Snippet of The Lake Effect

Every author knows that snippets of their work are great opportunities to sell their books. Readers know that snippets are great opportunities to see if they are instantly drawn to the book’s plot, characters, and the author’s writing style.

Two Scenes, Two Emotions

The following is two scenes of The Lake Effect. In one scene, main character, Lexie, is having her past come back to haunt her and one scene where she sees herself really happy for the first time.

Can we not all relate to these two emotions?

Enjoy!

In the bathroom mirror, I saw how sweaty I looked. I also saw how happy I looked—terrified, but happy. Why am I terrified? I asked myself as I washed my hands after I went to the restroom. My pee was clear. That meant I had alcohol in my system, right? Whatever. Trey was driving; he had less to drink than I. Back to feeling terrified. Why, exactly, was that? I liked what I saw in the mirror. I liked Trey. He liked me. I wasn’t pretending. I was not. Trey made me not pretend, just by being him, nothing else.

But, still. I felt this fragility to my being. This feeling of doom. Of what? Of Trey not liking me as much as I liked him? That could happen to anyone. No guarantees in relationships.

Dr. Phil always said, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” His famous last words, along with, “That dog won’t hunt,” said in a perfect Southern drawl. Well, it had been a while since I had a dog, but I did have Trey’s past behavior etched in my mind—nothing but good things that boy had done for me. So suck it, up, Lexicon. You. Are. Happy. I wagged a finger at my reflection, also happy that no one else was in the bathroom with me.

And he was going to deflower me in twelve days.

*******************************************

The crowd was starting to thin a little when I reentered the main room of the colosseum. The Psych Department may have been party animals, but their bedtime was approaching. Eleven twenty-five on a Friday night is pushing the envelope, I guessed. Oh, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, I thought. Maybe they have other plans, like Trey and me. Quit stereotyping them, I chastised myself. You just have to give yourself a pep talk about being happy. I bet these bookworms never have to wonder if they are happy. Oh, God! I did it again with the stereotyping.

I was chuckling to myself as I walked up to our table to grab my shawl, when I ran into someone as I turned around from the table to find the exit door.

“Oh, sorry,” I said.

“No worries,” he said.

I continued to walk toward the exit door, but I could see out of my peripheral vision that he was looking me over. He just stood there, watching me walk away. Honestly, I hated this kind of situation. Was it a compliment that he was checking me out, or was it a potentially dangerous situation? My instinct told me to speed up the pace of my walk.

As I turned the corner to make my exit, the lights came fully on. I glanced around as nonchalantly as I could to see where he was. I didn’t see him anywhere. I sighed a sigh of relief and let down my guard. I saw Trey’s Ford Ranger about a fourth of the way down the parking lot. My chariot awaits me, I thought. I went to step off the curb, and I heard my name being called.

“Lexie,” he said.

I snapped my head to the left, where the voice came from. I had that heightened sense of awareness that overtakes everything else going on in your mind. I could see only a silhouette ten feet away. I’m safe, I told myself. It’s okay to find out who it is. I waited in the light of the entryway to the building like my parents both told me to do. Still, I clutched my purse closer to me.

As he began walking toward me, his image became clearer. He looked familiar. I scrunched my eyes together the way people do when they’re trying to place someone they know they should know but can’t recall where or how they know them. My pulse elevated; my breathing quickened. God, who was he?

He let me take him in—his height, his build, his eyes. I just couldn’t place him.

“It’s Justin Cook. My friend Cody and I met you and your friend Shannon up in the Catskills one Fourth of July. Remember?” He had a blank look on his face, as neutral as Switzerland. But he had a defensive posture: hands in his pockets, standing up straight, holding his head even with mine, eyes locked on mine as well.

Oh, my God! Cody and Justin. Jeez. He looked different—bigger. But he still had the same eyes and mouth. He’d gotten over the Justin Bieber haircut, now sporting a typical short and somewhat spiky cut. Not a bad looking guy, really.

“Hey. Oh, my God. What are you doing here?” I asked at the same time I looked over to Trey’s car. I’m safe, I told myself. Trey’s right there.

I don’t feel safe. But I have to look confident, I argued with myself.

“Um, well, I go to school here. You?”

God, of course, he went to school here. “Yeah, me too,” I said. He nodded, however imperceptibly. We stood there looking at each other, with equally blank looks on our faces. Like it was a shootout almost.

“Well, I should go. My boyfriend is waiting for me.” He nodded again, more discernibly this time. I was glad he didn’t say anything more. I didn’t have it in me to think on my feet at that moment. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this, but I just wanted to get back to Trey, my safe haven.

I began to walk into the parking lot. I was almost to the car when he yelled, “Hey!” I turned around immediately, which I regretted immediately. Nothing says “Hey, you have the upper hand” like acting like a hungry puppy. But the mistake was made, so I had to finish the conversation with him having the last word. Whatever it was he had to say, I knew I wouldn’t be able to respond back.

“Does your boyfriend know what a tease you can be?” He walked toward me again, slowly and not too far, but enough to scare the hell out of me. Clutching my purse to me didn’t give me the reassurance it did earlier. “Does he know that you have it in you to pound somebody on the head with a rock of the same size?”

Not much to say to that. No, I hadn’t told Trey about that night. Why would I have done that? We’d only been going out for a couple of months.

I stared at him, trying to get a read on what his intentions were. He wasn’t going to let me in on that decision. That was truly his upper hand. All I could do was just turn away from him and jump into the car.

It’s all about the discussions, my fellow readers.

Till next time.

Ruth

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