another sunny day in Ashville when all of me feels nothing but dreary desolation. It’s September, for fuck’s sake. A time upon when the trees should be shedding their aged leaves, letting them fall to the ground to remind us that nothing lasts forever. Although, it’s not like I really need the reminder.
I pull my arm over my eyes, trying to shield them from the sunlight, but it’s no use as my mind is already fully awake. Shit! Who am I kidding?! The chaos that is my mind hasn’t stopped for even a minute. It’s working double time, not showing any signs of slowing down since I got home from my disastrous first date with Stone.
Not that all of it was bad. Most of it was pretty fucking incredible, actually. It was just that last bit at the end that was a mean soul-crusher.
Fuck!
I can’t continue to think about this shit, or I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.
I sit up and hold onto the edge of my mattress as I place my bare feet on the oak-finished floor, latching my eyes onto the other SNAFU in my life—the little black box sitting on my nightstand The Society was kind enough to send me.
Being a sucker for punishment, I pick it up and open the lid, revealing a brand-new phone inside, nicely wrapped in its pristine packaging. If anyone came in and saw me now, they would assume I had just bought the piece of shit and hadn’t had time yet to fiddle around with it. But they would be wrong. I have no intention of even touching the damn thing just yet. If I thought I could get away with it, I’d bury it in the Oakley woods and let that be the end of it. But I’m not so fortunate.
Inside the black box, right beside the phone, is the third letter I’ve received from The Society. And if I cave in to their demands, it looks like it will be my last.
The masochist in me clutches the black stationery, its golden lettering revealing their final command.
Fuckers!
I swear, when Linc and Colt finally figure out who is behind this society bullshit, I’m going to beat them into a pulp, skin them alive, and make them swallow each and every letter they’ve sent me with the intention of ruining Stone. I’ll only stop when I’ve made sure they feel as powerless as they have made me.
Fuckers. The lot of them!
I shove the letter back into the box, unwilling to have it in my hands for another second, and walk over to my closet. I fall to my knees and hide it at the far corner in the back, placing some old football gear in front of it, just in case someone snoops around.
“That’s the end of that,” I grunt, wiping my hands on my sweat pants, feeling filthy just by having touched the damned thing.
These assholes gave me a week. By my count, that’s how long Linc and Colt have to get their act together and find something that we can use to finally get rid of these bastards once and for all. I’ll even help with the research if it speeds up the process. However, if nothing comes out of it, if we still can’t find shit about the members of The Society, then I guess I’m fucked no matter what decision I make.
I’m too screwed-up right now to think that far ahead, though. My jumbled mess of a brain is still trying to play catch-up to my mangled heart. Let me lick my wounds for a few days before I’m forced to make a decision, one that will impact either my life and the guys’, or Stone’s.
After a quick shower, I run downstairs for some breakfast, but I hesitate for a second upon seeing my dad at the kitchen table, reading his newspaper. Mom is trying to feed my brother Calvin’s one-year-old boy, getting more orange goo on her silk blouse than into little Noah’s mouth.
“Morning,” I mumble, after gaining the courage to enter the room.
“Hmm,” my father mumbles as a reply, his eyes never wavering from the sports section.
I walk over to my mom, bending down to kiss her on her cheek before making myself a plate.
“Everyone missed you yesterday for Sunday dinner,” my mom says in between the plane noises she’s making at Noah, trying to convince the little guy to open his mouth and eat the pumpkin mush.