When new writing from an author of ours comes along, we love to share it — especially if it’s free! “Dear Juliet” is a short piece from the Juliet Takes Chances series.

From K.D. West’s Blog:

So, I’m a teacher, as you may have noticed. And the idea of a high school teacher having a sexual relationship with one of the teen children who happens to be one of his or her students is deeply troubling to me, to say the least.

So how is it that I seem to be in the midst of writing a story cycle/novel that centers around precisely such a relationship?

No idea. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

And by the way, since some of you have asked: I’m not Ken. Really. And there is no Allison. Their story flowed out of another one that I’ve been working on. Just to be clear.

I woke up before 6:00 this morning and that question was burning through my head. I’ve written about Allison’s experience of the onset of their relationship — I’ve experienced having a crush on a teacher (as many of us have), so writing stories like “Thing of Beauty” and “Juliet Takes Off” wasn’t too much of  a leap of the imagination. I could understand Allison and Young!Ken’s feelings pretty well.

But this morning as I grumbled myself awake I found myself wondering: What the hell must it have been like for Old!Ken, having this young girl fall in love with you, while you are clearly feeling very inappropriate things for her? That one was much further afield.

So I sat down and created a letter from Ken to Allison, written between “Juliet Takes Stage” and “Juliet Takes Off” — during Allison’s junior (11th grade) year. Don’t know if I’m going to use it in the finished piece, so I thought I’d share it here. (A word to the wise: this isn’t smut, though there’s a lot of sexual imagery. It’s a teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Angsty, definitely.)

Read Dear Juliet (~1000 words) at KDWestWrites