Fading Memories

By Candice D. Johnson

Being a teenager is hard. Homework, tests, parents, and social media all conspire against kids to make life suck. For one teen in particular, it seems like no matter how hard they try, they just can’t do anything right. Classmates pick on them not only at school but online, too, and they just can’t understand why. Why is everything in life so hard?

Let’s not get started on parents. It’s like they don’t notice how hard they are trying. They don’t even seem to care. Life feels like a huge disappointment, but no one listens to the problems or the pain. One day, after a particularly rough moment on social media, the teen decides to end their life. No one will miss them anyway, right?

Live streaming the video of their last few moments, fielding comments both cruel and kind. It’s in the seconds before death that they realize maybe things can change. Maybe things can get better, and maybe they don’t need to end their life to finally find peace. Fading Memories is a reminder that, even in the darkest of times, there is always a reason to live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jul 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781480878679

Candice D. Johnson

Candice Johnson received a Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Texas A&M University. She has two teenage children and sees how much stress they have to deal with at school and how they want to feel accepted and liked on their social media accounts.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 Candice D. Johnson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7868-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7867-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908419

Archway Publishing rev. date: 07/01/2019

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

About the Author

A very special thank you to my amazing husband

for putting up with all of my crazy endeavors.

1

I was in a deep sleep, dreaming about the future where I had these kick-ass cyborg legs and was running a marathon. All the other runners had normal legs, so they had no chance of beating me. It was amazing! I was so fast I was practically flying. All of a sudden, I saw a blur jet past me. Oh no you don’t! Pumping my legs as hard as I could, I caught up to the runner who passed me. I jumped up and spread my arms out wide as I prepared to tackle the other cyborg.

I heard some noise work its way through my subconscious, and then a blinding light slammed down on my face. I moaned and flung the blanket over my head as I realized the light was the sun shining through my now-open window. My mom stood, frowning down at me. She was trying to get me up, but unfortunately for her, I had already decided it wasn’t worth my time to get up and deal with school today. I wiggled myself deeper into the blankets and ignored the hole I felt her burning through them as she glared at me. I just knew she was mad because lately, it seemed like I could do nothing right. I was nothing but a huge disappointment to her and Dad.

Come on, get up. I know you have a test today, so no missing school for you, she chided.

I was so not looking forward to taking that test. I didn’t know any of the material; and I just didn’t care enough to study. I mean, what’s the point anyway, right? I’m way too dumb to understand what the teacher says. It’s all angle this and parabola that. Why, oh why, does math have to be so infuriatingly hard? No matter how hard I tried or how much