My life had never been easy growing up. An abusive, alcoholic father. A mother who wouldn't leave him. It all felt empty and hollow. Until one day, a blue-grey eyed boy saved me from a bully and changed my entire world.

He and I grew from boys to adolescents. Best friends who fell in love. We shared a bond I thought could never be broken. But fate had other plans.

One event shattered our illusion.
It tore us apart even as we fought to stay together.
Then the boy I loved broke all his promises.
He left me.
He ruined me.
He lied.

Aaron Jackson Parrish should have been my fairy tale love story. But not all fairy tales have a happy ending. And ours had the most unforgiving ending of all.

You could say Cole Carter was single-minded in his desires and needs. When he saw something he wanted, he went after it. And the thing he wanted most in this world was me.

Trust had never come easy. Perhaps that’s why when he pursued me, I refused to entertain the idea of letting him in.
Why would I allow a boy two years younger than me access to my secrets and insecurities? Why would I give him those parts of me I’d kept locked away?
The answer is simple.
He never took no for an answer. He wormed his way inside my soul, infecting me with his entire being. And I was lost from the moment he set his sights on me.

Our path was littered with broken promises and deceit. Even through all the heartache and the world fighting to break us apart, I thought we would survive the storm. Only now I realise that was all a fantasy. The boy I thought would give me everything. Well, he left me with nothing at all.

I didn’t mean to fall in love with my sister’s friend.
You’d think I’d have known better when it came to Raphael Nelson. A boy so confused by his own thoughts and feelings, he no longer knew who he was.

It started innocently enough. A chance encounter leading to a real connection.
I was the boy who felt too much. He was suffering with demons from the past.
I only meant to help him.
To set him free.
Pity all of that was thrown back in my face.

Raphael tore me apart piece by piece, destroying everything between us. Stupid me went back for more each and every time. Now, when all is said and done, I can’t find it in me to forgive him. The scars he left me with run too deep. And I will spend forever in purgatory for loving a boy who used me until I was naught but ashes in the wind.

If I could describe Logan Benson in two words, they would be heartless and callous.
From the moment we met, we were thrown into a maze of our own making full of lies, hatred and lust. One neither of us knew how to navigate.

Perhaps it was the way we never backed down from a fight which proved to be our undoing.
Or maybe I had been fooling myself into thinking he could change.
A man like him would never see me as anything other than a toy.
I was a game to him.
One I refused to play.

Logan left me with one harsh and unforgiving lesson. He showed me love was meaningless. It only hurt and destroyed those stupid enough to fall into its pit of deceit. When he walked away from the mess that was us, I vowed one thing and one thing alone. I would make him rue the day he ruined me.

If I had an Achilles heel, it would go by the name of Duke Scott.
The boy I’d grown up with. The boy who never let me down. The boy I’d been in love with since we were kids. My best friend.

One horrifying event changed the course of our friendship. It set us on a path of reckless destruction. Each of us daring the other to go further. To do things we never imagined.
What started as a childhood game turned into our very own nightmare.
One we couldn’t escape.
Until he pulled the rug out from underneath me.
And left me all alone in the dark.

There are some traumatic experiences you can’t come back from. There’s only so much a person can take until they snap. When it all became too much, he walked away.
Duke Scott should have been my best friend for life. Instead, our dares caught up with us. And we can never go back to the way we were again.