Because in just an hour, I would be starting at a new school, and in just an hour, I would see him.
Caiden had always known how to handle Jackson. That brand of darkness inside Jackson, unfathomable to so many, had never frightened Caiden. In a way, they were foils of each other. Fraternal twins and the exact opposites. It always caught people off guard though at how sunny Caiden’s disposition had always been. With his black as night hair and even darker brown eyes, he stood in sharp contrast to Jackson's sun god looks.
Maybe his Apollo-like aspect was what threw everyone off about Jackson. Going by his looks alone, he should have been happiness and light personified. So when he went black and savagely punched you in the head and knocked you out because you looked at him wrong...you didn't see it coming.
I fiddled with the blanket on Caiden’s bed.
“I think I have to stop coming here,” I said softly to his prone form.
For a moment, I almost expected him to answer me.
Of course he didn't. He wouldn’t answer me ever again.
At least, that was what the doctors thought. His parents still held out hope for a miracle.
“I think it's time for me to move on,” I continued. And it was a relief that he couldn’t answer back.
Because what people didn’t know about Caiden was that underneath his wide smile was a boy who couldn’t let me go.
He called me the loveliest kind of pain.
I called him a monster.
3
Jackson
I woke up from my nightmare sweating, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest as I tried to come down from the terror of my dream. It was always the same. Caiden locked in some kind of dark place, screaming and clawing to get out.
I rubbed my chest, trying to settle the ache tearing a hole inside of me.
The pain and my nightmares had haunted me since Caiden’s accident. Even though the doctors told me that it wasn’t the case, that he wasn’t locked in his mind in a never-ending hell as he tried to wake up…I didn’t believe them.
People didn’t understand what it was like to be a twin. Caiden had been my best friend since the moment of our creation. Well, my best friend until her, but I didn’t think about her. Or at least, I didn’t admit to thinking about her.
Because she was the one responsible for the fact that I would never see Caiden’s eyes again, never hear his laugh, and never hear his voice.
I hated Everly James more than I hated anyone else on the face of the Earth.
And the irony of it all was that I used to love her the most of anyone.
Everly
I stood staring at the new hell I found myself in. Not that it was meant to be a hell, or that it was a hell to most of the students residing within its walls.
But any place that held Jackson Parker would be hell for me.
Any place that didn't involve him being mine would feel like that.
Rutherford Academy was supposed to be my fresh start. It was a place I didn't belong, but had worked my ass off to get into. Starting junior year of high school, you could attend. The idea was that you would work hard so that you would be able to move into the college portion of the Academy after senior year. Rutherford was considered a cross between the most elite prep school in the country and an Ivy League college rivaling Harvard and Yale in rankings every year.
The people who attended this school would end up running the world. The buildings were named after families like the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers, but every year, five scholarships were given out to attend the prep school portion of Rutherford. If those five scholarship students did well and were able to maintain an A+ average throughout the eleventh and twelfth grade, they would get a full ride into the college.
And a future filled with possibilities.
While the junior class was kept segregated due to them being underage, the senior classes were housed in the same building where most of the college freshman classes were held.
I had honestly thought twice about accepting the scholarship when I found out. It was doubtful I would be able to go without seeing Jackson. He had started at the school as a junior, right after Caiden’s accident. The nickname of Rutherford Academy had soon become Broken Hearts Academy with the way that he took over the school and left ruin and heartbreak among its female population in his wake.
You could start at Rutherford junior year of high school. Even though I’d gotten my acceptance before I’d started sophomore year, letting me know I would be attending there as a junior, it had taken me a while to heal from my injuries from the accident. I’d missed almost all of my sophomore year at my last school. At least I’d been able to complete all my academic work remote. That had been something. It kept my grades up. When junior year came around, I wasn’t ready to start at a school like Rutherford, and I’d asked to be allowed to defer until senior year.
Due to the tragic circumstances of my injuries, the Rutherford Dean had agreed, and I had spent my junior year at the public school across town, taking classes and going to rehab. But news of Jackson's exploits still reached me every day. As a junior and then later as a senior in high school, he managed to hang out with seniors in college. They actually listened to him and looked to him as their leader. With Jackson, you soon learned, you were dealing with someone different.
This was my chance though. No one but Jackson and Caiden had ever believed a girl like me could make something of herself.
If I made it through the next five years, that was a guarantee.
As soon as I walked through the front doors, it was like I'd been transported to a different world. The floors were black marble flecked with gold, and actual chandeliers hung from the ceiling every five feet or so. The front entryway was an enormous rotunda, reminding me of the U.S. Capitol building. There were carved statues along the dark walls. The ceiling of the rotunda was at least fifty feet high. I stared wide-eyed at the mural someone had painted on the ceiling.
A cluster of students walked by me, eyeing me curiously, either because of my limp or because I was new. I tried not to stare back, but I estimated that their outfits cost more than the beater Ford truck I’d driven to school today.
The girls in the group looked like they’d just gotten a blowout at the salon across the road, and the guys looked like they belonged in an Abercrombie catalog.
I forced myself not to fidget with the plain black long-sleeved tee from Walmart I was wearing. This morning when I tried it on with the fake leather knee-length skirt that I'd found at a thrift store to go with it, I’d thought I looked great.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
All of the girls were wearing high heels; I had on a pair of black flats. It wasn’t very practical...or safe for me to try and wear any kind of heels with the way my left foot dragged a bit. I also wanted to be prepared just in case Jackson had me running for my life once he saw me.
Well, hobbling for it anyway.
That last time we had seen each other…
It had been terrible.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I found a sign pointing in the direction of the Admissions Office. I followed the arrows until I found the glass-encased office. Pushing open the door, I cringed when I ran smack into someone.
“Ooof,” I cried out as the bag I’d been holding tumbled to the floor. I was about to follow it when a strong set of hands caught me. Looking up, all I saw was green at first. The boy who’d caught me had the greenest eyes of anyone I’d ever seen.