Thursday 20 December 2012

Finding Trust - First Chapter

Please not this expert is unedited and may be changed before the book is released :-)

Coming Spring 2013 - Finding Trust


Once upon a time Leah had a perfect life, a loving mother and father, and the best friend anyone could ask for. Then a secret ruined everything. Leah's world came crashing down and her family are now shunned from the town, people who were once seen as friends now treat Leah and her family with disgust.
A new family move into town and right next door to Leah. She has learnt to keep herself to herself after the past year, but her mother wants her to try and have a normal life again. But this new family have secrets of their own. Can Leah learn to trust again when the people closest to her are lying?


OK, so I am a self obsessed book freak. My mum thinks it’s dull, I think it’s amazing. Why would I want to live in a world like this, when I can dive into worlds of Princes, Vampires, Mermaids, Lycans and happily ever afters'?
Mum worries that I am too unsociable for a girl my age and that I should be making friends- I am nineteen and the only friends I have are the few friends I want to have, the character’s in my books- but she doesn't understand. 
I tapped my fingers along the back of my kindle impatiently as I heard another loud bang come from outside. One thing about reading, I had to do it in complete silence, which sadly, was a comfort I wasn't being allowed at this moment.
 A new family had moved in next door after Mrs. Smith, the old lady that previously lived there, went to live with her son in London. The new family were very conveniently unloading their belongings from the moving van, and to be quite frank it sounded like a marching band was helping them from the amount of banging and thumping that was going on.
But it only got worse. I heard my mother’s high pitched voice call over to the newbie’s. I rolled my eyes as I and climbed off my bed and walked over to the side window of my room.
There she was. Standing at our brown wooden fence talking to whom I presumed was the mother. That was the main reason why mum was so excited about the newbie’s, apparently they had two kids roughly the same age as me, and she hoped that they would cure me of my book fetish. They wouldn't.
Turning my mother looked straight at my bedroom window, I was just getting ready to duck out of the way but it was too late, she was already waving at me like a lunatic.
Sighing I made my way downstairs and outside. I put on my best ‘I don’t want to be here’ smile as I walked over to the wooden fence.
“Leah this is Mrs. Anderson-”
“Call me Sarah.” The woman on the other side of the fence smiled.
Sarah looked far too young to be a mum, and much cooler than mine. She had short bright auburn hair that cupped her slender face. Her greens eyes shone as her smile almost touched them.
“She has two kids your age.” My mother said to me, her smile taking over her face as she tried to discreetly nudge me, but making it far too obvious.
Sarah turned to me. “My son Darien is twenty-one, but I have a daughter your age called Tina. From what you’re mum has told me, Tina is going to be going to the same college as you.”
 “That’s good.” I already knew what mum was planning, hoping this girl and I could become friends and that would fix all the crap that had happened to me, to us over this last year. “What is she studying?”
“Preparation and Cooking, she wants to be a chef.” Sarah’s smile was full of pride, something I hadn't seen in my own mother in a long time, almost a year to be exact.
At least this Tina wouldn’t be in any of my lessons. Mum's planning would have to take a different route. “I don’t think she will be in my classes, I’m studying creative writing.”
“Oh that’s a shame I was kind of hoping that you would be able to show her around.” Sarah replied.
I knew what was going to happen before I even had a chance to stop it. My mum quickly suggested that I would still meet Tina at breaks and lunches to keep her company. It was so nice of her to offer my free time on my behalf without even asking me first. But what could I do? So smiling I nodded when Sarah asked if that was OK.
“Where are your kids?” Mum peered over the fence trying to spot them like they were a pair of toddlers hiding somewhere.
“Oh I sent them to the store to get some supplies; they were driving me crazy with all the unpacking at the moment.”
I smirked at the shimmer of disappointment on mums face. Least something was going good for me. Excusing myself, I went back inside the house before mum roped me into helping them unpack or something. I kept my fake smile on until I got safely back inside the house and retreated to my room. I picked up my kindle and started where I left off.
Almost half an hour had past when a car pulled into the drive next door. Curiously I walked back outside to meet who I was going to have to spend my time with. Mum was practically dragging them out of the car when I got there. You’d think she was the one needing friends.
“This is Darien and Tina.” Sarah smiled as the two people got out of the black pick up. She moved to stand between them, her daughter taller than her by a head but her son towered above her, and I found myself having to look up to see his face. “This is Mary and her daughter Leah.” She said indicating to us.
Tina was like a mini version of her mother, she had slightly darker auburn hair but it was longer falling down her back. Her green eyes smiled at you when she looked at you. She was slim and lucky enough to be able to walk in heels, judging by the platforms on her feet. I on the other hand, would break my neck.
Darien looked like a dark knight next to them with his jet black hair that lay flat just above his brown eyes. He was tall; at least 6 foot and well defined from what his tight black t-shirt let you see. Not in a body builder way though, in a just nice way. God was I checking him out?
Tina smiled at us both warmly, while her brother looked me up and down, a look of disappointment and disgust passed his face before he turned and stormed off into the house. What was his problem?
The atmosphere went cold as Sarah shifted uncomfortably watching the door Darien had just disappeared through. “I’m sorry about Darien; he hasn't taken the move very well.”
“He’s always grumpy.” Tina rolled her eyes looking at me.
Hmm, maybe spending time with her wasn't going to be so bad after all.
“Tina.” Sarah said waiting until her daughter looked at her. “Leah has nicely agreed to show you around the college.”
Tina’s eyes lit up as she turned back to me. “Oh thank God I was so worried I was going to be on my own the whole day. Nothing worse than being the new kid.”
“How did you get into the college? The courses have already started.” I asked curiously.       
“I was at college in our old town so they agreed to let me start now instead of waiting until next year.”
All mum had talked about at dinner was Tina; it didn’t bother me that she wanted me to make friends, in fact I understood it. What I didn’t like was her trying to force them down my throat. If Tina were to become friends then it would depend entirely how well we got on, not on how much meddling my mum could do. Besides even if the new girl and me did get on, there was no way in hell I was going to become best friends with her, I had learned that lesson long ago.
Thankful that dinner finally ended I finished my book and submitted my review to my blog. I had a rule never to start a new book right after finishing one. So after nipping mums head for hours she let me borrow the car to go to the supermarket. I kept looking at the speedometer making sure I was always staying within the speed limit – by an easy ten miles per hour –but because I was so excited about the new release of my magazine I felt I was part of a police chase trying to get to the store. How sad.
I walked down the aisle filled with magazines and papers as I looked for ‘Reader’s Weekly’ a magazine I lived by. It told you all the new releases, reviews for books and the recommended best reads, and this week one of my reviews was featuring in it. There was one other person in the aisle and when I looked closer at him I realised it was Tina’s brother, I stood debating with myself if I should speak to him or not. Earlier he hadn’t even said a word to us before storming off into the house, but then they had just moved in, he was probably just tired and Sarah had said he wasn’t happy with the move, and there was my mother not even letting them get settled in before bombarding them for information. Deciding to speak to him I walked over and stood at his side. I waited for him to acknowledge me but after a few moments it was obvious he wasn’t going to.
“You’re Tina’s brother right.” I asked leaning forward slightly to see his face. He was quite a bit taller than me, but then at 5’5 that wasn’t uncommon.
He sighed answering abruptly. “Yes.” Then picked up a magazine about motorbikes, his hair moved to hover over his eyes as he bent his head to inspect the magazine, and I wondered if he was even able to see it. A part of wanted to move the annoying bangs away from his eyes but the thought of him biting my hand off made me hold my hands at bay.
“It’s Darien right?” I asked trying to make conversation.
“Yep...” He sighed again which was really beginning to get on my nerves.
I looked around awkwardly. Thinking of what to talk about would have been a good thing before coming over here. “How do you like living here?” God how lame a question was that? He hadn't even been here twenty four hours.
“I didn't want to live here, but we didn't have a choice, then it was OK when we finally moved in, but there is this girl who lives next door to me and she just doesn't know how to mind her own business.”
I was so shocked that he had said more than one word, that it took me a couple of moments to realize he was talking about me. See mum this is what you get when you try and be nice to people. “Well who shoved arrogance up your ass?”
It may have been my eyes playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn that I seen the smallest smirk in the history of the world appear on his face before it vanished.
“So tell me." Darien placed the magazine back on the stand and turned to stare down at me."Were you born this nosey or is it just me you want to know everything about?”
My mouth dropped open and I wasn't sure if it was from his insult or the hard glare in his eyes as he looked at me. “I am not nosey. I was just trying to make conversation.”
“Yeah..? Well how about you just make like the wind and go.”
What an arrogant pig. I tried my hardest to think of something to say to him but instead I just turned and marched out of the store.
I got back into the car and over dramatically slammed the door shut. He had to be the most obnoxious man I had ever met - not that I had much experience with men. Well only the men in my books really. Since my father had decided it would be good for him to run off with another woman three years ago, I had sworn off men and had made a promise to myself that I would never put myself in a position where I could get my heart broken like my mother had. I groaned and thumped my head against the steering wheel as I realized I hadn't even gotten my magazine, and I sure as hell wasn't going back in there for it.

I'd really appreciate any feed back on this expert :)
Thanks Guys and have a great Christmas and New Year!!!

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Can't wait for January 13. This sounds like a great book to me.Can I PRE-ORDER? Thank you for sharing.

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  2. Sadly, you can't pre-order it, no.
    It will go live and i will post links to amazon and the other sites.
    When the book is ready i will be looking for Beta readers to check the book and review it.
    So i will keep you in mind :D

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