Excerpt from RUNNING ON EMPTY...
There are many intense moments in ROE because of the whole 17 y.o. girls kills her boyfriend in self-defense & runs away thing. But there are some lighter moments too. :)

A beautiful dress for a beautiful girl.
Love, Logan

My heart soared and fell at the same time. The words were nice, but the gift wasn't something he'd put any thought into. His mother had put thought into it, but for all the wrong reasons.

Hoping for the best, I pulled the ribbon and edged open the lid. Cringing, I held up the foofy champagne-colored dress that looked like something Fashion Fairy Barbie would wear. I let it fall back in its box, then collapsed on the bed and closed my eyes.

My visions of temporarily forgetting this terrible morning were cut short by an extra-loud muffler outside my window. A few seconds later my bedroom door squeaked open and my younger sister stuck her head around the door. "River, you alive?"

Before I could decide, Jamie flopped down on the other side of my bed and arranged herself to face me. "You know it's like 9:30-something, right?" She ran her nail-bitten fingers along the ponytail of her long, carmel-colored hair.

"So?" I grumbled into my pillow.

She squinted, her dark brown eyes studying me. "So, I thought you had to go to some important football thing with that crazy-hot, amazingly awesome boyfriend of yours."

I wasn't about to tell her that my crazy-hot, amazingly awesome boyfriend didn't wait for me, and since my only means of transportation was assembled decades ago, I was disinvited from attending his Seniors' Breakfast.

Something over my shoulder distracted her and she hopped up to inspect it. "What's this?"

I winced. "A dress for Awards Night. Logan's mom bought it for me." Some people have irrational fears like arachnophobia, agoraphobia, even homophobia. Not Sylvia Westfield--she had trailertrashaphobia. Her worst fear was for her son to be seen in public with me dressed in vintage Dollar General.

For an excerpt from the beginning of the book: =http://www.amazon.com/Running-Empty-Colette-Ballard-ebook/dp/B00G2G22J8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=