Excerpt: A Deep Thread : The Memory in Fragments

PROLOGUE

AVERY

You have no idea how much I wish I could love someone else. You have no idea how much it hurts for me to wake up and still look for him in bed every morning. But, even after everything that has happened. I know that this was for the best. I know that leaving him, and that life behind was the thing that I needed to do. And I wont look back....I wont regret it.

He was perfect....for a little while. But then things changed....Heaven became hell.

ALTAIR

Let me tell you what heaven is like. Heaven is waking up every day to a beautiful woman in your arms. Heaven is knowing everything about her, and having that girl know everything about you, and still being with each other anyway. Heaven is having perfection.

Hell is fucking it all up.

Without her, my world is silence. A silence so loud, its deafening. Without her laughter, or her smiles, everything is gray and silence. How can I live in a world without color, in a world without her?

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CHAPTER ONE

ALTAIR - - TWO MINUTES AGO - - INNER MONOLOGUE

Our story isn't going to be the kind of thing that you'll understand. We're the kind of couple who is totally out of sorts. She and I were totally incompatible. I hated her, to be quite honest. And now, well I hate just about everything. Everything except for her.
I met Avery when I was in high school. She was a Junior, and I was a Senior. She bumped straight into me. I took one look at her and I knew what was happening to her. It was something that had happened to me many times. However, I couldn't just come out and tell her I knew. She was a year and a half younger than I was. She was dating some girl named Allegra Marks. They seemed happy to everyone else. They really did. They looked like a perfect couple. Even Avery's best friend thought they were great together. At first....
Allegra was dating Avery's older brother. That was how they met. Avery's brother broke up with Allegra, and she decided to try and get even with the brother by hooking up with his little sister. A little sister he was totally over protective of.
I love Avery more than anything in my life, and I can't believe I've already fucked things up with her. She and I....we became perfect together. Sure, we wanted different things, but I just want to make her happy. I just hope she's happy now. I hope she's happy. I really do.

AVERY - - - TWO YEARS , ONE MONTH, TWO DAYS AGO - - - A MEMORY

A person is a person. No matter what they do to someone else. No matter what they say to someone. No matter how they hurt someone. Right? I mean, if a person hits you, but they're sorry about it, and you know they mean it, you can forgive them and take them back, right?

"Allegra.....please don't....not again." I'm tired. My voice is squeaky, and I know I can't fight with her. Not tonight. I just want the two of us to be happy and perfect together.

"Then just do it, Avery, my pet. You know it'll make you happy." Allegra's voice sounds like she looks. Sexy, and sultry, and convincing. And yet, all at the same time, like a total bitch. I love Allegra...but she's controlling. She's a bitch to me.

"But, baby, I really don't want to. I just want to go home and sleep. Can we please leave?" I made a mistake saying that, and I knew it as soon as the words left my mouth. But you can't take words back after they leave your mouth. Unfortunately.

Allegra was sitting on my left. She was watching someone dance. She had been asking me to get up and dance on the stage with her, and I, stupidly told her 'no'. I'm supposed to listen to her anytime she tells me to do something. At least, I think I am. I'm sure I am, actually. She's a sweet girl. I swear, and she loves me, I promise. She wants to make me happy. She just needs to be happy first. That's not a bad thing is it?

Well, Allegra doesn't like being told 'No'. Especially not from me. Especially not from me. Not her little Avery. Not her special little pet. Sometimes, I just want out. I love Allegra, I do. I just want out sometimes.

And right then, Allegra grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. Her hand rest on my jaw and made me nervous. What was she going to do to me this time? What was going to happen to me just for saying 'no' this time? Allegra could be brutal when she didn't get way. And she knows everything about me. She knows exactly how to make me squirm, or how to make me cry. She knows how to turn me on, and how to make wish I had never been born in a million and seven years.

So, I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It seemed like eternity with her hand on my jaw. With my head pulled back, and my hair pulled taught and wrapped over her knuckles.

"I love you, my pet, but you try my patience. This is your nightly warning. I really wish I didn't have to do this to you." She cooed as she leaned her head down to whisper this in my ear. She licked my earlobe, and bite down on it. Harshly. She wanted to make a point, and I knew it.

We stayed there at the bar for another half hour, at least. I was treading lightly, trying to make my baby happy again. She means everything to me. I don't want to upset her. I don't want to make her leave me.

And if she were to leave me, it would be my fault. I know it would.

She and I are perfect together.