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"You said you leave when there's nothing left for you to do so what if I gave you a reason to stay?" Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
I sat in a small, local diner. For a weekday, it was busier than I was used to seeing. It was a small town so I figured everyone here was familiar with one other. A tight knit community that reminded me of Stars Hollow.
I glanced around, sipping on my chocolate milkshake. I looked at the people surrounding me.
I found it interesting to take note of the people around me, to wonder who they were and make up stories about their lives. My life was one big and meaningless disappointment. It made it much more appealing to pay more attention to others, rather than focus on myself.
A mother sat with her son, he looked to be around the age of nine or ten. She was smiling down at her son, pure adoration in her eyes. The boy was a mess, frankly. He had ketchup on the corners of his mouth. His burger fell apart in his hands, his chocolate shake dripping down onto his white t-shirt. Still, his mother smiled and helped him hold onto the burger. She hardly paid note to the mess the boy was making.
A group of teenagers sat near the back in a booth. Two of them, a brown haired boy and blonde girl sat awfully close, laughing and making fluttery eyes at one other. They were in a relationship, love-sick and very comfortable with PDA. Across from them sat two boys wearing tee's with school logos on them. They all were laughing dreadfully loudly and pushing each other around.
What a happy bundle.
At one table, a boy who also looked like he was in high school sat alone. His head was stuck in a book while a half eaten sandwich sat in front of him. He looked very focused on his book that must've been very interesting. I guess books could be though. Fictional characters were usually better than real people. He looked the complete opposite to the other group of teenagers.
There was also an elderly couple sitting together with their hands intertwined. Wow, who would think relationships last that long? They seemed happy, smiling and laughing weakly.
"Can I get you anything else, dear?"
I looked up. I sat at the counter. The man behind the counter was quite old, maybe sixty. His head was slightly balding and he wore glasses low on his nose. He offered me a kind smile, looking at me with his grey eyebrows raised.
I adjusted on the stool I sat on and shook my head, smiling out of politeness. "No, thank you, sir."
I brought my attention to my chocolate milkshake.
It was very sweet.
The pathetic situation I was sitting in right now, the very one where I sat in this diner and observed people until I had nothing left to think about but my chocolate milkshake - that almost made me want to laugh. How pointless does life have to get for one to spend the night staring at their milkshake?
To leave this planet was a thought that occurred to me often. It was a very tempting thought - a thought I was surprised I hadn't gone through will thus far.
My life didn't offer me anything that made me want to stay here.
The only reason I remained breathing on this wandering star we call Earth was simply because I was convinced there was a reason I must still be here.
Maybe I was desperate to find a meaning behind my utterly lurid existence.
But really, with no family nor friends, no home to go to, a circadian routine that consisted of visually examining a milkshake- with essentially no reason to wake up in the morning, why was I still here? I hardly had any willingness to continue breathing. I was merely just subsisting, floating through life with hardly a thought in my head. Somehow I figure, that if there is a God or any higher power up there, he must be keeping me on my feet for some bizarre reason. Maybe that's wishful thinking but if there is a reason, one day I'll find out what it is.
"Dean, you haven't stopped by in a while, son. Where have you been?" The old man behind the counter, who I was sure was the owner of this diner, was now talking to a man who had just come in. He was standing a few feet away from me. I couldn't see him because of the hood that remained over my head.
"Just busy, Ben. You know the crazy schedules." The guy beside me had a deep and masculine voice. He let out a short chuckle that sounded almost forced.
This man named Dean pulled out a stool that was one away from mine and sat down.
"Would you like your usual?" Ben, the old man asked him with a neighbourly smile. Made sense - small town life made one local familiar with another.
I never had a sense of familiarity and neighbourliness like that in my life. The thought of it made me want to laugh- I could not imagine making small talk with the barista I got coffee from every morning.
"Ah, just a mug of Anne's hot cocoa tonight. Thanks." This time, Dean's voice sounded less tense.??
"Right up, son." Ben walked off, going behind into the kitchen.
I continued sipping on my milkshake slowly, letting my tastebuds devour each bit of the chocolaty goodness. It felt nice to take a minute to appreciate the sweetness of what I was consuming as sometimes days would go by without me eating a single proper meal.
The countertop was white granite. I could appreciate how modernized this diner was. If it were retro, I would have already left with a headache.
From the way I stared at the granite counter, my gaze could have burned holes through the surface. As if this countertop were the most intriguing thing to exist.
It really wasn't.
"Here you go, son. Let me know if you need anything else." Ben slid a mug of hot cocoa toward dean. He was about to walk away when he glanced at me again.
"Doing alright? Get you anything else?"
I brought my head up and looked at the man. I forced a tight smile. "I'm alright, sir. Thank you."
Ben returned a smile before walking off.
"Quiet-but polite."
Dean's voice was inviting, amused.
I looked over, unsure if he were talking to me or someone else. He was young, maybe a year or two older than me. His brown hair was swept upwards, towards the side. His eyes were strikingly blue, slightly grey. Gunmetal. They looked like the ocean. His ear was pierced.
A bemused little smirk laid on his face as he peered at me.
I raised an eyebrow, my face straight. "Would you be talking to me?"?
He glanced from side to side before his eyes settled on me once again. "Is there anyone else in the proximity?"
I pulled my hood off my head. I couldn't help narrowing my eyes. "Then clearly I look more inviting than I thought because I didn't know I was talking to you."?
He didn't seem offended by my bluntness. In fact, he looked more beguile "Polite one moment, snippy the next. How does that work?"
"Does it work? Doing a psychoanalysis on strangers? If anything, it's a little creepy." Why was he talking to me? I just wanted to finish my milkshake in silence.
He let out a quiet laugh, shaking his head lightly. "Well, aren't you charming?"
I looked at him for a moment longer. Then, I pulled my hood back over my head and resumed staring at my milkshake. I sipped the last of it before pulling some bills out of my pocket and dropping them on the counter.
I stood, ready to leave when Dean spoke again. "Are you only polite to elderlies, then?"
Oh, I've seen guys like him before.
They think they're oh-so charming, that anyone will swoon over their mediocre attempts to be flirty. God, I much rather bash my head into the granite counter.
I didn't have time for this.
Or the better way to put it, I didn't have the?energy?for this.
I turned to look at him, eyes narrowed. "Cancel my subscription. You're voice is giving me a migraine."
Then, I left.
Fia Romero meets her boyfriends dorm mate, player Wes Hamilton. While Fia has been in a happy and committed three year long relationship, Wes doesn't believe in the idea of committing to someone while you should be exploring your options and having fun. Their friendship grows over what started as a silly idea for Fia to play Wes's match-maker and find him the perfect girl that he thinks is worth the commitment. What started as match-making turned into a fake dating relationship, leading to confused feelings and room-fulls of tension and passion. A little game of playing Cupid turns into something more and maybe the person who has always been the one for you was standing right under your nose the whole time. Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
Rosie, an introvert whose presence feels like serenity to Anthony. Two people with completely different natures, from two different worlds find themselves consumed by one other. Rosie finally feels seen, Anthony finally realizes what magic feels like. While they keep being pulled towards each other like magnets, they are kept apart by their own doubts and hesitations. Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
"You don't want me, you just don't want to see me with anyone else." Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
An extreme admiration, love, or reverence for someone. "She was afraid her attraction towards him was increasing to idolatry." Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
Annie Halden was the exact definition of a wallflower. She lived on the sidelines, didn't like attention and worried too much. She wrote letters to herself as her way to get her thoughts out. She never told anyone or let anyone see. Leo Smith, one of the school star athletes and most popular boys, found one of her letters. He started breaking into her locker to read the letters every time there was a new one. He grew concerned about her and wanted to protect her, he wanted to know why she was so broken and who hurt her, he wanted her to know he was there for her - be her shoulder to lean on. How would this friendship work out with Annie being as shy and quiet as she is, never getting close to anyone? How would this friendship last if Annie came to find out the truth about Leo stealing and reading her personal letters? Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
Like a petal thats fallen from a dying flower, I fell for you knowing it wouldn't work out anyways. Jasmine somehow gets stuck having to become Zac Miller, the school bad-boy/golden-boy's Chemistry tutor. It didn't take long for things to get messy when Jasmine's boyfriend needs to send Zac a message to stay away from his girlfriend. A blooming attraction between bad guy Zac and the innocently sweet Jasmine, secrets from the past and a very jealous boyfriend - nothing about being Zac Miller's tutor was going to be easy for Jasmine. Author: petuniash Publisher: EasyReading
Yelena discovered that she wasn't her parents' biological child. After seeing through their ploy to trade her as a pawn in a business deal, she was sent away to her barren birthplace. There, she stumbled upon her true origins—a lineage of historic opulence. Her real family showered her with love and adoration. In the face of her so-called sister's envy, Yelena conquered every adversity and took her revenge, all while showcasing her talents. She soon caught the attention of the city's most eligible bachelor. He cornered Yelena and pinned her against the wall. “It's time to reveal your true identity, darling.”
The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."
The day Raina gave birth should have been the happiest of her life. Instead, it became her worst nightmare. Moments after delivering their twins, Alexander shattered her heart-divorcing her and forcing her to sign away custody of their son, Liam. With nothing but betrayal and heartbreak to her name, Raina disappeared, raising their daughter, Ava, on her own.Years later, fate comes knocking when Liam falls gravely ill. Desperate to save his son, Alexander is forced to seek out the one person he once cast aside. Alexander finds himself face to face with the woman he underestimated, pleading for a second chance-not just for himself, but for their son. But Raina is no longer the same broken woman who once loved him.No longer the woman he left behind. She has carved out a new life-one built on strength, wealth, and a long-buried legacy she expected to uncover.Raina has spent years learning to live without him.The question is... Will she risk reopening old wounds to save the son she never got to love? or has Alexander lost her forever?
Elena, once a pampered heiress, suddenly lost everything when the real daughter framed her, her fiancé ridiculed her, and her adoptive parents threw her out. They all wanted to see her fall. But Elena unveiled her true identity: the heiress of a massive fortune, famed hacker, top jewelry designer, secret author, and gifted doctor. Horrified by her glorious comeback, her adoptive parents demanded half her newfound wealth. Elena exposed their cruelty and refused. Her ex pleaded for a second chance, but she scoffed, “Do you think you deserve it?” Then a powerful magnate gently proposed, “Marry me?”
When Zora was sick during the early days of her pregnancy, Ezrah was with his first love, Piper. When Zora got into an accident and called Ezrah, he said he was busy, when in actual fact, he was buying shoes for Piper. Zora lost her baby because of the accident, and throughout her stay at the hospital, Ezrah never showed up. She already knew that he didn't love her, but that was the last straw for the camel's back, and her fragile heart could not take it anymore. When Ezrah arrived home a few days after Zora was discharged from the hospital, he no longer met the woman who always greeted him with a smile and cared for him. Zora stood at the top of the stairs and yelled with a cold expression, "Good news, Ezrah! Our baby died in a car accident. There is nothing between us anymore, so let's get a divorce." The man who claimed not to have any feelings for Zora, being cold and distant towards her, and having asked her for a divorce twice, instantly panicked.
"I stood at the edge of my heart and watched him choose her. In the end, I was not the one he needed. I was simply the one he settled for." - Noelle ~~~~~~~ I thought I was the one he loved. But a few days before our wedding, I saw him in a way I never had before. His eyes softened as he spoke to her. His first love, and the very woman who had left him in pieces. Heartbreak was something I knew too well. And as I watched the love he still held for her in his eyes, I realized what I had to do. I couldn't marry a man who wasn't truly mine. With no means to cancel the wedding and lacking the courage to confront him, I made a desperate choice to leave. I painfully gave his first love my treasured engagement ring thinking it was for the best and the only way to free myself. But when he saw that ring on her finger, the fragile world I had tried to escape began to shatter. His obsession to find me and bring me back ignited a dangerous game of cat and mouse.