RAGE
A Love Story

 

Knopf Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 978-00-375-85209-1



Ages 14 and up

 

Watch Book Trailer

 

 



Joyland: Take 1

 

I'm wearing ultra low-rider camo pants that barely cover my crack and if she looks she’ll see the strap of my thong. This filmy, beige crop top where, if I get a chill, my nipples will be my most outstanding feature. My hair looks sexy hanging in my eyes. My walk is killer. She can’t not notice me.

I enter her field of vision, she does a slow double take, then stops mid-sentence talking with her clique, the LBDs, mid-sentence. Her eyes scrape me, skim me. Scratch and burn me. I feel her drink me in and salivate. I don’t look. Not yet, not yet. My eyes shift slightly. ZAP. ZING. She’s hooked. I smile her in.

She’s mine.

 

Joyland: Take 2

 

Same sexy me. She detaches from the LesBo Dykes, or Les Beau Dykes, and follows me to the parking lot. She gets in her car; stays close to mine, runs a yellow light. She tracks me to the bank of the river, to the edge of Fallon Falls. We park and get out. I step on the slippery rocks, arms extended, balancing across the rushing water. I spring to the shore, knowing she’s on my scent. Around the side of the boulder, I duck into a cave and wait. The smell of burnt sugar tickles my nose. I hear her. She enters and steps in front of me—reaches out a hand, both hands, and moves into me, slides her arms around my waist, my bare skin, where nerve endings spark and snap. There’s no time to blink or moisten my lips.

“Hi. I’m Johanna.”

She kisses me long and hard; awakens the ache of longing inside me. Her lips are metal, then melon. Finally, finally she lets me go. I gasp for breath and she smiles, a one-sided, sliver moon smile, and says, “Now that we have the introductions out of the way…”

 

“Johanna, dear?”

I jerk to the present.

“Mrs. Arcaro has passed,” Jeannette says.

I missed it, the last breath of her life. A pang of guilt for daydreaming at this critical time stabs at my heart, but I chase it away. I give Mrs. Arcaro’s frail hand a gentle squeeze and lay it on the sheet. I feel Mom smiling down on me from heaven.

As I’m leaving Memorial Hospice, I feel uplifted. I meant something to someone. Even if Mrs. Arcaro was a stranger, I’m the one who was there for her at the end.

I’m the one who stayed.

 

 

 

My Books

Reviews & Awards

Speaking Engagements

FAQs & Interviews

Letters from Readers

My Bio / My Blog

Links / LGBTQ Resources

Contact Me

 

Privacy Statement
In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
no personal information on visitors is collected or shared.

Web site Copyright © 2000-2010 by Julie Anne Peters
All Rights Reserved