BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

It had made schoolwork a little easier, but it had also helped in other ways.

It was getting dark outside, the glow from her laptop screen straining her eyes. She looked over at the light switch and decided it was too far away. Continued to lie on her bed and wait.

Her eighteenth birthday was seven weeks away and she didn’t have any friends she could invite to a party. No one to go out clubbing with, or to a local bar. To go for a night into town to celebrate her coming of age.

No one to make her feel better.

All she had was the knowledge of the things she had done and the only way to make sure no one found out about them.

Level One – Spying on some random bloke she’d never seen before. Trying to break into his house and failing. She’d thought then that it would be over, but it hadn’t been enough apparently.

Level Two – Vandalism. Breaking panes of glass in bus stops, late at night, in different areas of the city. A few other things too, but she didn’t want to remember.

The Game.

She could feel her pulse begin to beat faster than the music blaring in her ears. The nervous feeling of being found out. The lies she’d told.

Just keep playing and it’ll all be okay. Just got to keep going.

Her bag lay on the floor where she’d slung it ten minutes earlier, the college books spilling from the top. The folder which contained notes she never imagined she’d read again. The exam preparation she wouldn’t need. The course had been something her parents thought would be a good idea. Away from the high school she’d grown to loathe. A fresh start, outside of that place, those girls and boys who had made her life a misery.

That’s what it was supposed to be.

Instead, it was the same old story. Sitting alone, no one bothering to make any effort to engage in conversation with her. No one caring that she was on her own, no one trying to become her friend. She was invisible to them all.

It didn’t take long for her to go back to her old ways. Sitting at the back, feigning interest every now and again, but really just seeing out the minutes until she could leave. Escaping from that prison cell and into the online world to have at least a little interaction in her life. People she didn’t know in the real world, who wouldn’t judge her, who accepted her for who she was.

That’s what she’d done instead of bothering with all the fakeness she witnessed every single day in that college.

Instead, she’d created a fake life all of her own.