I'll Never Stop, page 1
© 2020 DC Renee
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead are entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
Cover Design by: Susana Mohel
Formatting by: Elaine York, Allusion Publishing
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication
Prologue
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
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Epilogue
Craving More?
I'll Never Stop - Anna and Clark
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Epilogue
About the Author
More by DC Renee
Acknowledgements
Babulya, wish you were still here every single day. Love you.
Baba and Deda, love you and miss you.
“MY GOD, LIZZY, you look h-o-t,” Sam said beside me as we both stared at my reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t hot, let alone “h-o-t.” And yes, there was a distinction. The spelled-out version was infinitely better than just plain old hot. But Sam was my best friend. Therefore, she was one-hundred-percent biased, and I loved her for it.
“Thanks, Sam,” I said, my eyes finding hers in the mirror.
“You’re gonna knock him on his ass,” she added. I turned a bit this way and that, admiring my reflection.
Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t ugly. I was just plain, with nothing particularly special about me. My mom liked to say I was in my awkward teenage phase, and it was only a matter of time before I grew out of my lanky form. If she was right, I couldn’t wait for that to happen.
For now, though, this was me.
But I had to admit I didn’t look half bad with Sam’s help. In fact, I looked pretty darn…well, pretty.
Sam’s three older sisters taught her how to do hair and makeup—the whole shebang—but she just didn’t particularly care about it. Like me, she was a nerd through and through. Good girls who were afraid to get in trouble, afraid to let our grades slip from A-pluses to just A’s. Oh, the horror.
We’d met the first day of high school, like two nerd magnets finding each other. My dad was the district manager at an entrepreneurial firm. It was basically a big company that helped set up little companies. We’d just moved about two weeks before school started so he could help with the new division. Needless to say, I had no friends at my new school. Sam had gone to a private school through junior high because her mom worked for the school. But they couldn’t afford to send her to a private high school. In other words, she was a loner, just like me.
We now had a good little group of overachieving friends, but we were still each other’s number one.
That was why she was here, giving me the confidence I needed.
I had yet to master how to curl my hair, shape my eyebrows, contour my face, or do any of the other stuff Sam had done. But damn, did she work some magic on me.
My dull brown eyes somehow sparkled with the smoky purple hues she used on my eyelids, my cheekbones were more pronounced, rosy even, with a touch of shine, and my full pink lips—my only redeeming feature—were a shiny plum-pink color. My light brown hair fell in waves around my face. The color could best be described as a good base for highlights, yet it looked so shiny.
When I couldn’t choose the perfect dress for tonight in any store that I dragged Sam to, she showed up with dresses galore from her sisters’ closets. The satin green color made my skin look tanner.
Okay, I’d admit, I looked pretty darn good…for me, at least. I wasn’t winning any beauty contests, but I could proudly say I was inching toward Finn’s league.
Finn…just thinking of him gave me butterflies.
He was the most popular boy in school even though he was only a junior. He even gave the seniors a run for their money. At seventeen, he looked like he’d been crafted from some Greek god’s fantasy come to life. He didn’t have a six-pack—he had an eight-pack, muscles to die for, and those little v-things pointing to his happy place that made girls stumble over their own feet. Let’s not forget about his face—chiseled jawline, gray-blue eyes, high cheekbones, and tousled deep brown hair. It also helped that he was the star of the varsity lacrosse team.
I spent too much time doodling his name along the edges of my notebook, complete with hearts and even the cliché Lizzy + Finn lines. I couldn’t help it.
He was perfect, and I was well…just plain me.
So how the hell did I end up with him as my date for the spring formal?
Let’s just say that good girls didn’t always finish last.
“Lizzy, right?” one of Finn’s best friends, James, said when he bumped into me after second period in the hallway.
“Yeah,” I replied with a timid nod.
“You have the highest grade in pre-calc,” he stated. I just nodded in response. Like I said, nerd here. I shared several classes with upperclassmen as a result. “Smart is sexy,” he added, and I felt myself blush from my head to my toes. He chuckled in response. “You got a date for the dance?” he asked. I choked on air at that question. “Easy, easy there. My friend Finn likes your brain and wanted to see if you’d be interested in going.”
I found my voice really quick at that. “Yes, yes, absolutely.”
“Great, meet him there at seven.”
I barely contained myself as he walked away, running away the minute he’d rounded the corner to find Sam. I spit the words out so quickly that she interrupted three times to ask me to speak slower.
“Finn just asked me to the dance. He thinks it’s sexy that I’m smart.” So that wasn’t exactly what happened, but those were the words I finally managed to get out.
She had screeched, pulled me aside, and then made me recount everything. I did, and she proceeded to jump up and down in excitement with me.
That was on Monday, and now it was Saturday, and it was almost showtime.
I didn’t want my parents to take me, so one of Sam’s sisters agreed to drive us. Sam wasn’t coming, but she wanted to be there for me.
“My sis just texted she’s outside. Let’s go.”
My parents were visiting their friends and didn’t even know I was going to the dance today, so we walked right out the front door without any questions.
“Wow, Lizzy, you clean up nice,” Terri said as we got in the car.
“Thanks for driving me,” I told her.
“No prob, babe. Us girls gotta look out for each other,” she said with a wink.
“Good luck,” Sam and Terri said as the car pulled up in front of the hotel where the dance was being held.
“Call me the minute you can,” Sam said. “I want all the details.”
“I will,” I told her.
Stepping out of the car, I walked into the hotel and followed the signs to the ballroom. I felt like a princess straight out of a fairy tale, where the girl descends the steps and all eyes are on her.
All eyes were on me when I opened the ballroom door. But this was no fairy tale.
Think more like Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed.
You know that humiliating scene where she thought she looked like a prize, twirling around in pure joy, only to have her dreams shattered? That was me.
“Finn?” I asked as I looked at him with his arm draped over Marigel, the most beautiful girl in school and a senior to boot.
Around him were his friends, James included, all holding pages from one of my notebooks I hadn’t even realized I’d been missing. Each page prominently displayed my consuming crush on Finn.
“I love the little hearts,” one of the girls said, followed by a cackle of laughter.
“I love the 4eva,” another one added. “So very kiddie,” she said while everyone laughed at me.
This continued for a good few minutes while I was paralyzed in shock, frozen in place, stil
“Did you really think someone like me would go for someone like you?” Finn asked, and my brain finally kicked in.
“No,” I said, turning and running out the door, my tears quickly becoming sobs as their laughter chased me, echoing in my ears long after I had left the hotel and gathered my composure. My spirit was crushed, and my heart was shattered.
“I hate you, Finn Bahan,” I said into the space of my empty room. “I hate you,” I repeated. “And I’ll never stop.”
Eliza
“THIS SUCKS,” I whined into the phone as I finished getting ready. I had an interview in thirty minutes. It would take twenty to get there, so I had to scramble. It didn’t help that I was now in a shitty mood, thanks to finding out Sam had to work this coming weekend and wasn’t going to fly in after all.
“I know.” She sighed. “But I’m the newbie, which means I get stuck with all the bitch work.”
“Tell them you have more important places to be.”
“Not all of us can just hop on a plane and jet-set around the world with the rich and famous,” she told me, and I chuckled at her teasing.
“You do know your bestie is one of said rich and famous, ergo you can just hop on a plane and jet-set around the world.”
“You don’t count,” she said, and I could hear Sam’s smile through the phone. “You forget I knew you when you were all limbs and didn’t know how to hold a curling iron or what bronzer was.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
“Whatever yourself,” she tossed back. “Alright, babe, I gotta get back to work. We’ll talk soon, and I’ll try to reschedule for next weekend.”
“You focus on work. I’ll ask Terrence to handle the ticket.”
We hung up, and I finished getting ready before rushing out the door and getting in my car.
Sam was one of the last remnants of my former life. Well, she and my friend Anna. Two days after the Finn debacle, my dad was transferred again. Normally, I would have hated to move and leave my life behind, but this time, I was grateful the universe stepped in and took care of my embarrassment for me.
My mom had been willing to stay so I could finish out the school year, but I insisted we “stick together as a family.” Within a few days, we settled into our new life. You’d be amazed how quickly things could get organized if you knew what you were doing. Plus, the company paid for the movers.
I missed Sam and her sisters, who spent the day after the dance listening to me cry, watching me eat too much junk food, and vowing to take Finn and his groupies down.
When I told her the next day I was moving, she cried, but then she took my arms in her hands, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “This is a sign. It’s a new beginning. Leave the pain behind and start fresh.”
“Easier said than done,” I’d huffed.
“Nah, Lizzy, you just have to want it. Do you want it?”
“Yeah,” I said without hesitation.
“The rest, we’ll figure out.”
On the first day at my new school, Anna had taken pity on the new kid who had transferred in at semester. She was a unicorn. What did I mean? She was a good girl who got good grades, was unassumingly pretty, and fit in with just about every group. She wasn’t typically popular, but she was definitely liked by all. And she was a freaking sweetheart. Hence why she took me under her wing.
It took a few days, but I opened up to her about what happened at my old school. I’d never seen a look so murderous on anyone before. “I’ll kill him,” she said. From that moment on, I knew she’d be another one of my best friends.
Then I confided that I wanted to “change myself.”
“That’s easy,” she said with a wave of her hand.
Thanks to her, and the dozens of YouTube videos that Sam sent on a daily basis, I learned how to style my hair in a multitude of ways that all complimented my face. I knew how to do makeup better than professionals, and I wore clothes that somehow made my lanky form look pretty darn good. The next thing you knew, I was getting attention from guys at school, which did wonders for a girl’s self-esteem.
The best part? My mom was right. I grew into my form. More so even than that. I could proudly say I was a knockout. If you looked closely, I still resembled that awkward teenage girl, but she was definitely hidden way down deep.
Sam, Anna, and I all ended up at the same college. Yeah, we planned it that way. Needless to say, Sam and Anna were besties too. So much so that they continued to live together after I left. Now Anna was stuck under a pile of law briefs. It was harder to find time to talk, let alone hang out, but she was still there whenever I needed her.
So, what happened to me?
It was a fairy tale, really. I was on campus, rushing from one class to another during my first year there, when I crashed into someone. The movie kind of crash where papers flew and I fell on my ass. You know, comedic really. It turned out, though, that the person I crashed into was an agent who happened to be there scouting for a commercial and was looking for “fresh college faces.” He figured what better place to look than at a college.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as I tried to pull myself and my papers together.
“You, come with me,” he said in a voice so authoritative that I thought he was some sort of dean, and I was in trouble. I didn’t know who he was, but I followed without question.
The next thing I knew, I was missing my class to sit down and meet with him, not believing a word out of his mouth.
He handed me his card, told me he was one-hundred-percent serious, and that he expected my call with a “yes” very soon.
I ended up missing the rest of my classes that day, too stunned at what had transpired. Sitting in the dorm room we managed to snag with three beds, I waited for Anna and Sam to come back.
I told them everything that happened, and they lacked the skepticism I did. In fact, Sam picked up my phone, called the number on the card, and told him I said yes.
The next thing I knew, I was doing modeling shoots around my class schedule. But within months, I had to make a decision—modeling or schooling.
“Are you kidding?” Anna asked. “Is there even a question?”
“I’m with Anna,” Sam said. “You have no clue what you want to do with your career path, and here is one staring you down. You can always go back to school. You can never quit modeling and just go back. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way.”
“It’s a no-brainer. Famous model with tons of money or lowly college kid with too many loans,” Anna tossed at me.
So yeah, I dropped out, and here I was. A world-renowned model. Long gone was lanky Lizzy, and in her place was the sophisticated, beautiful, rich, and famous Eliza.
As crazy as my life was, it was thanks to Anna and Sam that I remained humble-ish. Let’s not forget my life wasn’t ordinary, so it was easy to get a little caught up, but whenever I thought my head was getting too big, I’d send them a text, and they knew how to get me back down to earth. Which was also why I chose to drive myself even when the agency tried to hire me a driver. For now, I was content with having a little bit of freedom.
“You’re late,” Dorian, my agent and manager, said as I parked. In Los Angeles, people were used to celebs. It wasn’t as crazy here as you saw in other cities. I could actually get in and out of places without a ton of fanfare for the most part. There were exceptions, of course.
“Was talking to Sam,” I told him.
He just rolled his eyes before giving me a smile. “Alright, fine. Head on in.”
One hour later, I was leaving, expecting to just go straight to my car. Remember those exceptions to the rule? Apparently, some fans got word I was there, and a mob was waiting for me at my car.
I smiled despite the overwhelming crowd and began to sign autographs and take pictures. Twenty minutes later, though, Dorian reminded me I had a meeting to go to.
“Sorry, guys, I have to run, but thank you all so much for your support and love. It means a lot.”
I heard a collective groan, and the next thing I knew, people were shoving and pushing, and I got caught in the chaos.
“Holy shit, that hurts,” I said as I rubbed my arm, now sitting in my car with Dorian at the wheel, his car left behind. He’d get one of his interns to fetch it for him later.
“There’s a reason many celebs of your status have drivers and bodyguards,” he told me.
