Broken, Navaura Campbell [top young adult novels txt] 📗

I could have a different mother I would be happy dammit.” Vanessa hissed with irritation her tongue.

“Be careful what you wish for V- You may regret it.” These words of wisdom came from Athena Marks, who’d already been through the thoroughs of parental divorce and then on to step mother phase. “Sometimes, what glitters isn’t gold, honey.”

“Trust me, anything would be better than living with that woman.” Vanessa stated, pulling her back pack straps over her shoulder. As she spoke this, she thought about this morning and again mustered up the idea that something had definitely not been right with her parents. Her dad hadn’t yelled at her or said anything about her behavior and her mother had been so sweet, it made the pancakes she’d dripped in syrup and sprinkled with sugar look bitter. Sighing, she knew that her parents were up to something and bet that after school, she’d find out. “So V, why didn’t your parents let you go to the party Saturday night?”

 

Athena inquired. She cleared her throat and glanced over at Tamarah who looked uncomfortable and lost in her own thoughts. Athena gave a small smile to her, knowing full well why she looked that way. Athena who’d been toasted on the night of the party, recalled her sobering shock when she walked into the kitchen and seen Tamarah and Tommy pawing all over each other. She’d seen it and had been so surprised that she’d contributed it to them being drunk, however, when Tamarah had pulled away from Tommy during a moment of guilt-leaving Athena to witness with her own eyes him tell Tamarah to not act like she didn’t want him and pull her back to him, had her stumbling backward as she recalled how fervently Tamarah had kissed her best friend’s boyfriend.

 

The thing that intrigued her most is that Vanessa didn’t seem to notice the tension that displayed in her friend’s figure. As a matter of fact, she seemed oblivious to what was going on with Tamarah at all. The tightness of her mouth, the stiffness of body posture and even the sad look in her eyes when ever she gazed at her friend, all tale tell signs of guilt left Tamarah looking drained. Tsking silently to herself, Athena wondered what Vanessa would do if she found out what Tamarah had done with her boyfriend.

 

After the bell rang to dismantle the group, sending Tamarah and Vanessa into the same direction and the others splitting off, Tamarah flickered her long lashes over at her friend, “I think your mother over does it sometimes with the protectiveness, V- but I’m sure she means well.”

 

“Means well my butt, that woman wants to control every aspect of my life, without realizing that I’m not a little girl and I can make my own decisions now. I don’t know why she thinks I need her harping over my shoulder all the time. I’m not a five year old.” Vanessa fumed.

 

“I agree, you’re not..but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care for you.”

Vanessa glanced up at her best friend, “What ever, T- you don’t have to worry about that. Your mother cares less what you do. You could go out partying every night and she wouldn’t care. Don’t turn in your homework and she wouldn’t even notice that you hadn’t until report cards were do.”

 

“That’s because she works a lot. Vanessa. I would kill to have someone even think of me the way your mother does you. My mom’s too busy trying to sale her way to the top of the corporate ladder to care about what I do. It’s not like we’re hurting for money, so it’s not because she works two jobs to support us, she just loves being on the top.”

“I wish my mother had half the work ethic your mom does, maybe then she wouldn’t be all up in my grill trying to see what I’m doing all day every day. It’s sickening.” Vanessa made a disgusting face.”

“Just be glad that she’s there for you the way she is. It would be great if my mom could check my homework each night to make sure it was done, prepared dinner every night and then washed my clothes sometimes. I feel like I’m the mother to her. I’m the one who cooks, cleans and do the laundry around the house because she’s never home to get anything done. Do you know last week she offered to employ a maid at our apartment?” Tamarah asked her tone incredulous.

“She did?”

“Yeah, of all things, she should be the one doing the job, not me, not the maid.” Tamarah’s tone was full of indignation.

“I wish you and I could swap Tamarah, that would be cool.”“If I could, I would.”

“Hey, baby.” both girls turned to look at Tommy Whitaker as he walked up to them.

“Hey baby, how was your weekend?” Vanessa inquired, wrapping her arms around his neck, a smile crossing over her beautiful features.

 

Tommy felt his heart beat speed up at the thought of those penetrating green eyes glossing over once he got the chance to take her. He’d spent the entire junior high school years fantasizing about what it would be like to do a lot of things with Vanessa Williams, and one of those things was to search her eyes for that look of complete satisfaction when he would be able to engage himself into the folds of her woman hood. This still brought a blush to his cheeks when thinking about it. There was just something about her that made him salivate. His gaze flickered to her best friend, who was glancing at them or rather him, distastefully. He smiled and nodded his head at her in acknowledgment. While Vanessa was luscious in all the right places, Tamarah was just rippling with sensuality.

 

Although she was just as tall as Vanessa with a five nine height, her body weight was evenly proportioned at one thirty, she had the same assets as Vanessa, with more of a slender build. Vanessa had a senusually curvaceous build that she’d no doubt inherited from her mother. Tommy had seen her mother, and Vanessa was a physical embodiment of her mother. She was shaped exactly like her and outside of her eyes, chin and ears, she’d inherited her mother’s genealogy, needless to say, the girl was gorgeous. However as he looked at Tamarah, he felt something else overtake him, something very powerful. Anger.

 

Tamarah didn’t know if it was possible to hate anyone as much as she despised Tommy. He stood there with that damn smug grin on his face like he was the best man in the world, almost as though he deserved Vanessa and in her opinion, he didn’t. He didn’t deserve her best friend. A guy with his intentions didn’t deserve a girl so sweet and so loyal to him. She wondered if he felt any remorse over what had occurred over the weekend, but judging by his actions, he hadn’t. It sickened her to her stomach the thought that he would be willing to go on and pretend that nothing happened between them, that he could sit there and lie to Vanessa that way. What made Tamarah hurt worse however was the guilt she felt over knowing that although she despised Tommy and wouldn’t ordinarily succumb to his charms, that in a drunken state, she’d readily given into the heathen. Feeling her bile rise to her throat, she covered her hand over her mouth and without a word, ran away from Vanessa and Tommy, down the hall to the girl’s bathroom.

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three:

 

Vanessa POV:

I may have looked like I wasn’t paying attention, but I was acutely aware of my boyfriend ogling my best friend. I even felt it when his body demeanor changed. It became more rigid when he looked at her. I know that he hated her and there was no bone in my body that didn’t doubt that Tamarah hated him with equal fervency. When she spoke his name, you could hear the hiss on her lips. However, as soon as she covered her hand with her mouth and ran to the bathroom, I turned to face Tommy. I was the type of girl who always had to double check, make sure my actions and thoughts both aligned. “Tommy.” I stated, my gaze turning to him.

He gave me a smile, “Yeah, V?”

“There’s nothing going on between you and Tamarah is there?” I inquired.

He laughed and shook his head no. “Why would you think that baby? You know I only have eyes for you.” He stated, reaching out to me. I shrank back. Glaring up at him in the eyes, purely out of jealousy, I stated, “That’s what your mouth says, but your eyes have a tendency to roam.”

His eyes became huge round dough balls. “Excuse me!” He exclaimed, flabbergasted. I put my hands on my hips and did that thing my mother does when she’s upset with my dad. “Don’t play with me, I saw you looking at her.” I stated. Tommy shook his head and with a laugh, he leaned down and placed a kiss on my lips. I immediately felt my body melt and all my thoughts fly full force out of the window. When the kiss subsided, I glanced up into his eyes, in which I was sure love was there and cleared my throat, “Maybe I exaggerated just a tiny bit?” He gave me that beautiful grin of his, his eyes shiny dark brown pupils, “A tiny bit? V- of all the audacity. You know how I feel about Tamarah. Trust me, I ain’t going no where.” He stated. I glanced up into twinkling eyes and allowed my thoughts to become screens of smoke in my brain.

 

 

Timothy Rawsin flickered his gaze to Tamarah. After Incessant praying and futile pleading, he still couldn’t seem to control the signs of attraction that stirred when ever he looked at her. He often times got lost in the visual prize he couldn’t help but notice with her. He was drawn to her skin. She had the most beautiful dark chocolate shade of skin he’d ever seen.

 

It was unblemished, perfect in his eyes. He tried to ask God to take away the desire for that beauty that he observed but it seemed to grab a hold of him at times and refuse to let go. He felt something in his spirit pull him toward her, but he knew by her crowd, her attitude and her style of dress that she wasn’t saved. She didn’t serve God the way he did. As a matter of fact, he doubted that she even went to church. He’d never even heard her mention God in any of her conversations with her friends.

 

He knew that as beautiful as she was, she was still off limits. Besides, for all the beauty she had, she couldn’t compensate for a christian woman’s character. He needed a woman who was saved because he himself had a fire in his spirit to serve and please God. That meant doing the things that God wanted, not what he wanted. Not that what he wanted and what God wanted were two different things, it was the exact same thing, except when it came to Tamarah. He couldn’t explain the desire he had to be near her, be around her, but he did know that a friendship was out of the question because his thoughts were anything but friendly toward her. He knew he didn’t want to steer off course and she would provide the distraction he couldn’t afford at the moment. His life was great. He’d became a christian two summers ago right before he’d been adopted by Carol and Benjamin Rawsin and he had to say, there was something about knowing and understanding the love of Jesus. Something about knowing that you could be happy, just to be happy and it didn’t require a significant incident to make you that way. Timothy had been the worst of the worst. He’d been a thief,