This Beautiful Thing (Young Love Series)

This Beautiful Thing

Amanda Heath

Published by Amanda Heath at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 by Amanda Heath

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This book is a work of fiction. The people, incidents, and dialogue are the product of the

author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or undead, is purely

coincidental.

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Written by Amanda Heath

Cover Design by Must Love Fangs

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DEDI
C
A
TION

~To my
mother who always believed in me
when no one else did. I love you mom!

~To my husband and monkey the light
s
in my life and fillers of my heart. I love you both!

~To
Stacy who listens to every rant and rave I have and doesn’t let me give
up
.

~To Kris who is always there when I need a shoulder to gripe on. Who also stood by me and helped me tremendously with this book!

Chapter 1

Teagan

“Mom wants you to come to dinner tomorrow night.” My sister Marie’s voice comes over my cell phone.

I sigh. “Do I have to? Please don’t make me do it. I can’t stand the tension, why do you think I live on campus?” This is the last thing I need in my life right now. I may have got a scholarship to college but they wouldn’t let me go far, just an hour up the road.

“Yes Teag you have to come. Max and I are gonna tell them I’m pregnant, so I really want you to be there.” She’s been married to Max for like six months and already pregnant. My prefect sister is already getting her prefect life.

“Fine I’ll be there but I’m not staying the night. I’m driving back here and sleeping away from the drama.” I give in only because I love my sister and she’s never seen me the way that my step-mother does. None of my brother s and sisters have.

She squeals in my ear and I whence. “This is so great! I am so excited I haven’t seen you since you started school!”

“Geez I’m friggin deaf now thank you. It’s just a couple of hours, if I last that long.” I complain.

“You will for me at least. Ok well I gotta go honey! I’ll see you tomorrow and I love you.”

“Love you to MayMay.” I hang up my phone and let my head fall onto my pillow.

The thing about my family is we are not normal at all. We are the definition of dysfunctional. And unfortunately that is my fault. Well maybe more my dad’s fault, oh and my mother. See I’m a love child and it was quite a scandal in my hometown in Arkansas. My dad happens to own most of the place and he was the mayor at the time. Hell he still is the mayor; he has run unopposed for years.

Funny thing about it is that the town put the blame on my mom and me. Can you imagine people treating you like the plague and not letting their children play with you when you’re just a child? It sucked. My mother though she was awesome. She held her head up high and went on with her life. God I miss her. She died when I was ten from cancer.

That’s when I had to go live with the Harper’s. James is my dad, Sarah is my step-mom, Jessica is my oldest sister, then there is Forest my oldest brother, plus Marie and last but not least are the twins Jaden and Caden. Another funny thing, they are two weeks older than me.

I had an entire family I knew nothing about and it was scary. Hell I was in the same grade with Jaden and Caden and none of us knew it. Well expect James and Sarah, or daddy and Sarah as I call them. And apparently it wasn’t his idea. It was mom. Mom told me before she died that she did it to hurt my dad but in the end she ended up hurting me as well. And then she was gone and I had to deal with this on my own.

It wasn’t all that bad really though. Jessica and Marie had a new sister they got to pamper and I had someone to teach me about boys and makeup. Things like that. Jessica is my best friend. I can tell her anything and she doesn’t judge me. Marie is a goodie two shoes but I love her to death.

Jaden and Caden took it upon themselves to be my protectors. Or should I say wardens. I can blame them for the fact I’m still a virgin. All the guys in my town were so afraid of them. Mitch Dewater wasn’t afraid of them until after we made out in his car and the twins found out. He got the day-lights beat out of him. Mitch and every other guy never spoke to me again.

Forest was sixteen at the time but he still took the time to play with me. We climbed trees and played in the mud. He even played Barbie dolls. He got teased by the twins for it but he always said as long as I was happy he was happy.

Now on to daddy, I really love my daddy. You might think he is a bad guy but really he is the sweetest man. I have never wanted for anything in my life. Where some men might abandon their love child, he didn’t. I might not have known it then but when I was little I had expensive gifts and my clothes where name brand but my mom just worked at a diner. He has never said anything but I have since put two and two together. My mom was selfish and thought she was doing the right thing and I’m glad she saw the error of her ways before she died.

And now we have Sarah. Where do I even begin? It’s not that she is a bad person or anything; I mean she has five wonderful children. I guess she just didn’t see a place for me in her life. Every time I see her I get a boat load of criticism. I stopped trying to please her years ago and have learned to just nod and go on with life. I’m not perfect like the rest of them.

My dorm room door bursts open and I lift my head from the pillow and my thoughts. In walks my roommate Grace. She’s got this huge smile on her pretty face and she flips her blonde locks over her slender shoulder and runs to my bed. Before I know it she has landed on me crushing the air out of my lungs. She might be small but I’m tiny. I also hear a thump which means she hit her head on the headboard.

“Grace I can’t breathe.” I mumble underneath her.

She flops over holding her head. “Ouch, I forget how small these stupid beds are! And I’m sorry for crushing you hon that was not my intentions.” She smiles sheepishly.

I laugh at her and shake my head. “It’s cool dude, what’s up?”

“Wanna go to a party? Apparently one of the football players is throwing a huge one at his parents’ house. They are out of town or something like that.”

I look at her and shake my head again. I love this girl but she is totally boy crazy. She has the charm of a true southern belle that would make anyone melt. She is a cheerleader and has had a huge crush on one of the football players since the beginning of the year, hence her wanting to go to his party. “Uh yeah I do. I have to go home tomorrow because Marie is telling dad and Sarah she is expecting. I need to have fun before I have to hear my step-mom talk crap about me all day long.”

She squeals and gets off the bed. She runs over to my closet tripping over her pink shaggy rug on the floor between our beds. I laugh out loud and get up to stop her before I end up in pink.

Chapter 2

Declan

“Dude this party is bumping.” Jaden says to my right. The bodies are swaying to the beat of the music. I think it is some song by Lady Gaga and she’s hot and everything but I prefer something less poppy.

I start to reply but he gets a shocked look on his face. “What’s up dude?” I shout over the song.

“My little sister just walked in. How the hell did she even know about this party? She doesn’t run with this crowd.” He scowls and starts to walk off in that direction.

“Wait, what’s the big deal? Let her have some fun man.” I almost laugh at the look on his face. The way he talks about his little sister you would think she was twelve not eighteen.

“She can have fun in her dorm room away from all these horny football players.” He sneers at something and I turn to look. I personally don’t see anything but whatever. I’m not gonna stop him.

As I watch him walk off a pair of warm hands find their way under my polo shirt. I know it is Claire before I even look over my shoulder to found out. Nobody has boobs as big as her and they are currently pressed up against my back. “What do you want, Claire?” I ask even though I know what she wants.

“I only want you sugar.” She purrs in my ear.

I run my hands over her arms down to her hands and throw them off me. “Sorry I’m not on the menu anymore.”

She looks all pissed at me and I see her face turn red. “You can’t turn me down, I’m your girlfriend.”

I raise one eyebrow and smile. We dated all through high school and we decided to both go to school here so we could be together but the week we started school she decided she wanted to date other people. “No I don’t think so. I remember you dumping me about eight weeks ago.”

Her dull blue eyes fill up with fire. I know she’s gonna make a scene and I’m so tired of her drama. It was honestly a relief when she dumped me. “I didn’t dump you! We were taking a break!” She screams into my face.

“Yes you did, now run along I don’t have time for your crazy shit tonight, bitch.” Calling her a bitch might have gone too far.

“Did you just call me a bitch? No one calls me a bitch!” I think she is turning to leave but she just grabs a cup from a nearby chick and proceeds to throw it at me. But it not only hits me in the face but also a girl trying to get between us. And this girl looks pissed.

She can’t be over five foot because I tower way over her. Her long curly black hair is plastered to her face and the liquid is dripping down her cleavage soaking her dark shirt. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t for the little thing to punch Claire in the face.

“This is my favorite shirt! It’s signed by M. Shadows and you just ruined it! I’m gonna kill you!” the tiny thing screams in Claire’s face. Claire has this deer in headlights look with blood dripping out of her broken nose. I don’t think anyone has ever stood up to her and she doesn’t know how to take it.

“Ok there little bit lets calm down, and back away from the bitch princess and get you something dry to wear.” I wrap my arm around her waist and to find she weighs nothing. Which is a change from Claire who is almost as tall as me and is very curvy; it’s not a bad thing just different. “Claire you should go to the hospital to get that set.” I smirk and wave her away.

I grab the tiny girls hand and pull her along up the stairs to my room. I open the door and pull her inside and shut it. I left the light on earlier and I’m surprised no one is hooking up in here yet. I’m a totally neat freak and nothing in here is out of place. My bed with its dark blue comforter is made and my desk in the corner has all the papers in order. “Have a seat on the bed. I think I can find you something that won’t drown you.”

“I doubt it your like huge.” She says right before she blushes. “Oh my god! I’m sorry that came out wrong.” I look back at her and see her face flush a beautiful pink. And that’s when I notice how beautiful she is with her heart shaped face and emerald eyes. I’m drawn to her lips which are so unique. The top one is thin and almost nonexistence with the bottom one bigger with this faint freckle near the right side of her mouth. I can’t help but to think how easy it would be to bite it and suck it with my own lips. Then I would clean all the beer off of her pale skin with my tongue.

Damn I need to get my head out of the gutter. “So how did you get M. Shadows to sign your shirt?” I ask trying to get my head in the right place. The eight beers I had earlier are clouding my judgment.

“Oh I got to go backstage last year during Edgefest when they were playing. I also have a picture with the whole band on my wall at home.” Then she looks a little confused. “You know who Avenged Sevenfold is?”

I chuckle and point at a poster of Nightmare on my closet door. “Yeah I have all their albums. I was also at Edgefest last year but I didn’t get to go back stage or anything. Didn’t you think it was sick though? With the drum solo that had the flashing lights. And they way looked 3D out in the crowd.”