Starstruck

Starstruck Breaking Fancy: Book One Jayelle Dee Jayelle Dee This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Copyright © 2023 by Jayelle Dee All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. ISBN 979-8-9881054-0-4 Published By Jayelle Dee Cover design by Elijah Toten Contents Dedication 1. City of Rumors 2. The Haunt 3. S.U. 4. Ingenue 5. Experience 6. First Romance 7. Demons 8. All The Wrong Reasons 9. Branching Out 10. Working It 11. Back to Earth 12. Plumbline Studios 13. Stone 14. Trolling for Stanley 15. Stone on the Stringer 16. Stepping Out 17. Into the Fryer 18. To The Hills 19. Life With Stanley 20. Another Demon 21. Step Three 22. Lauren Cooke’s Advice 23. Taking Lauren Cooke’s advice 24. Engagement Party 25. Wedding Day Acknowledgments Jayelle Dee Coming Soon F or my husband~ You inspire me in every way. I thrive because of your beautiful, patient love. Chapter 1 City of RumorsToday she could escape. Lexi hurled the last garbage bag stuffed with her clothes into the back of her busted Honda hatchback. It was her eighteenth birthday. Emancipation Day. “You think you’re better’n us?” Danny shouted at her. Lexi stared dead at her cousin. “No,” she called back. “Ah know I’m better’n you! A turd on a hot day is better’n you!” Lexi pulled open the driver’s side door. Her cousin ran over and grabbed her by the arms, pressing into her old bruises. She twisted and struggled, but he held her firm.“You can’t leave us. We’re yer legal guardians!”Lexi hissed at him through gritted teeth, “I’m eighteen today, Danny. You can’t have me no more!” She kneed his testicles as hard as she could manage, and he fell into a wailing ball in the dusty driveway.“You’re a piece of shit!” she yelled and plopped into the seat of her car. Feeling the wheel in her hands, she started the ignition and called over her shoulder, “You and your daddy is done touchin’ me!” She slammed her foot on the gas and turned on the radio. INXS’s “Suicide Blonde” rang out through the car. She turned it up loud, speeding away. Thankfully, her uncle hadn’t been there when she left. Lexi had planned it that way. She knew she couldn’t have fought them both off. When she finally got onto the highway, all the emotions from the past six years mixed with her elation and she burst out laugh-crying. Finally, it was over. The abuse, the torture, the stink. That house could rot where it stood and implode with her uncle and cousin in it for all she cared. Honestly, she hoped it would.It wasn’t until she was well on her way down I-40 heading west, and halfway across Arkansas that the tension in her shoulder muscles started to release. The torment faded in her rear-view mirror. L.A. was in front of her with all its glamor and promises. Her long, platinum hair blew in the wind as she accelerated. Tears fell and dried on her cheeks.Watching the highway, Lexi thought of all the bad she was leaving behind. Bad people, terrible places, and horrid memories. The darkness emptied out of her more and more with every mile. Her uncle and cousin had ‘taken care of her’ since she was almost twelve, when her daddy went to jail. Then during the summer before her thirteenth birthday . . . the demons came. “Fuck you!” Lexi shouted into the blowing fury from her open window. “Ah hope you all fuckin’ rot and die! You, goddamned PERVERTS!” Her screams disappeared out her open window and swept behind the speeding car along the dry road. She wiped her eyes, feeling heavy from the lengthy bearing of so much pain. “Six fucking years! You goddamned, sick, disgusting, filthy, sorry excuses for Satan’s balls!” Screaming into the wind emptied a tiny amount of her rage, lending her a slightly lighter heart. She stared ahead at the setting sun, turning gold and orange and hitting that spot where her visor could no longer protect her eyes. But she didn’t mind the brightness. Light was what she needed. The air turned chilly, almost past tolerance. But Lexi didn’t close her window. She wanted the cold and wind to cool her hot fury.She brushed away more tears. “You will regret the day you first laid a hand on me. Ah promise you, you pieces of shit! I’m gonna succeed. Mah plan is gonna work! I’m gonna be richer than the goddamned Queen of England! An’ you fucking bottom feeders can suck mah ass!” She pounded her steering wheel. “Suck it! Suck it! Suck mah ass!” More tears erupted from her eyes, blurring the road slightly. Lexi took a deep breath. “This is gonna work. It has to work! I’ll figure it out. It’s gonna be okay. Time is all Ah need. Time and learnin’. Ah got this. Ah was born for this. YOU HEAR ME, DADDY? I’ma make you proud!” She calmed with a few deep inhalations, turned on the heater, rolled up her window and settled in for the long drive ahead.Lexi used Google maps to locate a Walmart in Albuquerque so she could stop for supplies. She’d left everything behind, keeping only her clothes, books, and cell phone. She didn’t want any of the towels, or pillows, or even her toiletries. She especially didn’t want any of the bedding. She filled her cart with a cheap set of cookware, linens, a comforter, a luxurious double-tall-queen air mattress, and new toiletries. She even threw in a couple of scented candles, two