Initiation: A Novella (Initiation Trilogy Book 1) (8 page)

We arrive to the airport and I take the suitcases from the back seat and set them on the ground.

“You ready for another year in college?” I ask, Leanne as she looks in the side mirror, pulling her hair up in a ponytail.

“I don't know yet, but I'm going to miss my friends, Brandon and Jessie,” she pulls her hair tight and then looks back at me.

“They'll be fine. I still have yet to meet your roommate,” I point out with a smile.

“Well, you're gonna have to now. I wish you didn't have to go all out of the way to come stay in the same state with me.” I see right then that she’s trying to hide her emotions.

“Ahh, no worry, kid. I want to make sure you're safe and not alone.”

“Yeah, I know.” she replies and shrugs.

“All right, let’s go.”

I pick up the suitcases and follow behind Leanne to the lobby. When we get there, we take our seats to the section we're supposed to be in where I notice that it's not as crowded as last year.

“How long is the flight?” Leanne asks me.

I pull out the tickets and it reads boarding at 10 in the morning. “I'm not sure, could be twelve hours or six. They'll tell us when we board.” I keep a hold of the tickets.

“Okay,” she says as she looks back at her phone. I smile as I stare at her for a few moments and think back to all the shit that happened that year, and now that I think about it, it was all worth it. Leanne's safe and I'm never going to let her out of my sight again.

“Now boarding flight one seventeen to Denver, Colorado,” the voice over the intercom says.

“All right, let's do this,” I say standing up and picking up the bags.

*****

We board the plane and Leanne takes a window seat as I put our bags in the space available above us.

“Do you need anything out of your bag?” I ask Leanne.

“Umm no, I have my phone and iPod,” she waves them in her hands as I sigh.

“Oh yea, how about a book to read instead?” I tease, already knowing her answer.

“Nope, I'll be doing plenty of that in school.” She has a bright smile on her face as she starts putting in her earphones. I scoff and close the door, latching it tightly then I take my seat next to her.

I put my foot up on the seat in front of me as I watch the other people broad and take their seats. As I'm doing so, I notice someone out of the crowd a girl and she looks like someone I know. I stare at her as she is laughing and smiling at another guy she's with. Damn, I can't put my finger on whether I know her or not.

“Leanne, why do I feel like I know her?” I ask her as I tap her shoulder. She takes out one of her earphones and sighs.

“Cause maybe you do,” she says sarcastically and I roll my eyes and keep my gaze on the other woman. When she notices I immediately look down at my phone trying to play it down, hoping she didn't think I was staring.

“Well hello, Collin,” I hear a voice besides me. When I look up, I see that it's the girl I was staring at.

“Do I know you?” I ask with my head tilted to one side and my eyebrow raised.

She leans down close to me. “You do, baby,” she says with a wink and stands up straight walking away from me slowly. “Enjoy your flight,” she smirks.

I look back at her and then at Leanne who looks just as confused as I am.

“That wouldn't be....” she hesitates, thinking whether she recognizes the voice, but I shake my head.

“No. No way?”

“It might be,” Leanne says with a slight shaken tone and her eyes locked on mine.

This time we both look back at her again. Her hair is short and blonde with purple a streak running through her side bangs. Her all white teeth showing as she shows off her big smile. She keeps her gaze on mine as she twists her hair around her index finger and winks at me.

“Oh shit,” I say as I look back at Leanne.

“What? Tell me it isn't her.”

My mouth turns to a hard line as I nod at her.

“Kristen!” We both say in unison with a loud whisper.

Fuck! I thought I'd never see her again...
I. Was. Wrong.

THE END...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First I want to thank my amazing editor Bree Vanderland for helping me to make this story the best that it could possibly be. Secondly I want to take my fantastic Cover Artist Jay Aheer for the amazing work she did on my cover. I'm still fangirling over it.

Thirdly, I want to thank my Beta Readers; Brittany McLaughlin, Alec John Belle, Rachel Ching, Mandy Clark, Shawn Whittington and Angelica Brazil Steward, without all of you, my story would not be the way it is today. You all have improved my writing style in an outstanding way. I love guys to death for that.
I want to give an extra thank you Brittany, Mandy and Alec, you guys helped me with what whatever questions I had from the moment we met, I have much love for you three.

Also, yhank you to the Chicken Soup Girls, you know who you are, I can't thank you enough for being my cheer section and always helping with my stupid questions haha.

Lastly, I want to thank all of my Friends, online and offline, My amazing supportive family and my best friend more like a brother to me, Zach Benzo Moscatello, for putting up with my crazy ass attitude when I was stressing out my own deadlines and turning down events to complete this book, even though it may continue to happen for the rest of my life of writing. My two loving dogs Buddy and Ladie for being my muses and listening to me ramble on and reading a few scenes out loud.

To everyone I didn't get to list, I want to thank you for being a part of my life. If I listed everyone this acknowledgments section will probably a 100 pages long.

About the Author

Franny Marie is a caretaker of her twin brother and two parents, along with being an author. She has two dogs and has an obsession with The Weeknd and when she isn't playing with her dogs and or getting something done for her parents, you can find her typing away on her computer while listening to The Weeknd. She loves to play video games and watch movies and spend time with family.
She is currently working many other projects, including the sequel to Initiation.