Good Girl Jayne

By Suzanne D. Williams

"I thought if I changed myself then at least they'd hate me."

 

"You don't want that," he said. "The Jayne I knew …"

 

I cut him off. "Maybe I'm not the Jayne you knew."

 

Jayne Allhorn's life is falling apart. She wrecked her car, broke her cell phone, and lost her job. But the biggest problem of all is her parent's divorce. They're so caught up in their troubles with each other that they've forgotten she exists. She'll fix that. Stealing her mom's credit card, she gives into her anger and sets out to become someone else. She'll shave her head, get a tattoo, have her lip pierced. There is no more good girl Jayne.

 

Lauden Gould moved back to town, unable to deal with his dad's infidelity. This time what his father's done hit him personally. Running into Jayne, the cute girl from high school, refocuses his life, and helping her deal with her broken family proves to be the perfect way to forget his own. Yet, the more time goes on, the more people's positive opinions of him simply don't fit. He simply isn't the good guy they think he is.

 

Clean YA Romance with a heart by best-selling author, SUZANNE D. WILLIAMS. 22,000 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzanne D. Williams
• Release date: Feb 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201100858

Suzanne D. Williams

Best-selling author, Suzanne D. Williams, is a native Floridian, wife, mother, and photographer. She is the author of both nonfiction and fiction books. She writes a monthly column for Steves-Digicams.com on the subject of digital photography, as well as devotionals and instructional articles for various blogs. She also does graphic design for self-publishing authors. She is co-founder of THE EDGE. To learn more about what she’s doing and check out her extensive catalogue of stories, visit http://suzanne-williams-photography.blogspot.com/ or link with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/suzannedwilliamsauthor.

Book preview

SUZANNE D. WILLIAMS

Feel-Good Romance

© 2016 GOOD GIRL JAYNE by Suzanne D. Williams

www.feelgoodromance.com

www.suzannedwilliams.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Part 2

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

From The Author

About The Author

PART 1

CHAPTER 1

The hairdresser stared at me incredulous, one hand on her fleshy hip, her mouth twisted into a moue. I stared back, as sure of my choice as I’d ever been. Shave it off. All of it.

I don’t think you will like — She began to argue.

I cut her off with a glare. Just do it.

Reluctant, she raised the hair trimmers and, in even swipes, cut my long brown hair down to stubble.

I had a sadistic happiness about it. My life in the last two weeks had gone to pot. My parents announced they were getting a divorce. My best friend of ten years broke the promise we pinkie swore to keep, accepting a scholarship to a college thousands of miles away. My car was rear-ended leaving the grocery store, spinning me into a light pole, and I dropped my cell phone on the driveway and shattered the screen.

All of that had turned me into a powder keg, but what had me sitting in the salon shaving my head was the pink slip from my boss saying they couldn’t keep me on, when I knew they’d canned me simply to hire her niece. I’d had it at that point. I needed to make a change, one so drastic it’d shake up everything around me.

My hair was only the start. Tossing a twenty to the hairdresser afterward, my scalp feeling strangely light, I made my way a few blocks over and inside a tattoo shop. The guy behind the counter, frankly, scared the bejesus out of me. Huge gages in each ear and a massive lip ring, a chest-length beard, I couldn’t see where one tatt started on him and the next one ended.

I spoke boldly and pretended my knees weren’t knocking. I want to get a dragon on my arm.

A dragon, huh? He raised a pierced eyebrow.

Something Asian, making it wrap around like this. I demonstrated my idea, encircling my upper arm with my fingers. To prove I was serious, I slapped my mom’s credit card on the counter. Yeah, she was paying for my self-destruction, and I was sure I’d get it later, probably be grounded for eons, but it’d be too late by then.

The tattoo process took way longer than I thought it would and was painful enough I had to work really hard not to cry. The artist talked me through it though, distracting me most of the time with his spicy language. My will to alter my life wavered more than once, but afterward, staring at the completed design, it rebounded again. It was uber cool, and I felt hot.

Where you get your lip done? I asked, nodding at him. He wasn’t the only artist in residence, but sometime in the last twenty minutes, the other one had left.

He leaned his weight on the counter. Did it myself.

Of course, he did. I should have guessed that. He’d probably pierced himself in his sleep.

I’ll pay you to give me one.

This time he looked as reluctant as the hairdresser had been, and I knew I’d have to sweeten the deal. I’ve got Percocet. I had no idea if he was the meth type, except he looked like he’d done drugs before. These pills belonged to my dad from a year back when he’d had a minor back injury. I’d stolen them just in case I encountered an incident like this.

My heart was pounding out of my chest because, before today, I was as squeaky as they come. Straight A’s in school, my seat in the front row, I’d graduated with honors. I’d had an eight-to-five typing job and brought a brown bag lunch, something low fat and gluten free. I’d never been kissed and had definitely never had sex. In my daily life, I dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s.

But this was the end of good girl Jayne. No more halo. No more gold stars. I was being rebellious. And, right then, was about to throw up. This being bad was hard for me to do.

You’ve got Percocet? he asked. How many?

I dug in my pocket and slipped two pills across the counter. I’d wrapped them in plastic wrap, so he could see them plain enough. He tucked them in his palm and motioned me to follow him in the back. I have to admit the piercing brought on the tears. For that matter, I was reduced to a blubbering, snotty mess. This guy’s idea of comfort was a soda and a tissue though, so blotting my eyes, my lip screaming at me, I pulled myself together and made my escape.

A thousand doubts hammered my head at once. I was now effectively bald. A dragon circumnavigated my pale white flesh. A gold hoop hung out of my lip, one he’d given me. I’d made sure he’d cleaned it with alcohol first. But still the thought of my lip rotting off had formed in my fevered brain.

What was I doing? This wasn’t me. I wasn’t the throw-caution-to-the-wind type. I believed in obeying the rules; I focused my life around them, in fact. How was I supposed to behave? Did I stop at the red lights or drive through them? Should I start swearing, throw a few f-bombs now and then? Did I need to find the wrong crowd to hang out with? What did that even mean?

Headed east down the sidewalk, incredibly aware of the new me, I debated my future and became so lost in thought I didn’t see the flashing crosswalk. Honestly, it was not an act of my new self, trying to see if I could make it through the intersection and survive, but halfway across, I heard a car horn and froze.

Solid. I guess I’d processed so much info that morning that reacting to what was sure to be my sudden death didn’t register. I watched the distance shrink between me and the car’s bumper, heard the screech of brakes and someone’s shout. Next thing I know I’m clutched in some guy’s arms on the side of the road. He held tight for what felt like not enough time, then pushed me to an arm’s length.