Deleted Scene: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

So, I thought I'd try an experiment this week and post two deleted scenes, one from each of my two published novels. This is something that I have pondered over and over. I mean, scenes are cut for a reason, right? Maybe they should never see the light of day. Maybe it's best to just leave them where they are. But I mentioned to one reader (Hey, Louise!), that I was thinking about putting up some deleted scenes and she has not let me forget. LOL. So, I picked the scenes based on readers' comments and responses I've gotten about the novels. Now, I'm not saying that if the scenes had stayed in the novel then the readers wouldn't have had similar responses... but I'm just saying... The following scene was cut from my first novel, I'm Gonna Make You Love Me. I now know that the whole background material I had of them as teenagers probably needed to be cut. But I have heard from some readers who felt that Alicia was giving Darren a hard time and she needed to get over what happened to her when she was fourteen. So I figured I'd share the scene and see what you thought. I'll be posting a deleted scene from If Only You Knew on Wednesday.

Deleted Scene:

The Singletons held a going away barbecue for the boys to celebrate their going off to college. Again, Alicia felt it was overkill. One would think that they were the first people to ever go to college. Alicia stood under a tent in the massive backyard of the Singleton's red brick colonial, watching everyone around her have a wonderful time, everyone, including Darren Whitman and his date.
She tried not to stare at the girl. She was pretty if you liked the tall model-type. She was fair-skinned and had one of those Halle Berry haircuts that everyone was wearing. And she fawned over every word that came out of Darren's mouth.
Alicia decided that even though the girl was older, she was clearly an idiot. She realized that she was staring at them and looked away. Unfortunately, she didn't do it fast enough to stop Sonya from catching her.
"Girl forget about Darren. The fact that he has a date here should tell you that you’re wasting your energy," Sonya said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I'm not even thinking about Darren. I just think his choice in women is a little predictable. What's so special about her?"
"Hmm... let's see. Could it be the long legs? The dimples? Oh no, I think it's that high butt that looks like you can sit a cup on her back!" Sonya laughed.
Alicia couldn't help but join her even though laughing was the last thing she wanted to do. It hurt too much. "Well, good for her and him. I hope they have a long, miserable life together."
Sonya put her arm around Alicia. "Let's go find some guys to dance with. This is a party, right?"
"Right." Alicia cast one more look at Darren and his date and decided to at least try and have some fun.

Darren couldn't stop himself from watching Alicia dance with some little high school twerp. The boy's awkward moves made him wish that he had taken the chance to dance with Alicia at the club a few months ago.
He couldn't believe that he was at the party with a gorgeous girl--one his age--and he kept thinking about a fourtee-year-old--a fourteen-year-old that he was supposed to one day marry. He couldn't wait to leave for DC. He blinked to clear his thoughts and decided to pay more attention to his date.
Darren brought her to the barbecue because he was getting tired of Kendrick making insinuations about him having the hots for a kid. He turned and tried to catch what Shannon was saying, and as he did, he noticed Kendrick giving him the evil eye.

Once the barbecue was over the boys took their partying over to the Taylor's family room with some beers they stole from the stash Troy's folks had for the adult guests. Alicia saw them sneaking the beers and she was tempted to tell on them, but she decided she would eavesdrop instead. She wanted to hear what Darren had to say about tall-dumb-girl.
She sat down by the entrance to the family room, out of their sight, and she realized the more she listened to them that she was right. Boys were dumb. She was just about to get up and go to her room when her name came up.
"And just what the hell were you doing looking at Licia all night, man. She's a kid. I thought we decided that we wouldn't be robbing the cradle this summer?" Alicia’s cousin sounded a little tipsy.
"Man, stop tripping. It's not even like that. Did you see my date? She was fine! And she's a woman, not a little girl. I don't do little girls, man, especially not bratty pests like your cousin. She's irritating, an annoyance. I can't stand her. I don't like her, never did, never will." Darren's voice, the one she thought was so sexy, sounded harsh and mean.
"Plus your little cousin is not all that. I mean she's a cute kid and all, but it’s not like she's Tyra Banks or anything like that. Maybe when she grows up she’ll be halfway decent looking. But right now, I'm not feeling her like that. So, you can stop tripping."
Alicia couldn’t believe those horrible words were coming out of Darren's mouth. She was tempted to go in there and give him a piece of her mind. But she was numb. Her mouth fell open and she felt a weird lump in her chest.
"Shoot. You're bugging! When she grows up? If she's half as fine when she grows up as she is now, then your little cousin will be the finest woman to walk the earth. She looks like a mix between Stacy Dash and that honey from Teen Summit. What's her name . . . Ananda Lewis? Shoot, Darren can play that line if he wants to, but I'm not scared of you and I'm not gonna lie." Troy had clearly had too much of the beer.
"Man, shut up!" Darren and Kendrick snapped in unison.
"Whatever, man, whatever." Troy laughed.
"Anyway, like I said, I'm not interested in the kid. She's got a smart mouth. She thinks she's special. And she's really still the same little pesky brat she always was—minus those braces. I won't ever be interested even if she was the last woman on earth."
Alicia realized that her face was wet when she felt a tear trail down her neck. She got up and tried to control herself, but she couldn't contain the sob that escaped her lips. She ran to her room before anyone could see her.

"What the hell was that?" Kendrick snapped.
The boys looked puzzled for a moment and then as if they all experienced Deja vu at the same moment, they each said, "Alicia."
"Dang, she's still eavesdropping." Troy shook his head. "Sounds like she was crying or something. Didn’t it?"
"Yeah it did. I better go see if she's okay." Kendrick gave Darren one last glare and then went looking for his cousin.
Darren sighed and leaned his head back on the sofa. He didn't mean for Alicia to hear that. But maybe it was for the best. He saved face with his friends. And if she hated him, then he didn’t have to worry about marrying her. Looking up, he noticed Troy looking at him with a silly smirk on his face.
Irritated, Darren snapped, "What? What are you looking at?"
"I hope it was worth it," Troy said smugly.
"You hope what was worth it? What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you and how you will never stand a chance with Alicia now."
Darren closed his eyes. That should be a good thing. Right? "Weren't you listening to me? I don't want a chance with her. She's a kid."
"Right, right, so I guess you won't mind if I step to her? When she's older, of course." Troy looked at Darren intently.
His eyes popped open. He felt himself spiral through a blaze of emotions from angry to bordering on hatred. That was definitely not a good thing.
Troy smirked. "Don’t worry man. She's like a little sister to me. I just want you to be honest. You like her. I don't. I just tell it like it is. I have to admit it has been funny watching you pretend you don't like her all summer."
Darren finished off his beer and shut his eyes again. If he didn't get this Alicia thing under control, it was going to be the longest four years ever.

So there you have it. What do you think? Should Alicia still have gotten past her hurt quicker and stop giving Darren a hard time? Or did our hero get exactly what he deserved when she made him work for it? Tune in later this week for a deleted scene from If Only You Knew...

Much love and peace,

Gwyneth