Chapter One:

Life was as awesome as it could get and there was nothing I could wish for more—except maybe a little more time out with my friends. My grades were okay—no D’s or F’s. My friends were great—as great as sarcastic little teenagers could be. Last but not least, I finally had a boyfriend!

That’s why I wasn’t expecting to lose my mind this early in life.

But before I could explain that, I suppose I should go into more detail about my life—the saner parts of it, anyways.

My name’s Lissy and I am a writer. I was a fairly normal 17-year-old girl anticipating the next five months until graduation. I’m taller than most of my friends and I sometimes felt like an awkward giant next to Faye. I have long, limp-looking dark brown hair with dark brown eyes to boot.

I have three best friends that don’t hang out in the same group. They acknowledge each other and are pleasant with each other, but other than that, they wouldn’t stop and chat about things if I wasn’t there.

First up is Valerie. Valerie’s sometimes a little weirder than me. Like, for instance, she wants to start a Loners’ Club. Sicily and I told her over and over that when loners come together for a club, it won’t be the Loners’ Club anymore. She ignored us just like the time we protested against her insistent need to go to Cuba. Don’t ask.

Second is Faye. She’s pretty short but has such a cute kiddish personality and I often have to restrain myself from grabbing a hold of her cheeks because I know that if I did, I’d never let go. She has a boyfriend, Kaden, and they’re pretty serious. Faye and I have had our ups and downs but this year—our senior year—it’s mostly been ups. She’s been there whenever I need her and she’s such an awesome friend to have around. The only time that it’s annoying to have Faye around is when she’s criticizing what I’m wearing or my accessories. I just dress to be comfortable. Faye, on the other hand, dresses to impress.

Last is Phoebe. Phoebe’s a writer like me but she’s also my editor. Sometimes we are so alike it’s kind of scary. She has a boyfriend too and his name is Aleks. Aleks is my friend too and he has pretty sweet lookin’ hair. Anyways, back to Phoebe. We both are werewolf fans and we both belong in The Dead Author’s Society—a club that we made a while back but were too lazy to get approved by ASB.

“Hey, Lissy,” Brodie tapped on my window and I nearly rolled off my bed in surprise. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. I opened my sliding window and beckoned him to climb through the window and into my room. I know, I know, there was such a thing as a front door but who uses those nowadays?

Brodie’s my first boyfriend in a really, really long time. He’s as tall as I am and has sort of long dirty blond hair that curls at his ears. He also has really nice blue eyes that I could stare into all day if I wanted to. I did do it once but he told me to cut it out because it was weird. Well, hey, if I wasn’t the weird girl that everyone knows and loves, then life would be pretty boring.

Brodie’s my fourth best friend but now he’s been upgraded to boyfriend. We’ve been best friends for about a year and a half when I finally asked him out—he was taking way too long to ask me out so I decided to do it myself.

My hand found its way into his and he smiled at me and I nearly melted into a puddle right there. He had to let go to close the window and he sprawled out on my bed with his hands behind his head. I sat next to him on my bed and smiled at how relaxed he looked.

“I missed you today,” he said shyly.

I smiled widely. “I just saw you two hours ago.”

“I still missed you,” he smiled. Was he the sweetest boyfriend or what?

I made a goofy face at him and he laughed. I felt as if everything was finally falling into place now that Brodie seemed like he was going to be a permanent member in my life no matter what.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked me.

I gave a small smile. “You.”

“Nothing of importance then?” He gave me a playful smile.

I closed my eyes and whispered, “That’s what you think.” I opened my eyes and noticed that he was half-sitting up, his elbow propping him up. I leaned in and when our lips touched, my hands involuntarily squeezed his. My heart was beating so fast that my face started to burn just thinking that Brodie could hear it.

You really ssshouldn’t get ssso cocky, Lisssy, the voice said.

But my happiness was soon cut short.

“Lissy?” Brodie turned to me, his eyes cast in worry. “Are you okay?”

My eyes took a quick look in the mirror and my eyebrows were burrowed in anxiety and I was frowning. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and to change my facial expression and smiled at him. “I’m fine.” I really should have mentioned before. Before this whole relationship with Brodie went into full bloom, I’ve been hearing… voices whispering in my ear. They aren’t voices inside my head. If that happened, I would have thought that I was going crazy. But I could see a fist-sized Imp sitting on my shoulders, whispering things to me. It scares me that I was the only one who could see him. I once made the mistake of shrieking and asking my friends if they noticed the grotesque little creature crouching on my shoulders but all I had received were blank and concerned looks.

He was a deep maroon color—almost like a dried blood color. He had wide, black eyes that sent shivers down my spine whenever he looked straight at me. Imp had two horns protruding from out of his head that curled slightly. Whenever he opened his mouth, you could see his red forked tongue and the sharp tiny teeth in his mouth.

And that’s why I neglected to mention him to anyone.

“Brodie,” I pouted a bit. “Is it all right if you head home early? I’m a bit tired.”

He looked me over slowly and I licked my lips, tasting the cherry flavor from my chap He blushed a little from my slight tongue-to-lip movement and I sighed fondly. Ah, what an innocent kid.

“You want me to head home?” This time, he was the one who pouted a little. I could tell he was hoping to have some nice alone time… to talk—you sickos.

“Mm… I’m actually craving for some Jack-in-the-Box fries,” I grinned.

Tssssk, tssssk, Imp hissed.

“Um, maybe some other time,” I said quickly.

He nodded and before he left, he said, “I love the potato skins on the fries.”

I gasped and clapped a hand to my chest. “Be still, my heart, for I have found the one!”

Brodie took a quick glance at me and chuckled. “You’re so weird, Lissy.”

“But it’s what you like the most about me,” I chirped.

He shook his head good-naturedly. “But of course.”

He’sss lying to you, Imp whispered.

I shivered but ignore what it just said to me. There’s no possible way that Brodie could be lying to me. He had never lied to me at all before, so why would he even start now? Not that he was lying now. Gosh, I hated Imp.

Brodie took another look at me and said, “Maybe you should get a glass of water, you look really pale.” I nodded and waved goodbye to Brodie from my window and walked out to get a glass of water and was instantly greeted by my evil sister-in-law.

Her hair was tied loosely in a bun and her face was red from anger—possibly at me.

“Who was just here?” Tammy hissed at me.

“My boyfriend,” I smiled coldly at her.

“Did you even finish your homework?” She berated me.

I rolled my eyes. “Not yet, I’ll get started in a bit.”

She scoffed and said, “You need all the help you can get.”

Rip her eyesss out, Imp whispered gleefully.

I nodded slowly. “Mm… Well… if you’re the smart one then…” I tapped my chin and pretended I was thinking, “How come Trixie was born?”

Trixie’s my one-year-old niece who was born out of wedlock. She pursed her lips and she looked as if she wanted to smack me. But seeing as how she was the one who was six inches shorter and was 25 pounds less than me, she knew who would have won.

I giggled sweetly and ran to my room. I locked my door and slid down against it and looked out my window where Brodie was just standing an hour ago. I forgot that I was going to get something to drink.

“That felt… good,” I said softly to myself. I never talked back to her like that and it felt… empowering.

Imp switched shoulders and said, It getsss better.