Synopsis

Pierce Jenkins was an 18-year-old with big dreams of being a famous artist someday. When the family’s new computer entered the home, it expanded the ambitious teen’s vision to also include Maggie Sinclair. Somewhere along the line, friendship turned into love and would eventually become the most important secret Pierce would ever keep from her parents.

On the very day Pierce was ready to leave for art school, she blurted out her feelings of love for a girl named Maggie and instantly her father saw something in his daughter he couldn’t bear. As the man walked away Pierce was distraught at never having felt her father’s rejection before, but there was nothing anyone could do to change his mind. Feeling lost and alone, the young lady had no choice but to drive away from obvious rejection and head towards the arms she hoped would comfort her.

Seven years passed by, but it wasn’t until she made a trip home that Pierce realized the wall standing between herself and her father was only ever in place because she put it there. The man wasn’t upset about his only daughter being a lesbian, he felt betrayed after discovering Pierce had shut him out of a very important part of her life.

As she races to make things right with her father, Pierce can only hope it isn’t too late to get back the one relationship she always missed.

EXCERPT

      Not a single word of those people’s urgent pleadings could keep me from
slamming out of the house.  Anger churned fiercely inside me as I closed the car
door with enough force to make my entire arm vibrate in pain.  The ache was
ignored as squealing tires drowned out the shouting from the woman I had called
‘mom’ only a day earlier.  By the look on her face, I have no doubt she was
expecting to see signs of happiness on my face and my ultimate hostility must
have thrown her timing off quite a bit. 

      “What in the hell was she even thinking?!”  I shouted to nobody.

      ‘Maybe she thought you’d be happy,’ the voice in my head calmly
stated.

      “Why in the hell would I be happy?!”  

      ‘Because your father isn’t dead,’ the voice suggested.

      “Who’s side are you on?!”  I screamed as though someone was actually in
the vehicle with me.

      ‘Yours Pierce, always yours,’ it replied.

      “Well you might wanna try acting like it then!”  I growled and veered
sharply into the emergency lane.

      The car skidded to a stop, my entire body quaking with anger as I grabbed
a fistful of hair and screamed so loudly it made my throat painfully raw.  While
my brain attempted to process what happened at my parent’s house, the tiny voice
inside me made an effort to be heard yet again, but I shouted for it to shut up
one final time.  I needed to think things through, to calm down and analyze the
entire situation logically.  What I really needed was to talk to Mags so she
could soothe my hostility; at least it was my thought at the time.  

      Pulling the cell phone from my bag, I shakily dialed Maggie’s number and
left a message for her to call me back as soon as possible.  While I waited for
the woman to return my call it seemed the perfect time to think about when this
mess all started.  

      My mind drifted back to a short time after my 18th birthday when mom and
dad brought home our first family computer.  In the beginning it was mostly used
for homework, but eventually my interest in the world of art sent me in many
different directions and those ultimately led me to an online discussion group. 


      Some of the people were quite deceitful about their intentions for being
at the site, but one name made me laugh the instant it popped onto the screen. 
Paintbynumbers was funny and I did nothing more than observe their comments for
over a month before eventually answering a general question they asked.  We
seemed to connect instantly and soon were having lengthy discussions about our
favorite artists.  When too many other people started getting involved,
Paintbynumbers created a private chat room where we would spend hours talking
about nothing but artistic expression and our mutual love for it. 

      Time passed by so quickly and before I knew it we were confessing our
most intimate dreams for the future.  A new door seemed to open after a
discussion about having strangers eventually fighting over our paintings.  It
didn’t take more than a day or two for me to discover my new friend was 18
year-old Maggie Sinclair and she only lived a short five-hour drive from me. 


      With graduation being less than seven months away, my idea was to print
off any and all information about an art school in the Cities while casually
leaving the papers scattered around the house.  I didn’t blurt it out to my
parents, thinking things would flow smoother if small hints were dropped for a
week or two before voicing my desires.

      Maggie, or Mags as I called her, thought it would be fantastic for us to
live in the same city and get to know each other even better.  It was only a few
more emails before we were exchanging real names, physical addresses and finally
photos.  At the very first opportunity I made a copy of her picture and would
tuck it into the front of the computer in an attempt to make it feel as though
we were talking face to face.  Mags later confessed she did the exact same thing
with my photograph and knowing that only made me feel closer to her.  She always
gave me such a boost when she wrote my name and insisted it sounded like the
sort of name attached to someone famous.  I thought a girl named Pierce was
merely odd, but Mags insisted Pierce Jenkins flowed perfectly from the tongue. 
I thought Maggie Sinclair had more of an artistic flair and insisted she had no
choice about being famous with a name as excellent as hers.  

      Gradually the two of us moved on to new topics of discussion such as
boyfriends or, more to the point, our mutual lack of any.  When neither of us
seemed to be looking at any boys in particular, Mags confessed to being almost
positive she was a lesbian.  It took me a moment to process the information and
I think she grew worried by my silence, but once I had my bearings I was able to
set her mind at ease by confessing my own curiosity with the same sex.  Only
after this particular discussion did my brain begin to elaborate on our very
first meeting and before long I was surfing the internet for any and all
information I could access about lesbians. 

      Though it seemed unrealistic to believe two people could create such a
bond when they hadn’t even met yet, Mags and I knew we were in love once our
secrets were revealed.  The only thing going through my mind was to become
famous and spend every single moment possible with the woman who suddenly seemed
to be in all my dreams, especially the ones I had while awake.  Our discussions
were rapidly turning from painting to elaborations of our first kiss, our first
touch and naturally those led us to the first time we made love.

      Shortly before graduating high school, Mags came up with a way to be
completely positive about our feelings towards one another.  Maggie’s suggestion
was for us to each find someone we could have sex with on the same night so it
would somehow feel as though we were still together even though we weren’t.  At
the time it all sounded perfectly logical and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I
initially thought to find a boy who was willing to cooperate.  I’m not sure why
it seemed any of the teenage boys I knew would say no to sex, but at the time it
seemed a good thing to be proven wrong about.

      The thought of losing Mags scared me to death, but I did exactly as she
suggested and when it was all over there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Maggie
Sinclair was the only person I ever wanted touching me again.  My biggest fear
was in not knowing instantly if Mags actually enjoyed her experience more than I
did.  Deciding to get it over with, I quickly emailed her with my discovery and
waited nervously for her reply.