Ashes - Book 1 Read Free

use community showers, I would have died and run screaming from the building. As it was, I’d showered wearing flip-flops the first several weeks.
    My saving grace was my hope that I’d have an awesome dorm mate. Instead of the girl I’d dreamed of, I’d been thrown together with this quiet, mousy girl who barely ever spoke.
    We almost instantly hated each other.
    Stephanie dressed in the most god awful clothes and walked with her shoulders slumped and her head down almost all the time. She was so weird and lived with a book in front of her face. She’d have panic attacks over nothing, but never ask for help. Like I said … weird. After trying to talk to her, I simply gave up and made other friends who enjoyed partying as much as I did.
    I really don’t know how Stephanie had been able to stand me. I was nothing but a snotty nosed bitch most of the time. I’d come from a wealthy family, had always gotten what I wanted. I’d been the head cheerleader in high school too. My silver spoon was full.
    Not Stephanie’s.
    She was only able to attend school on scholarship, and still had to work several days a week to pay for any extras, like her little car or even a slice of pizza that didn’t come from her meal card. Her mom had died when she was young and her dad killed himself on the last day of her junior year in high school. She had no other family, except a grandmother who lived in North Carolina, two thousand miles away. Stephanie had tried to reach out to the woman, but learned she suffered from severe dementia and didn’t even realize she had a daughter, much less a grandchild.
    The only thing Steph and I had in common was a mutual goal of becoming nurses, although I’d had to fight my father when he’d learned I didn’t want to be an attorney, like him. He’d been so mad, had even called me horrible names and threatened to disown me. My mom had just cried and told me I’d be stricken with HIV or some other disease.
    I knew their true worry … how could they possibly introduce their daughter to their socialite friends as a lowly nurse? They took little comfort in knowing I wanted to be a nurse practitioner and run my own office someday. They wanted me to be an attorney or a doctor; even an art director or professor would have been better than having a child work in a ‘hands-on’ profession.
    I’d held firm and gotten my way, of course. Daddy could never stay mad at me for long. He still gave me disapproving glances and made remarks about how I’m wasting my life. And still attempts to set me up every chance he got with a ‘suitable’ boy.
    Setting the e-brake of my Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, I grin, remembering how pissed my dad had been when I’d refused his graduation gift of a Mercedes and traded it for this bad boy instead. Bright yellow and fully loaded, I loved it, especially when the top was down. I’d even taken it four-wheeling a month or so ago. I’d never tell my mother or father I’d done that. Or that a firefighter had been my partner in that crime. Or that we’d already screwed in the front seat, the back seat and on the hood.
    Jumping down from the Jeep, I give it a pat before I turn to admire the offices of HEAL. I’ve never been so proud of anything in my life. This place is a testimony of good versus evil. A testimony of my best friend’s strength and enduring love for others. A sanctuary for those who have been raped or sexually abused.
    Stephanie and I cut the ribbon on the center in an elaborate celebration earlier this year. Even my mom and dad attended and smiled at me with, yes, pride. The money to fund it came from the most unexpected of places after Stephanie went through some horrible shit, but that’s a different story. Now, she’s deeply in love and living the dream. In fact, she’ll be marching down the aisle almost a year from now.
    This morning, it’s my turn to open the office and get everything ready for the day. Turning the key in the employee entrance, I