Authors: Jody Morse,Jayme Morse
Howl (Howl #1)
Howl
© 2011 by
Jody Morse and Jayme
Morse
Howl is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents in this book are products of the author’s imaginations or have been used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons or locations is coincidental and not intended by the authors.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy.
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without
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Morse.
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Chapter 1
****
Samara McKinley stared at the blazing bonfire, illuminated by the light of the full moon. She tugged on her
sweatshirt
, uns
ure if she was hot or cold. The late
June
night
breeze felt cold against her cheeks
, but the hot chocolate
she was sipping made her feel toasty wa
rm.
“Are you sure you don’t want
any vodka in your hot cocoa
, Sam?” Emma asked.
“It’s really good.”
Samara shook her head (for the third time) and gave her best frie
nd a small smile. “No thanks.”
“Okay, Miss Straight Edge,” Emma laughed, elbowing Samara in the ribs. “But you have to promise me that we
will
go out and get drunk fo
r your twenty-first birthday.”
Samara giggled. “My twenty-first birth
day isn’t for six more years!”
“Well, five years and eight months if you want to get technical
,” Emma replied. “I have it all planned out already. We’re going to go to
Miami
and get completely trashed en route to Cancun wh
ere we’ll spend spring break.”
Samara smiled. Ever since she had met Emma Taylor, she’d been planning both of their futures. So far, they would be having a double wedding, spending their honeymoons during the same week in Hawaii so that they could swim with the dolphins together, and one of them would have a son and the other would have a daughter so that their kids
could get married.
Glancing across the fire, Samara caught Luke Davenport’s stare just as his emerald green eyes met hers. Her heart skipped a beat. Luke was the
cute
new guy in school, and he had been casting looks in her directi
on all night. Samara had been planning
to
say something to him, but she needed to work her nerve up first.
In the dist
ance, Samara heard a loud howl.
“M
y new neighbors have the most annoying
dogs,” Em
ma whined
from next to her.
“They howl all night long.
Thank gosh for headphones and the new Taylor Swift CD or I’d never be able to sleep through it.
” She stood up, carrying her mug. “I need a refill.
Anyone else want more hot chocolate
or ano
ther drink?”
“No, I’ve got enough wine to last me the whole night,” Colby Jackson
replied, holding up a bottle.
From around the circle, people snickered. “Hey Colby Jack, are you drinking red wine or white wine?” Jason
Masterson
asked.
“Red wine,” Colby replied
cheerfully
. “
White wine makes me nauseous.”
Jason and a few of his friends
burst into laughter. Samara heard Jason
mutter “freak” under his breath.
Next to her, Ashley Everest
hissed, “Has he ever even been to a party before? Se
riously, who brings red wine?”
Samara shrugged
and gave Colby a sympathetic smile
. She knew that the rest of the kids who she went to school with thought it was hilarious to pick on Colby by nicknaming him after a type of cheese an
d by insinuating that he was crushing on a few of the football players
, b
ut she felt bad for the poor kid
. Right now, he was wearing a
confused
farmer’s getup: suspenders over a red flannel shirt
, a black tie,
and
dirt-covered
work boots. He obviously ha
d no sense of
style
but
so what if he liked red wine? It was more than Samara drank, but no one made fun of her.
T
hat was probably because everyone knew bette
r than to make fun of Samara. She was
Emma Taylor’
s
best friend
.
Emma was one of the most popular girls at Grandview High School
, so that made Samara semi-popular by association
.
Samara didn’t understand why Emma tried so hard to maintain her popular girl status. Samara didn’t think that most of the people who came to Emma’s parties were fr
iendship
status
-
worthy
, anyway.
Most of them seemed like they just wanted free alcohol
and a discrete place to hook up with their boyfriend or girlfriend
.
Still, Emma continued having the parties every time her mom and stepdad w
ere out of town – which was pretty often lately.
Samara watched as Luke whispered something into Colby’s ear, his eyes still hovering over her.
Colby was Luke’s best friend, which was
the only reason he ever got invited to Emma’s parties
.
Oddly enough, Colby was the one person that she felt the most comfortable with at parties like these. They were both the misfits out of the group
, even though no one knew that Samara didn’t feel like she fit in.
She sank back into
her lawn chair, wondering if Luke
was talking about he
r to Colby.
Samara quickly shook the thought away.
The b
oys
she liked
never liked her. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. Even though it had seemed like Luke had been eyeing her all night, Samara realized that she was probably just imagining it – or
he
really
just
thought she was a creep because he had noticed her staring at him because she thought he was staring at her.
“Guess what,” Emma said
excitedly
, as she sat back down next to Samara. “You’ll never guess who
told me he thinks I’m cute.”
“Who?” Samara asked, tearing her eyes away f
rom Luke and Colby to look over at
Emma.
“Jason!
” Emma squealed,
her lip-glossed covered lips twisting into a big smile
as she tossed
her blonde hair behind her shoulders.
“That’s great,” Samara smiled, trying not to sound as unenthusiastic as she felt. She glanced at the chair where Jason had been sitting
minutes ago, but
it was empty.
Samara had known Jason for years because his twin brother, Josh, was her cousin Kyle’s best friend. She knew that Jason was a jerk, just by the way he treated
Colby and
some of the
other unpopular
kids at school. There was something else that she
didn’t like about him, though.
When she was around Jason, he gave her a really weird feeling. The way he looked at her through his nearly-black eyes sent shivers down he
r spine.
Emma went through
boys
faster
than anyone
else
Samara knew, though. This made Samara
feel relieved because, chances were, Emma would probably move
onto someone else really soon.
Glancing over at Emma, Samara realized that her best friend might
break a record and
move on a whole lot sooner than she had even expected
her to
. Right now, she was staring across the fire at someone w
ith a starry look in her eyes.
Samara followed her gaze. There were three people who she could be staring at: Colby, Luke, or Chris Priestley, one of their friends. Samara knew
for sure
that she wasn’t staring at Colby, and Chris really
didn’t seem
like Emma’s type
. Emma liked tall guys, and Chris was on the shorter side
.
“I’ll be right back,” Emma whispered to Samara, setting her mug
down
on her seat. Hot cocoa spilled over the rim of the cup and onto the blue
lawn
chair. Samara groaned and grabbed a napkin from the drink table, keeping he
r eyes on Emma the whole time.
“Hey, cutie,” Emma said flirtati
ously, as she approached Luke.
“Umm
, hi,” Samara heard him reply.
“Wanna
go for a walk with me
?” Emma asked, sitting down on his lap and wrap
ping her arms around his neck.
Samara felt the anger rise to her
cheeks
as she watched her best friend throw herself at the guy who she though
t she might be crushing on
. She couldn’t really blame Emma.
She probably
had
no idea what she was doing because she was completely wasted. Besides,
Samara hadn’t told Emma that she thought she had a thing for Luke yet. She’d been planning to tell her later on
after everyone went home, when
she was sure that Luke wouldn’t hear her. It was probably too late, though.
Even if he had been checking her out,
Luke had probably already forgotten
all
about her now t
hat he had a chance with Emma.
Samara watched as Luke firmly shook his head and pushed Emma away from him. Standing up, he walked away from the bonfire. Luk
e shot a look at Samara over his
shoulder
before he walked out of the backyard,
and she felt her heart flutter. She hadn’t just been imagining it; Luke had d
efinitely been staring at her.
Emma skipped back over towards Samara, a pouty
look on her face. “Luke left.”
“I s
aw. Why did he have to leave?”
“I think
he said he had to help his
m-
mom
,” Emma slurred, grabbing Samara’s arm
. “
I miss him.”
Samara groaned. Pushing Emma away from her, she got up to take a walk. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to her drunken best friend talk about missing her crush. Well, technically, he was
their
crush now. Maybe. Samara didn’t ever think that she would secretly wish that Emma would
develop a huge crush on Jason, but it wouldn’t seem like the worst thing that could happen right now
.
Suddenly, Samara wasn’t feeling in the mood
be at the party or
sleepover at Emma’s house tonight anymore. She wanted to go home. Samara scanned the crowd for her brother, Seth. He was her only means of transportation, unless she wanted to walk home
in the dark or call her mom,
who
would be furious that she was at a party
where there was alcohol and no parents present
.
No, Seth was her only way to get home without getting in trouble.
Besides, Samara knew that her brother could cheer her up. He always did.
When she didn’t spot Seth anywhere,
Samar
a
swore under her breath. Even her best friend Declan Kingsbury couldn’t
drive her home right now
because he was vacationing at the Jersey shore with his dad.
Deciding that
she was stuck
here
for the night
, Samara
grabbed herself
a Mountain Dew from the cooler. S
he felt a tap on the back of her shoulder. When she turned around, Samara found herself staring into a pair of hazel
eyes
which were rimmed with long black eyelashes
.