Rachel Reynolds isn't running from her past, but she wouldn't mind if it stopped chasing her, either. A senior in high school getting ready to graduate, Rachel is trying to look ahead toward her future, while forgetting the one night two years ago that set events in motion which altered the course of her entire life. Part of the future she's looking for includes falling out of love with her best friend, an act she seems incapable of, especially when it appears he might just love her, too. As Rachel tries to find her footing in a relationship that has baggage before it starts, a nightmare from her past reappears, upsetting the tenuous balance of Rachel's life and threatening the one person she loves most.
• Name: Rachel Reynolds
• Height: 6’0
• Age: 18
• Weight: yeah right
• POS: Outside/opposite
• College: undecided
• Stats: 0.250-4.00 hitting percentage; 1.26 aces/set; 2.0 passing percentage
Ah, my player profile. Beautiful. Why, you might ask? Is it because of the random numbers ninety percent of the population reading it don’t understand, or the fact that my height is in the top percentile for females? Because I refuse to put my weight on there as a high five to feminists everywhere, or maybe it’s because my college is undecided and, therefore, makes my future look open and inviting. Sadly, no, the beauty is not because of any of these things. The beauty in this profile comes from the fact that it’s just that, a profile, a glance, an overview of who I am that highlights only the necessary portions, while outright ignoring the other, more dramatic and infinitely more complicated portions of my life.
Dramatic, you say? You’re eighteen, a teenager with no responsibility and the world ahead of her, what drama could you possibly have? Please, don’t be such an adult (Read: naïve asshole).
In order to give you more insight into my life and its participants, I’ve listed below my teammates’ profiles, if you will, those people in my life that matter, that mean something to me, that impact me. Maybe after this you’ll understand why the player profile is so beautiful in its uncomplicatedness (spell check didn’t underline it, so I know that’s a word. Back off).
Players in the Life if Rachel “Flow” Reynolds.
• Parents: Sam and Leigh Reynolds
• Marital Status: Divorced.
• Relationship: Love mom, laugh at Dad.
• Stats: Mom’s a professor of Biology at the university; Dad’s discovering himself…and half the female population of our state.
• Siblings: Sister, Stacy.
• Age: 28
• Height: 5’7”
• Weight: Maybe a buck fifteen
• Stats: Type A perfectionist with OCD and narcissistic tendencies. A general pain in the ass.
• Best Friend #1: Katie Bowers
• Height: Tiny
• Age: 17 going on 23
• Weight: Less than me by a good twenty pounds
• Stats: one douchebag boyfriend, an absentee mother and criminal dad. Hello, daddy issues, party of one.
• Best Friend #2: Tripp Jones
• Height: 6’3” give or take an inch (I’ll take one, thanks)
• Age: 18
• Weight: more than me, praise Jesus.
• Stats: Girlfriend, Lauren, tiny and blonde and annoyingly pretty. Also, he’s the hated love of my life. We hooked up two years ago, ignored each other, and have come to a tentative truce. I want to fall out of love with him almost as much as I want to graduate from high school, though the latter is definitely more probable.
• Baby Daddy: Marcus Kash
• Oh yeah, I have a daughter. Surprise.
• Age: 20
• Height and Weight: who gives a shit
• Stats: Pothead asshole with violent tendencies. Yay, for drunken hookups and morning after consequences that last a lifetime.
• Baby: Gracie Reynolds
• Height: 30 inches (yep, tall like Mama)
• Age: one and half
• Weight: almost thirty pounds
• Stats: physically resembles her sperm donor of a father, and emotionally resembles her mother—thank God. Feisty, verbal, and generally hilarious.
What kind of drama, you ask? I’m a teen mom whose loved her best friend her entire life, and watched from afar while he dated a plethora of girls, except for that one time our sophomore year he chose me and we spent an intense night together. When I woke up without him, I got drunk and pregnant—the best response to a broken heart, yeah? Now, we’re graduating from high school, and I’m working on falling out of love with him while trying to get into college and give a good life to my daughter, while making sure the man who fathered her doesn’t kill me. Seriously. Yay to player profiles and simpler times, because life’s a bitch and she rarely allows me to ignore her.
Goodbye, uncomplicated, hello life, you sneaky biatch.
About the Author: Mom, Wife, Coffee Addict, and Book Lover
I am a writer of YA/NA contemporary novels. I write about those crazy ages of 18-23 because there is nothing scarier than being told to grow up and decide what to do with your life and who to be so suddenly. I write about love because it's my belief that love, in one form or another, saves us all at some point in our lives. I am married to a man who understands and believes in me, and mother to a beautiful baby girl and a neurotic Great Dane Puppy.
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Thank you so much for hosting a tour stop Suzy! This was a very fun guest post!
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