Let Me Love You: A Novel Read online

  Let Me Love You

  A Novel

  Wanitta Praks

  WANITTA PRAKS MEDIA

  Copyright © 2019 by Wanitta Praks

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book was self-published by the author Wanitta Praks. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without agreement and written permission of the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Let Me Love You

  Author: Wanitta Praks

  Copy Editors:

  Gathering Leaves Editing

  Dragonfly Editing

  www.wanittapraks.com

  Contents

  Let Me Love You

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Her Majesty is Here

  Prologue

  My new life in a new world

  The Delicious Taste of My First Meal

  That Hot Intruder who makes my heart pound

  Maid to the Mafia

  Coffee for you

  Delivery Service

  Brains before Beauty

  The Contract

  Also by Wanitta Praks

  About the Author

  Let Me Love You

  * * *

  Ivy

  I’m good at hiding. I left all those bad memories behind and now am starting a new life in this new town.

  A new school. A fresh start. Life is good. Until I meet him. And all my nightmares come rushing back.

  Zac, the lead singer of Apollo, with his inky black hair and deep emerald eyes, tempts me in ways no guy has ever done before. He makes me want him, but my past keeps pushing him away.

  I keep telling myself it’s okay, forget the past and move on. But no matter how many excuses I come up with, in the end, he still is the center of my nightmare.

  Zac

  Ivy. She intrigues me. She’s like a cute little rabbit, always wanting to scramble away whenever I get near her.

  Does she hate me?

  I don’t think so. I can feel this attraction between us when we’re together.

  But no matter what excuse she has, I’ll make her mine.

  That is, until I found the reason why.

  Let Me Love You is a young adult full length romance novel, centered on first love, and the power of forgiveness. It’s a slow burn romance, complete with a happy ending.

  Prologue

  IVY

  Nightmare

  I have nightmares, specifically a recurring one, almost every night. These nightmares aren’t of boogiemen in the closet or monsters under the bed. These dreams are of death, my parents and brother dying in a car crash right in front of my eyes.

  I wake in the middle of the night, tears staining my cheeks and my heart thumping in my chest, just like tonight.

  How I wish it would just go away. I want to forget it, to start fresh, but it will not let me go. Because these dreams are actual memories, memories that have morphed into never-ending nightmares.

  When I close my eyes, I’m at that scene again. Bright headlights blinding my vision, the stillness of the air after, the pelting rain, and finally, blood. Everywhere.

  I lie back and huddle underneath the blanket, closing my eyes, trying to block out the painful skittering images of my lifeless parents and brother, me standing over their caskets. Grandma crying until she fainted.

  Some time later, I fall asleep to the song of the wind playing with the leaves rustling against the window, the soft melody drawing me back to slumber. The last remaining image that filters through my mind is the menacing face of the man responsible for killing my parents, the reckless drunk—his fierce, ugly weed-green, bloodshot eyes boring straight into mine, his smile leering—before he walked away, free.

  Chapter 1

  ZAC

  When Romeo meets Juliet

  “Apollo! Apollo! Apollo!”

  The crowd goes wild when I appear onstage. I tap my chest with my fist, my usual sign, asking, Ready to rock the house, guys? The sound of the screaming girls would drown out any attempt at actual speech. Our first performance at this jam, back in junior high, we yelled like hell at each other over the turbulent crowd. By the time the show ended, I had a sore throat for a whole month. So now we just stick to hand signals and head gestures.

  Apollo is our amateur rock band, performing at various high school festivals, made up of a bunch of teenage guys. Trey’s our drum man, Loki, our bass guitarist, and me, Zac Elliot, the lead singer and guitar guy. I’ve been singing pretty much since I was out of diapers.

  When my band mates see my signal, they nod. After Trey slams on the drums a few times, we go into full music mode, my guitar riffing through the speakers.

  It’s time like this I love most, performing in front of a live audience with our high school mates as fans. It’s in my heart and soul to play and sing.

  Tonight, we’re playing in the Forsyth Barr Stadium. In exactly two days, high school will officially start. The city of Dunedin, situated on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, usually holds these concerts for their students as a way to bribe them to study hard for the rest of the year.

  As Trey beats on the drums and Loki on his bass guitar, I sing in tune to the rhythm and move my body along while playing Elsa, my guitar.

  You probably think I’m a pretty weird guy, naming my guitar, but she’s my one and only. I wouldn’t part with her for anything. She’s the one that made me realize I love to sing and play seriously.

  She was a present from Dad. Even though right now he doesn’t live with me, since his job requires him to travel to almost every continent, I love him dearly. For my twelfth birthday, after he and Mum divorced, he gifted Elsa to help me overcome my grief. That’s how she and I became best friends. In times of loneliness, when I need someone most, she’s there for me. No girl could measure up to her. We create beautiful music together.

  At this point, I’m seriously overtaken by the music as I play Elsa. As I reach the main chorus, the crowd grows crazy and starts jumping up and down, performing their spectacular Mexican wave, and singing along with me.

  When our song is finished, we salute the crowd and I shout through the mic, “See ya later tonight.” Then we disappear offstage to the sound of more shouting and screaming from fan girls.

  Backstage, I disengage myself from Elsa and, fully sure she’s safe in her case, I don my secret outfit I prepared earlier.

  Kai slams into me from behind. “Hey, Bro.”

  He slaps me again when I don’t respond.

  “Yooo,” I let out.

  Kai is my best bud since kindergarten. He would’ve been in the band too, but sadly he hasn’t a musical bone in his body, so most of the time he just hangs around backstage and basically acts like m
y stage manager.

  “Don’t tell me you’re going in that,” he queries once I’m fully dressed in my midnight Phantom of the Opera mask and black attire. “You do know the school requires you to make another appearance before the night is over?”

  “I’m aware of that, Kai, but for now, it’s time to have some fun.” I smirk, whipping him with a towel.

  He dodges just in time.

  Damn that bastard. He moves like a ninja sometimes.

  “Why are you wearing the mask?” he asks.

  “You know what’ll happen if they know I’m the lead singer of Apollo? Smack, I tell ya,” I tell him with a slam on his shoulder. “This way Zac Elliot gets to enjoy being in the school festival without getting his face squashed like a pancake.”

  “Zac, if I…” Kai starts to hyperventilate.

  Oh shit! I think I just pushed his hysterical mode button.

  “Hush. Hush, Kai.” I calm him down.

  When Kai’s stressed, he goes into this manic mode and, as always, it’s my duty as his best friend to calm him. And you want to guess why he goes into these hysterics? It’s because he’s freaked out. Kai likes to think I’m his idol or something. He follows all of my footsteps and copies all of my moves.

  Once he manages to resemble a human being again, I go to my duffel bag and take out an extra mask and costume that I hid earlier, just for this sake. Turning back to him, I say, “Here, wear this. I’m sure you’ll get the girls too.”

  He looks at the mask and costume, then stares at me like I’ve gone senile.

  “You expect me to wear a clown mask and costume while you’re the mysterious Phantom of the Opera?”

  “Umm… yeah.” I nod. Not that I want to outshine him or anything, but those are the only costumes I own. It’s either me being the phantom or me as the clown. You can guess which I choose, right?

  “Shit face!” he spits at me.

  I turn to stare at him, surprised he’s initiated this verbal competition here of all places. I lift my eyebrows again, seeing his ebony bird’s nest hair, and hurl one back at him. “Afro.”

  He goes red in the face.

  I grin.

  He gives me the eyebrow challenge.

  I know it’s dead serious now.

  “Mr. D-minus,” he throws back at me, referring to last year’s algebra test when I received a D-minus. Dad got so pissed off that he grounded me for a whole month. He even threatened me, saying if I didn’t improve my grades this year, he’d take away Elsa. I can’t have that.

  “Mr. F.” I refer to his history mark.

  “Greek god,” he banters back.

  “Mandela,” I retort.

  Then we both burst out laughing.

  If only Kai were related to Mandela, I wouldn’t question him one bit. He is like the famous Nelson Mandela in so many ways. I’m afraid I’m turning into a Samaritan too. By habit, everywhere I go, I always carry spare change in my pockets just in case there’s some charitable society around the street corner, requiring donations.

  After moments of laughter, we settle down.

  Trey and Loki appear.

  “Those are some sick costumes you’ve got going there,” Loki says, holding up his Polaroid camera. He’s like me and Elsa with his camera. We both have bonds with our equipment. “Now say cheese,” he says, snapping a picture of us. And before we know what’s what, Loki hands us our shots.

  I take the picture from his hand. We look weird, my face scrunched up, and Kai looks like he sucked a lemon.

  Kai slaps me out of my thought and says, “All right, Apollo, enough of that self-admiring. Let’s go and have some fun.”

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I say and tuck the picture in Elsa’s case. With a wave to my other band mates, we head out into the wild crowd.

  I’m pleased I covered my face and changed my clothes. Looking at all the fan girls and boys standing near the gate, I see they’re ready to attack me as I walk out the exit door. But with one look at Kai and me, they simply turn their heads in disappointment.

  I hoot and give Kai a high-five. Yes, tonight I can go around, walking and talking, without the disruption of the fans. There’s no Zac Elliot, lead singer of Apollo, but just me, the fake Phantom and my clown friend, sightseeing the crowd, checking out the other bands, and enjoying the best time of our lives before school starts again.

  “Oooh la-la,” Kai coos and bounces around me when he sees all the hot girls. “So many hot girls and some of them aren’t even from our school.” He turns to me and shakes me when I don’t respond. “Look, bro, look at them. Look at the way they’re making eyes at you.”

  He pushes me aside to hide me behind his tiny frame, like I need some protection or something from those raging hormonal girls.

  I only laugh. But he’s quite right, though. A lot of people say I have a face made for the big screen, but I just biff them off.

  What face? I can’t imagine myself being handsome or beautiful. Face isn’t what matters to me; it’s the personality that counts. That’s why Kai, my buddy here, is my best friend. He may not have the face of a swoon-worthy movie actor with that outrageous acne populating his face, but his heart is made of gold. So it annoys me that even with this mask on, I still get looked at. Is this the curse of having a perfect body too? Maybe I should’ve worn the clown outfit instead.

  “If you have such a nice body, then you should just take that mask off too. This is stupid anyway. I’m hiding my ugly face and you’re hiding your handsome one.”

  “Pffh,” I scoff. “You’re not ugly. Just acne. I’m sure you’ll grow out of it.”

  “Yeah, even if I do grow out of it, I’m still a midget. Standing next to the handsome Apollo, I’m a dwarf.”

  “Come on, Kai.” I pat him on the shoulder. “There’s nothing special about my face or my height. I have two eyes, one nose, one mouth. Same as you. Plus, being small has some advantages too.”

  “Yeah? Like what?” Kai asks.

  “Like squeezing out of this barricade of people,” I joke.

  “Yeah, but if I had a face like yours, I wouldn’t be hiding it behind a mask, now would I? I would show my face to every single girl here so I could get some lip service.”

  “Lip service my ass.” I laugh.

  I scan the crowd, aware now that people are still staring at me. Hell, what do I have to do to get away from those stares? But then my eyes land on an exit point. The beverage stall.

  I walk over to the stall and buy a cup.

  “Ugh, what the hell is this?” I cough out. It tastes like orange juice and watered-down coke, which is foul as shit.

  “What did you put in this?” I ask the seller.

  “Orange juice,” the burly man states with his arms across his chest, a stance I know too well.

  “Right.” I nod. Going to the waste can, I toss the whole thing out.

  “Should have asked him for a beer instead,” Kai suggests from behind.

  I gaze at other people around us, holding cans of beer and making small jokes.

  Alcohol. That’s how we teenagers transition from teenage life into adulthood.

  I spin to face Kai. “Do you think he’s going sell us beers with us wearing masks like these?” I question his logic.

  “Yeah, bro. You’re right on that one.”

  We spot an isolated site and decide to chill out there. The crowd is starting to get too noisy. Laying our disguised masks to the side, we lie down and look at the black night sky dotted with bright stars.

  The faint music drifts to us on the cool breeze. On nights like this, I feel at peace with the whole world. I don’t have to think about why my parents divorced or why Mum neglected me.

  If I remember rightly, our family wasn’t always like this. It only happened after the night Dillon, my older half-brother, came home accompanied by a police officer. Mum followed, and I’m not sure what happened next, but he ended up doing community service for a whole month. Then Mum and Dad always shouted at each other and a fe
w months after that, they got divorced. Dad chose me while Mum took Dillon.

  I like to think the reason she didn’t choose me is because of the hearing damage my singing causes. Plus, I refuse to become a lawyer like her. I love music, so I intend to pursue a career in music, which Dad fully supports.

  Why am I even reminiscing about this shit anyway? It’s not like I can turn back time. She hardly keeps in contact with me, so it’s best if I just let things go. Take one baby step at a time. That’s my motto.

  I get up and spread out my arms.

  “Wooo! Yeah!” I yell into the emptiness. Drained of those negative thoughts, I sit back down, only to have Kai give me a you’ve gone completely nuts after drinking that foul potion look.

  I only grin at him. “I feel like doing something crazy.”

  “You’ve already done it.”

  “I’m serious, man. Haven’t you ever thought why people who dress up in costume can do ridiculous things?”

  “Like what?”

  “Rob a bank.”

  “Yeah, right, bro. We rob a bank.”

  “No kidding.” I laugh.