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My body felt weighed down by the heaviness of life as I walked down the street in the direction of my car. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I let out a sigh as my footsteps paused and I pulled it out to read the message. I already knew it was her before I looked at it.
Winter
Come back.
My breath caught in my throat and my shoulders sagged. She had more power over me than she would ever know. The hold she had on me was one I never wanted to be rid of.
Malakai
I can’t. Your parents will be up soon and you have to go to school.
I watched as the three bubbles appeared while she typed her response. My actions didn’t match my words. I was no longer moving in the direction of my car. Instead, I had involuntarily turned around and was already walking in the same direction I had just come from.
Winter
If you hurry, they won’t see you. Please come back and we will figure it out.
My mind and soul were at war. My feet went to move, to carry me back in the direction of her, but I knew I couldn’t. I had already disrupted her life enough. For once I wished Winter could just see past her feelings for me.
Malakai
I can’t.
I powered off my phone and tucked it back into my pocket before turning back around in the direction of my car. I forced myself to make the walk there, and it was even more of a struggle getting inside and starting the engine. I needed space from her to think because when I was with her, I couldn’t think about anything but her.
As I drove down the road, I contemplated on where to go. My parents undoubtedly would have noticed that I wasn’t home. Their meeting wasn’t until later this afternoon, but my father still had to go into his office for the morning. I could sneak in after he left and make sure I was gone before dinnertime.
The plan wasn’t the best, but it was my only option unless I wanted to drive around mindlessly. If I went to the country club, they would probably know since they now knew I wasn’t at school when I was supposed to be. It was my senior year and there was no way I was graduating with honors now. Shit, I would be lucky if I even graduated at all at this point.
College was not something I ever saw myself wanting to do. Winter insisted I go to Vermont with her, so to appease her, I filled out a damn application for Wyncote University. My only plans for the future were golf. It was a foolproof way for me to make money. My father wouldn’t be thrilled when he learned of my real plans.
I was supposed to follow in his footsteps and become some big shot realtor like he was. If there was one person's footsteps I would avoid, it was that man’s.
I waited outside of my parents’ house until my father left and then I made my way onto the property. My mother wasn’t cruel like my father, so even if she caught me, she wouldn’t punish me for it. If I caught her at a good time, there was a chance she wouldn’t even rat me out to him. When I walked into the massive house, though, there was no one there.
There was an envelope sitting on the counter and my stomach sank as I saw it was from the admissions office from Wyncote University. I slowly opened it and the bile rose in my throat as I read the rejection letter. I knew it would come from any college I tried to apply to, but reading it just solidified the fact that I royally fucked up my chances of anything for my future other than golf.
Anger soared through me and I shoved the paper back into the envelope before I began to rip it to shreds. There was no sense in keeping it. Reality set in and I swallowed back the bile in my throat. I already knew that Winter had gotten in and she was planning to move to Vermont in the fall. She would be leaving me after the summer was over.
That realization and hurt was a visceral pain I had never experienced before.
* * *
“Are you already drunk?” Nico asked me later that night as I got into his car.
I spent the afternoon, well into the evening, sitting in the parking lot at the country club, drinking a bottle of vodka I took from my parents’ liquor cabinet. I was definitely feeling the effects of it, but I wasn’t drunk yet. I had barely even gotten through a quarter of the bottle by the time Nico picked me up.
When I finally turned on my phone, there were multiple messages from him and Winter. I ignored the ones from Winter. After receiving my rejection letter earlier, she was the last person I wanted to see. The thought of her leaving without me was one I couldn’t bear right now. There was one missed call from my mother along with a voice message that I didn’t bother listening to.
“No.”
Nico wrinkled his nose as I shut the door behind me. “It smells like it.”
“Well, I’m not.”
Nico drove out of the parking lot and pulled his car onto the road. There was supposedly a huge party going on tonight at Lucas Davenport’s house. I needed any reason to stay out and it was a good enough reason to not return home. Plus, I would be able to forget about the shit day I had. Scratch that—it wasn’t just a bad day, it was a bad fucking decade.
“I heard about your parents meeting with the board today,” Nico said with a hesitant voice.
