Daren Keith Jones

14 December 1995

Baptist

Daren is a tall, handsome, and thoughtful young man. He attended a different local elementary school from Lauren and many of her friends, but he met Sarah during fourth grade and became fast friends with her and during fifth grade he met and became friends with Lauren.

He has attended Immaculate Conception since sixth grade, and as a result has become friends — if not quite as close — with many of Sarah and Lauren’s other friends.

At IC he joined the baseball team as a pitcher, something he’s fair at, but not good enough to ever start with. His batting average is atrocious. His true sport is boxing, he takes lessons at the local Y and competes often, and he’s quite accomplished, bringing home more than a few trophies. He hopes to get a college scholarship on his boxing, even possibly become pro for a short time.

He’d always had a bit of a crush on Lauren, having seen her even before he’d met her; at the end of seventh grade he finally worked up the nerve to ask her out, and the two seemed a perfect couple from there on.

The perfection was only on the surface, though. The two grew to be less close friends while dating, until Lauren started to notice their lack of compatibility. Both were determined to try to make it work out, partially out of a stubborn nature on both their parts, and because neither one had much stomach for casual dating — preferring to take all relationships quite seriously.

Despite his reaction when Lauren tells him she’s met someone else, he does care for her — as a valued friend, and as someone he really did have genuine feelings for — but he’s never been the most expressive young man where his feelings are concerned (something, he realises, might have helped him keep Lauren if he’d been better about) and as such takes a rather long time to renew his friendship with her.

Now & Forever ABCs (Bertrice) (jayeedgecliff.com)
Now & Forever ABCs (Allison) (jayeedgecliff.com)
Now & Forever ABCs (Aaron) (jayeedgecliff.com)
Now & Forever ABCs (Chris & Sophie) (jayeedgecliff.com)
Announcing: Love or Lust now available! (jayeedgecliff.com)

Now available in eBook and Print: Love or Lust the first of four books in the Now & Forever series.

A light-hearted, slice-of-life, romantic-comedy for young adults, Love or Lust introduces you to Lauren Conners, a ballerina, a Good Girl, studious, and sweet, and to Salencia Constellino, an exotic, irreverent cowgirl new to the little Washington town.

When the girls meet it’s love at first sight; sparks fly, angels sing, lightning and fireworks. But they attend the best school in the area, a Catholic secondary school, Immaculate Conception. It’s not just their school that brings trouble for the young couple. The young teens have their own inner turmoils and anxieties — especially Lauren, who always wants to think the best of people, but quickly learns just how petty people can get.

It’s an uplifting story, though, meant to inspire and give hope. The girls have supportive and loving friends and families. And, largely, the obstacles of life and of being teenagers are navigated with quirky senses of humour and strange misunderstandings.

In this book Lauren and Sally are first and foremost, young high school freshmen, fourteen years old and trying to make sense of themselves and the world around them. It is my hope that it might show people that we’re all human beings no matter who it is we choose to love. That homosexual, heterosexual, bixsexual, asexual, trisexual, or what have you, are still people; still feeling beings with hopes and dreams.

Print book us$17.99/£11.50/€13.75