CHAPTER 1

Ashley sat close to the fire with her pen and book. She was just about to finish the last two chapters of her recent novel. Maybe I should make Avery's boyfriend break up with her? She reasoned. She opened her pen cover again and continued writing. It was her sixth novel since the beginning of the first half of the year.

It was one of her many dreams as a kid to be an author. On her 7yrs birthday, her mum bought her many of Nora Robert and Stephen King's novels. That's probably why she enjoyed writing suspense and horror. Her older sister, Victory, and her best friends used to tease her about how nerdy and uninteresting she was.

Ashley studied at Boston University of California, San Francisco, California, USA. She studied nursing. It was also another dream of hers to help the sick. It all happened 10yrs ago when her younger cousin brother died in her arms and she couldn't do anything to help him. He was involved in a very fatal accident but was denied treatment at the hospital. Every hospital he was taken to refused to give him treatment. He was later taken back home after a doctor from a very prestigious hospital promised to treat him at home but failed to keep his promise. Bobo died as a result of the hospital's failure to treat him. Ashley held herself responsible for everything that happened to her cousin. If she hadn't sent him out that day to get her a new toy, that car won't have run into him. The car running into her brother wasn't the issue, it was the nonchalant attitude of the person in the car that annoyed her. The person sped up almost immediately without looking back to help Bobo. Despite being so little, she was able to memorize the car number. She couldn't see the person's face clearly but from his dress, she could tell he was a very prestigious man.

After studying nursing for 4years, she graduated with first class. She applied for a job at St Louis hospital where she was offered the job of an assisting nurse for training. After her five months of training, she became a full nurse. Not too long after becoming a nurse, the hospital was shut down by the wife of the owner. The owner was said to have passed on due to some virus. Ever since then, Ashley had decided to focus on her writing till she found a better job.

She walked back to the window and stared at the busy people. People walking to and fro. Cars blaring so loudly. It was a typical evening in California. She enjoyed every single bit of it. She got most of her inspiration on what to write from just watching people go about their everyday lives.

The constant and annoying knocking on her door snapped her out of her thoughts. She adjusted her dress and headed for the door. Hardly had she opened the door when the person pushed it and poked his head inside. She couldn't make out who the person was because the curtains were down and the house was a little dark. He rushed in and grabbed her arm softly.

"Do you have an inhaler?" He asked even before she could yell at him. "My brother is an asthmatic and he forgot his inhaler at home. He's having his attack and I don't know what to do."

"I do have one." She replied pitifully. "I'll go get it." She ran back to where she was sitting and brought out the inhaler from inside her chair. As if she had anticipated the whole thing, she brought down the inhaler with her when she woke up in the morning. She rushed back to the young man and handed him the inhaler.

He immediately took it, thanked her, and ran out of the house. She stood by the door, half of her body outside. She stretched her neck a little to see the person in the car. All her efforts proved abortive as the person she was trying so hard to see was facing the other way. She could only see his honey blond hair and his right hand. He appeared to be reading a book before the asthma attack. Her lips curved into a smile when she saw the name of the book he was reading. It was her second published novel 'EVERYONE HAS A LIL SIDE OF CRAZINESS.' She wrote the book when she moved into her apartment with her three closest friends. Staying with them made her realize that everyone was brought up in different ways so you couldn't expect them to behave the same way. No one was normal. Even the ones that thought they were normal had a lil side of craziness too.

A little push from Kylie made her leap. She placed her hand on her beating heart. "Geez," She frowned. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Someone's in love." Rebecca walked in with her bags of clothes. She had just returned from the mall. Rebecca was the craziest amongst them. When it came to relationships, she had a gold medal. In just the first half of the year, she had already dated 8 guys. Her extravagant lifestyle was one of the many reasons she didn't get along well with Ashley. Unlike Ashley, her friends were outgoing people. They loved to have fun. Kiara was working as a business partner in her dad's office. She was the richest amongst them. After studying Business Administration in campus, Kiara got a job as a P.A in a very successful company. She worked in four different companies before buying 50℅ shares of her dad's company. When her dad's company was suffering a high loss, Kiara made a deal with her dad. With no other option, her dad accepted the deal. 30million in exchange he was going to give her 50℅ of his company.

Although she loved having fun and hanging out with rich and cool friends, she also loved simplicity. She moved into their small apartment just to explore and know what it was like to be down your high horse. Among the four friends, she and Ashley were the closest. They both had different views of life but they had the same IQ. Kiara believed that one should live life every day as if it's their last while Ashley believed that one should always think of the next day rather than focusing on the present day.

"I bet it's that rich guy in that car we saw outside," Victoria added. She dropped the basket of fruits she bought on their way home on the table. Victoria was the last of four of them to move into their apartment. Victoria and Ashley were of the same age. She lived with her blind uncle and her aunt before coming to stay with them. Her mum abandoned her at the age of 8 on a playground while they were playing hide and seek. She was supposed to seek her mum but after counting to ten, she went out to look for her mum but didn't find her. To date, that incident gave her a fright whenever she went to bed. After that incident, her dad kicked her out and got married again. She was immediately given shelter by her blind uncle. Her uncle was a very successful man. He had two oil companies and a company where cars were being produced. People admired him for his bravery and will to succeed despite being blind.

Victoria was homeschooled. Her aunt, her uncle's wife was her teacher then. She helped her get over her fears and even taught her the things she knows today. Victoria helped her uncle most time at his company. She attended some meetings for him and even shared some of her ideas for the company's growth.

After graduating from Havard University, Victoria took a job at a restaurant where she worked alongside her two college friends, Mabel and Riele. Not too long on the job, her uncle called and told her to return. He wanted her to work in one of his companies seeing as she was very intelligent and had a thing for cars. She was immediately made the new CEO of SPEEDJOE company. She moved out of her uncle's place when she found out that Ashley had lost her job.

"Who's he anyway?" Rebecca asked over a mouthful of cookies.

"I dunno." Ashley sat on her chair. "I didn't get to see his face. All I know is that he was having an asthma attack and his brother came knocking to ask for an inhaler."

"Nerd." She rolled her eyes. "The least you could have done was go check him out yourself. What a wasted opportunity." She sighed.

"She's not wrong," Kiara added before turning on the TV. She sat down, opened her pack of chips, crossed her legs, and relaxed her head. "If I were you I would have pretended to go help his brother out and then I'll be able to see who he was."

"He seemed like a wealthy man." Victoria smiled. "Did you see his entourage? Who goes out with so many entourage except a successful person?"

"You guys should stop it." She frowned. "I only helped him because he needed my help. Plus, I already have a boyfriend."

Rebecca and Victoria laughed so loudly that it annoyed her. She tried to defend her relationship with Philip but they just kept on laughing and teasing her boyfriend. Her friends never really liked her boyfriend. Philip was a narrow-minded and selfish person. He would go on and on about how he loved her but never really got her a gift. He was also a gaslighter. When Ashley lost her job, she wanted to take a job at a restaurant nearby but he advised her not to. He promised to give her a place in his office but failed to honor that promise. Her friends couldn't understand what she saw in him which made her want to continue their relationship.

"Speaking of Philip, what's up with him lately?" Rebecca asked with her eyes fixed on her phone.

"Meaning?"

"He was usually always around you that it irritated us so badly but recently I noticed he stopped coming here. 2days from now will make it 3yrs since you guys started dating. Do you think he's moved on?"

"Hey!" She shouted. Why would Rebecca even ask such a thing? She thought. She loved Philip. He was her first boyfriend and the guy she dreamed of spending the rest of her life with. Philip might be strict but he was understanding. He was very good at listening to her problems. Maybe not so good at finding a solution but at least he listened.

"You know," Kylie snapped her out of her dreamy world. "Relationships require the effort of two sides for it to work. When one person is the one putting in all the effort that relationship won't last long. I noticed," She bent down, picked up her second pack of chips from the table, and opened it. "That Philip has been acting strangely since you lost your job. It's almost as if he was following you because you were independent."

"She's not wrong." Rebecca deadpanned. "I won't be surprised if he has someone else."

"Becca!" She yelled angrily. "You should know when to stop talking."

"Trust me when I say that guy is with some other girl right now in his bedroom."

"Getting advice from someone who can not be committed to one guy is amazing. You of all people do not deserve to criticize anyone." She jabbed at her.

"Wow girl, you better watch your mouth." She replied with an angry tone.

"Truth is bitter right? So is accusing someone's boyfriend of being unfaithful. Maybe you should use the remaining half of this year to work on yourself and sad relationship life and not waste it on judging others."

"And maybe you should spend the remaining half of this year finding a good job. Unemployed worthless writer. I feel so ashamed hanging out with you."

"Then go back to your rich Palace!" She got up from her chair and picked up her novel and notebook. "Oh, and I'm not a worthless writer. The rich guy you saw earlier, he was reading one of my books."

"I bet he would be so disappointed to find out who and where the writer of the book lives." She teased.

"I am not a worthless writer and I would prove it to y'all. You think you are so successful? Don't worry, I'll make it too someday. I'll be more successful than you guys and I won't forgive you when that day comes."

"And I won't forgive you the day you find out I was right about your boyfriend." She laughed. She enjoyed getting on Ashley's nerves especially when she knew Ashley was busy with something important. As soon as Ashley was out of sight, she grabbed the popcorn and sat in between Kylie and Victoria. Victoria turned to look at Kylie who was already staring at her. They shook their head and continued watching the TV.

**UPSTAIRS**

Ashley entered her room and shut the door behind her. She jumped on her bed and lay with her head facing the ceiling. She sat on the bed and picked up her book and pen. After looking at the blank page for a while, she closed the book and threw it back on the bed. No one valued her talent. Everyone in their neighborhood said the same thing about her. They all thought she wouldn't make it as a writer. After all youths and teenagers, these days loved reading erotic novels and she wasn't into that. Gone were those days when people read novels to acquire knowledge. These days it was difficult to sell a book if you weren't writing what everyone was writing. What writers failed to understand was, that if everyone wrote the same way, your book would never stand out. People would only think they are all the same books with different names and different authors.

She brought out one of her books from the shelf and admired it. "I won't give up so easily. I still believe there are still people out there looking for other genres of novels like myself." She encouraged herself. "Even if I do what everyone is doing, I'm gonna add a little difference to it. A Christian romance novel just like that movie A WEEK AWAY." She brought out her laptop, turned it on, and started writing.

She wrote for about 5hours before falling asleep on her laptop. Her fingers were already weak from typing that long.