Better than knowing.

Should. could. would. Didn't. Don't. Won't. Must. Need. Lust. Love. Crushes. Classes. Homework. Dances. Pep Rallies. Lunchtime. Cliques. Friends. Relationships. Passion. Kisses. Embraces. Fury. Hate. Spousal Rape. Violence. Domestic Abuse. Bruises. Cuts. Bleeding. Control. Gain. Lost. Self-Inflicted harm. Drugs. Alcohol. Parties. Sleepovers. Sleep deprive.

This is high school. This isn't a drama watch on TV.

These are 14, 15, 16 years old. I've seen. I've read. I've heard. I know and now I must write. Her story. My book isn't so much about the reality of how things should be done, how situations should be handled. No one needs another book telling you how to live your life, what to do if you ever are in that place that you didn't want to be because you weren't meant to be that person. That person who could associated, described with those types of words.

Rather my book is about her. It's about him and how he loved her from afar and never came near her, couldn't save her from herself or her abuser, who was his brother. About how they grew up into people and the lives they had before them planned gone with the innocence of their sheltered lives.

Welcome to their reality, their lives, although if you saw them on the street, in your neighborhood, in the market, you would think, oh dumb kids, always getting in the way when trying to be adults. They didn't want to be adults. They didn't want to know the meaning of ugly words that became their lives. Those dumb kids, well they survived, which was more than what anyone expected of them, including themselves after what they went through.