AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fucking California.
“Yes, well you have no trouble at all, do you, Vincent?” I tell the goat who is ignoring me in favor of eating soil. “You just prance around all day long. Not a care in the world. Must be nice.”
He bleats loudly, some dirt on his chin. He looks ridiculous.
I stumble slightly when Vincent pulls to the right and let out a small gasp of horror at the thought of falling out here. I mean, I wouldn’t be found for hours probably. We aren’t in the suburbs and the houses are spaced quite far apart.
Cars come along this road, but not often. I could be face down in a puddle and no one would notice.
A morbid giggle escapes my mouth at the thought. Hell, Finn would lose his shit if I so much as scraped my knee walking Vincent around. I mean, he about died when Logan and I got in that car crash. I know it’s not funny, it really isn’t. But what do you do when something is so tragically ripped from you? Cry? You can’t cry all the time.
So I laugh about it and joke. My dark humor keeps me sane.
And mostly, I’ve moved past it. I just hate that sometimes I’m wobbly on my feet, like right now. I should be able to walk around the damn block by myself.
Oh well, Vincent is almost done eating his way across the earth. We can head home now.
I tug on his leash and he cries out pitifully, a leaf hanging from his mouth.
“You little gluttonous goat,” I say with a huff of laughter. “You just can’t help yourself.”
His jaw works back and forth, and I snort at how absurd he is, turning around to head back home.
And that’s when I hear it.
The spin of tires, the thumping music, the rev of an engine.
When I look up and see the headlights rapidly approaching, I yank on the leash holding Vincent, because if this silly goat gets hit by this car my dad would sob for days. I don’t even consider me. No, Vincent is at the forefront of my mind. I jolt us further toward the side of the road as the silver flash of metal advances so quickly I barely have time to think.
But as I step back, my foot catches on a root protruding from the pavement, and I feel myself start to fall. As I go down, I hear the screech of tires just as the back of my head thwacks against the pavement.
Pain, white spots behind my eyes, and the crunch of metal beside me.
Everything goes black.
twenty-seven
ONE YEAR AGO
FINN
I fuckinghate that I had to stay back and work on a final project, missing my Friday evening with Landon. Logan got to go home early though, having finished up everything ahead of time. Since when does that guy ever finish things on time? Jesus. Lucky bastard.
I glance down at the text Landon just sent of him and his brother smiling goofily at the camera.
They’re out having fun. Without me. God, I just want to be with them. Well, with Landon. I live with Logan, and I love him like a brother, but what I feel for him is nothing like what I feel for Landon.
It’s been weeks since I’ve seen him and I miss him. I’ve been far too busy with classes and with water polo and his schedule has been just as hectic. I should have made him more of a priority, but I just wanted to finish the semester strong so I could spend all of January with him. I can’t wait to wake up in the same place as him, and to spend our days doing fun things together.
I press down on the accelerator, speeding down the road, wanting to make it home as fast as possible. I’ll break all the laws for him. Always have, always will.
My phone vibrates where it rests on my leg and I glance down, seeing Basil’s name appear on the screen.
He probably forgot something at the store and needs me to swing by to grab it.
I press the green answer button, a smile on my face, just waiting to hear his bumbling, goofy voice. But all happiness evaporates when I hear the distraught breaths on the other end of the line.
“Finn?” he gasps, and my entire body sizzles with panic.
