Blurred Lines Read Online Free PDF Page A

shoved deep in the folds of her bag. She didn’t even look at the call display, worried it would go to voice mail.
    “Hello?”
    “Lauren, what are you up to, darling? Miss me yet?”
    A wave of reprieve washed over her at the sound of Nadine’s voice. She wasn’t sour over not being told about her travel plans, after all. “You know I do. And I’m still doing the exact same thing I was doing in Texas. You know, trying to write a book from the perspective of a character that obviously does not want to be written.”
    “Oh, Lauren, tell me you’re not still stuck in the same spot you were in a few weeks ago? Good lord, someone needs to show that Sarah who’s boss.”
    Lauren chuckled. Nadine knew all about the trials of trying to write Sarah’s romance.
    “Well, evidently, Sarah is the boss right now, Nadine. And she obviously does not want to be written about.” She tried to make light of it, but they both knew this story had been weighing heavily on Lauren’s mind. Many other writers would have walked away from the story with the hopes of picking it back up later, content to work on other pieces instead. Lauren had tried that. No matter what, it seemed like Sarah’s character was etched in her mind, showing up in other works purely to prove that she could. Lauren couldn’t leave her alone, mostly because Sarah wouldn’t allow it.
    Nadine made a sound on the other end of the phone that sounded like a scoff. “Maybe it’s time to start looking at things from Sarah’s perspective instead of trying to get Sarah to tell you what her perspective is, darling. Take a glance at the world through her eyes, and maybe you’ll see the story in a clearer way. Know what I mean?”
    “You want me to try to think like Sarah? I created the character, Nadine, that’s what I thought I was doing.”
    Nadine’s sigh was audible. “I’m telling you to be her. Come on, what harm could it do? Steal her identity if you have to, but think about it. If you really want to know who this Sarah is, what kind of person she is, and who she would want as a star-crossed lover, you have to ask yourself, what would Sarah do?”
    “It’s that simple, huh?”
    “I think it is. Like I said, what harm could it do?”
    “Maybe Sarah is more fun than I am,” Lauren teased, sipping her macchiato.
    “Maybe Lauren’s mocking me right now.”
    “Perhaps.” Both women laughed this time.
    “Just think about it, okay?” Nadine asked. “I’m serious, it may be just what you need to get that story written so you can do your course and get your butt back here to Texas.”
    “Point made. I have to come back anyway, I can’t afford the coffee shops here.”
    Nadine laughed. “Darling, we have high-end coffee shops here in the south.”
    “Not that I’ve been to.”
    “That’s because you live in the sticks.”
    The conversation ended with a few bouts of laughter and the promise of another phone call tomorrow night after Lauren’s first day of class. As she set her phone back down on the table beside the computer, she thought of Nadine’s proposal.
    What would Sarah do? And, like she said, what harm could it do?

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
    Nothing Lauren could have done would have prepared her for the number of students in her class the next morning. Surely this couldn’t be right? Colleges were known for their smaller class sizes and individual attention, weren’t they? There was no way that the number of people in the lecture theater she was standing in could possibly equal anything that resembled a small class size. She did a quick count of heads around the room. There had to be about sixty or seventy people there. Another thing she noticed was that most of the students in the room were significantly younger than she was. Great, in this room, being twenty-nine years old was over the hill. On top of that, most everyone seemed to know each other.
    She chose a seat three rows from the back at the end of