Windows

WINDOWS

By

Emily Minton

Lucas Beck crawls through Melinda James’ window every night. Each time, he gains a piece

of her heart and leaves a bit of his behind.

Lucas is in love with the girl next door, but he ruins any chance he has of making her his.

So he moves on without her.

Lindy gives her heart to the boy next door, but he leaves her humiliated and heartbroken.

So she starts a new life without him.

They both head off to college, leaving the other behind. Lucas finds success, then misery,

on the football field. Lindy finds new love, but it never feels quite right.

Years later, Lucas and Lindy find themselves back in their hometown. Will Lindy open

her window again and give Lucas another chance?

WINDOWS

BY

EMILY MINTON

Copyright © 2013 Emily Minton

Published 2013

"Cover design © Arijana Karčić, Cover It! Designs"

Windows is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events portrayed in this book either are from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, establishments, events, or location is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. Please do not take offence to the content, as it is FICTION.

Trademarks: This book identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders, The authors acknowledges the trademarked status in this work of fiction. The publication and use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook is copyright
ed material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any form without prior written permission of the publisher, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to all my wonderful betas; Mo, Skye, Kim, L., and Ty.

I couldn’t have done it without you!

Thanks to Kris, my pimpin’ queen.

Dawn, I may have written this one on my own, but I would have never been brave enough

to even give it a try without you encouraging me.  Thank you so much!

David, Jess, and Bailey. Thank you all for being so patient while I was writing Windows.

Now that I am done, I promise to cook more than pizza and fish sticks.

Love you all!

DEDICATION

This is for you, Daddy.

Thank you for being a wonderful father and never letting me forget

that I
will always be your baby girl.

PROLOGUE

I feel uncomfortable, as soon as we walk through the door. "Can you tell me again, why we are here?" I ask Tara, as we make our way through the party.

"Come on, Lindy. It's our last night before we leave for co
llege. We need to have some fun," she answers, knowing this is in no way my idea of fun.

You could ask anyone here, and they would tell you Melinda James does not go to parties. Not only are parties just not my thing, these kids don't want me here either. They all hate me; they always have.

I'm known as the weird girl from Warrington High. I'm quiet, I like to read and I'm really smart. I'm the one student all the teachers use as an example.

"Melinda, will you come up here and show the others how you completed problem twenty-six?"

"Melinda, can you please tell everyone your answer for question nine?"

"I want you all to listen to Melinda's essay. You should all strive to write like this."

You can imagine how that affected my social life. If that’s not bad enough, I'm also fat. I'm not one of those girls that just says she's fat, I really am. I'm only five foot three and weigh nearly two hundred pounds. I also wear really thick glasses. I've tried contacts, but they just don't work for me. Add all those things together and I don't have a social life at all.

Tara and Lucas are my only friends. In fact, they are the only people who even talk to me. Well, Lucas only talks to me when we are at home. But, at least he doesn't pick on me at school like everyone else does.

Lucas and I grew up together. We've lived next door to each other our entire lives. Our moms have been best friends since before we were even born. Our dads were both cops and were partners for years, but my dad was shot during a routine traffic stop. I was only nine at the time. The person who did it still hasn’t been caught, but I know they are still looking. Lucas' dad, Paul, says a fellow officer’s death is never forgotten. Since Dad died, Paul has stepped in as kind of a second dad. I would love to have my father back, but Paul is the best substitute father in the world.

After my father’s death, Tara's dad became Paul's partner. Her mom became friends with my mom and Lucas' mom, Wanda. So, we kids ended up being stuck with each other all the time. It didn’t take long for Lucas, Tara, and I to become the best of friends. We were always together. Our moms even called us the Three Musketeers. But things changed as we got older.

Lucas is the most popular guy in school. He is our school’s wide receiver, and he's headed to the University of Alabama on a full ride. Lucas is also the most gorgeous boy I have ever seen. His hair is so dark brown that it is nearly black and his eyes are so blue they remind me of the sky on a clear day. He has a body that drives all the girls crazy.

Over the last few years, he has definitely pulled away from Tara and me. He acts like he doesn’t even know me at school, and if he sees me out somewhere he never even says hi. Lucas may not talk to me around everyone else, but we still spend a lot of time together, when we are both at home. He climbs through my window almost every night. We talk about everything. Well, almost everything. He doesn't know that I am totally in love with him.

Tara keeps saying I should tell him, before we leave for college. She says if he knew how I felt, things might be different. That is exactly what I am afraid will happen. What if he laughs at me, or worse? He could quit being my friend. I don't even want to think about that happening.

Tara just does not understand. She isn’t like me. She has tons of friends. She is popular. Not like Lucas, but in a geeky sort of way. She’s smart, but not nerdy like me. Nope! Tara is a band geek. She lives and breathes band. She would probably be an outsider like me too, but she is absolutely beautiful. She has long golden brown hair, big hazel eyes,
and is the perfect size six. So she can get away with being a geek.

Tara and I are leaving for Auburn tomorrow. I chose Auburn, because they offered me an academic scholarship. I was ecstatic when I learned Tara would be coming with me. They gave Tara a
spot in their marching band. So she is as excited as I am. The only bad part is I won't be seeing Lucas until Thanksgiving break.

I look around the party, and people are everywhere. They’re all drinking and being loud. I start to feel even more uncomfortable. My breath is coming fast, and I know I am on the verge of hyperventilating. I need to get out of here for a minute.

"Where’s the bathroom?" I ask Tara.

"Up the stairs. It's on the right. I think it’s the second door," she answers, shaking her head at me. She knows I'm just making an excuse to hide, but she doesn’t say anything.

I make my way up the stairs, but I'm stopped by the queen of all bitches as soon as I get to the top. "Hey there, piglet," she says through a laugh. I ignore her and try to walk past. "You shouldn't be up here, you know. There's a lot of people downstairs. You could send this whole floor crashing in on them and kill everyone."

I pretend her words do not hurt and walk on. I continue down the hall, trying not to cry. But the tears are falling by the time I open the bathroom door. I don't even look in. I just step inside and lock the door. I slide to the floor and pull my knees to my chest.

"What's wrong, Lindy Lou?"

I look up and Lucas is standing in the middle of t
he bathroom. I'm so embarrassed that I feel myself blush. I try to wipe the tears from my eyes as I stand up. "Nothing's wrong. I just had something in my eye."

Lucas gives me a
'don't bullshit me' look and pulls me into his arms. "I hate to see you cry. So, just go ahead and tell me whose ass I need to kick."

I give him a sad smile. "It was just Kelsey, being her normal delightful self."

"Shit, I don't know why she is so mean to you all the time. She's always nice to me," he says while rubbing circles on my back.

"I bet she is." Everyone knows Kelsey has a thing for Lucas. He's never dated her, but I've heard they've hooked up a few times.

"You can't let them get to you. You know you’re beautiful." I'm shocked. He's never called me beautiful before. No one has but Mom and she doesn't really count.

"Yeah
, right. I'm beautiful. If you like pigs that wear glasses." I try to laugh, but it comes out sounding sad.

Lucas pulls me in closer. My body is now pressed against his. "Is that really what you see when you look at yourself?"

His mouth is so close to mine that I can smell the beer on his breath. I can also feel his hardness pressing against my stomach. I'm so nervous that all I can do is nod.

He moves his hands from my back and places them on my face. "Do you want to know
what I see, when I look at you?" I nod my head slowly, afraid anything I do could make him pull away. Right now, that is the last thing I want.

"I see a beautiful girl inside and out." Lucas moves his hand to my hair. "I see hair so red it reminds me of a beautiful sunset." He brings the other hand to my glasses and pulls them off. He sits them on the sink and returns his hands to my back, pulling me into him once again. "I see eyes so green they remind me of fresh cut grass." He lowers his mouth and whispers. "I see lips that look so soft I'm dying to kiss them."

Then he places his lips on mine. It's my first kiss, and it’s just like I always dreamed it would be. Wonderful! His tongue pushes my lips apart and rubs against mine. One of his hands is pushing up my shirt, while the other is rubbing my ass. I am so shocked I feel like I'm dreaming.

Lucas slowly pulls me onto the floor. I don't even realize that he is removing my clothes, until they are gone. He enters me in one slow stroke. It hurts so bad that I want to cry, but I'm too happy for the tears to fall. I won't let anything ruin this moment. It doesn't take long before Lucas pushes himself deep inside me and moans.

As soon as he is done, he looks down at me and his eyes get really big. "Fuck, Lindy. I'm sorry. I’m so fucking drunk; I didn’t even think about what I was doing." He shakes his head. "Shit, that should have never happened." He jumps up, pulls up his pants, and walks out the door.

I look up, just as the door shuts. I cannot believe he left me like that. I reach up and lock the door. Then curl up into a ball and cry.

It takes me twenty minutes to get myself cleaned up and back downstairs. I look around, until I see Tara with some of her band friends. I walk straight to her and whisper in her ear. "I need to get out of here. Now!"

She looks at me for a moment, and I can tell she knows something bad has happened. She finally nods, and we make our way through the party. We
have almost made it to the door when I hear Kelsey's voice. I turn my head to look at Lucas, his friend Daniel, and Kelsey standing near the wall.

"I know what I heard. You were doing Piglet in the bathr
oom," she says while looking at Lucas.

"Luke, did you really fuck that pig?" asks Daniel, with a disgusted look on his face.

"No way, man. My dick would fall off if it got too close to that fat ass," Lucas says, and they all start to laugh.

I gasp, and Lucas turns to look at me. There is anguish in his eyes, but he doesn’t apologize.

"You guys must be kidding. There's no way Lindy would let a douche like Luke touch her," Tara says as she pulls me out of the party.

Tara and I don't talk on the way home. I just look out the window and do my best to keep from crying. When we pull into my driveway, I start to get out but Tara grabs my hand. "I'm really sorry, Lindy." I nod and pull away.

I make my way into my bedroom, doing my best to avoid my mom. I walk over to my window and lock it. Then I climb into bed and break into tears. I'm still crying a few hours later when I hear someone try to open my window. He starts to knock on it. I put my face into my pillow, to muffle the sound of my sobbing. Lucas knocks a few more times. I hear him walk away.

The next morning, Mom helps me pack my stuff into Tara's car. She gives me a hug, and I climb in. We are just pulling out of the driveway when Lucas comes running out his front door.

"Lindy! Wait!" he screams.

I look over at Tara and shake my head. We drive away, and I don’t even look back.