Love Is An Action (What Love Is #1) Read online

  LOVE IS AN ACTION

  BRY FOSTER

  Copyright © 2015 Bry Foster

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this work can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design: © L.J. Anderson, Mayhem Cover Creations

  Formatting by Mayhem Cover Creations

  DEDICATION

  To my endlessly supportive husband. Thank you for believing in me and telling me to ‘go for it’. To my son; I hope that I am showing you to chase your dreams. My mother, for always providing me outlets for my creativity. And to my father, for gifting me with a free spirited nature and showing me what a dreamer looks like. You will forever live on in my heart.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  I’ve always found love to be a bit facetious. Some people swear by things like true love and finding your soulmate. Others believe you can easily fall out of love. Others still, believe that one person can be in love with a variety of lovers. Why is that? Why is love interpreted in so many ways and yet, can’t really be explained? Is love not universal? And if love isn’t universal, why does it seem that everyone is striving for it? Maybe I’m bitter, because I have never experienced a romantic kind of love before. And if love is what I get from both of my parents, than it can’t be that all-encompassing, overwhelming passion that everyone else is experiencing.

  But, for whatever reason, everyone handles love and the loss of it in their own way. My best friend—Liz’s— godmother has always been a little off her rocker to me. However, how she is choosing to get over her most recent breakup has me stumped.

  “Does she really believe in this shit or is this one of those ‘positive thinker’ situations?” I whisper to Liz. Before she can answer, Jasmine elbows me sharply in my side to remind me to be quiet. I wince and suck in a breath as I try not to curse.

  “That’s one for the swear jar.” Dammit, that’s five bucks today. Jasmine is Liz’s mom and she is not a fan of my ‘potty mouth’. Swearing is really the only thing my father ever taught me and it’s panning out to be a rather difficult habit to kick.

  I look over at Liz, seeing her shoulders shake in barely restrained laughter. I’m glad someone is enjoying this. I’m at a loss.

  “Spirits…please be with us. Help us heal and find new love…” Beth continues to say a silent prayer to the Cosmos. From what I can understand, Beth and her longtime boyfriend Jeremy broke up after he left her for a coworker. She thought they were on their way down the aisle; he apparently did not.

  The unpredictable nature of Liz’s house keeps things interesting. One week Jasmine may want to take us on a bike ride through the upper side of the city. Another week, we may pack up and take a road trip to Mexico or—-my least favorite— Jasmine’s crazy best friend may show up and force us into a weekend of ‘Spiritual Rejuvenation’. I roll my eyes as Beth starts to shuffle the deck of Tarot cards. Yawn.

  All four of us sit in a circle around a small, wooden table. A white candle with a flame sits on top of it. The flickering of the candle is the only light in the room. If I were afraid of the dark, this would be very disturbing. But, with my experiences, I’ve learned that sometimes the scariest things reside in daylight.

  “Who’s first?” Bright brown eyes glance around the small circle. I try my best not to make eye contact with her so that she doesn’t pick me. The opposite happens.

  “Khloe? How about you.” Liz chuckles not so silently next to me. I narrow my eyes.

  “If it doesn’t work in Mrs. Tucker’s class, why would you think it would work here?”

  “I never get picked for anything I’m actually excited about.” I mutter before scooting forward to be closer to the table. I know that I’m unenthused but, judging from the forced happiness radiating from Beth, she doesn't seem to notice or care.

  “Are there any questions you wish to ask the Universe?” Really lady?

  “No.”

  “Try her love life! I wanna hear something juicy.” Liz insists. I look at her over my shoulder.

  “You just made the nemesis list.” She and Jasmine laugh.

  “Excellent. Shuffle the deck.” I do and then Beth closes her eyes and pulls the first card. I don’t even look down. She twists her lips to the side as she pulls another, then another, then another.

  “I see change…” She trails off as she looks at the cards. I chew my lip. I didn’t think I would actually be this nervous. “Something or someone…you’ve been wishing for is about to come to fruition…”

  “I don’t know. Maybe my grades?”

  “No, no, no…this is a person, see, this card symbolizes love, and this one life. Unless the life card means pregnancy.” She arches an eyebrow. I huff and sit back on my hands.

  “My name ain’t Mary.” I tell her. She nods like my revelation helped cement hers. I don’t agree.

  “Is there a love interest?”

  “With an actual person, Koko, not your grades.” Liz clarifies as I open my mouth. Sometimes I really hate that she knows me so well.

  “No…”

  “Well, there is Cash.” Liz suggests. I snort.

  “The only reason he’s in our lives is because he kind of forced his way in.” I clarify.

  “Well then the spirits have spoken. They have placed the two of you in each other’s paths for a reason. Your love is all but written in the sky.” There is a beat of silence before Liz and I break into peels of hysterical laughter; so much so that my eyes water. “What did I say?”

  “Surely I would believe that Cash was the love of my life if I didn’t need to convince myself that I don’t hate his guts every time he steals one of my pens to hand off to some girl in class. Or make me trip over my own feet down the halls. OR pull my hair tie out, knowing that it takes great patience and a complete cup of water to get my curly hair into a decent ponytail.” I say after I control myself a little.

  “Hate is a strong word, Flower Pot.” Jasmine cuts in. ‘Flower pot’ is some strange pet name she came up with for me when I was younger and never stopped using. Something about my aura being filled with bright colors that could rival flowers in the spring. Therefore my body is like a flower pot.

  I try not to get offended.

  “Okay, stro
ngly dislike.” I amend and smile sweetly for her. She waves me off.

  “And on that note, I think Koko and I should head out.” Liz says as she stands up. I follow behind her, relieved to stretch my long legs.

  “Where are you two headed?” Jasmine asks as Elizabeth blows out her candle. I flick on the living room light.

  “Probably up to my room, out on the balcony.” We start backing out of the room.

  “You two sure you want to head out before the smoothies?” I bite my lip to keep from grimacing. Beth’s ‘smoothies’ are pretty much every vegetable she can shove in the blender mixed together. It’s like drinking baby food.

  “No offense Beth but I think we’ve had about as much spiritual rejuvenation as we can get from the living room. We need to walk around and spread our wings…let the spirit of the Cosmos open up to us.” Liz says.

  “You’re right. A beautiful night like this… maybe we should just move this little party outside under the stars-”

  “-Maybe another night. Gotta go! Bye!” Liz yells before we race up to her room.

  “I swear that lady gets more kooky every time we see her.”

  “Hey, that’s my godmother you’re talking about.”

  “I know, and she’s looney.” We both chuckle as Liz walks over and opens the glass door that leads out to her balcony. Crisp air wisps in and I sigh as I follow her out.

  “Wanna paint my nails?” I shrug. Why not. As she grabs her kit, I sit down on the lavender chair and kick my legs up over the railing. When she plops down next to me, pink nail polish kit in hand, her phone starts to ring.

  Tyler ,

  Lights up the screen and she rolls her eyes before pressing ignore.

  “How long are you going to lead him on?”

  “I’m not leading him on, I like him.”

  “I can totally tell, by the way you forward a third of his calls.” She narrows her brown eyes at me as she puts her wine red hair in a ponytail.

  “My dad likes him. Besides, he’s not nearly as bad as Ryan or Anthony were.” And there it is. Liz’s dad, Alex, always finds ‘good kids’ he wants Liz to date. Even from upstate New York he finds ways to dictate her dating life. She hates it, but instead of refusing him and causing a bigger rift between her parents she bites the bullet and dates guys, she at best feels lukewarm about, to please him. As much as that sucks and I wish my friend would stand up for herself, I am kind of jealous that she has two parents that care.

  Rather than argue with her as she continues to spout off all the reasons she and Tyler might be right for each other, I paint her nails and make fun of her lack of technique when she paints mine.

  If I were as smart as I like to think, I’d take Liz and Jasmine up on their offer and move in with them. They are the closest thing to family I have, besides my father. My mother left us when I was nine and her family hasn’t concerned themselves with me since we moved to Louisiana.

  Liz and I met about a decade ago in California— just before my mom split—in public grade school. She was getting picked on about the gap in her teeth and I’ve never been one to keep my mouth shut, even as a kid. We became inseparable, mostly bonding over our dysfunctional parental structures. Jasmine had an arranged marriage with Alex but they never made it down the aisle. She came to her senses and decided that wasn’t the life she wanted. But, not before she ended up pregnant with Liz. After she had her, she ran off with some reckless kid from Flagstaff, AZ with no goals and a motorcycle—causing her family to promptly cut her off. It ended when Liz was in third grade, the guy passed away.

  Alex decided to help support them under a few conditions. One of which included private school. Across the country. They still came to visit California almost every summer when Jasmine was running from her own internal demons and searching for answers on sandy beaches under comfortably sunny skies. They weren’t aware how messed up my family life was until it was too late. I still haven’t decided if that was a gift or a curse.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The first time I met Cash, he thoroughly pissed me off. It may have taken me a second to remember why I was so frustrated with him while I dragged my eyes over the nicely packaged fellow but when I did he was smirking at me. The haughty attitude reminded me so much of everyone else at Warren Academy that I immediately had such a fierce disliking of him it almost scared me. It definitely unnerved me to despise someone so soon after seeing them, before we even spoke a word to one another.

  He leaned forward onto his knees and pushed a tanned hand through dark chocolate locks that curled just so at the ends. His green eyes were filled with humor as he chuckled to himself; making his broad shoulders shift. After my first year at Warren Academy, I’d quickly learned that keeping to myself in class was much less of a headache than drawing attention to myself and having everyone stare at my department store clothing and non-designer backpack. It was no secret that I attend on a scholarship and that’s grounds for juvenile mocking here. This year I’d made it abundantly clear to everyone that I wasn’t going to take the same shit as before. Most people got the message.

  Aside from the classes that I shared with Liz, I sat myself at the back of the classroom if there were desks and if there were shared tabletops—like in Bio— then I made sure that I sat at an empty one without a partner. I had gotten into the habit of setting my bag on the chair next to me so that as new students came, they didn’t look at my chair as available. That apparently didn’t scare off the hot jerk that was then smirking at me.

  He’d tossed my bag on the floor beside me and immediately began trying to flirt with me. Unfortunately for him, I was kind of a bitch, and not easily swayed by his charm.

  “What kind of idiot throws a girl’s bag on the floor and then suggests they meet up later to perform sexual favors for each other?” I’d asked in a disgusted voice.

  “Do forgive me, Beauté. I forget how aloof Americans can be about sex. The French are often known for our straightforward attitude towards such things.” That accent did funny things to my insides, no matter how badly I tried to keep them solid he nearly liquified them without really trying.

  “Do forgive me but you aren’t in France and I’m not aloof I’m just not interested. If you could find another desk I will chalk this up as a mishap and kindly ignore you for the rest of the year.” He smiled at me. A real one, not a smirk. A smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes and made him abundantly more attractive. It really wasn’t fair.

  “I rather like my spot here. In fact, I think this will be my favorite subject.” From that point on, I’d decided to hate him. He was more or less as much an enemy to me as Marley Evans was. After class I walked up to Liz for lunch and he followed me. Unbeknownst to me, he and Liz had struck up a friendship in another class and she had told him he could eat lunch with us.

  Even when I refused, nothing changed so I stewed silently to myself and any input I added to the conversation was pitiful at best. Cash continued to flirt with me for weeks before he finally got the hint and started dating around the school. It was then that this annoying habit he is demonstrating now came about.

  “I love your hair this way.” Amanda Locke says as she pushes Cash’s hair back. I roll my eyes and mock gag. I hate that he finds it necessary to sit next to me while he flirts with every Tammy, Darcy, and Harley (my version of Tom, Dick and Harry) in the entire Academy.

  “Is there a reason that you’re over here, Amanda? I kinda want to get this project done so I can get out of here.” Amanda’s angry brown eyes meet mine and I arch an eyebrow, challenging her.

  “Don’t mind my little Beauté here, she is all about marks, you know the type.”

  “I doubt she does. And don’t speak for me.” I admonish him before going back to glaring at her. She glares back but when her eyes meet Cash’s they soften.

  “Of course.” She turns as if to walk away and then stops and asks, “by the way, do you have a pen I can borrow?”

  Cash’s lip kicks up in a smirk. “Sur
e thing, darling.” The next thing I know the pen that I was just using to outline the atomic structure formula is gone. He hands it to her and she shoots him a flirtatious smile before walking off.

  “Dude! What the hell?” When he pries his eyes from her ass, they find me.

  “Oui?” I grip the corners of the table and count to ten. I’ve lost count of the number of times he has taken my pens and pencils to give to other girls. Mysteriously new bags of pens keep finding their way into my locker. It’s the most annoying never ending cycle.

  “The next time you steal one of my pens to give to one of your little hussies I am going to take a pipe cleaner to your eye.”

  “Your combative nature may scare other guys off, but I find it a little seductive.” His returning smile makes me want to hurt him in ways I have yet to imagine. Luckily, the bell rings before I have much more time to think on it and I stomp off.

  “I’m not doing your homework for you Cashel.”

  “Come on Beauté, you know you don’t want to fail. We’re partners.” The nickname he uses for me almost makes me shiver. In contempt, I’m sure.

  I stop abruptly and turn towards him.

  “If I fail this assignment I will thoroughly castrate you.”

  “Have you noticed that you mention my junk a lot?”

  “What does the word eunuch mean to you?”

  “Beauté,” Cash says as he pushes me up against the lockers and leans into me. “You and I both know that my anaconda is important.” I scoff but the husky tone distracts me. Why is he so close?

  “Maybe to half the Academy. And anaconda? That may be a bit generous.” My cheeks heat.

  “Would you like to test that theory?” I’m so flustered I just stand there with my mouth open like an idiot. Long moments pass before his smile grows, his ivy eyes sparkling. “Thanks, love.” He says before kissing my cheek and ducking down the hall. My face flames then and I see Liz has been there the entire time.

  “How much of that did you witness?”