My exhaustion and the remaining alcohol that’s still pulsing around my body must drag me back under again because I wake with a start once more as a couple of guys go running past.
I watch them as they make their way across the wet sand a few feet down from me. One of them is wearing a Rosewood jersey with Hunter across the back.
My stomach twists at the thought of having to start at a new school. I barely wanted to go to my old one. But become a junior again, retake the shit I’ve already done in the hope of graduating. I’m not sure I have the energy.
Then of course there’s the other issue with that.
Ruby.
The less time we’re forced together the better.
She stirs something inside me that no other has. She awakens a need inside me that scares me. My need to hurt her, to scare her, to make her... mine?
I shake my head as an unamused laugh falls from my lips. No. That is not what this is.
Angry with myself for even going there, I stand and march back toward where I think I abandoned my bike last night.
There aren’t many people around at this time of the morning, but as a guy flips the closed sign to open on a diner ahead, I find myself walking in that direction as my stomach starts to grumble.
“Mornin’,” an older guy calls over the second I push the door open.
“Hey,” I reply, barely sparing him a second glance before I slide into an empty booth and reach for the menu.
In a heartbeat, he’s before me with a coffee pot and filling a mug for me.
“Uh... thanks.”
“No offense, but you look like you need it, son. I’m Bill, by the way. I’m assuming you’re Ashton Fury.”
My chin drops. How does this guy know who I am?
I look up at him, his eyes crinkling with amusement at my confusion.
“I’m psychic.” He winks before a smile curls at his lips. “I’m only kidding. I know everything about this town, boy. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks,” I mutter, already sick to death of hearing people say that. It’s not their fucking fault, they didn’t kill her. That guilt solely lies with me.
“I know things must be all over the place for you right now, but Rosewood is a good town. Just give this place a chance before you write it off.”
“Have you spoken to my dad?”
“Not yet, no. But I will. Now, what can I get for you?”
My lips part a couple of times but no words pass. Who the hell is this guy?
“Don’t worry. I know what you need. Leave it to me.”
He’s gone before I have a chance to argue and in only a few minutes the scent of bacon frying soon distracts me.
By the time I get back to the house the sun has long risen and, thankfully, there are no cars in the driveway.
I let myself in, get myself another coffee before heading up to my room to wash the sand off me from a night sleeping on the beach.
With nothing to do and my head still stuck in that fucking car as I watched the life drain from my mom’s face, the clock ticks around slower than I’ve ever known.
I have no idea what I’m waiting for. It’s certainly not for Dad or Lisa to come home, they’re the last people I want to see, and I shoot down any ideas that I might be waiting on Ruby, because equally, I don’t want to see her either.
I just... I just want to vanish.
Sadly, that’s not how the evening goes, because not thirty seconds after the front door closes with someone’s arrival that evening there’s a knock at my door.
“Son, you back?”
I groan to myself and bite down my need to tell him to fuck off.
“Yeah,” I call, not moving from my position on my bed staring at the ceiling.
He pushes the door open and steps inside. His stare burns into me, but I don’t look his way. I don’t want to see his face.
“Ash, I’m sorry if I pushed too hard last night.” Even as the words pass his lips, I don’t believe them. Something tells me that Lisa’s put them in his mouth. “I know things are tough right now, but I just want you to see that what you’re going through now, it won’t last forever and that it’s okay to think about the future.”
I keep my breathing steady despite the fact there’s a storm brewing inside of me. My fists clench at my sides, the only outward sign that I’m barely holding onto a slither of my restraint right now.
When I don’t say anything in response to his little speech, he continues.
“I’ve managed to get us flights for Tuesday morning to go back to Seattle. I thought that would give you a few days to do anything you need to do, see anyone you’d like to see, before coming back here again.”
I get the gesture, only he’s missing one thing. The only person I would want to see in Seattle is gone.
I had friends, sure, but none of us were all that close. We might have been a team, but we were a bunch of kids in a shit school with mostly even shittier lives. We all had bigger things to worry about than becoming BFFs for life or whatever it is the kids here do.
“Okay.”
“Everything is ready for the funeral, I just need to let the florist know what flowers you’d like, and also is there any music you think she’d have wanted to play?”
Emotions form in my throat as I think about his question, even if I did want to respond, I couldn’t. The lump is too big, too insistent.
Instead, I shake my head, praying that he’s about to leave so I can break down in peace.
Ruby never reappears Friday night which is probably a good thing—for her. I’m really in no kind of mood to have her anywhere near me.
Dad must have actually realized that last night’s family meal was a bad idea because after Lisa has cooked, he brings me up a plate so I can eat alone.
I’m grateful, although at no point do I tell him that.
He does, however, inform me that both he and Lisa are heading out of town for the weekend and as I lie wide awake as the sun begins to rise Saturday morning, I hear them begin to stir before leaving the house not long later.
A smile twitches at my lips at the prospect of having this house to myself all weekend. Or maybe Ruby will come home at some point and provide me with a little playmate.
Ideas fill my mind of just how much fun we could have together without the threat of our parents walking in at any moment and my cock swells.
It’s been too long since I had any action, and even fucking longer since I had some fun with my little toy.
I sit up and grab my cell. Maybe it’s time to find out exactly where Ethan lives and what time this party is starting tonight. It might just be time for me to meet my new classmates.
It takes me less time than I expected to discover that Ethan lives in one of those massive fucking mansions I was looking at last night. I spend almost all day scrolling through social media, getting to know what the Rosewood kids are like. Mostly, they’re the same as the Seattle kids, there’s just one difference. These kids have money. A smile twitches at my lips at the thought. Where there’s money, there’s alcohol, drugs, and girls.
I don’t bother getting ready until I know the party is in full swing. I watch as images appear on Instagram, Ruby’s friend Harley is more than willing to post my stepsister’s whereabouts every two minutes or so, she also doesn’t have an issue with showing off exactly how my little toy looks tonight.