AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ONE
Age 14
Betrayal lay so thick on my tongue, it tasted like curdled milk. Rook was hot on my trail, and so close, I could practically feel his breath on my neck.
"Your dad wants you to take me out on a helicopter ride?" Rook didn't hide the disbelief in his tone.
"Yeah." I nodded, glancing away as we entered his living room. The couch, old and worn, had orange flowers on it. Sixties style. "Well, I practically had to beg him, but he said yes." My heart was pounding loudly, grateful that the smile I'd plastered on was well practiced.
"But," he tilted his head, his face still too innocent looking for a fourteen year old in this harsh world, "I thought he didn't want you hanging out with me anymore."
"Well. It is your birthday tomorrow."
"Still..."
"I don't know." I shoved my hands in my pockets, staring past the aged sofa and into the kitchen, the edges of the yellowed linoleum flooring curling upward, and shrugged. "He said it was okay, for your birthday." I didn't elaborate. My father hadn't said it, he'd commanded it.
There was a small hesitation. Enough to make my stomach churn––I hated lying like this to him––but Rook's suspicion was replaced with a crooked smile. "I'll go ask!"
As he raced down the hallway in his small home, I shifted uncomfortably.
Rook had had a hard life growing up, a fact that added poison to the acid lining my stomach for what I was about to do. For what my family was about to do.
His nana took him in when Rook found his mom dead in her own vomit, lying face down on their living room couch. The needle by her side had given a clue to the cause.
His nana was sweet and kind, and even when Rook raged and rebelled, her patience had eventually broken through to him. Rook was probably the nicest person I'd ever met, a lot better than my father's friends’ kids, and I liked hanging out with him.
As I wandered into his kitchen, rummaging through his cabinets, there was the hacking cough of his Nana, then the painstaking drag in of a breath.
Two boxes of crackers, a large jar of peanut butter, five cans of tuna fish and two boxes of Ramen noodles.
In the fridge: a quart of milk and a jar of mayonnaise.
"She said yes!" His words reached me a second before his face appeared around the doorway. Then he jumped into the room, with a full grin and a bundle of energy to match it.
It took effort to keep my own face neutral. Despite everything, somehow he'd kept a hopeful optimism about the world, and it made my job today so easy, like guiding an innocent sheep to the slaughter.
“Let's go, then." After texting my driver, I shoved my phone in my pocket and every step towards the door was heavy, like my feet were encased in concrete blocks. It reminded me of when my father threw Deacon Wheelhouse into our pool.
I paused when my hand gripped the rusted brass doorknob to the front door.
A quart of milk and a jar of mayonnaise.
Peanut butter and crackers.
Tuna and Ramen noodles.
Rook was so close to me, his naive bundle of excitement practically made him crash into my back. "Whoops!" He caught himself just in time.
I couldn't do this.
I wouldn't.
I'd never defied my father before, not like this, but this was going to change everything for Rook.
He didn't deserve it, and neither did his nana. She actually cared about him. I needed more time.
"Tell your nana we'll be home in about three hours."
