Page 140 of Without a Clue

“And embarrassed.”

“Is it one r or two? We all wonder—”

“And buoy.”

“What are you even doing using the word buoy in your novels? They’re all in the desert, it’s illogical.”

“And bellwether.”

“What’s a bellwether?”

“And apparently.”

“Okay, that one’s on you—”

I halt. And with a sharp inhale jump to standing.

Nash looks up with a laugh. “What? Apparently’s too far? That’s the line?”

“I figured it out,” I say in shock.

My mind begins to reel.

Everything is beginning to click.

Books.

Words.

The distant words from Hugh I’ve heard a hundred times.

When are you going to give me what I want, Pip? I want to see that first chapter. It’s all as simple as getting down that first chapter.

That’s what Hugh wants.

The first chapter.

Of our story.

Life this week.

In a book.

Chapter 25

I race back to my room and open up the first chapter of my forever work-in-progress. It’s been so long since I’ve opened it that I squint having to reread it again. It’s painful.

Thirty-two pages of a horrible start to a horrible story that, if continued, would no doubt meet a horrible end.

Is this really what all this work was for?

This drivel?

And the worst part is, for the thirty-two-page, three-year-long project, it still isn’t a complete chapter.

Nothing of the sort.

Just a girl wandering around aimlessly, much like me the past few days on this ship. Without a clue.