Bøker av Todd H Davis

Prequel to The Gas Station Girl. My teacher wanted us to write about something that impacted our lives. Boy is she in for a surprise. Don't worry, I toned down the rough language to stay within my high school's writing guidelines. If this is my coming-of-age story, it is about doing it wrong. John Jensen's aunt called me the gas station girl because that's where John found me after my escape. But before I became the gas station girl, I was a DollarFly girl. All of us came from backgrounds we were running away from. But we weren't a therapy group, we were teenage prostitutes, lured by the promise of a better life than the ones we left behind. Some knew what they were getting into, which indicates how bad their old lives were. But some like me were lured through deception by a fake online friend with an offer of safety. Many pimps control their girls with drugs, some with violence. Ours controlled us mainly by playing on our fears, vulnerabilities and ignorance, forging perverse relationships characterized by cheap motels, Monday Fundays, and weekly dates with our male handlers. After a failed escape attempt, threats of being sold to a gang, and realizing I had nowhere to go if I left, I resigned myself to this life, just like the others before me. We girls cared about each other and were determined to make the best of this deplorable life. If I couldn't escape to save myself, could I do it to save another?

New school. Confusing relationships. Mean girl. Assumptions. Accusations. You know, typical high school stuff. Except for the skunk and the umbrella-wielding Japanese grandma. Those aren't typical.* * *>High school senior Alia, a runaway who lives with Emi's family, knows her guy friend wants to move their relationship out of the friendzone. He is one of the few people who know of her tainted past and shows interest in her anyway. But she's not sure she's ready. When a rumor circulates that Joel sexually assaulted a girl, Emi and Alia work with others to expose the truth. That effort might just provide the clarity that Emi and Alia need for their respective relationships. The story unfolds with flashbacks to events on a family road trip.

This is a stand-alone sequel to The Trailer Behind the Garage. When sixteen-year-old John finds an incoherent young woman stumbling around a gas station late at night trying to get into cars with strangers, the advice from his older sister Sophie - the matriarch of his parentless family - is to open his car door. If the young woman gets in, bring her home. She gets in. The seventeen-year-old sex trafficking victim learns that with help from her new friends, the journey to a new life is possible, even if a little bumpy. It is a heartwarming story that covers some of the challenges the girl faces in fitting back into "normal" life and overcoming the stigma of her past, including dating, getting back to school, earning an honest living and learning that family does not have to be blood related. The family that takes in the girl is comprised of three siblings who were orphaned three years earlier, and the oldest sibling's husband. They are 20-year-old Sophie and her husband Ty, 16-year-old John, and 14-year old Emi. The Christian faith plays a big role in the girl's recovery.