Read Saving You, Saving Me Online
Authors: Kailin Gow
Saving You, Saving Me (20 page)
*****
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as it fate that brought two people together who so desperately needed each other or was it random chance?
I’ve known Daggers for only two months, but I felt as though I’ve known him for a lifetime. We’ve been through so much together and have come a good ways. But as he said, there is still a ways to go. As much as he believed that I saved him from his dark demons, he had ended up saving me. Now there was no way I was turning my back on him now.
I took the key he placed in my hands and went to his bank to retrieve the safe deposit box within.
It was one he had set up under my name. My Collins, my Daggers was so considerate, so giving. When I slid the key into the lock, I held my breath. I didn’t know what to expect.
I lifted the lid of the box and found a note from Collins.
“Sam, I love you so much, but I know my past will come up to haunt you as it has already reared its ugly head. I can’t shield you from all of it, but I’ll try my best. I’m afraid discovering Daggers’ secret was one layer you got through, but there is one I have to reveal so you know why I’m far more messed up than I seem. My mother was so abusive I finally ran away from home when I was 13, and I was living on the streets, having to do things that I wasn’t proud of, just to survive. I want to be with you, and I want to come clean to you about everything, if you’ll give me that chance, I’m laying it out for you here. After listening to these tapes, if you still want me, I’m yours. If not, then go ahead, take the money that is in the enclosed envelope. One million dollars should be enough to cover many things I think you deserve to have, especially a college education, should you decide to take the other route, which I pray to God you won’t take. The choice is yours.”
You & Me Series continues with Sam, Daggers, Derek, and Collins in Book 2
Finding You Finding Me
Fall 2012
Saving You Saving Me Playlist
Participate in the
Saving You Saving Me Project
http://www.SavingYouSavingMe.com
Saving YOU Saving ME
brings up several social subjects since it takes place at a crisis teen and young adult call center. While the advice given through the scenarios Samantha Sullivan encounters at the fictional Sawyer House is a good starting point to explore the actual issues, here is a list of resources to help you or a friend learn more about some of the issues brought up in this book:
Cutting/Self-Injury
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/self-injury/DS00775
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/cutting.html
Bullying
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html#cat20139
Peer Pressure
http://teenadvice.about.com/cs/peerpressure/a/blpeerpressure.htm
http://teens.webmd.com/peer-pressure
Teen Pregnancy
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/
Drug Use
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/understanding-drug-abuse-addiction
Alcoholism
http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/alcohol/coping_alcoholic.html#cat20139
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/DS00340
Self-Esteem/Self-Image
http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/self_esteem.html#cat20139
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/self-esteem/MH00128
Abuse
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_help_treatment_prevention.htm
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Saving YOU Saving ME
- Samantha has her heart set on becoming either a Counselor or
Psychiatrist. Do you think that is why she is drawn to Daggers or is it because she subconsciously relates to him?
- In Samantha’s narration of the story, she brings up Sigmund Freud’s id and ego, personified by Lola and Serious Susan.
Lola
represents Sam’s id, the instinctive and primitive side of her unconsciousness that is driven by the “
Pleasure Principle
” which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs such as hunger, thirst, anger, and sex. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state of anxiety or tension.
Serious Susan
represents Sam’s ego, which operates on the
“Reality Principle”
– the part of our human consciousness that strives to satisfy the id with realistic and socially appropriate ways such as delayed gratification – acting on the behavior during an appropriate time and place.
At one point, Samantha even uses the name “Susan” as her alias at Sawyer House. Do you think it was a conscious move or unconscious? As she talks to Daggers as Susan, did she act on her Lola side or Susan side?
- How did her feelings for Daggers finally raise itself? In a dream? In her conversations with him?
- Why do you think Samantha had a nervous breakdown?
- Who is more messed up? Daggers, Samantha, Collins, Derek, or Samantha’s mother Mrs. Sullivan? Why?
- Daggers mentioned Sam had peeled one layer of him, but he is darker than that. What do you think he is trying to hide from Samantha, but feels he must reveal in order to have their relationship work for them?
- Should Samantha confront her father about the Billy Incident?
at an Upcoming New Contemporary Romance Series from Kailin Gow:
Loving
Summer
kailin gow
Summer has always looked forward to spending her summers at her Aunt's beach house with the Donovans. To her, summers at Aunt Sookie's beach house was magical, especially getting to spend time with the Donovans - her best friend Rachel and Rachel's brothers Nathaniel, and Drew. Here at Aunt Sookie's beach house, they can be anyone and anything they dreamed. For Summer, she had always wished to become as pretty as Rachel and for her brothers to think of her as more than Rachel's friend. For Nat and Drew, summers at Aunt Sookie's beach house meant fun and escape, a place where they go to with their mom and sister for the summer, away from city life. They never thought this summer would be different. They never thought things would change as much as they did...and it all began with them falling for and loving Summer. A YA
contemporary romance with an edge.
Releases May 2012
1
Summer
I
’m standing by the baggage claim area, waiting for my three friends to arrive, and wondering a little if maybe I should have made one of those large cards with their names on that people occasionally hold up. It at least keeps me from wondering what it’s going to be like when they arrive. Oh God, I don’t think I’ve been this nervous since… well, forever.
The card is out. I don’t have one to write on, and anyway, I sent Rachel my picture. I wonder if she was surprised about how much I’ve changed. I mean, the last time I saw her, I still had my braces in, and boys didn’t give me a second glance. She was always the pretty one, even if she did like to hide it.
It’s been so
long
since I saw her. Any of them. It used to be that I’d spend practically every day with Rachel, because Aunt Sookie babysat her and the others, or Rachel’s mother would look after me while Aunt Sookie was busy with her acting academy. I guess none of us need that now, but we can still surf the way we used to, or go to the beach, or anything. When we all used to stay over at Aunt Sookie’s place on the beach every summer, it used to be great.
It’s been three years now though. Maybe it won’t be so good. Maybe I won’t even know Rachel so much. We’ve talked on the phone and online, but a friend you spend all summer with is different to one you just talk to now and again, right? I haven’t seen any of the Donovans since they moved away to San Francisco. And what about Drew? What about
Nat
? I wonder what he thought about the picture I sent. Did he like it? Did he see that I’m not some little girl anymore?
“Summer?”
There’s a Goth girl coming towards me, all purple streaked black hair, ivory skin and dark makeup, in a t-shirt and jeans that go with her hair like someone has streaked purple dye on them. I stare at her for a good couple of seconds before I see her face fully and rush forward to hug her.
“Rachel!”
I shouldn’t have worried about what it’s going to be like with her back. Just hugging her, I
know.
I know that we’re exactly the friends we always were. Okay, so she’s done something freaky with her hair, but she’s still Rachel. We have
so
much to catch up on. I step back from her just so that I can look at her, and I can see her doing the same. It’s like we’re re-learning what we look like, or something.
“Wow,” Rachel says. “You’ve grown taller, and you’re in great shape.”
“Volleyball,” I explain. “
Competitive
volleyball. Mom thought it would be great for me to pick up a team sport, so I went for that one.”
“You always were better at doing what your mom wanted than me,” Rachel says. She smiles while she says it, but she’s told me about a lot of it.
“You still aren’t seeing eye to eye with her?” I ask. Maybe I should join the diplomatic core after this.
“No, Mom’s being a bitch.” Rachel’s expression darkens, which given the way she looks now is a pretty scary sight. “Ever since she caught Dad screwing around, it’s been the same.” She shakes her head, and the expression passes, just like that. Maybe it’s because it’s such a great day no one can stay angry for long. “I don’t care, though. I’m here with you, the beach, and Aunt Sookie!”
I hug her tightly again. I’ve missed Rachel so much. She’s like the sister I never had. Talking of siblings…
“Where are Drew and Nat?” I ask with a grin. “You didn’t abandon them at the San Francisco airport, did you?”
“I wish. They’re here somewhere. There. There they are.” Rachel waves over at them and I can’t help staring. Drew’s grown. He must be over six foot now, and he has the muscles to go with it, not really concealed by the plain white t-shirt he wears with his blue jeans. I remember him as scrawny, maybe cute in a kind of way, but nothing like this. As for Nat, he’s even taller, though maybe not as broadly built as his brother these days. He’s wearing a white t-shirt under a blue and white plaid shirt with loose fitting jeans and boots. They suit him. That deep copper hair of his seems to shine in the sunlight. I can’t help staring as the two of them get closer.
“Could you maybe not stare at my brothers in open mouthed admiration?” Rachel whispers. “It will only make their egos bigger.”
That’s hard to do, especially with Nat. Drew… well, he’s impressive, and who would have thought that he’d have turned into some kind of gorgeous hunk in just three years, but Nat was my first real boyfriend. My first kiss. I can remember when he used to defend me from the bullies back in kindergarten. He shouldn’t be allowed to go around looking like some kind of rock star.
“Summer?” Drew says as they get close. “I’d hardly recognize you if you hadn’t sent Rachel that photo.”
I can’t help looking at him, at how much he’s changed. “Three years makes a big difference.”