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    My Real Imaginary Life
    My Real Imaginary Life
    My Real Imaginary Life
    Ebook179 pages2 hours

    My Real Imaginary Life

    By Kassy Tayler

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    About this ebook

    Jenna should have known high school would never be easy. Varsity volleyball tryouts, killer homework assignments, and cliquey upperclassmen were a world of stress and Jenna's mom had just banished the love of her life. With his sexy smile, dark brown eyes, what girl wouldn't swoon over the hottest movie star ever? Posters, pillowcases, pictures--any and all Owen Cassidey paraphernalia decorated her bedroom. Or it had until her mother flipped her room.

    But life's not all bad. There's a cute new guy in town and even if the entire football team hates him for outsting their star quarterback, he looks like the perfect first boyfriend. Even her friends agree. But what about life and loyalty and love? Was a real life crush better than being true to the man on her pillowcase? Was this a step toward something better? Maybe it was time to put away the things of childhood. And maybe, just maybe, kissing Will Addison would be way much better that Jenna's Real Imaginary Life.

    LanguageEnglish
    Publishercindyholbybooks
    Release dateNov 14, 2017
    ISBN9781370199181
    My Real Imaginary Life
    Author

    Kassy Tayler

    Kassy Tayler has always been a writer. Since her earliest memories, her biggest desire has been to put words to paper. Now she is living her dream and has several published novels to her credit in multiple genres. She’s been married for several years to the man of her dreams. They’ve raised two exceptional sons. Tayler lives within the shadow of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, with her husband, her doxie, Cody, and a collection of rescue cats who continually make life interesting.

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      Book preview

      My Real Imaginary Life - Kassy Tayler

      Prologue

      Head Over Heels

      There he was. Naked. Nude. Standing with the bed conveniently blocking his lower half.

      Let’s go, Jess hissed. She was practically hyperventilating.

      So was I.

      I heard a weird squeak come out of Jess bug I didn’t dare take my eyes off the movie screen. I grabbed my purse and moved toward the aisle, keeping my eyes on the hottest hottie ever. The guy sitting on the end of the back row was moving his head back and forth trying to see around me.

      "Sorry, I whispered as I turned to go.

      The next thing I knew I was falling. I threw my hands out. My foot slid off my flip-flop and my body did this weird twisty movement and the next thing I knew I had landed face-down.

      In some guy’s lap.

      1

      I... can't... breathe .

      My Vera Bradley tote bag hit the floor as I looked around my room in shock. I kept a close hold on my pillow, not that the pillow in itself was that important to me, but the pillowcase was covered with a picture of Owen Cassidy. Shirtless. You can find almost anything on eBay. You just have to know where to look.

      Did your boyfriend leave you? my brother Justin asked sarcastically as he dropped my suitcase by the door and sauntered off to his room across the hall. I didn't even bother making a face at him—I was trying to catch my breath.

      Jenna. My mom came up behind me and placed her arm on my shoulder. Do you like it?

      I looked at the fresh lime-green paint on the walls. I looked at the new pink and yellow quilt and the pile of coordinating pillows on my bed. I looked at the bright pink bean bag chair behind a curtain of... beads? At least my computer and my desk had been spared the attack of Pepto-Bismol.

      Where's all my Owen stuff? I asked. I think I was suffering from shock. The entire room looked liked something off of the decorating channel. I was definitely having trouble breathing.

      It's all right here, sweetheart. My mom was always calling everyone sweetheart or darling or honey. I didn't feel like being her sweetheart. I didn't feel sweet at all. I felt. . . violated. I had only been gone for a week and she had come in and redecorated my room. Wasn't I entitled to an opinion on the subject? Shouldn't I have had a say on what went on my walls? It had taken me forever to get everything the way I wanted it. I had the posters fixed so that the last thing I saw when I fell asleep at night was Owen. I could even look in the mirror on my vanity and see him looking back at me—smiling at me with his sexy smile and his dark brown eyes and those cheekbones....

      My mom opened the door to my walk-in closet to show me a stack of posters and pictures lying on the floor.

      Ahhh! I screamed. Are they stuck together? I ran to my closet to rescue my treasures.

      I promise I was very careful, my mom said in her patient voice. I hated her patient voice. It always meant that I was about to hear something that I didn't like.

      However—I braced myself for what was coming— "since your walls look so nice I would appreciate it if you didn't mark them up with tape and tacks. After all, we paid a lot of money to have this done for you. As a surprise. You're going to be fourteen soon. Don't you think your room should look like it belongs to a freshman in high school?"

      Wow! The full barrel. She had got me with the money guilt and the coming maturity issue all in one shot. My mom had never really approved of what she thought was an unhealthy obsession with Owen Cassidy. She just didn't understand. He was special. He was different than the rest of those guys that girls had crushes on like Justin Beiber or Harry Styles. I could see it in his eyes. He was waiting for me. To grow up. To be his special... love. Forever.

      I had only been in the door for five minutes and I already had my mom ticked off at me. I had better tread lightly, as my dad liked to say.

      Would it be okay if I hung them in here? I asked in what I hoped was a humble voice. Sometimes my mom had problems with my tone.

      Sure.

      Mom? I asked.

      She looked at me expectantly.

      The room looks nice. I really like it.

      Thank you, she said. Your dad had to run to the office and we're going to go out to eat as soon as he gets back. Bring your laundry down so I can get started on it.

      Okay.

      She still wasn't happy with me, but at least I had done the right thing. There would be no lecture later about expressing gratitude for the sacrifices my parents made and being a responsible young adult and stuff like that.

      I waited until she was gone before I made a dive for my cell phone. I fell into the bright pink bean bag as I pulled up my best friend’s number and hit send.

      Jess! I moaned in my best dramatic voice when she answered. Jessica Gilbert was my best friend. She had been since sixth grade when we both realized that our computer skills teacher was insane. Her family had just moved to town and my friends from elementary school had all been placed with a different teaching team than me since I was what the teachers considered academically gifted. Basically what it meant was that everyone in the AG classes had more homework than everyone else. In seventh and eighth grade we had both made the volleyball team and we were both trying out for the JV team at our high school the next week. I was a striker, since I had grown about eight inches between seventh and eighth grade. Jess was a setter. We worked well together.

      Jenn! she said. What's wrong?

      Are you home yet? I had just spent a week with Jess's family at a cabin they had rented on the lake. It had been boring. No Internet, no DVD player and no cute guys over the age of twelve. Jess's little brother, Hunter, had future cuteness potential. He'd have to give up being a pest, though. And grow a foot or two. He had also brought a friend with him and they had spent their week catching frogs and snakes to scare us. We had retaliated by stealing their clothes when they were skinny-dipping. They said we did it just because we wanted to see their... thingies....Gross.

      We just got home, Jenn. She sounded like she was out of breath. The new neighbors moved in while we were gone.

      And? I waited patiently. I knew my news was much more important than something as trivial as new neighbors.

      Mrs. Gladden said they have a son our age. Mrs. Gladden was Jess's neighbor on the other side. She had been old ever since I knew her, and she used to babysit for Jess and Hunter while their parents were at work. Jess had declared herself too old to need a babysitter in seventh grade, but Mrs. Gladden still looked after Hunter until last summer when he turned eleven. Now she just fed their cat and got the mail while they were on vacation. In return Hunter cut her grass.

      I waited for Jessica's announcement.

      A cute son.

      According to your nosy neighbor? I said. The one who thinks Harrison Ford is a hottie?

      Yeah, Jess laughed. "He was kind of hot in Star Wars."

      That movie is ancient! I laughed with her as I looked around my room. It still seemed foreign and I wondered if my stash of Starburst had survived my mom's purge.

      So have you seen him yet? I asked as I played with the beads that hung from the ceiling. They hit against each other with a clacking sound as they swayed back and forth.

      No. She said he's trying out for the football team and that he's running all the time. What is that noise?

      Beads. They hang from the ceiling.

      My brother Justin played football. Varsity. He was going to be a junior but he had been on varsity since halfway through the season his freshman year. He was a defensive end and already had colleges looking at him. My dad sure was proud of him. He was president of the Athletic Boosters and always stopped by the school on his way home from work to watch practices and talk football with the rest of the dads. He expected me to make the volleyball team. Carry on the tradition, he said. Jess and I had both spent a week at the coach's volleyball camp and we had played AAU last spring. I thought our chances were pretty good.

      I had more important things than volleyball on my mind at the moment. Like Owen.

      Beads? What beads? Jess asked.

      The pink and green beads that form some sort of curtain, I guess, around this pink bean bag chair. My mom redecorated my room.

      A pink bean bag? Awesome. I think. What's the rest of it look like?

      It's all bright green and pink with a new quilt with big squares on it. Now for the critical, life changing announcement. Jess, she took down all my posters. I waited for my words to sink in.

      Omigosh. Jess always ran her words together when she got excited. I never had any trouble understanding her but sometimes my mom and dad did. I usually had to translate for them.

      I knew that Jess would understand. One wall of her room looked like a shrine to Kyle Madison. You know, the guy who plays the teen Vampire on Bloodville. He isn't much of a publicity hound and pics of him are kind of hard to come by. Plus he is married, which is kind of gross, I guess.

      Ew. What if Owen got married? He was kind of serious about that model. Oh well, it's not like I really expected him to wait around while I grew up. Just as long as he is available when I did get there. Anyway...

      So what are you going to do? she asked. I could hear noises in the background.

      She said I could hang them in my closet.

      You'll never get to see him! Jess exclaimed, somewhat breathlessly.

      What are you doing? I asked.

      Changing clothes.

      Are you going somewhere?

      Dad told Hunter to cut the grass and I'm going to do the trimming, she explained.

      Oh.

      What she really meant was that she was going to hang out in the front yard and wait for the new neighbor to come by.

      "So do you want to go see it?" I asked. It being Owen’s latest blockbuster. Rumor had it that he got naked. I wasn't going to miss that.

      Your mom isn't going to let you see an R-rated movie. Jess knew what I was talking about. I'd been obsessing about this movie all week.

      She doesn't have to know. We had already had this discussion several times at the lake.

      You mean sneak in?

      Yes. She knew that's what I meant. Why was she playing dumb?

      My dad would kill me.

      Come on, I urged. We'll just tell them we're going to see the new Disney movie again.

      "Wouldn't you rather see the new Avenger movie? Chris Evans was kind of cute. Especially in the Avenger movies when he took off his shirt.

      No. The decision was made. I had to see this movie. Owen was cast in a new adult role that he’d worked really hard to land. I read all about it on his fan site. The movie was based on some classic called Wuthering Heights. My dad thought I was a genius or something because I walked to the library and checked the book out. It’s not like Justin would have driven me. He wouldn't be caught dead near a library unless there was a cute girl involved.

      I've got to see him.

      Ohmigosh, Jess interrupted me. Igottagocallyoulaterbye.

      She hung up on me! Over some random guy.

      I wonder what he looks like.

      2

      Did I mention that I look like an elf? Not the Keebler kind. The Lord of the Rings kind. Even though the movies are old, Jess and her dad are both obsessed with them and she’s decided that everyone is either an elf, a hobbit or a human. She even categorizes some people as Orcs. Those kind are usually really disgusting and mean. Just like the Orcs. Anyway, I'm definitely an elf because I'm tall .

      I hate being tall. I'm already as tall as Owen and taller than most everyone in my class except for a few of the basketball players. I have light brown hair that's about halfway down my back and hazel eyes. I hate having hazel eyes. It's not the color that's bad, it's just the name of it. Couldn't they come up with something more clever than hazel? Who thinks up these things anyway?

      I guess I look a lot like

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