Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Please take care of yourself. Don’t let anyone be mean to you. If you catch a charge, between both our parents, someone will get you off. You don’t have to be nice because you’re different. What makes you different is what makes you the shiniest star in the sky, Ing. You blind me with your beauty and how incredible you are. Don’t let anyone dim your light, especially me, with how I’m leaving you.
Please don’t be mad at Thatcher or treat him differently. I’m sure he’s hurting as much as I am. Almost twenty-five years of friendship down the drain. It’s insane, and as I write this, my tears soaking the paper, it’s hard to breathe. I’m sorry, Ing. I’ll try to be back before you graduate.
Please remember not to let people treat you badly, and know I love you. Please make sure they don’t look for me. I really need this time to figure out who I am.
Know, though, a part of me will die daily without you.
I’m sorry.
I love you,
Audrina
LETTER THREE
Thatcher,
Get fucked.
Take care of your sister & our parents, K?
Audrina
CHAPTER ONE
There is a knot in my gut that I can’t ignore. I feel it, burning inside me, but I have to know the truth. With each mile that disappears behind me, along with each word that comes out of my buddies’ mouths, I can’t kick the feeling that this time is real. The anticipation is suffocating as I close in on what I hope is correct information. Each bit of news over the last three-plus years hasn’t made my heart race like this piece did. Maybe because this was a picture. A real-life picture of Audrina Hawkins in the flesh as she slung plates of hash browns and bacon.
I knew it was her.
I’d know her anywhere, which is why it frustrates the living hell out of me that she’s been gone for more than three years. I know her inside and out, and yet, I haven’t been able to find her. She didn’t go to her regular “veg out” spots. She hasn’t used her credit cards, deleted all social media, dumped her phone, and disappeared. It was the most insane thing and so out of character for her. She loves our families, she loves my sister, yet she just left. At one point, I was convinced she’d been kidnapped, but in my heart, I knew she’d run.
From me.
And it’s my job to bring her home.
I glance up at the visor where her letter to me sits.
Thirteen words.
Including her name and mine, but not together as we should be.
I sigh deeply as my heart aches. When the text came through, I didn’t even think. I called my buddy and asked him if he could ride with me. I may be a little bitch for not being able to go alone, but I needed someone to be beside me. Banks Tellerman—or Telly, as we call him—is always down to ride. We’ve been roommates for the season and have grown close. He’s a goofy dude, built like an ox, with dark hair and eyes but the brightest, whitest smile I’ve ever seen. He’s my buddy, but he’ll never be what Audrina is.
Or was.
Damn it.
This is about to be a full-on clusterfuck.
I should have forwarded the information to her parents and let them handle it. She ran because of me, so the fact that I am under the impression that I am going to waltz into this diner and bring her home should have me seeking professional help. Audrina isn’t the type to be told what to do. She cut off all contact for a reason.
Me.
Everything escalated so damn fast. One moment, she was there, and the next…gone. No trace. No clues left behind, just three letters. I honestly don’t get it. Sure, I didn’t say the nicest things and I was a complete jackass, but taking off seems like such an extreme response. We have gotten in fights before—hell, we grew up together. Our birthdays are the same day. The reason her parents met her was because they came to visit me in the hospital and heard her birth mom had just left behind a little girl. Audrina’s mom, Anya, couldn’t have kids, and with one look at Audrina in a crib beside me, she was in love. That’s the effect of Audrina, though. She’s stunning and charming, and when she’s loved, she blooms right before your eyes. Her eyes widen, her sooty lashes flutter, and her lips curve into a knockout of a grin.
Audrina Hawkins is the reason I realized girls were way more fun to look at than hockey sticks.
I was twelve, at one of my AA hockey games for my travel team, and I even held my favorite stick in my hand as I made it across the ice after a break. I looked up into the stands for my mom, to find that Audrina was sitting with her. She was wearing my Junior Flyers hoodie, that I had left with my mom, over her ice-skating dress. Her tights were black, her leg warmers to her knees, and with a knit cap pulled low on her forehead, framing her hazel-colored eyes, I became bewitched. It was as if I was seeing her for the first time.