Beautifully Destroyed

Sandra Love

Beautifully Destroyed

Sandra Love

Copyright © 2015 Sandra Love

All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

 This work of literature contains violence and behavior that could possibly not be appropriate for children under the age of sixteen. Parental Discretion is advised.

Edited by Genevieve Scholl

Cover design by Genevieve Scholl – Cover photos purchased from
Dollar Photo Club
.

Acknowledgements:

I have so many people I would like to thank. The first is my family. To my son Charlie: He is my rock and is always telling me I can do it. Also, thank you for thinking I am famous. I love you, buddy. To my fiancé, Brad: Thank you, thank you, thank you for loving me and helping me with everything. You are amazing, and you support me so much. I love you so much. To my sister Amanda Higelmire: you rock girl. You are always by my side and supporting me. Thank you. To the rest of my family, thank you for not giving up on me and supporting me. It means the world to me.

To my editor, and best friend, Genevieve Scholl: Girl, I would be so lost without you. You are my rock in this author community. You never give up on me and I really appreciate it. You will never know how much your friendship means to me. Love you, girl.

Sandra Shrewsbury: Girl, you know I love you and you are such a fantastic friend and supporter. Thank you so much for believing in me.

Bridget Parker, what can I say? I can say that you are truly one of my good friends. You are always up at like six in the morning pimping my books. You are a rock in the author community, and thank you.

Cara Correll: Wow, girl, you rock. You have NO idea how much it means to me with the promoting you do. You are AMAZING and such a fantastic friend. I love you, girl.

To my IEZ girls, Andie Long, V.L. Brock, A.D. Ellis, Andrea Michelle, EJ Shortall, Maryann Jordan, MJ Nightingale, ML Steinbrunn and Jen Andrews: I LOVE YOU ALL. You ladies keep me sane and happy. Thank you for all the support you give, and thank you for believing in me.

To the Indie Authors: thank you for accepting me into the community. I love you all.

To my fans and readers: you guys are the best. You never give up on me and I love talking to you all. Thank you for giving me a shot. I love you all.

Books by Sandra Love

Now Available

Broken (Broken Wings Book One)
Broken Hearts: Kaleigh’s Revenge (Broken Wings Book Two)
Broken Prophecy (Broken Wings Book Three)
To Love Again

Beautifully Destroyed

Coming Soon

Unusual Beings (Coming 2016)
The Broken Truth (Broken Wings Prequel Coming Summer 2015)
Sequel to Beautifully Destroyed (Coming Winter 2015)

Other Books Written by Sandra

Now Available

Summer In Dallas by Diamond Davenport

Chapter One

Toria

              Walking through the streets of New York can be overwhelming at times, especially when you have to live on them. People are rushing around, some are bumping into me. Some days I loved living there, but other days I feared for my life. I swore I heard gunshots once or twice a week. One day, it will be me getting shot. As I walked down the busy sidewalk, the light, warm breeze felt good against my face. The trees were budding out, so I knew summer was right around the corner. I looked up at the tall buildings surrounding me, and I smiled to myself. One day, I would love to work in one of those buildings.

I stopped at a dark blue
Mercedes
and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I winced. My once short chocolate brown hair was long and in tangles. My once bright brown eyes were sunken in and dull. My face was no longer clear; it was dirty from the lack of water I got to use. My cheeks were also sunken in, probably from the drugs I was hooked on. I was wearing a
Mickey Mouse
shirt that was too small for me, but it was the only thing I could find in the trash at the goodwill. My pants were also too high for my tall frame.

But I didn’t just look like hell. I was homeless. My parents kicked me out of the house because I started to do drugs. So I lived on the streets, and had been since I was seventeen.   Since they just kicked me out, I was unable to continue my school education. I didn’t want to go to school, anyway, and get made fun of, considering I was the most popular girl in school. But since word got out that I was giving the school druggie blow jobs to get prescription drugs, my popularity boat sank. I also lost the love of my life. Josh. He dumped me like the whore that I was. At twenty years old, I had a few homeless friends that helped me get the drugs and food I needed. I was addicted to prescription drugs, such as oxy and
Adderall
.

“Hey, hobo, get away from that car.”

I looked to see a beautiful blonde, wearing a tight red dress coming my way. I started to back away. The bitch really thought I was going to steal the car.

“Barb, just chill. She looks harmless.” I looked over my shoulder and it felt as if time had stopped. There stood a man with dark brown hair with red highlights. His eyes were a chocolate brown and they were so mesmerizing, my knees felt weak. He was wearing a suit, so he must have had a great job. He looked young, maybe almost thirty years old. He reached into his pocket. “Here is a couple of bucks. Go get a hotel room and clean up. You look like shit.”

My face heated up and I started to back away from this asshole. I turned and took off running. I ran as fast as my legs could take me. I was so embarrassed, and now people were watching me run from the scene. Once I turned the corner, I leaned up against the brick building to catch my breath. I put my hands on my knees, and once I was able to breathe again, I snuck a look around the corner. I caught his eye as he was shutting his date’s door.

“Toria, why are you breathing so heavy?”

I turned to see that Mitch, my under the bridge roommate, was standing beside me. He was a tall black man, with a huge afro, and he was also gay. But I loved him. He was always protecting me from the dangers of New York. He also did the sleeping around to get the drugs we needed, because I would not sleep around. Yes, I had sucked guys off, but I was still a virgin. Mitch told me to save myself. He was like a father to me.

“Some skank called me a hobo, and her boyfriend tried to give me money.”

“And your dumb ass didn’t take it?”

“HA! No he wanted me to clean up. I don’t want pity money.”

He grabbed my arm and we started to walk toward the bridge. I was so thankful it was summer time so we wouldn’t freeze to death. In the winter, we did get to sleep in a shelter, but it was only open from dusk to dawn, and they didn’t offer bathing services. “Mitch, I really need new clothes and a shower. I smell so bad. And look at my nappy hair.”

“Oh girl, did you really just say that?”

“Yeah, I did. What are you going to do about it?” We both laughed. “So I was looking in the paper today, and there is a job at the little corner store. Do you think the owner will give me a job?”

“Toria, baby girl, I doubt it. To the world, you are nothing but a hobo that smells.”

I sighed. “How in the hell am I going to get a place, when the world is against me?”

“I know it’s hard, but this is who we are, and the world can’t accept us.”

I put my face in my hands and sighed. Why did I go to that stupid party? Why did I take that pill? I ruined everything. I felt Mitch put his arm around me. I had no idea where I would be if I didn’t have Mitch. “I scored you something to help you sleep.”

I lifted my head and smiled at him. “Oh, what is it?”

“Some oxy. Here, take it and get some rest. Maybe tomorrow we will go find you clothes that fit ya so you can get that job.”

I kissed him on the cheek and grabbed the pill. I swallowed it like nothing. I put my head in his lap and he stroked my hair. A stray tear slipped from my eye as I thought back to the night my life changed.

The party was packed, and
Blake Shelton
was blaring through the speakers, rattling the walls of Kaylyn’s house. Kaylyn was my best friend, and she was gorgeous with her strawberry blonde curly hair and bright blue eyes. She was about six inches shorter than me, but her attitude was even bigger than I.

As I move through the room, a reddish blur barrels into me, wrapping her arms tightly around my midsection. “Hey hoochie, I see your parents finally let you out of that damn house.”

“I know right. So have you seen Josh? He said he was going to meet me here after the game.”

“Nah, the boys haven’t made it yet.”

“I can’t believe we are going to Nationals. I need to get my hair done before then.”

She grabbed my hand and led me to toward the kitchen. “Girl, no time to think about that. Let’s get drunk! My parents are in Rome for the week so we can party for seven days straight!”

We both laughed.

I walked into the kitchen, and noticed a new guy was standing in the corner. He had his eyes fixated on me. He was so cute, with blonde spiked hair. He was tall, probably over six foot, and he had ink. He intrigued me like no other ever had. I had never seen this guy around school. He motioned me to come over, and I gained my courage and walked over toward him.

“So, are you new?”

“No, babe, I’m Stana’s brother, Sean.”

I looked over to Stana, who had her tongue down some guy’s throat. Stana was on the cheerleading squad, but her and I clashed. Stana was beautiful, though; long blonde hair, dark green eyes, and tiny body. We were friends at one point in time, but she thought I was flirting with her boyfriend. I tried telling her that Chris was a player and flirted with everyone, but she didn’t believe me. I snapped out of my thought, and refocused on Sean. “Ah, gotcha. Hi, I’m Toria. I’m a senior. Stana and I aren’t very good friends.”

“That’s why I don’t know you. So I have an upper. Do you wanna try it?”

I squinted my eyes at him, confused about what he was talking about. “Umm, what’s an upper?”

He chuckled. “It will make you party hard and stay up all night.”

“You mean, like, drugs? Umm, no, thank you.”

“Oh come on, sweetheart. No one will notice.”

I pondered on the thought, and decided I only lived once, so what the hell.              “So what is the name of this drug?”

“Adderall.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out an orange pill and handed it to me. I grabbed his drink from his hand and swallowed the pill.

“Do you want any money for it?”

He scratched his head. “That’s up to you, sweetheart.” I reached in my pocket and pulled out the money my parents gave me earlier. I grabbed a twenty and handed it to him.

“Wow, you are loaded. If you want any more of that…” He pulled out a pen and wrote his number on my hand. I blushed and prayed to God that my boyfriend didn’t come out and see it happening. “Just call this number and I will hook you up.”

“Thanks, I should go in now.”

I turned and walked back into the living room. Within twenty minutes, I felt the high. I almost felt as if I was floating, and I never felt like that before. It was as if my senses were in overdrive, that I was more focused. I wasn’t hallucinating or seeing stuff, like most thought was a symptom of drugs. But I became extremely hyper and I had the sudden urge to clean. I was noticing that the floor needed to be vacuumed and that the kitchen was a mess from the party. All I wanted to do was clean. I had no idea why, but I couldn’t take the mess. That was the best high I ever felt. And I knew deep down I was going to get more of that.  I also noticed I was hungry before I took the pill, but afterward I wasn’t.
Wow
, I thought,
I could easily get used to this.

I wish I could go back to that moment and just say no. I drifted to sleep.