Wait for Me Read online

  Wait For Me

  By: Shannon Alexander

  Shannon Alexander Copyright 2014

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, alive or dead is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced to a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Dedication:

  For the two lights of my life. I love you.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter one

  Chapter two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten – One year later.

  Chapter eleven – One year later.

  Chapter twelve- Tyler

  Chapter thirteen- Alyssa

  Chapter fourteen- Tyler

  Chapter fifteen

  Chapter sixteen -present

  Chapter seventeen

  Chapter eighteen

  Chapter nineteen

  Chapter twenty- Past. Tyler

  Chapter Twenty-one Alyssa

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter twenty- three

  Chapter twenty-four

  Chapter twenty-five

  Chapter twenty-six

  Chapter twenty-seven

  Chapter twenty-eight

  Chapter twenty-nine

  Chapter thirty

  Chapter thirty-one

  Chapter thirty-two

  Chapter thirty- three

  Chapter thirty-four

  Chapter thirty-five

  Chapter thirty-six

  Chapter thirty- seven

  Chapter thirty-eight

  Chapter thirty-nine

  Chapter forty

  Chapter forty- one

  Chapter forty- two

  Chapter forty-three

  Chapter forty-four

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  As a kid there were two things I always knew I wanted.

  1. To become Alyssa Abbot, the famous writer.

  2. To marry Tyler Pierce

  Only one of those things was possible for a girl like me:

  Becoming a writer.

  I started writing when I was very little. Mom loves to tell me stories about the very first “book” I ever authored. It was written in Crayola washable marker on my bedroom wall when I was three. After that she and dad always made it a point to have my bedroom stocked with tons of paper so I always had a place to scribble.

  Even when all I could manage were stick figures and finger paintings to express, it was writing. As I grew older the drawings became words which became my stories.

  My parents began buying me thick journals, which I filled with fantasies of fairy friends, as an 8 year old girl. They loved every single piece I came up with.

  My other love was a boy. Tyler Pierce. I have been in love with him since I was 10 years old. Since the day my then 11 year old brother, Matt, brought him home from baseball practice after school.

  Beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. He was taller than my brother. He was strong even for an 11 year old. Always wrestling with Matt and beating him in all the back yard games. He was perfect.

  He became my brother’s best friend immediately. They played baseball together all the time and even started a band for fun one summer day. Creating dreams and working on making it to the big time together.

  I fell in love with him the first moment I saw him, I followed him and Matt around every chance I got. They never seemed to mind. Tyler never once told me to get lost, never treated me like Matt’s ‘pesky’ little sister.

  And then he turned 18 and decided to put his musical and sports dreams on hold to join the military.

  I wrote to him as often as possible.

  It still wasn’t enough.

  I was left behind dealing with life changing events.

  And then he got engaged.

  This is my story on my journey through first love. A story of heartbreak, addiction and second chances.

  Chapter one

  “Mom, I’m getting ready to go meet up with Stacy, do you need anything while I’m out?”

  My mom is in the laundry room. I think she spends half of her days inside doing laundry. She refuses to let my brother Matt or I wash our own clothes. I’m 17 and she still doesn’t trust me with her precious washer and dryer.

  Matt and I joke that she will drive to our homes when we move out just to pick up our laundry. It’s one of her favorite chores. Everyone has that one weird thing they like to do, laundry is hers.

  Mom walks out to the living room to answer me. She’s beautiful, I have always thought so. Her once light brown hair has just started to show strands of silver. We share the same light brown eyes and our height. Mom is 5’7. I just hit 5’6. But I have zero doubts I will join her in no time. I am my mother’s child in every sense of the word physically.

  “No sweetie, I’m all set. Have fun and make sure you are home by 11.”

  Curfew. It doesn’t bother me like it does some kids. I don’t mind coming home at a certain time. I’m not much of a party girl. I only go to these things because I like to see Tyler. I could see Tyler at my house any day of the week, he practically lives here, but Matt isn’t going to the party tonight and my favorite Tyler is a Tyler sans big brother Matt.

  Don’t get me wrong, I totally love my older brother, but I also love his best friend and Matt has made it clear one too many times that I am off limits to Tyler, best friends or not.

  Not that Tyler has ever really ‘tried’ anything with me. I have drooled over him for years, and he has snuck a few drunken kisses here and there but he’s never asked me out. He’s never pushed it past that and Tyler is what Stacy and I like to call a man-whore. He has sex with anything with legs. Which bothers me more than it should.

  Matt and I are what you would call ‘Irish Twins’ mom found out she was pregnant with me four months after Matt was born. So in reality, although he likes to pretend otherwise we aren’t that far apart, just a little over a year. I am turning 17 next week and Matt turned 18 a month ago so I am always really annoyed with his ‘big brother’ act. He likes to pretend he has these extensive amounts of life experiences that I don’t have.

  He and Tyler made it so no boy in school would ask me out. I was a Junior in high school and a virgin, and they get some sort of sick kick out of it.

  Of course I was an older junior. I had to start the year after all my friends began kindergarten because my birthday was days after the cut off that our town had for the elementary schools. Which meant that my dating pool already seemed shallow. Matt and Tyler just made it so much worse.

  I’d seen it happen countless time. Joe Whoever would approach me, ask me to dinner and I would agree. Then I would see Tyler or Matt or sometimes both approach him later in the day. Moments later the guy would tell me he had forgotten he had other important plans. Blah blah blah…

  Tyler and Matt are jocks. Probably two of the most popular guys in school. Both ridiculously good at baseball and Tyler has the voice of a sexy Greek God so the band that he and Matt share on the weekends doubles their popularity to epic high school proportions.

  They play gigs at parties, football games, really whatever they can get their hands on. Add their jock status and you have good looking teenage rock star status.

  They have these h
uge plans of going to college together to play ball and when they are done they are going to try and hit the big time in music. Have the best of both of their worlds. Baseball and music.

  I don’t mind either of their choices, because either way, as long as Tyler is Matt’s best friend I know that Tyler would be a part of my life too. Considering all the girls he sleeps with are both easy, unintelligent and full of plastic, I know he’ll never look at me twice. So I take the times I get him with Matt, or on rare nights like tonight without Matt, to get my Tyler fix.

  This party tonight is a low key thing which in our town means only about 50 or so kids. Matt isn’t feeling well, so he is staying home but I know that Tyler will be there. He goes to every party. Parties are where the girls are. Which means that if I wasn’t holed up working on an English assignment I went to every party possible, even if it was just to see him sucking face with another girl. I had to see him any way I could.

  Lately however, Tyler’s making out has taken a weird turn and yes, I notice these things. He no longer seems to bask in the attention of the entire female population. Sure he isn’t on his way to becoming the next town priest, but he is slowing down and Stacy and I have both noticed. Even Matt has made a few jokes at his best friend’s expense.

  Stacy Wilson has been my best friend since we met freshman year. We have nearly every class together and she knows all about my Tyler obsession. She doesn’t mind listening to me talk endlessly about how I want to marry him when I am older. She doesn’t mind when I cry each and every time I hear a girl talking about how Tyler screwed her over the weekend. I pretend it doesn’t matter, to everyone but her. She hugs me, tells me it will be okay and always tells me ‘if he doesn’t love you back, it is his loss.’

  I love him from afar most of the time. I settle for knowing that might be all it will ever be. Me loving him from the sidelines.

  Chapter two

  Tyler’s mom Sharon is a single mother. His dad skipped town when Tyler was a baby, so he doesn’t know much about him.

  His mom moved to town when Tyler was 11 to be closer to her parents. His mother works as an RN at St. Thomas hospital during the day and at night she takes care of her dad who has Alzheimer’s. She is one of the sweetest women I have ever met, but she is a work-a-holic and she and Tyler don’t spend very much time together.

  Tyler basically lived at our house growing up. From the moment he and my brother latched on to one another, he’s been like part of our family. Which I don’t mind in the least of course. His mom likes to know that he is somewhere safe and not home alone and our parents love having another boy in the house.

  My Mom and Dad have a lot of my money. My Dad’s father passed one of the largest cotton farms in Georgia down to him when he died, before I was even born. He has about 300 employees and money has never been an issue. We don’t live off the best of the best all of the time, Mom and Dad taught us to be humble. They always took care of our needs, but nothing extreme. I don’t think anyone in town would ever consider us spoiled, privileged maybe, but not spoiled. Yes we have a huge house, and we can afford expensive clothing, but we don’t have maids, just a handy man who helps keep things running smoothly when Dad is out working. We donate a lot of time and money to charities and I even have to earn an allowance to keep my cell phone. We have never been a greedy family. Dad is amazing with his staff. He has a guest house built out back that houses 10 small apartments in which he allows family workers to stay for free if they need it on the promise that they will build their lives up and get their own place eventually.

  People around Sandersville know Albert and Louisa Abbot. We live in a sweet town, close to Savannah but away from the crime that comes with big cities. Our parents are respected, so as their children we grew up behaving a certain way, and now people respect us too. Matt and I were never the type of kids to get into trouble when we were younger. We both earned excellent grades in school and we both played sports, we respected our teachers and we rarely fought.

  Mom and Dad are the most amazing parents any kid could ask for. Which is why I think Tyler took such a liking to our family. We are close, extremely close, there isn’t a thing that we wouldn’t do for one another.

  Mom decided early on, that Tyler would have his own room, and he would be just as much of an Abbot as he would be a Pierce when he was in our house.

  I always think back to her opening up the door to him the way she does … If she knew that I was madly in love with my brother’s best friend, their “adopted” son, would they would still welcome him with open arms and his own room?

  Then again, knowing what we all know now… Probably not.

  All the same. I don’t have a single childhood memory that doesn’t involve Tyler from the age of 10 on. He’s as much of a part of me as any other member of my family. I find myself wishing more and more that he wasn’t. Mostly because it’s making my feelings for him so much harder to hide.

  Chapter Three

  “God, Stacy that dress is hideous.” I laugh at my best friend’s floral, yet revealing dress. It literally looks like she stole the material from an old woman’s couch. Her only saving grace is the dark brown leather cow-girl boots.

  “Don’t laugh. We don’t all have daddies with unlimited credit balances, I got it at a thrift shop.” she snaps.

  “Aw snook-ums I am just messing with you, you know I love you and your awful fashion choices.” I pinch her cheek as I walk past her to my BMW 6-Series. I love this car. It was my early birthday gift from Dad. One of my few ‘rich kid’ toys.

  “I love you, but if you ever pinch my cheeks again I am going to have to kill you. And you look freaking hot so that would be a serious shame.” She giggles, approaching the passenger side of my red convertible.

  “You would miss me if I ever went away.” I reply, pulling out of our long driveway.

  “I would miss you.” She adds “But I would not miss the pining over Tyler. I could go a few days without talking about him.”

  I don’t bother replying. Stacy loves me talking about Tyler as much as she loves me. She loves to offer advice, she loves to find ways to put me directly into his path and she loves trying to make me become this sex kitten Barbie doll to try and grab his attention.

  The last one has really worked. No matter how hard he tries to pretend otherwise. Tyler has noticed.

  He’s really a hands on kind of guy. I’d be bringing dishes into the kitchen or loading the dishwasher and he’d come into the kitchen while everyone was still in the dining room and he would grab my face and steal a kiss. Randomly, just because he could. And then he’d pretend I didn’t exist for the rest of the night.

  I always get a lot of mixed signals from him, I guess Tyler is what you call a mood confused guy. Never seems to be sure of what he truly wants. That’s where we differ, because I’ve always wanted him, I’ve known since day one.

  Stacy and I have no idea who is hosting this party tonight. We just follow the social calendar, someone in our school has one every weekend.

  As juniors we normally wouldn’t be invited to these, but with my family pull and my brother and his best friend, we get invited to everything.

  The music is so loud, we can hear it turning onto the street. The house is illuminated in lights, while kids with red solo cups line the lawn.

  A large weeping willow tree stands in the front yard, with a smaller bush of perfectly manicured trees displaying rolls and rolls of toilet paper.

  The music is nearly deafening until your ears adjust. Mine are finally starting to as we climb out of the car and stroll to the front door.

  Eminem is blasting “My Name Is” out of the enormous speakers strategically placed by the pool. Eminem is one of Matt’s favorites. Although he refuses to listen to him in the house ever since Mom decided she likes Eminem as well and blasted “Cleaning out my Closet.” one day with the windows down to pick Matt up from school for an appointment. Now he sticks with the classics when we are home.

  I fo
r one want to see her embarrass him again. It was the funniest thing ever.

  Stacy and I enter the house, which leads us straight to a living room piled with people dancing. Around the outer edges of the room are couches and chairs layered with kissing couples. Some wearing more clothes than others.

  I notice one couple heading upstairs.

  Sights like this give me a stomach ache. I have never had sex, but the idea appeals to me. I am just waiting for the right guy. The right guy being Tyler. Meaning I am going to become a nun once I finish college, because he and I will never happen.

  Stacy grabs my hand and pulls me straight to the kitchen. She grabs a bottle of tequila off the counter and two clean solo cups. Pouring each of us a few shots worth. She’ll down most of it, I’m more likely to nurse mine for the entire evening. I drove tonight and I know for a fact that party has a Designated Driving system set up, but the wait for the local taxi is always torture.

  Stacy steers me out to the dance floor in the middle of the living room. Jay-Z is now singing something with Justin Timberlake.

  JT automatically makes me think of my Mom, I loved N*Sync way too much when I was like 5. It was terrible. Right up there with the videos my parents have of me saying I was going to marry the ramen noodle haired lead singer.

  Blackmail material. If it exists, try and burn it.

  Dancing has always been one of my favorite past times. Ballet, hip hop you name it I can do it. Part of having rich parents, is the extra-curricular activities you are thrust into.

  Stacy and I have the dirty girl dance down. We bump and grind on one another and she almost always ends up with a guy on her arm before the night is up.

  Tonight however is a little different. Without Matt interrupting out every conversation, I might actually be able to talk to Tyler. Alone.

  Matt knows that I like Tyler, and Matt is an amazing big brother. But he doesn’t want me to date his best friend, he doesn’t want me to get hurt, which I understand the sentiment behind his desire to keep us apart but I can’t help what feelings I have for Tyler.