GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ My First…Night in the Trunk of a Car - Kory M. Shrum (Dying for Her book tour) + giveaway | I Smell Sheep

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

My First…Night in the Trunk of a Car - Kory M. Shrum (Dying for Her book tour) + giveaway


My First…Night in the Trunk of a Car 

My girlfriend at the time, S____, wanted me to sneak into her house one night and sleep over. We’d been on and off again for the better part of the year. I liked to keep her guessing. But lately I heard she had a new girlfriend. When she suggested that I stay the night so we could talk I jumped at the opportunity to prove I was her everything and she absolutely couldn't live without me.

Her mother worked third shift and her father worked first shift. There was a window late at night and early in the morning when I could walk in and out of her house without being detected, which suited me because I’m not much of a creeper.

The plan was S____ would pick me up after her closing shift at Pizza Hut and I’d go home with her, hiding until her mother left. It was a great plan.

The only obstacle standing between me and my reaffirmed superiority over the other girl was the fact that her mother would most certainly see me if I was hiding the backseat. Her mother drove an SUV, S____ had an old Camry, the height difference would have to be accommodated.

I was not going to be deterred so easily.

“I’ll just hide in the trunk,” I said. “She won’t see me in the trunk.”

“If I’m in an accident and someone rear-ends me and you die, they’ll never believe you were alive when I put you in there,” S______ said, which brought us to the second part of the problem.

I couldn't very well climb into her trunk anywhere public. Someone might call the police. I had to get in the trunk where no one would see me—my own house of course. I shared a trailer with my mom and her girlfriend, but the girlfriend would be asleep by 10:00 when S_____ would pick me up and my mother was in jail—serving time for her fourth DUI.

No one would see me.

“You won’t get into an accident,” I assured her. God, what I wouldn't give to be as confident about things now as I was at sixteen.

“OK,” she said. Then she kissed me in front of everyone.

I felt like I’d won already.

9 hours later
“I put a pillow down for you,” she said. We were standing in the driveway outside my mother’s girlfriend’s trailer, looking into the trunk of her car. She had put down a pillow and a blanket even. I had my backpack with my overnight things, a flashlight, and a hardback copy of Circus of the Damned by Laurell K Hamilton that I’d borrowed from the library. I also had my school stuff for the next day.

I thought the trunk looked a little like a coffin then, with the pillow, but I climbed into the trunk anyway. After stuffing my backpack and S____’s into the far corner, I laced my fingers over my chest and tried to look cool—like I get into people’s trunks all the time.

She closed the lid and it was just darkness.

I left the flashlight off on the ride through town. (8 miles. I just google mapped it).

I saw little ribbons of light seeping inside through the gap between the trunk lid and the car. I thought about throwing the trunk open at a red light and scaring whoever was in the car behind us, but realized that would probably just get the cops called and I had no interest in sharing a cell with my mother.

When S____ arrived at her house, she came to the trunk and opened it.

“Once she leaves, I’ll come let you out,” she said and leaned over me to get her backpack off of mine. “Just sit tight.”

She shut the trunk.

I spent the next hour or so reading Anita Blake by flashlight in the trunk of a car. I was convinced I was the coolest, most badass person I knew.

When I heard her mother’s car start at the other end of the driveway, my heart sped up. This was before cell phones so there was no checking the time or live tweeting from a trunk. #Imstillinhere #gotime So instead I just watched the headlight sweep over the trunk and then disappear around me. The smell of oil and the sound of tires on pavement faded into the night.

I waited….and I waited…and I waited…until I got tired of waiting and fell asleep.

I woke to the sound of thunder. It crashed overhead and shook the whole car. I was stiff, being confined to the perimeters of the trunk and also cold. I also really, really had to pee. As rain began to pound the lid of the trunk, I began to feel less and less like a badass and more like a sixteen-year-old girl trapped in a trunk miles from home, realizing for the first time that no one knew where I was. If something happened to S___ I would be trapped for days.

Oh my God, what if I can’t get out of this trunk? What if I suffocate?

I pushed against the seats behind me to see if they’d fold down. I’d rather be in the backseat than the trunk right now—but they didn't budge. So then I started to trace the edge of the lid for an escape hatch and to my surprise, actually found one: a strange little lever near the middle. I pulled at it until I heard the recognizable click of the lid releasing.

When the cold night air hit me, my relief was immeasurable.

I eased the trunk up slowly to make sure no one could see me. It was a quiet, dark street so I climbed out. I crept up to the dark house and tapped on S_____’s bedroom window. I tapped and tapped and knocked as loud as I dared, hoping she’d just fallen asleep (which is exactly what had happened) and would let me in now.

No dice.

So I did what I had to.

I peed in the yard, in the pouring rain and thunderstorm and climbed soaking wet back into the trunk of the car. After all, it was my shelter for the night.

Then as every bit of cold, angry and distraught as you can imagine a sixteen-year-old girl can be, I cried myself to sleep.

It was dawn when I woke up to the whoosh of the trunk opening, only to see S______ clutching her chest in relief.

“Oh thank God,” she said. “You’re not dead.”

“No,” I said. “But you’re going to be.”


Dying for Her (A Jesse Sullivan Novel Book 3)
by Kory M. Shrum
Paperback, first, 392 pages
Published April 7th 2015 by Timberlane Press
"Kory M. Shrum's writing is smart, imaginative, and insanely addictive! You will NOT regret reading it!" -Darynda Jones, NY Times Bestselling Author of the Charley Davidson Series

Dead men tell no tales—except this one.

As he counts down the days until he dies, veteran detective James T. Brinkley struggles to keep his imminent death a secret from one of the only people who can save him – Jesse Sullivan, a replacement agent with the rare ability to die, then resurrect. But every replacement is dangerous, leaving Jesse more vulnerable each time. It’s his job to protect her and he will do whatever it takes to keep her safe.

They are outmatched by the sadist who hunts them and the detective must search his dark past for clues and a way to save their future. However, Brinkley has exhausted his options and buried his closest friends.

If he cannot be saved, his only wish is to prepare Jesse for the danger she must face without him.



About the Author:
Kory M. Shrum lives in Michigan with her partner and a ferocious guard pug. When not writing, she can be found teaching, traveling, and wearing a gi. Her poetry has appeared in North American Review, Bateau and elsewhere. Her first urban fantasy novel Dying for a Living will be available March 4, 2014.





GIVEAWAY
Kory is giving away a Jessie Sullivan Boxset! All three books signed. (I so want this)


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15 comments:

  1. LOVED the story! It's so typical of my own "great ideas" at 16 that I'm actually surprised I've never been in a trunk! I usually go for the deluxe pizza with EVERYTHING on it, but sometimes my carnivorous side comes out and I get a Meatlover's Special!

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  2. Never been in a trunk haha. I'm a classic gal, just pepperoni for me :)

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  3. Yep had people in the trunk to go to the dive in Old school dive in the ones with the speakers that hung on the window.

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  4. Nope never had or been in the truck. There is a local place that makes a "Greek" pizza with pesto, roasted tomatoes,kalamata olives, feta and mozzarella cheese but then I add artichoke hearts and chicken....so tasty!

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  5. I have never been in a truck before. Pepperoni is my favorite kind of pizza. :)

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  6. Never ridden in the trunk of a car but it's never too late. My favorite pizza is gyros and kalamata olives, but can't get it here in BC :(

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  7. I've never been in a trunk; I would freak out! I love Canadian bacon and mushrooms on my pizza. Thanks :)

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  8. No to the trunk. Favorite pizza is stuffed pizza with lots of cheese and italian sausage.

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  9. Never been in a trunk. Pepperoni.

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  10. nope and nope. I think it would be fun to do it once ;) and I love ranch, bacon, artichoke pizza!!!

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  11. nope and nope. I think it would be fun to do it once ;) and I love ranch, bacon, artichoke pizza!!!

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  12. My favorite pizza is supreme with extra cheese, no sauce

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