Unmaking Hunter Kennedy
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Authors: Anne Eliot
Tags: #contempoary romance, #sweet high school romance, #kindle bestselling authors, #social anxiety, #Fiction, #Romance, #Anne Eliot, #recovering from depression, #depression, #Almost by Anne Eliot, #Children's love and romance, #teens, #teen romances, #Ann Elliott, #suitable for younger teens, #amazon best sellers, #Love Stories, #best teen love stories, #teen literature for girls, #first love, #General, #amazon top rated teen romances
Table of Contents
Cover Blurb: Unmaking Hunter Kennedy
13: shopping with hell’s princess
15: loyalty, trust and a haircut
24: drama class just got better
25: BGF is better than nothing
32: love, hate, heaven and hell
37: messing everything up: a++
Cover Blurb:
Unmaking Hunter Kennedy
After a car accident—an event he considers a prank gone bad—jaded pop star, Hunter Kennedy is forced to hide out with his aunt in small-town Colorado. He’s supposed to rest, heal his scars and attend high school in disguise until the press dies down. But he only wants to get back to work.
Worse, the girl who’s been assigned to make him over into a geek is a major geek herself. Vere Roth is a chattering pixie, a blushing tornado and a complete social disaster. He’s never met a girl who’s never-been-kissed, believes in romance and thinks Hunter’s a ‘nice’ guy.
Funny thing is…Hunter is nice around Vere because she’s his first real friend. He also can’t seem to stop sharing his secrets or keep her out of his heart. Knowing he’d never deserve a girl as sweet as Vere, he resigns himself to the friend zone, and helps his new bestie with her own makeover.
She tortures him daily for ridiculous guy advice on how to snag her life-long crush. A guy Hunter thinks is totally wrong for Vere, and sadly, one who has taken note of Vere’s stunning transformation.
When Vere asks her best friend for some kissing advice, Hunter can’t resist. And that’s when things get out of control…
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons living or dead, is a coincidence.
UNMAKING HUNTER KENNEDY
Published by Butterfly Books, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews. For information contact www.butterflybooksllc.com
Copyright © Anne MacFarlane 2012 writing as Anne Eliot
www.anneeliot.com
@yaromance
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
ISBN: 978-1-937815-02-8 (E-Book ISBN Reg. Bowker)
Butterfly Books, LLC. First Ed. 2012, Cataloging Information:
Eliot, Anne
Unmaking Hunter Kennedy / Anne Eliot
Summary: Sweet Teen Romance, first love — After an accident and a suicide attempt, a teen pop star recovering from depression is forced to move to Colorado and live in disguise so he can rest, but falls in love with the girl next door.
1. Young Adult Romance & Teen Romance (Children’s Love and Romance) — Juvenile fiction. 2. High schools —Fiction. 3. Teen Depression — Fiction. 4. Social Anxiety (Social Issues) (Social Situations) Emotions and Feelings — 5. Pop Culture 6. Contemporary Romance 7. Teen Literature
Book design concept and book design — by Peter Freedman & Chiara MacFarlane.
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication:
For Tom.
I know. I will rescue you.
We will run away to the woods by the sea with my dusty old books and your guitars. There, we can search for cool rocks every day. Okay?
In the meantime:
Rock that Gypsy Jazz, Minor Swing song for me
one more time!
I love you.
Thanks for loving me back.
Forever.
xo xo xo
1: shiny black casket
HUNTER
1:50 A.M.
“Damn. She’s early.” Hunter Kennedy swallowed a lump of dread as he watched his mom’s limo snake along the outer grounds. He shoved his iPhone into his pocket and covered his unease with a forced smile to Barry, his therapist. “She’s never early.”
“This is good.” Barry smiled back. “Shows responsibility.”
“Shows she doesn’t want to miss the fun of dumping me off again. Plus if the woman came late, she’d have to take me home, right?”
Barry didn’t answer. He was also the owner of this fancy, fenced, teen hospital. They both knew
home
was not an option. Instead, Hunter was heading for phase-two of his mom’s latest crap, Hollywood-parenting plan: kid misbehaves, pay for therapy, ignore him, then convince others to handle the dirty laundry.
Handle him.
As if six weeks locked up in this place hadn’t been enough.
His whole spine lit with goose bumps. He pulled on the hideous, white-and-silver hoodie she’d sent ahead for him to wear, making sure the sleeves were long enough to cover his wrists.
No need to remind Mom what got me here. Time to play along like I said I would. It’s not like there’s anywhere to run.
The limo had stopped at the ornate, first gate. The gate that ‘kept up appearances’ because it featured no razor wire or guards with guns. The other two gates would take longer thanks to the vehicle search, ID checks, metal-x rays
—
all that
resident safety
junk this place featured so proudly.
It would be awhile.
As the gate swung open, a loud, mechanical buzzing increased, sucking up all of the air around him. It echoed off the wide flight of marble steps where they waited.
“Dude. That thing is dying.” Hunter winced, realizing the noise wasn’t just in his head. Its source was a bronze, sculpted sign above the portico that was supposed to read
Falconer Hope Residential Solutions
. Now, because of burned out bulbs, only part of the first word was lit.
It flashed:
l-oner, l-oner, l-oner....
So. Appropriate.
“Guess I waited too long to call someone to fix it.” Barry, as though happy to have something to do, hopped up into some terraced planters to take a look.
Hunter slouched against a marble pillar, annoyed that his whole outfit blinded him. When he’d pulled the all-white costume out of the bag, his skin had crawled at the thought of putting it on.
But the outfit had also come with a note written in his mom’s large scrawl:
Hunter. Make sure you wear everything in this bag. Everything. Please.
So, because he was trying to prove he was a g
ood boy
, and because his mom rarely said
please
, Hunter had dutifully zipped himself into the too-tight white jeans, tapered in—as usual—from his calves to his ankles.
He’d layered on the silvery graphic-tee and added the humiliating, long chain that boasted a dangling, fist-sized medieval sword. It hung down past the matching, chain mail belt. The sword acted like a weighted, sharp-tipped pendulum. His mom had probably picked the thing on purpose because it punched his junk every time he moved. Hunter had even pulled out the top edge of the crap, silver boxers to prove he’d worn everything.
Everything. As commanded by her.
Cherry on the
wardrobe-hell-pie? White sneakers that rated worse than the boxers. Because they had girly,
glitter
soles! His band’s name,
GuardeRobe
, had been stitched into the heel and over the toes with silver thread. Not to be outdone by the amazing laces that featured his tiny initials painted top to bottom:
HK, HK, HK, HK.
All in more, shiny, sparkle
shit
.
So messed up. What had the designers been thinking?
Being dressed like an epic ass was nothing new for Hunter. Wardrobe choices were never his department. But wardrobe choices worn without a fight always kept the mom happy.
And today, that was Hunter’s goal.
Besides, the nightmare-suit gave Hunter a small shred of hope. Why else would he be dressed for work? The outfit was a good sign that his mom might have changed her mind.
Please. Please. Please.
Hunter sucked in a big breath. The cool night air shocked his lungs.
He’d forgotten to breathe again. If he’d learned anything good in this place, it was that he had to remember, no matter what, to simply
breathe
.
Barry slammed his hand into an electronic box behind the sign, succeeding in quieting the buzzing. As he climbed out of the planters he said, “That thing is going to cost a mint to fix.”
Barry looked tired. Hunter was sure the poor guy wasn’t used to being awake all hours like he was.
“I guess this is
it
, huh?” Hunter said, trying to distract both of them from the stress of waiting. “It’s been
—
interesting.”
Barry smiled. “I’m sorry we had to release you in the dark like this. It is not our normal procedure. But your mother said—”
“She’s right.” Hunter flicked another glance at the limo, watching the guards at gate two search the trunk. “The paparazzi would have been all over this place. I’m surprised none of your staff leaked I was here.”