AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I was angry. I was hearing the kid screaming for mercy and my father was telling him it was God punishing him. I couldn’t stand it and needed to distract him from hitting the kid, so I knocked over an altar holding some lit candles. The next thing I knew, the church was nothing but a pile of ashes, and my father was pointing a finger at me, telling the police to arrest me.”
“Jerk’s too nice a word,” I said. My father was bad, but he didn’t call the cops on me. I had to give him credit for that.
Axel chuckled shortly. “He had some influence with the local law enforcement. He thought he could teach me a lesson by putting me through the system. It was arson, but because there were people inside the building, it ended up being first degree arson, nearly attempted murder, which is the worst. He pushed them toward that decision. He was condemning me to a felony, intent on making me pay my entire life for a miscalculation on my part. I knew too much about how he abused the kids, so he wanted to make sure I was silenced, or that no one would believe me.”
“And you went to jail.”
“Prison. He made sure I was sent to a real one instead of a juvenile facility. It was supposed to be five years. He wanted to tack on time for attempted murder since he’d been inside the church. He insisted I’d tried to kill him.”
“How old were you?”
“Fourteen.”
I leaned back, looking at him. His face loomed over mine, but again his was expressionless.
“You said you were supposed to be in for five years,” I said.
He nodded.
“What happened? You got out?”
“My case was interesting to the Academy,” he said. “After my first year of prison, I got a visit from one of the members. He asked me my story. At first, I wouldn’t tell him. And then he sent in a kid, someone my own age.”
“And you ended up talking to him?”
“I had to. They brought him in as a cell mate.”
My eyes widened. “They sent in another kid?”
“It was a ploy,” he said. “I wouldn’t talk. I was too betrayed by my own father to trust anyone. Eventually, though, the kid got me talking. I told him what happened. The next week, I was being released, under a condition.”
“What was that?”
“I was sent to an Academy boot camp. I was there for five months.”
“Boot camp?”
“It was the best thing I ever did,” he said. “I just didn’t know it at the time. I was a strange case for the Academy, but the moment I trusted them, they helped me and I haven’t looked back.”
The Academy was interested in prison kids. It struck me as odd that Corey and the others thought I should be included in that group. Maybe not, just because I hadn’t been in prison didn’t mean I didn’t belong there somehow. “What about your father?”
“My father was told I was being moved to a boarding school facility funded by the state. Since I’d already been in for a year and hadn’t seen him since then, I can only guess he didn’t care where I was as long as I wasn’t near him. An Academy was as good as a prison cell as long as he thought I was being properly punished.”
“But it took a year,” I said. “You were in prison that long before they could bust you out.”
He nodded. “It was tough. The prison guards kept me isolated to keep other prisoners away. I had to make friends with some guys bigger than myself to survive. I started out bitter. I hated my father and everyone who believed him. But after the Academy found me, I changed.”
I looked out at the water, dark except for the occasional sparkle from the moonlight and lights behind us. Up and down the beach, people occasionally came into view, passed us and walked on.
I was stuck imagining the younger version of Axel, alone in a cell. No wonder when he was brought in for a mug shot he looked so angry and strange. Maybe he wasn’t excited. Maybe he had been terrified.
“I’m not perfect,” he said quietly. “Never have been. I won’t lie to you about it.”
“I’m not perfect either,” I said.
“I don’t want to disillusion you,” he said. He leaned closer. “You’ve had it rough. You’ve been lied to and been through a lot. If you’re looking for a hero or a model citizen to change your mind, to bring you hope that someone out there can give you faith again, I’m not the one.”
This wasn’t just a confession. This was a warning. Maybe he thought because he’d saved me earlier, and with the small kiss, I was looking at him differently than he saw himself. “I couldn’t stand someone perfect,” I said. “I’m not one of those girls that wants to marry the president or a doctor and live on a hill with a white picket fence.”
He chuckled once. “I wasn’t exactly thinking of that.”
I sighed and sat back, forgetting his arm was there. He held strong, but the move had him dipping closer to me. I stared out at the water, my heart thundering at him being this close. I needed to talk to distract myself. “Are you saying you cheat on your girlfriends?”
“No.”
“Do you lie to them?”
He remained quiet for a moment. “I was like Kevin once. I was lying to an old girlfriend about the Academy and what it really was. It didn’t last long. I did it to protect her. I meant well, but it broke her heart.”
I didn’t think I’d like to be Kevin’s girlfriend, being lied to like that, but at the same time, if I was a normal girl, maybe I could appreciate it. The illusion that my boyfriend was safe at his job might be more comforting than the truth. “It’s understandable why you did it, though.”
“It made me realize I didn’t want someone I had to lie to,” he said. “However, when you make that choice, the number of girls you’re able to date becomes an incredibly small number.”
I couldn’t tell if he was hinting at dating me, or if I was part of that number. My instincts were frayed, so his signals were confusing me. “There aren’t girls in the Academy already?”
“Not a lot,” he said. “And we can
’t tell just anyone what we’re about.”
“How come you told me?”
“We didn’t. You found out on your own.”
“Would you have told me if I hadn’t?”
He quieted for a long moment but then his phone started ringing. He pulled away from me to answer, holding it to his face. “Yeah?”
He got saved by the phone. Maybe it was better. I was getting too close and with the way my head was floating and my stomach was full; I was too weak to give much resistance to a handsome guy like Axel.
“On our way,” Axel said. He hung up and tucked the phone into his pocket. “They’re back.”
“Who?”
“All of them. Come on.” He stood, holding out his hand to help me stand up.
I took it, but he held on. I swallowed, afraid he’d want to hang on to me in front of the others.
I was being an idiot. I still wanted Brandon. I still thought of Marc. I even thought of Raven. Now there was Axel. What a mess. I couldn’t tell if they were lying to me, if this was all a ploy or what. And I was selfish enough not to want to say a word and play along and drag it all out.
Maybe I was testing them. When they all found out, they’d kick me out of the group. If they all discovered one another, and didn’t say anything, I’d know they were up to something. I’d prove to myself they weren’t perfect.
Even if I was the one messing up.
WEAK
Axel collected our leftover food and his shoes from the car, letting me go as he did, for which I was grateful.
Neither of us had one of the keys. At the hotel room, I knocked and Corey opened the door. He smiled at us and spotted the leftover container. “Aw,” he said. “You ate already?”
“Yes,” I said, widening my eyes and grinning. “Best food ever.”
“Try some,” Axel said, pushing the container toward Corey.
Corey took the box and stepped back. The living space had the sofa-bed unfolded and made up. Bags were piled up in the corner.
The other guys were in the bedroom. There was a movie playing, one I hadn’t seen. The boys lifted their heads up at the same time, like a pack of meerkats. I almost died. Too cute.
