1 ~ The Beginning

Silverlake was a total suckfest of a town.

Everyone knew everyone there, so spending every day seeing the same people and talking about the same things was painful, especially when the most common phrase was “I could’ve been something once”.

I swear if you googled the definition of a soul-sucking small town, you’d find Silverlake smack bang in the middle of a blog about multi-coloured gnomes and a depressing song by John Mellencamp.

I mean, sure, Silverlake wouldn’t be so bad if you liked Friday night bingo, annual town festivals, and being called anything but your actual name, but that just wasn’t me.

My name isn’t Nicky, or blossom, ordarling as everyone insisted on calling me.

It’s Nicole.

Just Nicole, or Nic for my friends and family.

My goal in life is to live it up in Los Angeles and kick major butt as a crime journalist. But none of that was going to be possible in Silverlake, especially since I was still stuck in high school.

I walked to school as I did every morning, through Merchant’s Alley, bordered by the same, boring family-built businesses and the same shoppers, out buying the same things, wearing the same clothes. With my brain on autopilot, strolling idly along to the sound of my own footsteps, I nearly missed the custard yellow posters plastered on every surface.

“Hey, loser!” Libby waved the crumpled yellow paper in my face. “Have you seen this absolute pile of gold?”

How could I have forgotten that the new mall was opening in Bellvale soon, another hell-hole forty-five minutes from here? The poster said it was going to be the biggest thing our towns have ever seen, and they were probably right.

“Well it’s official.” I gave her a quick hug, rolling my eyes at her strong vic