Novels by Christiana Cherry

A million thoughts ran through my head on the drive to the hospital.Foremost of them was the thought that I was doing the wrong thing.I mean, what exactly was I doing? I had no plan, no idea what I was going to say to this woman I had never met that would convince her to give me the whereabouts of her daughter, no backup. Nothing.Even if by some miracle this encounter did pan out and I did find out where Alex went, then what? Do I just show up? And say what?After that last night I had a feeling she would not appreciate my unexpected presence in her life. She was probably moving on and healing right this minute.A lump of despair and pain settled in my stomach.Gripping the steering, I tried to reign in my rapidly spiraling thoughts.One thing at a time, Carson. One thing at a time.First I needed to find her. After I made sure she was safe and sound and not in any sort of danger I would then figure out how to approach her and fix whatever I broke.With something that resembled a p

Goodbye Carson.Goodbye Carson.Goodbye Carson.Those two words had been stuck on repeat in my head after the disaster that was last night.I had barely recovered from the shock that the woman of my dreams was actually my unassuming assistant when she'd told me she was leaving for God knows where.After I got home I fell into a fitful sleep before I couldn't take it anymore and broke one of her rules. I called her number.Unfortunately it didn't even ring or go to voicemail. There was nothing. And now I was back to square one.“Sir,” a tiny voice and a snap of fingers brought me back to the present.I was in my office, a mound of work on my desk and the frightened blue eyes of my new assistant peering at me as she clutched a brown styrofoam coffee cup like it had the power to protect her from me.Mary — or Marion, I wasn't exactly sure what her name was — was my second assistant since Alex had left. I had fired Helen over the phone sometime last night after I called to ask about my sc

All he did was stare.For the five minutes since I let go of my mask he'd been staring at me with an expression that looked worryingly like that of an electrocuted individual.I was starting to feel squirmy under his gobsmacked gaze.“Please say something,” I urged.The sound of my voice seemed to thaw him a little and he rightened his slacked jaw.“I don't understand,” he started after a while. “So you're telling me that all this time, this whole time, it was you?”I swallowed. My courage had started to fail me.“I can explain . . .”“I am so fucking confused,” he continued as if I hadn't said anything. “So you're telling me that this whole time it's . . . you've . . . God, I'm so confused.”He started rubbing his temples the way I'd seen him do after a long day at his desk.“I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to go as far as it went, truly.”“Why?” he asked all of a sudden. “Why make me believe you were someone else? Why pretend? Why me?”I hated that my eyes had filled of their own ac

I didn't think that I would be so happy to see the neon lights of an ice cream shop.After a particularly horrid day at work with my new dunderhead of a PA, Helen, I was more than ready to stamp down whatever discordant feelings I had for the brightly colored shop and accept all the bizareness it offered with open arms.I locked my car and started up to the shop with my hands stuck in the pockets of my leather jacket.My heart was racing at the thought of finally seeing her after a very difficult four weeks.As I got to the door I had to wait for a young couple to exit before I could enter.The raven-haired woman held an ice cream cone in one hand and her boyfriend in the other and she was laughing. They were both laughing.I stood there and watched as they turned a corner and disappeared.It was only after they were gone that I realized that I wanted that. I was ready for that.I never thought that I would but for the first time in my life I wanted a serious relationship. With someon

I woke up with a steady thumping in my head. Like someone was going crazy with a drum kit plugged into an amplifier.It took all the energy I could summon just to open my eyes, at this point I couldn't even imagine moving.As I surveyed my surroundings I realized that I wasn't in my apartment, in fact I didn't recognize any of the decor. The deep aquamarine wallpaper with the matching curtains and the complimentary paintings on the wall were all totally strange to me.I groaned as I tried to remember how and why I ended up in an unfamiliar bedroom, with only soft blue-green sheets covering my body.Nothing came to me past the agonizing throbbing in my skull.One thing was clear even with my limited thinking faculties: somewhere between yesterday and this morning I had made a terrible mistake. And even though the woman — God, how I hoped it was a woman because I

“Duuude!” came a jovial voice from the door of my gym.As I was lying face-up on the bench I couldn't see who it was so I continued my strenuous workout with the weights.My muscles burned as I raised and lowered the heavy barbell but I welcomed the pain and continued.Soon not only the steel bar and the geometric pattern of the ceiling was in my line of sight. The upside-down image of a head of brown hair and a raised dark eyebrow had entered the mix.“Didn't you hear me call you?” Casper asked.“I hardly . . . think my mother . . . named me dude,” I puffed out, slightly miffed that my exercise regime had been interrupted.“What? Dude, you're not being intelligible right now.”Finally giving in to the irritation that Casper brought I slammed the barbell on the rack and sat up.“The fuck are you doing in my house?” I heaved as I tried to catch my breath.“I came to check up on you, find out what's going on. Man, the ladies miss the ol' C-train! When are you getting back out there?”“A

Two weeks ran out with me having the best fun with Hayley. I got to meet her sister, Dixie who's officially on my list of the most boring and uptight people in the universe. She decided that dusty pink - which I suggested for the tablecloths - was too childish and proceeded to dump the swatch in the trash can. She insisted she wouldn't sit at a table that looked like fairies threw up over it which led Hayley to pick her least favorite color - white. I got a couple of texts from Indi and a strange one from Andi asking me to tell her how many years a person spent in prison for murder. I quickly replied that she shouldn't do whatever she had in mind. I got one from Kenneth. He texted to say he thought I picked our presentation to get back at him. I smiled at that one. If someone were to ask me my most memorable year in high school, two weeks ago I'd have said my sophomore year when I ripped my swimming su

I was so looking forward to the midterm break because mom had mentioned we'd be going to Florida. Florida was the ultimate vacation destination and I was looking forward to seeing all my old friends there. Not to mention my lovable and totally-insane-but-also-in-a-lovable-way older brother, Charles. "Remind me never to bake cookies for Miss Mausley ever again," Indi fumed as she left the class. "Calm down, Indi. You can't tell me you didn't know a single question on Wuthering Heights in there? We spent all night revising!" I folded my arms, a little exasperated. I spent this week reading and stuffing my head with facts ranging from physics to world history and now it was Friday, the last day of exams. I was supposed to be happy but I could feel my body heating up and my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. And Indi was certainly not helping. "I did, but I'm just no

The dance yesterday was all everyone could talk about.The dresses, the music and how the duchess was late. How un-royal!After that talk with Kenneth, I sent him a couple of texts telling him he could trust me but he didn't answer any of them.I slammed my locker and caught a head of familiar brown hair enter the music room.I followed him and closed the door behind me.Henry raised one eye from his laptop and when he saw it was me continued right on with what he was doing."Hi, Henry!"I realized that I'd been so occupied with getting Indi and Andi to forgive me that I'd completely forgotten about Henry. Some best friend I am."Please go away. I'm busy," he continued typing.I set my bag in the corner and grabbed a stool. I went over to the corner he sat and planted my stool next to him.He only spared m

It was 6 o'clock when I heard a knock on my door.I was having a video chat with Hayley and I turned in surprise.My parents had gone into town for some supplies for dinner tonight, Adrianna was billed for a double study session with her best friend Penny and Malcolm was at Terry's.I tiptoed to the door and stood next to it.I wasn't expecting anybody and I was a little frightened."Who's that?" came Hayley's voice from my laptop."Shh!" I put my finger to my lips.I looked around for a weapon. I found an iron hanger and raising it up, I braced myself for attack.Don't blame me, what would you do if you're staying at home alone and you hear a knock on your door?I opened the door with a shout and as I was about to bludgeon the person I realized it was Indi.She had on an expression that was a mixture of f

I saved the last entry and uploaded it to my blog. I closed my laptop and gathered Leslie in my arms petting her. A knock on my door startled me. "Come in," I told the person. "Hey kiddo," my mom entered and closed the door. Her blue eyes were concerned. "How you feeling?" I couldn't stand going to school today. My friends were mad at me, Rebecca's probably back and I didn't have the courage to face Kenneth, so I bundled myself in as many blankets as I could find thus increasing my body temperature making my mom think I had a fever. "I'm feeling better," I answered. She sat on my bed and touched my cheek. "Tell me what's wrong." "Why? So you can analyze me?" Her lips widened in a smile. Ellie Crewman - my mom - was a psychologist. She wasn't restricted to just one sphere of the job - unfortunatel

"Entry . . . who cares anyways! Hello people! So much has happened since I posted that little note saying I'll be starting this project and so much has happened since I posted my first entry. I made new friends, went on a camping trip that almost ended in bloodshed and fell in love and was heartbroken on the same day. All in all, Project Popular has been a real eye-opener. I got a taste of the popular life, but guess what? It's bitter and I'm very content with being unnoticed and un-popular. Sleepovers and scary camping trips, guess who's not coming next time? That's right, moi! Count me out! I'm very happy with my three crazy and awesome besties - if they forgive me that is. So this is it people of earth, the last note from Taylor on this subject. If you didn't watch my pitiful excuse for a program y