She’s my best friend and my occasional girlfriend. Maybe I could get lost in her, but the high doesn’t last nearly as long as the drugs. I reach into the pocket of my sweats, pulling out the cellphone I lifted from some yuppie who didn’t need it.įuck. Because when I remember, I can’t breathe.

I’m not even safe in my own bed, no matter where the bed is located. I look back at the rundown apartment building I've been staying in, stealing shit and hustling with my friend Sean to get rent money even though we’re both still in high school. I want it to be a dream, but the sickening feeling inside tells me it wasn’t just a nightmare. I sink down to the sidewalk, the cement digging into my knees, clawing at my collar as I try to catch my breath. “It was a dream,” I gasp into the night air. They all have a deep connection to Blair and Rhys for me. ***I don’t own the rights to any of these songs, but I listened to them as I wrote this book. Embrace the good and keep going forward, don’t let the bad win.

Soon everything will become clear.Īlso, to anyone who ever felt damaged by someone else’s cruelness, remember every child is precious and should be treated that way. This book is dedicated to anyone who feels so lost they don’t believe they can ever come back. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Guarded by nicole dykes