Eliana Cortella, a seventeen year old with many problems. She lives with her hard working father who has taken care of her since she was two, doesn't have single friend in school; and to top it off a heart problem with a hint of unsteady legs. For three years she's been bullied, and all she wants is change. Her wish came true when the three cross brothers came to town. She's in for a whole lot of troubles In just a few days.

FROM DAWN TO MIDNIGHT

By TAREA TOOMER

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Tarea Toomer
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-0598-3

Chapter One

THE BEGINNING

In my room laying in the dark, I get closer to my cat, Lesley, brooding over the misery of my life. Lesley cuddles next to the side of my leg as hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I cried how nothing went right for me ever, wishing it would get better.

Here I am, Eliana Cortella, a seventeen year old crying about her life pinned up in the dark, very cliché. I leaned against the dash board and picked up Lesley, who decided to jump on my bed.

"You love me right?" I asked him as if I was going to get an answer out of him. After I said this to him he licked my cheek with his hard, wet tongue. I took that as a yes of course. I kissed him on the top of his furry head and put him down on the floor. I was going to sleep, to get ready for my junior year of high school. As I leaned against the dash board I thought of it, what it might be like for me this year. Would it be the same? Or would it be different? I pondered on that for at least a minute when I realized that I was just hoping it would change and be different, but it was most likely to be the same as the last three years.

I put my head against my pillow to stare at my pitch black ceiling. Lesley decided to jump up and lay his furry body next my bare cheek. His long black tail slid across my neck, tickling me. As I laughed he began to purr, rubbing his head against my cheek. The sound of his purring somewhat comforted me in my black mist of tomorrow. I really needed comforting at this moment in time. Again I just lay thinking about what might happen tomorrow and I couldn't help but hope for a new start as I always did every year but was crushed to find out nothing changed over the summer. They still treated me the same.

I was thinking about if I should just pretend to have a great day in school like my father expects but I don't think I can lie about my days anymore than I already have in these years. I thought I should try to enjoy my day and have fun .... okay no need to lie to myself either lets not be tired on my day back to school cause I already was staying up when I said I was going to bed. I couldn't wait to go back to have another year where everything seems to repel me in every way.

I couldn't wait.

I woke up to a grayish morning. I reluctantly got out of bed and got dressed. I wanted to go as slow as I could so I would be late, but to my irritation I went quite fast.

I groaned.

I walked sluggishly down the stairs to eat a bowl of cereal. I did stumble a few times walking down, I do have a Vestibular disorder; it keeps me from being able to walk straight and stand still for too long or I lose balance. When I walked into the kitchen I was surprised to see my dad at the table reading the newspaper and a cup of coffee in front of him, which is very well past cold.

What a waste I thought.

"Good morning dad. Shouldn't you be leaving for work right about now, actually?" I asked as I walked over to the cabinet. My dad got up and folded the newspaper making a loud screeching sound with his chair as he pushed it in. This made me jump slightly.

"Yes, yes I was. I was just waiting until you came down." He paused to drink his cold coffee," I was just leaving." He finished his coffee, ran hot water into the mug and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. His breath smelled like hazelnut, mixed with a hint of vanilla.

I smiled, that was my favorite smell.

I waved goodbye as he grabbed his coat to leave. Pausing for a moment; looking at the picture on the table near the door. Then he quickly left waving one more time to me.

My father is the owner of a water plant here, meaning I have some money to spare. But to tell you now it's not that much. My father's name is Ciaus Cortella. He's a very straight forward man who works hard in life. That's why I love him so much because he worked hard to make a living for me. My mother, Elice Cortella, died when I was two, from an Immunodeficiency. It took a while before I was able to stop crying myself to sleep at night.

We hardly ever mention my mother; it's hard for him to talk about it, especially me in that case. I never had great tolerance of my emotions so if you just bring up something that is hard to deal with in my case I'll probably break down. I'm a short, ivory-skinned, red head. I get the shortness and red hair from my mother. The only things I got from my father were my nose and eyes. I have dark brown eyes that he said looked like molten chocolate. I started thinking about how it would be if my mother was around and it brought tears to my eyes. I wiped them quickly and just concentrated on my breakfast. I didn't want to go to school red-eyed.

I ate my cereal without tasting it, except the cool feel of the milk sliding down my throat. I grabbed my parka it had the feel of a biohazard suit. I picked up my keys near the door and also kissed the picture that my father stopped to look at before leaving. It was a picture of my mother when she was coming home with me in her arms. In the picture I was asleep. I took in a deep breathe and held it for a few seconds, then let it go. I didn't want to make myself upset.

It was cold outside and it was also drizzling. Up here in Still Waters, Springs it's not that surprising. It rains almost everyday up here.

I didn't care.

I didn't want my hair to get damp from the drizzling rain. So I threw on my hood in the attempt to keep my hair dry. Then I ran to my new black Mercedes Benz, I almost fell but I made it without falling to the wet ground.

As I drove down the street I saw several groups of friends talking and laughing walking underneath one large umbrella. I had to shake off the image of actually walking and laughing with a bunch of friends if I had that many or I would start crying on the spot. I'm a very sensitive person at times.

Once I drove into the lot for the school parking, everyone in the radius of seeing my car were drooling.

I had to laugh at that.

I parked close to the school entrance but not to close. Everyone was still going gaga over my new car. I was smiling hugely to myself. It's kind of funny in a way; I would be the only one with an expensive brand new car. I had to admit my car was a beauty. I sat there for a while watching as the cars came in to the parking. None of them were brand new and that made me a little smug about my car.

But, unfortunately once I got out everyone looked away as if I wasn't there. That really pissed me off but I should be used to it by now, but I wasn't it still upsets me. I took in a deep breath and sighed I should have known it would be this way. It almost always was. I don't have many friends, maybe a few that lived in different countries or states either one but I'm pretty sure that they probably lived across the world. I didn't have a boyfriend either. Maybe they thought that I wasn't good enough for them or unattractive or something.

I looked at myself. I wasn't fat or too skinny; I was medium sized if that's what you want to call it. Then I looked at the clothes that I wore. I wore tight jeans, I think they're called skinny jeans that showed off the curves of my legs. My shirt was white and it sort of puffs out, but not too much. It tightens around the waist with elastic. The sleeves were short and frilled. I wore flats, black flats because I was a hazard to myself in many ways. But above all that, the outfit was really cute.

I just shook my head and let it go. Whatever they didn't like I'll never know; or want to figure out for that matter. I didn't care. I began to walk to the main entrance to the school, and then I noticed a crowd of girls circling around the end of a sleek, and shiny new silver Volvo. My heart jumped when I saw the car. I couldn't help but love it.

I gazed in awed affection to the car. I never really knew what turned me on to fall in love with cars especially in my favorite five colors; black, red, white, silver and best of all mid-night blue. As I moved closer to the car to get a better look at it I heard giggling.

That really bugged me.

So I looked away from the car for the first time. I wanted to see who they were giggling at. I tried looking through them to see but that didn't work, so I started jumping. I heard little fragments of what they were saying, but I wasn't paying attention to what they said. I stopped jumping after five attempts. Then with luck one of the girls moved to the side trying to get closer to whom ever it was they were with.

That's when my eyes grew with shock. They had caught the sight of three, beautiful, pale boys. They were so breath taking; in other words, gorgeous. No wonder they were drooling like they were. If I didn't know how to control myself I'd probably be doing the same thing as they were doing at this moment. Then they laughed again—the girls I mean, with their high pitch giggles—it was starting to get annoying. Then in a respectful manner the three boys began to introduce themselves. I looked at them waiting to hear their names. I was close enough to listen and I was curious to who they were.

The first one to speak was the boy with messy blonde hair, and his eyes were like a shade of emerald green. He said, "Hello I'm Vincent. It's nice to meet you all." He gave them all a smile that could probably light up the night with his bright white teeth that he showed. He had a full face that seemed a little too mature.

"I'm Luciano. It's very wonderful to meet you all." He said. That surprised me a little bit, but not so much; it has happen that a guy would come along and is polite. And as well he was very gorgeous. He had jet black hair that was pushed back neatly and somewhat messy at the same time. His eyes were a shade of amethyst which turned a lighter purple when he looked at the sky. I was going to walk away because I didn't want to get caught staring at them the way the other girls were. Okay I have to admit it, I was jealous that they are getting more attention than I got in three years.

That wasn't going to happen, the last one of the three had spoken and it caught my attention very quickly. As soon as he started my head quickly turned back around making my long brunet hair whip me in the face.

"Hello, I'm Stefan Cross, and these are my two older brothers." He stopped and looked my way. I quickly dropped my head and blushed. I didn't want to be caught and look what happened. I felt so embarrassed, I started looking through my purse like that was my first intention. My hair fell over my face and I pulled it back holding it there with my hand as I looked through with my other hand. I wasn't looking for something at all I just wanted him to look away. Instead I heard him chuckle, my head went flying up and he wasn't looking at me facing me, but he was looking at me from the corner of his eye.

He smiled and looked away. My heart was pounding so hard it was making me dizzy. I took one last fleeting look and walked away. It was so hard to leave I kept looking back; I did twice. Before I left I heard him say they came from Italy about a week ago. I wondered why they left it was a beautiful place and when I went with my father I had so much fun. I thought back to when I was listening to him introduce himself. His voice was very, highly seductive. It was hard trying to breathe. I was leaning against my locker by then. The school had given us the same lockers as last year and the year before that. I opened my locker, and then I heard giggling.

They had to walk in when I opened my locker. I quickly threw what I didn't need into my locker and slammed it shut. I turned around too fast that I almost fell. The girls had seen of course and started laughing; I was suspecting for them to laugh as well because I knew they saw, but they weren't. I had noticed that the boy named Luciano was about to come over to me, but didn't, he realized I was fine. The boy named Vincent didn't bother to even look, but Stefan the youngest out of the three was looking at me startled. He looked worried as if I was going to fall again.

He noticed me looking and quickly got a hold of himself and smiled at me as did Luciano. Vincent just ignored me. I'm guessing he was like all the other boys in this school. My leg started to shake and they both looked worried again—thank you weird unsettlement problem, now they probably think I'm weird.

They finally passed me, which felt like forever. Before they passed me Luciano had winked at me. My heart had finally stopped beating and I thought I was going to pass out but I didn't. I caught myself by leaning my back against the locker and taking in deep breathes. It had only stopped for a moment but it made them—all of them—turn and look at me. The girls turned to look when I made a bang sound against the locker and called me a weirdo.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from FROM DAWN TO MIDNIGHTby TAREA TOOMER Copyright © 2012 by Tarea Toomer. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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