Troubled Girls Find Love Read online

  Troubled Girls Find Love

  THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

  KATHRYN REIGN

  KATHRYN REIGN PUBLISHING

  Copyright

  Troubled Girls Find Love

  The Complete Collection

  © Copyright 2023 Kathryn Reign

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

  Cover Design by Les (germancreative)

  Contents

  In Love with my Best Friend

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Three Little Words

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Three Dates

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Murder in Miami

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Stalk the Author

  In Love with my Best Friend

  TROUBLED GIRLS FIND LOVE

  In Love with my Best Friend Blurb

  My name is Lauren.

  I have a caring husband and two beautiful children.

  But I can’t stop thinking about… Him.

  Ever since I found my old phone, I’ve been haunted by memories of Felix, bringing back feelings that I’ve tried so hard to ignore.

  I feel guilty for regretting my marriage, for channeling the affection I should be having for my husband onto another man.

  But I can no longer deny it.

  I’m in love with my best friend.

  A romance short story that features love, regret, and betrayal.

  Chapter One

  I wake up in my bedroom, staring up at the plain, white ceiling. Letting out a small sigh, I climb out of my comfy bed and head downstairs, my ears suddenly being greeted by the sound of my children.

  “Good morning!” My husband gives me a small smile when I enter the living room. He’s sitting on the couch, the children playing in front of him. “I have to work today. But I’ll try to come home early and spend the evening with you.”

  Nodding, I take a seat beside him, looking down at our children playing on the carpet. We have a three-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl, both of them beautiful children and look exactly like my husband. I kneel in front of my son, his small face coming toward me.

  “Look, Mommy! I got a new car!” He shows me his toy, his face lighting up as he speaks about it.

  I giggle as I take the toy from him. “Wow! Did your father get this for you?” I look over at my husband, who’s beaming at us.

  “We bought it from the toy store yesterday…” He stands up and starts to head toward the front door, fixing his tie on the way. “I’m heading to work now… Also, I found your old phone in the attic. I’m not sure if you want to look at it or not. It’s on the kitchen counter.”

  Getting back onto my feet, I go to see my husband off, shutting the door tightly behind him. I think to myself for a moment… Do I really want to look at that phone? I know it will only bring back memories that I had worked so hard to bury.

  However, I can’t bring myself to ignore my feelings any longer. I rush into the kitchen, spotting the phone on the side of the counter.

  As I pick it up, the memories of my past life all flood back to me. All of my friends… Him. I feel a shiver run down my spine as I remember the sound of his voice, and the feeling of his fingers against my skin. Mentally scolding myself for even thinking such things about another man, I click the on button. As I expected, it’s dead. I search through the kitchen drawers, desperately trying to find a charger that will be able to fit the phone.

  It doesn’t take me long to find something, and I plug it in, my heart beating quickly. I don’t know what I will find on here. I don’t even know if everything will be as I left it. As I ponder, I see the icon that signals that the phone is turning on, and then the lock screen. The picture is of Felix, my best friend at the time, and the only one I had ever felt strongly toward.

  As I stare at his face, my heart begins to drop. All this time, I’ve been trying to hide how much I miss him, and suddenly, all the agony of the situation hits me. My heart aches to hear the sound of his voice again, or even to see a text message from him.

  We met back in middle school when he joined my class quite early into the year. He was a transfer student from Sweden and didn’t know English very well. Since I was one of the more outgoing students, he was placed under my care, and we quickly became friends. I think that’s when I started to fall in love with him but didn’t realize it since I was so young.

  I remember being incredibly fond of him, feelings that I didn’t quite understand back then, but they’re clear to me now.

  We spent every break we had together, just talking about random things, making daisy chains on the field during the summer. I can vividly remember the way his eyes lit up when I placed one that I’d made onto his beautiful blonde hair.

  I enjoyed middle school. We’d spent so much time together after school and during. I had lots of other friends apart from him, but he became my favorite quickly after we had first met. I tried to introduce him to my other friends, but they never really got along very well since he didn’t understand them.

  So, we spent most of our time alone. I tried my best to teach him my language as best I could. Surprisingly, he learned very quickly and could speak clearly to me in no time. The first time he ever made my heart, really beat, was when he pulled me into a big hug, letting me rest my head on his as we embraced. I was taller than him at the time, but he quickly grew to be much bigger than me. We stayed in that hug for a while. I still don’t really know why he decided to do it. Maybe he just wasn’t feeling well that day.

  After seeing that picture, I become curious. I want to see more of him. To reminisce on the old times that we had. Swallowing, I click on the photo icon. My eyes are suddenly flooded with pictures of us. Me and my best friend. The best friend whom I was in love with. Whom I’m still in love with.

  One of the pictures stick out to me, and I press on it to get a closer look. It’s a picture of us both sleeping, taken by another one of our friends at the time.

  Back in high school, we had a sleepover at one of our friend’s house with a few other people while her parents were out of town. We shared the couch downstairs, and I comfortably rested in his arms the whole night. That’s when we shared our first kiss, too, during a classic game of spin the bottle.

  Looking back on it now, I can see why our friends tried their hardest to get us together. Despite their efforts though, and my own love for him, he never felt the same way. We took so many pictures that I barely know where to look.

  I then scroll back to when we were in high school, when we had taken the most pictures and spent the most time together. There is a group photo with us and all of our high school friends, sitting on the track field for our last day of school picture. Unsurprisingly, Felix and I were cuddled together in the corner of the picture, with some of our friends looking at us fondly.

  Chapter Two

  I didn’t enjoy high school as much as I’d expected to. The days dragged, and I struggled to make a lot of friends. I only had a couple, whom I’d only really met because Felix had made friends with them first. They were a couple of girls, which we grew incredibly close with over time. But still, we were never as close as I was with Felix.

  Felix always stayed by my side, defending me from anyone who tried to pick a fight with me. I didn’t really have that many arguments with people. I was quieter and tended to keep to myself. But there was one girl who didn’t like me at all. I don’t personally remember doing anything to annoy her; she had just seemingly taken a disliking to me for no reason. She would pull my hair and shout insults at me.

  Now, thinking back, maybe she was jealous; what other reason could there have been? But it made me feel terrible. At first, it didn’t bother me that much; I was able to ignore it. But it soon became worse and worse when her friends sometimes joined in.

  But she would never say anything to me when Felix was around, so I’d purposely keep to his side as much as possible to avoid her.

  One day though, he finally noticed what was going on when she shouted something at me without realizing that he was nearby. I will always remember how his face twisted into a glare when he realized what she had said. I’d never seen him that angry before. Well, I’d never seen him angry, period. He was always happy, so optimistic.

  It resulted in him snapping at her, and she broke down in front of everyone. She was the typical high school bully, so a couple of people chuckled, causing her to get even more upset. The girl never said anything to me again after that, but she always looked like she was carrying a hateful word on her shoulder. Not that I cared much
.

  One of her friends actually came up to me after that, apologizing for how she had treated me. She told me how much she hated the way they treated people and asked if we could become friends. Of course, I said yes, eager to invite her into my circle. We became very close friends after that, and she actually attended my wedding.

  Everything that I had gone through with my parents and other people had convinced me that I didn’t deserve his affection, but he always assured me that it was sort of a “thank you” for helping him learn English, and being one of the only people who truly bothered to befriend him. Even though high school wasn’t a very memorable experience for me, I do remember being extremely happy with my life. At least, in comparison to how my life actually turned out.

  Sure, I love my husband very much, and now that we’re married, I wouldn’t want to change him for the world. But I still feel robbed of my chance with Felix, even after all this time away from him. I’m still curious about what he could possibly be doing with his life right now.

  I continue to flick through the gallery. The way his eyes look at me so lovingly in all of the photos makes me question his feelings, too… But maybe, I was just being hopeful; it’s too late now, anyway. Another one of the photos show us eating ice cream together, with some cringey stickers and filters all over the screen.

  We were in high school; who could blame us?

  Back then, my parents weren’t the best, and I had problems with them all the time. We had tons of arguments, which ultimately ended in me getting kicked out of their home constantly. Felix gave me a place to stay, meaning, we spent most of our time together. Ultimately, my feelings for him became stronger, and I became more and more attached to him.

  Even though my home life was bad, Felix and his parents made it a lot better. I felt comfortable at his house and was allowed to stay whenever I needed to. My parents were going through a pretty rough divorce, and I seemingly “got in the way” — their words — so Felix gave me a place to stay while they recovered and regained their time for me.

  The time we spent at his house wasn’t very eventful. He still only saw me as his best friend, so the most we ever did was cuddle and watch endless amounts of movies. But it was enough to make me extremely happy at the time. I would lay my head on his chest and listen to the sound of his heart beating peacefully. His hand would wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him. We would also sleep like that, too, his arms around me and my arms around him.

  Back then, I was convinced that he would be able to hear the sound of my heartbeat from where he lied. It was beating so loudly from the experience, and I could only hope that he didn’t realize how nervous I was.

  I clutch onto the cabinets as I feel my knees weaken. My head feels so hot, and my heart is throbbing. Why is this happening? Part of me wishes that my husband had left the phone in the attic, along with everything I still feel for Felix. But another part of me is grateful.

  To this day, I still miss him. In the end, I never even got a chance to say goodbye to him. It was so strange, the way we could go from being best friends to being strangers within minutes.

  The sound of my son crying suddenly distracts me from my thoughts. I place the phone down on the counter so it can charge, and I go to check on him.

  “Are you hungry?” I ask as I pick him up from the ground, taking him to the kitchen for breakfast.

  I place him in his highchair and pour out a bowl of cereal and milk. As I go to give it to him, I notice something. His blonde hair looks just like Felix’s, and the loving look in his eyes as he stare at me is also the same.

  I must’ve been staring for a short while, because he starts to speak. “Mommy?”

  “Sorry.” I shake the thought from my head and place the bowl on the highchair, along with a plastic spoon for him to eat with.

  Now, everything I look at reminds me of him. Even the countertops remind me of when we would bake cookies together, and he’d lift me up to sit on top of it like a child. He always said that it was to get me out of the way. Thinking back on it now, it makes me chuckle. I can finally see why our friends thought we had something.

  My son finishes up with his meal, and I let him out of the chair, placing the bowl into the sink to be washed later. Now that the children are busy, I have another chance to look through the phone. Picking it up once again, I open my messages, desperate to look at what we used to talk about. When the texts eventually load, I’m able to read the last few ones we ever sent to each other.

  Lauren

  I hope I can see you again soon :) Goodnight, please sleep well.

  Felix

  We’ll meet again soon! I’ll only stay here for a short while so I can visit my grandparents, and then we’ll finally be reunited. Goodnight, love.

  We never spoke again after that. I heard from another friend that he met some girl while he was back home visiting his grandparents, and decided that he was going to stay with her. He felt too guilty to speak to me himself, so he stuck to communicating through our friends, which I hated.

  I scroll up a few months, before he went away, to one of my favorite memories. One that I will never be able to forget, no matter how much I try to force myself to. I find what I’m looking for and begin to read through the messages.

  Felix

  I’m sorry about what happened… We were both really drunk, and I guess what happened, happened. Let’s just forget about it, okay?

  The first time we went out to drink as legal adults ended in us getting carried away and spending the night together. Secretly, I wanted us to pursue what happened further, and finally make things official, but I could’ve never said that to him. Before all of that happened, however, I did make an attempt to tell him my feelings, but it didn’t go how I had expected, and he shrugged me off.

  I find the chat, exhaling loudly as I remember the pain I felt back then.

  Lauren

  Do you really love me, Felix? I love you so much that it hurts, and I can’t keep acting like I don’t.

  Felix

  Of course, I do. You’re my best friend, after all :) Did something happen?

  Lauren

  No, my day just hasn’t been great. I’m going to sleep now.

  Felix

  Sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.

  After that experience, it was clear to me that he didn’t want anything more than what we already had. I felt so stupid that seeing him every day after that just felt embarrassing, and he still has no idea how I feel.

  Or maybe he does, and just chooses to ignore it.

  Chapter Three

  We didn’t have many classes together in college. I only saw him when our breaks lined up. And we tried our best to see each other as much as we could. However, he became pretty popular in college, with girls constantly trying to get with him. Of course, this made me extremely jealous, and I subtly tried to make it seem like he already had a girlfriend so they’d leave him alone.