Sentence Sneak Peek - Joyride

Joyride by Anna Banks

* Read via NetGalley and checked out from the library too for review

The first sentence from each chapter of Joyride, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)

“Mr. Shackleford shuffles in the front door of the Breeze Mart, jingling the bells tied to a velvet string on the handle.”

“The night did not go as Arden had reckoned it would.”

“I don’t actually breathe until Deputy Glass pulls out of our sandy driveway.”

“Carly Vega.”

“Arden leans in, spreading his palms flat on the table between us, hovering over his lunch tray like he’s protecting it from some unknown evil behind him.”

“Arden stares at the back of Carly’s head in American Lit, wondering how he’s going to revisit the very important subject of her becoming his accomplice now that it’s evident she hates his guts.”

“I step away from him, shaking my head.”

“Arden pulls into the long dirt driveway at 86 Weston Road.”

“I brace myself on the metal steps to the trailer; the door tends to stick when you open it and a few weeks ago I pulled too hard and found myself sprawled onto the broken concrete slab we call a porch.”

“Deputy Glass pulls his cop car into the parking lot of the Breeze Mart.”

“Something like wasps flutter in my stomach when I see that Arden is holding me to my word.”

“Arden waits at their picnic table, trying not to appear as antsy as he feels.”

“I hear Arden’s truck and feel the rumble on the dirt road.”

“Arden pulls into his uncle’s driveway, knowing he won’t be awake at the ungodly hour of seven o’clock in the morning.”

“Life sucks.”

“Arden slips into his seat in social studies and tries not to look at Carly, who is already doing a fantastic job of pretending that he doesn’t exist.”

“Sitting on Arden’s bed not as intimate as I thought it would be given his reputation.”

“Arden usually admires Carly’s fearlessness.”

“Well, that was traumatizing,” I say, slamming the truck door behind me.”

“Arden pulls up to the front steps of Uncle Cletus’s house and honks the horn.”

“I’m more than a little startled to find Julio sitting on the couch waiting for me when I get home.”

“Arden laces the string through the tab of the first empty soda can and Carly sucks in a breath.”

“The room has no windows, no creepy two-way mirrors.”

“Arden paces the six-by-four-foot interrogation room two strides at a time, waiting for his father, waiting for word on Carly, waiting for anything besides this vexing silence.”

“The rain outside hits the metal roof of the trailer like BB gun pellets.”

“Arden adjusts the telescope in his room to look for Orion’s belt.”

“I take the new cell phone out of its box and marvel at it.”

“Arden takes a huge swig from the water jug on the wooden bench.”

“I unpack a box of clothes and set it on the bed to fold and put away.”

“Arden perseveres down Cletus’s driveway, so awash with anger that if the moonlight was bright enough, his knuckles would show tighty whitey on the steering wheel.”

“Arden offers to make me a cup of coffee in what I assume is his mother’s fancy coffeemaker (Arden is too manly to have a fancy coffeemaker).”

“Carly won’t come out of the bathroom.”

“The sound of the sheriff’s voice pulls me from my self-loathing trance.”

“She doesn’t like tea,” Arden tells Cletus.”

“I can barely wrap my arms around the box.”

“Arden pulls into the dirt driveway of Carly and Julio’s trailer.”