Just a teaser from my newest piece of work. Sorta. This might look familiar... I posted the first couple chapters a long time ago and finally got around to finishing it. More WILL come soon! The rest is being reviewed/edited. And don't worry, there will be no hiatus-ing. This baby's done. –Kayli

Meant to Live

© KES

Prologue

I woke up suddenly. When my eyes finally focused, I realized I had no idea where I was. I turned slowly to my left and found a guy, naked and snoring, beside me.

I rolled my eyes, Derrick? No… Darren? Ahh, who the hell cares? I dressed silently and slipped out of the room, rubbing my temples. Bits and pieces of the previous night were coming back and I remembered drinking way too much.

"Hayden," my best friend Taryn Hawkins called. I spun around at the sound of my name, "Did you have fun with Danny?"

"Danny!" I exclaimed, "That's his name!"

Taryn rolled her eyes, "The party's over. Let's get out of here."

I followed my best friend silently. My mind was racing and heart was pounding and I couldn't figure out why. I couldn't identify the way I felt, but it almost felt like regret. Why would I regret what I had done?

I was eighteen years old and had spent nearly every Friday and Saturday night in similar situations for the last three years… why would I suddenly feel so different about what happened?

I shrugged it off as I got in Taryn's car, probably drank too much. Maybe I'll just lay off a bit tonight.

My parents didn't have a clue what I did every weekend. They probably assumed Taryn and I still had sleepovers and watched movies, staying up to talk about cute boys. What they thought didn't matter to me, so long as they were completely unaware of the truth. They would kill me if they knew.

Graduating from high school was such a huge deal to my parents, something I found odd since I was just attending the local community college. I graduated in the top ten of my class, regardless of the parties every weekend. I was sort of excited to start college though, even if I was still stuck living at home.

"Are you listening to anything I'm saying?" Taryn interrupted my thoughts about college.

"Uh… sure… you and Scott hooked up again, right?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Yeah. And he was getting all emotional on me. 'I really like you, Taryn. We should go out'. I was like, what? I'm not going out with him."

"Why not?" I was getting tired of having the same conversation with her over and over again, "You like him."

"So? I don't just want one guy," Taryn said, as if this was the most obvious explanation in the world, "What's with you? You seem weird."

I averted my eyes out the window of the car, pausing on the church on the corner of my street, "I don't know."