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Sa of a never ending list of lives demolished by the notorious Ivy Pierce

Chapter Fourteen

My hand shot out froly fast reflexes since the rest of ht The alarhtstand refused to stop blaring and so with expertly placed force I batted at the snooze button until the incessant bleeping stopped I squished htly as I could and retracted led position underneath my tired torso but it was no use… I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep

Thoughts of the party last night tumbled around in my exhaustion addled brain And when I was finally able to push those depressing thoughts aside they were replaced with hope for tonight, for a little bit of escape fronited an excitement inside of me I didn’t want to ad the thick, down coled and wild acrossthe early ht from my wall of bedroom s seep into my skin and wake me slowly into consciousness The warmth of the blanket cocooned me in safety and for those few, uninterrupted minutes I felt protected from the rest offeeling that drifted away like the forgotten memories of dreams

I needed coffee, desperately

It was thatin aroundfrom domesticated as one woman could be, so there was never food in our house, let alone caffeinated necessities Plus she was a pushy, indoctrinated anorexic Like those avid PETA supporters that threw cans of red paint on anything fur,eye that was alh to support her exercise-addiction and fill out her size two cocktail dresses She expectedand treadmills I expectedbecause of hunger and add so toI was going to rebel with a latte and a pastry

Maybe even two pastries

I lived a dangerous life

Damn the man

Or in this case my mother

I crawled out of bed and rubbed at ht and even though it was a pain to go through the beauty regiment my mother had strictly laid out for me, I was thankful now to have a scrubbed face I tossed ray skinny jeans I grabbed the first bra I could find and then slipped an off the shoulder soft pink cash h it Later today I would take the tiht now my mind was firmly set on a twenty-four-ounce caramel macchiato and a creale swipe of loss that constituted my make-up and the ballet flats I left near ht

Not ood, but the coffee shop was only across the street and it was still too early for my mother to have skulked fro She stayed out later than I did, and where my drinks consisted of water on the rocks, her drinks were filled with Grey Goose and Bombay Sapphire She wouldn’t need coffee She needed an injection from the fountain of youth to recover froh, whenever the woether in sht, they all needed copious ah the fake friendships and plastic pleasantries These worabbed my apartment keys and wallet and slipped out of the house unnoticed The entire condo complex was quiet and still as I walked to the bank of elevators and waited for one to take me down to the lobby Our complex was one of many brand new pieces of trendy architecture in this part of Oement fit my mother’s personality perfectly I walked out the front doors of our building and through the drive up circle that included a hotel, a posh gym and a fancy restaurant Across the street stood a three story dine-in movie theater, one of a kind in this city, and a coffee shop recently transplanted fro for the walk sign; there was virtually no traffic this early and not even the shadows of the building fell on the e the chill in the air and igniting the crisp s from the trees that lined Farnam Street in decorative pots

Delice was a European bakery with sie and raisin scones ever, in the history of scones, and even better fruit tartlets The sourmet coffee shop used to live in the epicenter of don but when rated a little west, upgraded their rent and opened for business directly across the street froht between the two of us, ere young and lonely and couldn’t get enough of each other Well, until I was banished untilsix-ic Shakespearean play

But I was back now, and walking through these doors felthome did

The small shop was all but eether over the ht to the counter so that I could eye the case of pastries up close The racks were filled with elegant, precisely decorated goodies that triggered ry frenzy Yesterday I had 87 ounces of water, a snack sized bag of pretzels, a banana and one arugula and ricotta cheese canapé

Oh and a half glass of chaht to my head

I deserved to eat this entire case of unnecessary calories as far as I was concerned I wipedfor drool and then liftedenough tied hippy across the counter But then irls that worked here were imported from the local universities and so job turnover floith the school schedules and breaks

"Can I help you?" the dread-locked twenty-soirl asked, but her eyes moved from mine to the door that opened behind ave a tiny wave to whoever just walked in

"Yes," I announced, drawing her attention back to irl started to ring in my confident order and suddenly I felt panicked to add onto it, desperate to break the rules and fill ed at how frantic I sounded, treating this breakfast like my last meal before the electric chair, but that didn’t stopin another pastry, "And a crea at the counter until ive up one of the pastries or even any of theht buttons on her coant breakfast started to sink in throughaway at my resolve I looked down at my wallet on the counter as if it would have the answers for h solace to wipe away the reirl behind the counter rattled off le

I decided that I really only needed the chocolate croissant and was just about to tell her that when a deep, recognizable voice froet that for her Tarryn, just add it to my total"

I spun around on my heel, shocked more than I should be to stand face to face with Ryder Sutton "I can pay for my own breakfast," I snapped quickly I trainedto take in his sleep- scruff that outlined his chiseled jaw or the thin black t-shirt and loose jeans that hung on his body deliciously I simply refused to notice all that

Besides he was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt There was absolutely nothing special about his boring outfit In fact, allowing lance, it looked like he had dug the rinkled! There was so nothing attractive about that…

"I never thought you couldn’t buy your own breakfast," he sighed, already agitated with me I couldn’t really blame him, but that didn’tnice for you, Ivy"