We both look over my shoulder to see a group of boys waving in this direction. I instantly deflate, figuring that he will want to go play with them.
“Nah, I’m busy. I’ll catch you guys later” he yells back.
Once again, I’m shocked. “D-don’t you want to go hang out with them?”
“Nah,” he says, his eyes scan my face. “I’m good. Are you coming?” he asks walking backwards towards his house.
“Yeah,” I find myself nodding. “I’m coming.”
Chapter Two
MIA
Fifteen Years Later
My fingers fly across the screen trying to get those last few sentences out of my mind and onto the screen. A huge smile crosses my face as I type out ‘the end’ on my fourth novel.
Leaning back against the couch, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. The feeling of finishing the first draft of a new manuscript is always indescribable. Of course, at least half of what I’ve just written is probably crap, but in this moment it doesn’t matter. The relief of just getting all the words out that first go around feels like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.
I’ve only been self-publishing for a little over a year now but each book that I’ve written so far has been harder than the last. Maybe it’s because I’ve been pushing myself harder in order to prove that I made the right decision to pursue my dream as an indie author instead of applying for a job at a publishing house. Maybe it’s because more people have started to notice my books and I’m gaining a following. Regardless, after my last release I’ve finally started to feel like I made the right decision and it feels good.
My buzzing phone pulls me from my thoughts. Grabbing it from beside me, Imani’s name flashes across the screen.
“Hello?”
I barely get the word out before she is shrieking unintelligible words into my ear. I pull the phone away before my ear drums burst.
“Mia! Did you hear me?” she shouts so loudly that even with the phone a good distance away from my face I can still hear her clearly. I bring the phone back to my ear cautiously.
“I can hear you yelling, I just can’t understand what you’re saying. What’s going on?”
“Something major just happened! Guess what I’m looking at right now?” The excitement in her voice is so palpable that it causes my heartbeat to increase.
“What is it?”
“I’m currently looking at you book sitting in the top ten of the entire Amazon store!” she finishes with a squeal.
My jaw drops. “You’re kidding!”
“Nope! I’m staring at it right now. Are you on your computer?”
“Yeah.” My hand shakes slightly as my fingers fly across the keyboard and before I know it, I pull up the Amazon Top 100 page and my latest novel is sitting at number eight in the entire store.
“Holy crap,” I mutter shocked to my core. I know how hard it is to even crack the top ten thousand on Amazon for most authors, but to make it into the top ten in the entire store? It’s something I never could have dreamed of when I started this journey.
“I know right! It’s so freaking exciting!” Imani says.
My shock starts to shift to the same kind of excitement Imani is displaying. Her happiness is real and one of the reasons I love her so much. She’s not only my best friend, she’s also my business partner in a lot of ways. She keeps me on tracks in all aspects of my writing career, whether it’s keeping up with deadlines, reading rough drafts of my work or contacting cover designers; she does it all.
Anything I need she does it, no questions asked. And the fact that she does these things because she wants to is an added bonus. Imani comes from money. And when I say money, I mean old money. Her parents are billionaires. She’s had a trust fund set up from the time she was a baby and when she turned twenty-two, she received half of it. The other half will be given to her once she turns thirty. Technically she doesn’t have to work a day in her life if she doesn’t want to, but that’s just not the way she is. She is easily one of the best and most hardworking people I know.
“I’m so proud of you Mimi,” she says using the nickname she gave me during our freshman year of college. We met during orientation and then ended up becoming roommates and staying roommates during over the course of those next four years.
“Thanks Imani,” I murmur my throat getting tight.
When I started this journey, I never imagined that I would get to this point. I’ve always loved to read and then I started getting ideas for my own stories. Once I started writing, it felt like the words were pouring out of me and I never wanted to stop.
“We have to go out and celebrate. Oh! I know, let’s go to Temptation tonight,” she says.
“I thought you had plans with Max,” I say referring to her longtime boyfriend. They’ve been together since our sophomore year of college.
“Oh, he had to go out of town for work.”
I frown. The tone of her voice changed quickly.
“Is everything alright?” I ask cautiously.
“Yep, everything’s fine,” she chirps.
To somebody that doesn’t know her that well, those words coming from her would be easy to believe. Imani has always been incredibly good at hiding her true feelings behind a mask. I’ve always thought it stems from how rich her family is. People have befriended her for no reason other than that they thought they could get money out of her. Hell, I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
