Lovely

By Allison Liddelle

What if you had the chance to go back and change everything? The chance to alter one day, one evening, that would set the stage for your entire life? What about ten times? Ten times to take the same instant and mold it until you make it right, or horribly wrong...

Alice Hawkings was given that chance, to either ultimately save her own life or end it. In ten tries, she has to decide to live or die. But she doesn't know she has the chance, and she's not sure she wants to give life a fair chance to change her mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allison Liddelle
• Release date: Feb 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458002754

Allison Liddelle

Allison is currently finishing up a degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of Texas at Tyler preparing to become a counselor. When she's not praying for more internship hours, writing case notes, or studying for the exams she spends her time talking to her partner, playing with her terrier, and trying to find time to actually write something.Profile picture taken by Josilynn Jacobson.

Book preview

Lovely

Allison Liddelle

Published by Allison Liddelle at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Allison Liddelle

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), places, or events is completely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied, and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

Enter Alice:

In the words of Krista:

Describe Alice? I don't know if I can. How can you describe that girl? Most of the world sees her one way. She only allows a few people see her pain. It kills me, because the reason she doesn't want people to know about how she feels is that she doesn't want to burden them. She told me she never did really feel like she deserved us.

In fact, it was a matter of chance that anyone even knew about Alice’s depression at all. Her parents knew, because it was their damn fault she felt this way in the first place. Lisa and I knew, because we had just happened to catch her at moments when she couldn’t mask her pain well enough.

So how can I describe Alice? She's beautiful, talented, very clever. She's also the epitome of pain, of sadness, of depression.

Maybe this memory of mine will help.

For the rest of my life, I think my most distinct memory of Alice will be of her breaking down. I will always see her in my mind the way she was that night. I still remember it so clearly, even though it was years ago now...

It was after one of her performances, we were all so proud of her. Well, at least, Lisa and I were proud. Her parents weren't there. Of course they weren't there. They were never there.

Anyway, she had always been a fantastic actress. The drama teachers swore up and down that she'd be a star someday. She'd put the world's most brilliant actors and actresses to shame.

In this play, she had landed herself the lead role. It was more than any actor could ask for. Lines, a name... For God's sake, the girl even had her own monologue!

She had looked so beautiful. She always did of course, but tonight was different.

Her long, thick golden hair was twisted and pinned in an elegant knot, and the stage make-up made her look so alive. Her lips were pink like cherry blossoms, cheeks red with excitement, eyes sparkling like diamonds. It appeared as though she was floating on a cloud of happiness, an ethereal beauty that was too great for our small human minds to take in. She was rapturous in her joy, capturing the hearts of everyone in the room with a simple smile.

I should have known then that it was too good to be true. I should have understood in that moment that something had to go wrong. Something always went wrong.

That's how it works with Alice. Everything seems fine. She seems happy... Then, something like this happens. Something like-- Well. You'll see.

Her emerald green eyes locked with mine, and she smiled brilliantly before her eyes wandered again. I don't know what happened. I don't know what she saw. I have no idea what she heard. I just knew that one moment she was beaming with pure, shinning bliss, the next she was shaking wildly within my embrace.

Lisa violently shoved away cameras before turning back to Alice and hugging her fiercely, almost like she was afraid to let go. It could have been an eternity, or just one single moment that Lisa and I held our poor, poor Alice.

She seemed so frail, broken. I'll never forget the way she trembled in my arms if I live for all eternity. My God! The way she shook.

And that's how I'll always remember her. Trembling in