Fight or Flight

Chapter 1 – Now and Then

*Trigger Warning – this book does contain and explore some topics that may be upsetting and difficult for some.

*Please also note – there are multiple scenes of a s****l nature, some more graphic than others, throughout the book.

*Please read Authors note before you continue with this chapter*

If you have read book one, you do not need to read this Chapter.

Although this is a basic refresher of Leah’s story and the characters so far, so may be useful.

If you haven’t read book one but intend to – do not read any further – it will spoil it!

This is Leah’s story so far in a nutshell.

Leah’s POV

My Name is Leah Barnes, I am 19 years old. I have long thick wild blonde hair, I am 5”4 and have large bright blue eyes. I am slim but curvy.

I struggled during high school to know what I wanted to do with my life. Well, I knew what I wanted to do, but I also knew it wasn’t what my parents wanted me to do.  

I love to read and study; I am coming to the end of my first year of college doing Photography and Ceramic Art much to my over baring mothers’ annoyance.

I made the tough decision to go with my dreams and not theirs. Once I had made the decision, although I felt happier, I still had many hardships to encounter, mainly my mother’s disapproval.

I don’t get on with my mother, Terri, so much, I am more like my father, Paul. But he is weak and tends to side with her to make his life easier. She is not an easy person to live with or please.

Despite being generally quite shy, not very sociable, and apprehensive of new things, I have discovered I have an adventurous and thrill-seeking side to me that is slowly becoming more apparent.

This side of me had always been quashed and derailed by my mother who hated this about me, she is serious, controlling, traditional and unimaginative.

But since I gained some confidence, I ignored her wish and need for me to step into her line and made my own one.

When I had just turned 18 my best friend became terminally Ill and after a short Illness passed away. During her brief Illness I had a fling with her older brother Kai.

Things got messy and for a short time and we went our separate ways, but we soon realised we couldn’t and didn’t want to be apart from one another.

We made it official and have been dating ever since. I couldn’t be happier.

Kai is 21, a carpenter and currently working with Jimmy in a furniture repair and antique store refurbishing and making furniture. His dream job is to make and sell furniture from his workshop at home.

He has dark wavy hair, cut short on the side but longer and ruffled on top. He is almost 6 ft tall, toned, and muscular, and is generally a quiet introverted person.

He has dark hazel eyes with a hint of amber in them in certain lights. He has a chiselled jaw line, and a killer watt smile. To say I am smitten is an understatement.

We have an insatiable need for one another, and our s*x life is on fire, we both like to try new things. Before Kai, I was a virgin, so everything to me is new and exciting.

His parents, Mel and Cal are more like parents to me than my own and have been in my life since I was a small child due to my friendship with Kaya.

Cal was my high school Chemistry teacher. He is quirky and has a weird sense of humour, Kai is much like him in many ways.

Mel is quiet and petite, and Kaya was the spitting image of her. Mel is motherly, kind, and supportive and always has my back.

Previous to our intimate relationship, Kai and I had a distanced relationship while growing up, despite my being at his house often, he never involved himself when I was there.

Along the way, over the last 12 months, I met two of the most amazing girls I now consider my best friends, Skylar (Sky) and Lisa (Lis). They are very different from one another, and from me, but somehow it works.

Last year I learnt to surf with Sky and became a proficient horse rider thanks to Lis. Both things I now enjoy doing when I can.

Sky runs a youth centre for the youths, called Skylar’s, in the old Rec centre in our small and isolated village, and those surrounding us. She is 26 and had a difficult childhood, but not many people know her story. She is adventurous, wild, and easy going.

She is 5”8, slim, and legs to die for. She is gay, which surprised me when I found out.

She has olive skin, almond shaped piercing green eyes, dark hair that is always dyed in different colours, piercings, and her left arm a complete sleave of tattoos.

She never talks about her family, but I know her mother came from Crete and her father from England.

Maria is like a mother to Sky; she works with her and knows all her secrets. Maria is in her late 50’s and works at the Rec centre, Skylar’s, with Sky.

Lisa is 5”1, 24 and gay, something that unlike Sky, didn’t surprise me at all. She has Auburn wavy hair cut in a graduated bob, freckles pepper her cheeks and nose on her porcelain skin.

She is quiet and naive in many ways. She is athletic in build and rides horses daily.

Her mother passed away when she was in her late teens and her brothers left home and married leaving her to support her father, Henry, to run the farm. She never left.

She now runs a holiday let business on her father’s farm which is a relatively new venture, and also runs the riding school and stables there. She has just moved into her own cottage on the farm.

This was my story so far, and here is where a new chapter in my life begins.