Showing results by author "Melissa Toppen" in All Categories

Our parents’ friendship meant we had to co-exist. But it didn’t mean we had to like it. He purposely did things to get under my skin. Like spreading rumors about me in junior high so no boys wanted to go out with me. Or sleeping with several of my high school friends, just to prove he could.

I had a lot of plans for my freshman year of college. Falling for my roommate’s older brother was definitely not one of them. Not like I had a choice in the matter. The second he walked in with that crooked smile and dark green eyes, I was a goner. But River Parker doesn’t exactly make it easy on me.

Macallan Stewart. Gorgeous. Untouchable. Idolized. Star football player—both on and off the field. Women love him. Men want to be him. And I… Well, I’m too busy trying not to stab pencils into his eye sockets to allow myself to feel anything but anger, which definitely beats the alternative.

I met Thad Mitchell for the first time when I was just a child. I didn’t remember much about him - except that he pushed me off a swing set when I was four years old and broke my arm. Not the best thing to remember about a person, but there it is. He moved away a couple years later and soon became a distant memory. That is until I walked into my parents' house after being gone for four years to find him sitting at the kitchen table with my family like he’d been there all along.

Time is a funny thing. It keeps moving even when it feels like everything around you stops. It is the catalyst for everything. How we grieve. How we heal. How we live. Time was the one thing I tried but could never escape. Days passed in his absence. Months. Years. And I stood still. Stuck in the past. Paralyzed by the memory of him. Nash Ketter had been my whole world for as long as I could remember. The person I loved with my entire being. He was the sun, the moon, and the stars. He was everything. And then one day, he was gone… Just like that. Like he had never existed at all.

It’s funny how differently we view life when we’re young. Everything feels possible- limitless. If only things could stay that way forever. Then maybe life wouldn’t be so complicated. Maybe Jace would still be the same ten-year-old boy I fell in love with. Maybe I’d still be that same girl too. The girl who believed that there wasn’t anything we couldn’t overcome. But I’m not that girl anymore. Time has beaten me down, broken me, taken everything from me. And it’s taken even more from Jace. I naively believed that I could save him...From his dad. From his anger.

You never get over your first love. It’s something I’ve heard countless times. Like someone has to point out that your pain will never go away. That your shattered heart will never mend. Because that’s exactly what my heart did the day I watched Asher Evans board that train - it shattered, splintering into a million tiny fragments that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to piece back together. He was the boy I had loved since I understood what loving someone mean.

Ten hours… That’s how much time we spent together. How much time I got with the man whose bright eyes and sultry smile almost made me forget that I was sick. Six hundred minutes… That’s how long it took me to fall in love. Thirty-six thousand seconds... And then it was over. And all I wanted was more. More seconds. More minutes. More hours. More him. Ten hours… Such a small, insignificant amount of time. Yet those ten hours changed everything.

They say everything happens for a reason - that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time, I didn’t think that was true. I had stumbled around in the dark for so many years that I didn’t think I would ever find my way out. But when I finally did, it came in the most unexpected way. Miles Hollins had been my brother’s best friend for as long as I could remember. We didn’t like each other much growing up. Or rather, we couldn’t stand each other.

Life is full of choices- of chances- of moments. Chances we regret not taking. Choices we wish we could change. And then there are the moments that define us. Kam was my choice.... The one who stole my heart instantly. Kane was my chance.... The one who set me ablaze with just one look. They were my moment.... Two brothers that both owned a part of me. Two brothers that I loved in different ways for different reasons. One brother shattered my heart. The other put it back together. Both changed me forever.

Alec Murray. He was the one. From the first moment I saw him, I knew. I had never been more certain of anything in my 16 years on this Earth. But Alec didn’t notice me. At least not in the way that I wanted him to. He noticed my best friend instead. I stood by and watched their relationship blossom. An outsider looking in, wishing things were different. Torn between my loyalty to my best friend and the boy who had unknowingly stolen my heart.

Arrogant. Egotistical. Playboy. Three words that perfectly describe Atlas Keaton. My twin brother’s best friend. The absolute bane of my existence. And my new college roommate. It wasn’t by choice of course. The last thing I wanted was to be forced to endure a full semester living under the same roof as him and my brother. But when a housing mix-up leaves me 3,000 miles away from home with nowhere else to turn, I don’t really have another option. It’s only four months, how hard could it be, right? Wrong...

I remember the first time I saw Sutton Barnett in perfect detail–like a fragment of time suspended in front of my eyes. I remember his shirt–faded blue against tanned skin that had seen countless hours of the summer sun. Wet droplets peppered his shoulders from where his still wet hair had dripped onto the fabric. He rounded the bottom of the stairs, our eyes meeting for only a fraction of a second before he looked away, but it was long enough for me to know right then and there that nothing would ever be the same again.

Sham. Fraud. Hoax. All words that describe my relationship with Callum Hanson. It didn’t start out that way. We used to be friends. That is until high school, when Callum decided he was too cool to be seen with his less than popular next-door neighbor.

It had a good laugh when I found my boyfriend of four years in bed with my best friend. It was rolling on the floor when the same backstabbing beasts stole my dream school, landing me in a different state, where I didn’t know a single soul. You’d think after all that, it’d cut me a break, right? Wrong. Enter its next jest, and this one’s a doozy. Kai Elliot. Campus womanizer. Self-proclaimed bad boy. And the new bane of my existence—but not for the reason you might think.

It was destiny - the night I met Hudson Demasi. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila - a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone.... I never expected to see him again - especially not five years later standing on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans as none other than hot new country artist Hudson James.

I had a lot of plans entering my senior year of college—dealing with Archer Copeland in any capacity was most definitely not on that list. The cocky quarterback and I have been at odds since last year when he posed naked for one of my art classes. Okay, so he was wearing a towel, but really, that barely even counts. Apparently, he enjoyed how uncomfortable the whole situation made me and decided that messing with me was his new favorite past time.

Treyton Tyler. Professional baseball player turned Hollywood actor. A conceited womanizer who thinks no one is immune to his charm. I deal with men like him every day. As a high-end real estate agent in Los Angeles County, you kind of have to. So, when Treyton interrupts one of my showings like he already owns the property, I barely even bat an eye. That is, until he makes an offer. A very generous offer. One that would nearly double the commission I’m set to make. But there’s a catch…the offer is only good if I agree to go on a date with him.

Time heals all wounds. That’s what they say anyway. But I believe some wounds never actually heal. Like the hole left in my heart where Jake used to be. The pain a permanent reminder of what I had, and what I lost. A piece of me died with him that day. A part of myself I thought I’d never get back. But then he happened. Zayne. Unexpected and exciting, he’s everything I shouldn’t want and yet somehow, exactly what I need. He challenges me in a way I’ve never been challenged. He makes me see the person I used to be—the happy carefree girl with her whole life ahead of her.

I remember the very first time I laid eyes on Cole Lincoln. It still feels like yesterday when he stumbled into my life with his messy brown hair and dark eyes. Even though I was only 10 years old at the time, I knew right then and there that he was going to change everything. From that point on, Cole and I were always together, inseparable, and I naively believed we'd be best friends forever. But forever didn't last nearly as long as I expected. We grew up and grew apart, life driving the distance between us.