A Pretty Pill Read online

  Table of Contents

  A Pretty Pill

  Dedication

  Chapter One: The Catalyst

  Chapter Two: The First Year

  Chapter Three: The Second Year

  Chapter Four: The Third Year

  Chapter Five: The Fifth Year

  Chapter Six: A Change is Coming

  Chapter Seven: Banter and Stuff.

  Chapter Eight: Twisted innuendo

  Chapter Nine: Discovery

  Chapter Ten: Week One

  Chapter Eleven: Week Two

  Chapter Twelve: Week Three.

  Chapter Thirteen: Week Four.

  Chapter Fourteen: 18

  Chapter Fifteen: Aftermath.

  Chapter Sixteen: Redemption

  Chapter Seventeen: Upshot

  Chapter Eighteen: September

  Chapter Nineteen: Moving on.

  Chapter Twenty: Preparations and Progeny

  Chapter Twenty-One: Exodus

  ~Epilogue~

  Fake (A pretty Pill, #2)

  About the Author

  A Pretty Pill

  A Pretty Pill (A Pretty Pill, #1)

  Criss Copp

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright 2013 by C.E. Copp

  This is a dpgroup exclusive. This ebook remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes without the express written consent of the author; with the exception of the use of short excerpts quoted in reviews of this ebook. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Dedication

  For Tallowyn...

  The greatest fight in life... is life! Everyone is out to win, and most of them don’t fight fair... but then, who said life is fair?

  And for Mathew...

  Sometimes it isn’t about the gift but the giver... thank you!

  Chapter One: The Catalyst

  JADE.

  …November...

  “Babe… your mobile is ringing!” Graeme shouts out from my single bed, where he is still lounging; naked. I’m lucky I have understanding roomies; because when he comes ‘over,’ they ‘go out.’ In fact, they’ll both be due back any time soon, and he needs to wash the traces of my scent off him before he returns home; so I need to hurry up.

  “Just let it go to message bank!” I shout back; since suds are in my hair and threatening my eyes as they begin to slide down my forehead.

  Graeme and I have been maintaining this ‘friends with benefits’ thing all year; after all, we’re in the same courses, we’re in the same circles, I don’t want to get bogged down with one person yet, and we both like to fuck!

  Graeme’s not my first sexual partner, and God help me if he’s my last! I don’t see him as exclusive, that’s for sure! And, he has this one tiny little problem! It would be a bit of a deal breaker for me if we were seeing each other, as in being with each other; but since he’s not my boyfriend, just a friend; I’m not currently concerned that we see each other regularly, outside the delegation of friends and peers; to fuck each other’s brains out. I’m sure his boyfriend wouldn’t agree with our rendezvous’, since he’s strictly gay and monogamous; Scott definitely has no interest in girls, not even to appease his boyfriend of 18 months. But Graeme; well, obviously he’s not… um, strictly gay! Because he enjoys a bit of pussy action; and because he’s bisexual, and doesn’t want to be stuck with the one gender, not that being bisexual has anything to do with that. I’m sure he’s just not into commitment either; he will no doubt stray throughout every relationship he’s in.

  I wash the suds out of my red and thick, shortish hair, which when dry will display as close cropped at the back, and longish on top, especially the razor cut hair that drapes over my eyes, requiring me to pin it back when on prac.

  I jump out of the shower and dry myself off, before draping the towel around me and walking back into my room.

  Graeme hasn’t even bothered to cover himself back up; he’s just lying on top of my bed flicking through last year’s copy of The Australian Medicines Handbook. I got it as a Christmas present from my grandparents, who were helpfully informed by a friend of a friend that not only is it a useful text, but that it’s a mandatory one.

  Well; it is a useful text… I love it! But it isn’t mandatory for nurses!

  “Your turn… quick! Sandy and Rachel will be here soon.” I look at the clock, “Scrap that, they’ll be here now!”

  And just like that, the door knob begins to turn, and Graeme is forced to sprint into the bathroom.

  “Hey!” I say in greeting to the two of them. “Right on time! Graeme will be out in a minute and we need to look at getting ready to hit the town!” I squeal.

  It’s our last night together before we all go away for the holidays. We’re all out-of-towners, and college housing kicks us out over the holidays.

  I’m from Armidale in the New England area of New South Wales... and although I came to attend university in Newcastle, I could’ve gone to university in my home town... I just didn’t want to stay home. I wanted to move away and secure a taste of my freedom.

  Rachel came to attend university in Newcastle from Taree on the Mid North Coast of NSW... and in truth, of all the friends I’ve made thus far, she’s the best. Rachel is simply as cute as you can get. She’s super short, a whole foot or so shorter than me, and she’s a little pocket rocket. She’s got long blond hair and blue eyes, pale skin and a button nose. Her super slim body often gets her confused with a pre teen, but she’s got a mouth on her that will quickly dash those illusions. She struggles to pick up because she looks so young; often having to establish a friendship first till they can see her for who she really is. But hey, in ten years or so, this setback will be to her advantage!

  Sandy came from Mudgee in the Central West area of NSW; her parents run a shop in the small tourist town, and her heritage is a conglomerate jumble of nations. So Sandy is dark to Rachel’s light; almost black eye colour, because they’re so dark, and shoulder length dark brown hair that she keeps tied back at all times because she suffers from frizzy, untameable hair. Her skin has a light olive tone to it, and when it sees the sun, it tans deeply rather than burning, till she shows a deep olive colour. Out of all of us, she tends to get the most attention from guys, because she’s always exuding exotic appeal. She’s also short, just a little taller than Rachel; so it’s safe to say I stand a head above the rest, lol!

  My body is a bit boyish; by that I mean that I don’t really have hips like these girls, even Rachel has curve to her hips. I can create in myself an appearance of curves, since I have the slightest dip in my sides where my waist is, by wearing the right clothes; but yeah, you know when you get naked, you are what you are.

  I do have a six pack stomach, and I have only 15% body fat; which probably sounds like a pretty big number, but seriously, it’s only just enough for me to get my periods, and when I get serious about my training, I quite often lose them altogether. I have pretty small breasts in comparison to Sandy, but at least I am similar to Rachel in this area. We’re both B cups, and although we’re obviously not talking fill the cup to overflowing, we’re still talking too big for an A cup, so, moving on up to a B cup.

  My clincher is my face; I’ve been told I have a beautiful face, but I don’t like to think about it much, because it makes me feel self conscious to believe I’m anything special or pretty.

  Of greater advantage, is our appeal when we all make an effort, get dressed up (lots of makeup and hair straightening) and hit the town together, with our other friend Gwen; we collectively have everything a guy could want, so we tend to have our drinks paid for and plenty of attention garne
red.

  “Well you won’t need to be finding any action tonight!” Rachel smirks, looking to the floor where two condom wrappers are littering the floor. I would like to point out that they do not include the original contents; now disposed of in the bin. Most important rule; when sharing closely confined accommodation with others, don’t leave used condoms full of cum on the floor, or on the bed, or just out in the open in general! Always remove from sight and dispose of said waste considerately! It makes for happy roomies, and a far more congenial environment.

  ***

  “What’s your name?” An obviously male voice screams in my ear. The music is blaring and I’m dancing with my friends, so it makes me jump in surprise. Rachel, Sandy and Gwen didn’t warn me that someone was standing there or approaching me.

  I have sort of stumbled backwards into the guy as a result, and he’s forced to hold my upper arms with his huge calloused hands. I turn, expecting to be towering over him since I’m six foot… or 183cm tall... I’m tall, and I like it! With my heels on, you can add whatever the heel height is to that! I’m wearing heels… killer stilettos in fact, and I make my friends look like the little people out of the Wizard of Oz.

  “Dude! I’m so sorry!” I say loudly as I turn, looking straight into this guys powder blue eyes. Unexpected… he’s damn tall if he’s my height when I’ve got my killer heels on; and damn, if he’s not fucking hot too! He’s drop dead gorgeous… I’m thinking Graeme who? This is the guy I should be screaming my pleasure for!

  “No way! I scared you!” he laughs loudly at me, pushing his blond hair out of his eyes and smiling.

  “Yes, you did!” I reply smiling.

  “God, you have an amazing smile!” he shouts, grinning. “So, what’s your name?” he asks again.

  “Jade!” I shout. Rachel is pushing me in the back towards him. Rachel says I’m too standoffish when I first meet guys, and she wants me to drop the whole Graeme thing and move on to a real boyfriend. She doesn’t share in the idea that I want free love while at uni, and will concentrate on building something more permanent when I have something more permanent in life, like a job and my own place!

  But I’m nicely buzzing after my 3 shots of Cock Sucking Cowboys with the girls and my proceeding Vodka Cranberries… yes… plural! So hell; I’ll move in closer to this orgasmically good looking guy.

  He stands taller against me as we face each other.

  “And your name?” I shout.

  “Tim!” he returns. “I was wondering if you care for a drink? I’ve got a table over there.” He shouts, pointing to a table where three guys and a girl wave back at us. “Or if you want, I can stay here and dance with you!” he finishes.

  I grab his shirt on both sides of his slim waist and begin to dance backward into my circle of friends.

  “I guess that means I’m dancing!” he shouts and laughs at the same time. I nod and smirk at him. I’ve just got myself a fish, and I’m dragging him back into the girl net! The four of us will devour him given a chance.

  At first he’s facing only me, grabbing me around the waist and moving his hips in time with mine, but as the music transforms from the steady, sultry beat of Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon to the building tempo of Propane Nightmares by Pendulum; he changes position, because the four of us girls go a bit crazy and start throwing a whole lot of arm movement into the fray; alongside jumping up and down on the spot. To his credit, Tim keeps up, jumping with us to the electric beat like a pro and maintaining the energy, with the exception of that part in the middle where the song slows down. He’s dripping sweat by the end of it, as am I.

  The music morphs into Jealousy by Sparkadia, and Tim is grabbing my hand and nodding to the bar. I don’t say anything, but I nod and begin to move so he knows I accept his offer of a drink. When we get there, he orders two shots of Tequila, which of course come with the mandatory salt and a lemon wedge.

  Tim turns to me and gives me an incredibly sexy look, and then he proceeds to slide across my shot and lemon wedge. He then takes my hand and licks a line on the side of it, below my thumb, before pouring some salt on it. He offers me the salt, to see if I’d like to return the favour, which of course I do and then we lick, toss and suck.

  Tim is grinning and motioning to the bar tender for further service. We’re both tall... way taller than the average person standing there, so it’s pretty hard to miss us, and he’s stunning to look at, so the female bar tender gravitates fairly rapidly back over to us... who could blame her.. I would too!

  Tim purchases my Vodka staple alongside his rum and coke. He then motions to where his friends have been seated, watching us from a distance.

  “Yep!” I agree to the unspoken question. So we go and sit with the friends and backup that he brings.

  ***

  I’m groaning... my body right now is all kinds of sore! After meeting Tim’s friends, we all made our way to their house and I managed to find myself sharing breathing space with Tim; ‘Hot Tim,’ as my girlfriends referred to him by the end of the night.

  When the three of them took a cab home, back to our college accommodation that we were to evacuate today; since the Christmas break was upon us; and our exams were over, I stayed at Tim’s house; in his bed, and shared some body heat, despite the 30 degree (Celsius) evening temperature; it is a bit hot for this time of year, and a heat wave is sucking the life out of everyone, up and down the East Coast.

  Despite the heat; it was still a good decision. Tim had his mojo on! He was having me up against the wall, in his computer chair, on his desk, over his desk, on top, underneath and orally too. Fucking amazing! I’ll be lucky if I can walk! He totally owned me!

  “What’s the time?” I groggily ask.

  “Um... 10 something?” he responds, draping an arm over my naked torso.

  I’m in an instant panic. I reach down to my bag and realise I’ve missed... 27 calls? What the fuck? What’s happened?

  I look at the numbers, and there is only one call that is from a number I know; from my parents in Armidale last night. The others are pretty much either private or Newcastle numbers.

  I dial into my message bank, and as the messages begin to play in descending order of time; back from the most recent; I begin by first feeling signs of confusion, which are very soon replaced by intense emotional pain; made obvious by my wailing and screaming. My maternal grandparents go from tearfully lamenting my whereabouts to explaining that I’m needed at John Hunter Hospital... my parents have been involved in a terrible car accident... and they are both currently in surgery, as is Silas, my brother.

  ***

  I make it into the hospital because Tim drives me there. I don’t ask him to stay; I pretty much give him brief and forlorn thanks and don’t bother exchanging phone numbers.

  I make it to the family waiting rooms, where I find my grandparents being consoled by the counsellor... and the social worker... with a doctor on the wings? Oh shit; this is so not good... I’m already crying, and I don’t know anything about what’s going on... yet!

  My grandmother sees me and begins wailing, “She’s gone! My beautiful girl is gone!” She cries, with deep, rolling waves of crushing defeat.

  I’m already falling into a chair and looking up to my grandfather for confirmation; who has his face in his hands and is unable to look at me; his shuddering shoulders and dripping tears from his enclosed fingers are enough of a confirmation... my Mum is dead!

  I’m going into shock... I know about it, because I’ve studied about it! I have so much adrenaline in my system at the moment that I could probably do a significant improvement on my PB, and jump over 1.92 metres, without even trying, if I could move!

  My breathing is tachypnoeaic; meaning it’s increased. My heart rate is tachycardic; in other words it’s rapid. And it feels so damned hot in this air-conditioned room that I am sweating like I did on the dance floor last night... and in Tim’s arms.

  I realise I’m rocking when the counsellor comes to comfort me and
explain what has occurred.

  ...December...

  This is so fucking stupid! Silas has been in the children’s ward now for three days; and they won’t let me see him all of a sudden... not until the Nurse Unit Manager has had him assessed by the Mental Health Team. I’m fighting a bout of tears, which are easy to come upon me lately, given my grief at losing my parents, and the churning aftermath of dealing with everyone around me.

  Silas was in ICU straight after surgery, staying there for five days, and then he was shuffled across to the HDU for a further two weeks, and now he’s been totally relocated to the children’s ward; where for the last two days, I have been assisting staff with him, and bringing him junk food from the outside world.

  He’d had surgery to patch up his broken pelvis, a punctured lung and a perforated bladder. He also required treatment for head trauma; but considering the way the car looked after the tree fell on it; with my parents driving at 100 kilometres an hour; I was shocked he got off so lightly. Of course my parents hadn’t, they’d died from their injuries, and I was still screaming out my despair at intervals when it all became just too damned overwhelming; no matter where I was or who would observe me.

  My latest melt down on Sunday, was in traffic coming up Croudace Street towards the hospital. I hit a red light and had to pull up. Beside me a van full of kids in their Sunday best pulled up; parents oblivious to their snotty little bastards in the back sticking their tongues out and showing me up their noses. I jumped off my bike and slammed my hand against the side of their van. The parents just about shit themselves being forced to jump out of their reverie... perhaps discussing the latest grace their good Lord delivered into their hands; and the kids just about fucking pissed themselves. I then spent the next two minutes screaming into the sky and threatening passing motorists who dared honk their horns and curse me for holding up traffic, before I managed to pull things together enough to tear through an amber light and ride off like a demon possessed.