The way I used to be

Title: The Way I Used To Be
Writer: Amber Smith
Genre: YA and fiction

The main character is Eden, she’s a teenager who lives with her parents and her big brother Caelin. She goes to school with her best friend Mara and they just entered their freshman year in high school. Eden is obviously the protagonist of the story and the antagonist is Kevin, Caelin’s best friend. Edy always had a little crush on him and it was noticed by many and of course Kevin himself knew that too. He saw some vulnerability in her and decided to take advantage of her. She was only fourteen years old and Kevin was already a senior. He originally came over to work over on some projects with his bestie but since they worked until late, he slept over but it wasn’t the first time. Earlier that day he also played Monopoly with Eden during which he was being kind of flirty. During the night, he came over to her room and raped her. After that she was traumatized and didn’t know how to react to what happened, she also didn’t tell her parents when it happened because her rapist threatened to either kill her or rape her again if she ever told someone what happened. She had trouble getting in healthy relationships and became a mess. She drank a lot and started smoking and when her best friend got her driver’s license, they went out a lot. But she’s going to meet her savior (well that’s what I thought he was) at school. His name is Joshua Miller but she calls him Josh. They met when she was a sophomore and he was a senior. They basically just bumped into each other and after they kept seeing each other everywhere they went : in the study hall, in the corridor, during the breaks etc..  But there was an issue, Edy knew Josh’s age but Josh didn’t know hers and he never bothered to ask until her 15th birthday came and he saw the age tag sticked on her locker. It was a tradition between Mara and Eden where and each other’s birthday they would stick balloons and other decorations on their locker and sing loud and proud the happy birthday song to the other person in the middle of the corridor. But when that happened, Josh was coming towards her and he saw all the decoration and was surprised by the age on the locker. After that they got into a fight in which Eden couldn’t really express her feelings due to her trauma and they ended up breaking up. Her brother got the news that some dude in senior year was banging his siter and didn’t like what he heard so he went a fucked Josh up. After that Eden became sort of a slut, she drank and smoke a lot at parties and fucked with the first guy who was okay with it. Sometimes they would try to get to know her but she wasn’t interested, all she wanted was to forget how messed up she was. Time passed and she just kept getting worse and she just couldn’t handle everything anymore. So at some point she obviously reaches the edge and decides to call Josh. At that time they didn’t talk to each other since he graduated, so it’s been two years. And when she called him he immediately answered worried to his phone and he ended up coming back to town after she told him that she loved him and she actually cared about him. He thought that she was going to commit suicide. When he came back to town, they talked ad went to eat and there Eden felt the urge to tell him what happened to her in the past. He was mad, not at her of course because it wasn’t her fault but at himself because he never noticed but also at Kevin because they used to play basketball together and he never thought that he could do something like that. He motivated her to go see the police and to tell her family. But we never get to know what happens with her family and friends. Caelin believes her and the police officer that listened to her case believed her and listened to everything she had to say. That is how the book ends, when she’s about to tell her parents.