Too Far Gone

I’m getting super excited about summer break in two weeks and all the extra time to write, blog, and revise my novel, Too Far Gone. I’m hoping to start looking for beta readers in June, so if you’re an avid reader and are interested in helping me out with constructive feedback, please let me know. I would be forever grateful! In the meantime, here’s a little snippet:

I stepped into English, and there she sat – in my chair. Well, I assumed it was her. I could only see her hair—a sheath of dandelion, honey and lemon in layers that looked sun-touched—but this late in the semester everyone sat in the same unassigned seats day after day. No one else would’ve taken my desk today.

The intrusion annoyed me, and I faltered in the doorway as I debated whether or not to point her toward an open chair. I sighed and resigned myself to sitting to her left, right in front of Mr. Howell’s desk.

She’d slid down in the chair a little, her head bent over my desk. The pen in her hand traced figure eights on her brown paper book cover. When I took a seat, she glanced at me. The corners of her lips flirted up slightly at the edges. Her eyes were a startling blue, the dark blue of the ocean flecked by gray, green and sand. And whatever smile hadn’t touched her lips glimmered there, in her eyes, like sunshine glinting off waves.

Wow. Was my mouth open? I closed it.

“Hi. I hope I didn’t take your seat,” she said, just barely over a whisper. Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes darted back to her book cover. Her musical voice didn’t sound like a soprano, as I expected. Definitely an alto, layered with a hint of gravelly huskiness… like rocks knocking together in the waves on the shoreline.

The husky tone tugged at some buried fold in my brain I didn’t recognize. My nerve synapses crackled a little. Something flickered and buzzed inside me, like switching on a neon sign, before a steady heat wrapped itself around my chest.

I have to know this girl.

I smiled back and collected my nerve, which had plummeted to my feet when she spoke. “Hi. I’m Milo.”