm great, sweetheart." Liam answered dryly, rolling over slowly onto his back. He looked up and paused.
He was looking up into the eyes of the pretty brunette girl from earlier.
Her eyebrows shot up her forehead with recognition as she knelt down next to him. He tried not to heave a heavy sigh as he looked back at her and then shook his head. This evening kept getting better and better… first he'd lost her in the crowd and now she was seeing him after getting his ass kicked. Her eyes were wide with sympathy as her small hands reached out to him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Liam said quickly, pushing her hands away as he sat up. He wasn't proud of brushing her off but he preferred to keep his emotional distance from women. He winced and felt his ribs… they weren't broken, but they would be sore.
"I'm not." Aidan groaned as he sat up as well and then let her fuss all over him. Liam looked away, rolling his eyes as he tried to ignore the shiver of guilt that ran through him. Aidan was probably going to have a black eye tomorrow… that was all his fault.
Pushing aside the guilt, Liam got to his feet. Then he said roughly to Aidan, "Let's go."
But the brunette girl wouldn't let it go. "What happened? Did someone jump you guys?" Her eyes were shining with fear and compassion as she got back up to her feet and then teetered slightly in her gold high heels. Liam's hand reflexively shot out, grabbed her arm, and steadied her… he raised an eyebrow at her and tried to ignore how soft her skin felt. She flushed, obviously embarrassed, as she pulled her arm away from him and planted her feet more steadily.
"We weren't exactly jumped." Aidan said flatly, examining his scraped up elbow. "Liam here—" He jerked his thumb at Liam. "He challenged three dudes to a fight. Unfortunately they were just as stupid as him and accepted his challenge."
She frowned, confused, and then demanded, "Why would you do something like that? You guys are outnumbered."
"They pushed me." Liam knew the words sounded stupid the second after they came out of his mouth. She quirked an incredulous eyebrow at him and he looked away quickly. Then he tried to dismiss her: "Thanks for trying to help—"
But she was undeterred: "You're bleeding." She stepped closer, raising a hand to Liam's face.
The intimacy of the gesture made Liam's blood run cold and he ducked away from her. "Leave it!" His tone was sharper than he intended and she jumped, backing away. She stared at him, clearly stung, and he immediately felt guilty again. She was just trying to help—
"Forget it." She scowled, turned on a wobbly heel, and then stalked away.
"Nice one, douchebag." Aidan sneered once she was out of earshot. "A pretty girl comes over, trying to make sure that you're okay after your ass gets beat, and you talk to her like that?"
"Whatever. Let's get out of here." Liam said gruffly, turning toward the car.
Sara fumed as she walked back inside the club. She should have listened to her gut instinct… it had been none of her business. Guys didn't exactly like feeling weak in front of girls and that guy had clearly not enjoyed feeling weak, judging by how quickly he had brushed her off.
She stopped in the women's bathroom and washed the blood off of her hands… the other guy, the short one, it must have been his blood. They'd looked pretty terrible… one of the short guy's eyes had already been swelling shut and the tall guy's lip was bleeding freely. Sara had never liked the sight of blood… paper cuts had made her queasy. But she couldn't just let them lay there… what if they had been seriously hurt?
She'd just been trying to help.
But obviously that guy… Liam? Obviously Liam didn't need her help.
She gritted her teeth as she left the bathroom and then went back to the table where she had last seen her friends. But only sloppy Jen was there, making out with some guy, and she told Sara that Chloe and Daniel had gone to the dance floor. Sara made her way through the crowd until she finally found Chloe, who was grinding on Daniel. "Hey!" Chloe shouted at Sara. She grabbed Sara by the wrist, leaned in, and yelled over the music, "Where the hell did you go?"
"Just needed some air." Sara shouted back over the music, pushing her stiffly curled hair over one shoulder. She smiled at Chloe and began to swish her hips back and forth to the beat of the music.
"Hey." An average looking guy sided up to Sara. "Want to dance?" He smiled but it came off as more of a leer as he scanned her body up and down with his eyes.
Sara took a step back, about to turn him down and go find some of her other friends, but Chloe kept her grip tight on her wrist and shouted, "She'd love to!" Then she shoved Sara into the guy, who caught her, surprised, and took this as an invitation to wrap his arms around her. Gross. Sara took a half step back to put distance between them and then caught sight of Evan over the guy's shoulder. He was dancing with Gabrielle… Sara felt her mouth turn downward and looked away. Then she looked up at the guy who was trying to dance with her and obligingly starting moving with him.
It was going to be a long night.
Maybe more alcohol would help.
Good thing she'd probably never see that guy again. What an ass.
Author's note: Welcome to my latest story! I've finally stopped being such a crazy perfectionist and started publishing!
I've actually written over 200 pages for this story. But my flaw on this site is that I start writing a story, post chapters of it on here as I go, get caught up in writing it, run off in a crazy direction, and then realize that I have to end it at some point. I've always heard that you should outline your story before you write it but I've never gotten anything good out of outlining... it makes me feel stilted and I end up changing my story anyway. I feel like sometimes good writing just strikes you and you have to see where that goes. So instead I wrote 200+ pages before I finally realized I had a solid story and a solid direction.
I've been reluctant to introduce Liam to the world because... he's a bit of a bad boy and, let's be honest, a bit of a douche bag. I'm a people pleaser, I want everyone to like everything! But hopefully you'll stick around and see how this plays out...
Please give me some feedback, good or bad!
until next time,
a smile that explodes