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Prologue
Icouldn’t count how many times I’d been on this rooftop, looking at the same depressing view. I also couldn’t count how many times that I’d wished for a better view. Granted, the company couldn’t be beat, but the view? Yeah, the view had always sucked.
However, all of that was changing now. With the exception of my sister, we were all getting out of Hammond, and the victory felt bittersweet, knowing that Nova was stuck here for another year. As much as I wanted to take her with me, my parents would never allow it. At least, not as long as Nova was a benefit to them. Luckily for all of us, our happiness meant more to Nova than her own, and she’d always been our biggest cheerleader, genuinely happy for us and our futures.
Though our parents were shit, we had our own family in a brotherhood that’d been formed in kindergarten. Raven King, Atlas Braylon, Titan Miller, and Sebastian Havoc were more than just my best friends; they’d been the strength that I’d needed to go on when I’d been ready to murder my parents. We were tighter than any blood brothers could ever be, and all of our dreams were finally coming true.
“This fucking sucks,” Titan announced, and Raven laughed.
“No shit,” Sebastian agreed.
Through hard work, dedication, and a lot of natural talent, Raven was on his way to college to play football, Sebastian was on his way to college to play baseball, Titan was on his way to college to play soccer, Atlas was on his way to college to play hockey, and I was on my way to college to play basketball. We were going to be scattered to the wind, but college was an opportunity that not many kids from Hammond, Illinois ever got.
Not for the first time, we were underage drinking on Sebastian’s rooftop because, while my family was poor as dirt, Seb’s parents were the neglectful sorts, so we always had the run of Sebastian’s house when we needed it.
Atlas took a drink of his beer before saying, “It’ll be fine. We’ll get through college, and once we’re in the pros and making some real money, we’ll be able to visit each other all the time.”
“Provided we can stay out of trouble long enough to make it to the pros,” I added dryly, doing my best not to let the negativity get to me. However, unlike the others, I was the only one leaving a sister behind, and I knew that Nova was going to have to fend for herself after I left, and that cut me deep to the bone whenever I thought about it.
“No sweat.” Four heads turned towards Titan. His brows rose. “What?”
“Dude, you were ten seconds away from being a teenage father,” Raven reminded him, always the father-figure of our group. “It’s not us who have the problem staying out of trouble.”
Titan just grinned. “And I learned my lesson,” he said. “No babies over here.”
“Look, we still have the summer together,” Sebastian pointed out. “It’s not like we’re saying goodbye tomorrow or anything.”
As much as I didn’t regret it, I knew that these guys were my crutch in life, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that life without them was going to feel wrong. With the way that we’d all grown up, we needed friends that would go to jail for us, not study buddies. We needed loyalty more than we needed to win a popularity contest.
There was also the fact that Sebastian was in love with Nova, and if leaving her was killing me, then I could only imagine what it was doing to him. Unlike most big brothers, Nova wasn’t off-limits to Sebastian. Like Raven, Atlas, and Titan, Sebastian was one of the best people that I knew, so why wouldn’t I want my sister with someone that Iknewwould love and take care of her?
Staring out at the dirty town of Hammond, this really did fucking suck.
“Pros or no pros, we stay family,” Raven insisted as the evening wind cooled down. “Money, schedules, women, fame…none of it comes between us. None of it becomes more important than this right here.”
“Fuck yeah,” Titan agreed.
“Amen,” I added.
“Nothing and no one,” Sebastian vowed.
“The five of us and Nova,” Atlas swore.
I could only hope that I lasted long enough for Nova to join us. If anything happened to my little sister, it’d destroy us all.
Especially, Sebastian.
Chapter 1
Orion~
While most people would argue that we were in the middle of our best season, playoffs always felt right around the corner when January made an appearance on the calendar. There was also the fact that we were the defending World Champions, our fans expecting another title this year. The spotlight felt even brighter now that the Spartans were in the playoffs for the Super Bowl, the sports community comparing me to Raven, though we played two totally different sports.
Nonetheless, I shouldn’t complain, and I knew this. Compared to where my life had been fifteen years ago, I was more blessed than I probably deserved. When I’d grown up sometimes having to choose between eating and letting Nova eat, I had more than I’d ever need in life now, and that’s what I needed to focus on whenever I was feeling overwhelmed or just annoyed by the world.
Growing up, my parents, Garrett and Cindy Knight, had been the worst kind of humans. Yeah, they hadn’t been as bad as Titan’s or Atlas’ parents, but they’d been up there. My parents had been poor, and they had used mental abuse as their weapon of choice whenever they’d wanted to blame someone for their miserable existences. Never mind that they’d both had jobs, dad as a convenient store manager, and mom as a fast-food cashier, but there’d still been plenty of nights when Nova and I had gone to bed hungry. If it hadn’t been for Sebastian’s neglectful parents, we probably would have starved. However, because Sebastian’s parents had never been home, we’d eaten there often.
Even though birth control was a real thing, my parents had always been quick to let me and Nova know that it’d been our fault that we’d had nothing. If they hadn’t had to feed and clothe us, then they would have had better lives. For years, I’d done my best to block out their toxic parenting, reminding Nova that she was the best thing to ever happen in our family. Yeah, my parents had damage me with some serious trust issues, but that had been better than letting them damage Nova. By the grace of God, Nova had managed to grow up relatively normal.
