AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Parker
The top box tilts as I make my way down the stairs as carefully as I’m able. I stop, looking up at it and hoping it settles because if it falls, every box on the stack will plummet down the stairs and I’ll be lucky if I don’t lose my balance and go with them.
I should have just carried fewer boxes and made a second trip, but this house has so many stairs, and we’ve been at this for so long. I just want to get it done so I can sit down.
Moving day.
Also known as my descent into the bowels of Hell.
I’ve been dreading today since the moment my mom told me we were moving in with the Atwaters. I couldn’t even sleep last night, too busy tossing and turning and thinking way too much about all the possible horrors today—and the rest of the days I have to spend here—might hold.
Last time Landon and I were in a room alone together, he realized he can use my determination not to ruin things between his dad and my mom against me.
The time before that, he imprisoned me in my bedroom until I called the cops for help after he broke into my house.
And the first time…
Let’s just say I’m really hoping we can make it through this year without there being a fourth.
I don’t need the A I have in advanced statistics to knowthatis incredibly unlikely, but it is what I’m hoping for.
Moving in with the Atwaters seems a lot to my logical brain like standing on the deck of the Titanic with a bailer bucket, trying to throw water out faster than it can pour in so we don’t sink.
I’ve seen the movie and read the books. My brain knows how that story ends, but my heart is another organ entirely. Itcannotandwill notbe reasoned with. I am one thousand percent certain that by sheer force of my will, I will keep this goddamn ship afloat.
I willnotlet Landon Atwater sink it, no matter how hard he tries.
I only have to do this for a year.
Less, really.
More like eleven months. Just a slow blink in the overall span of my life.
I can do this.
I can carry the boxes, too. I smile, seeing the top box up there defying gravity as it settles into place. “Good box. I appreciate you.”
When I was a kid, I always loved the movieMatilda. I didn’t relate to the shitty family she had since my mom is legitimately the best, but I could relate to what her life must have been like after she got to live with Miss Honey. I liked to imagine my brain was so strong, it could move objects, too.
Looking at myself now, I think that’s probably something I should have grown out of, but here I am, convinced I can move all the resistance in the world by the sheer force of my determination.
Oh well.
I’m gonna make it true.
I make my way down the stairs without dying and use my shoulder to push open the door of the Atwaters’ in-home gym. I keep my ears peeled for the sound of weights being released and clanking into each other and feel relieved when I don’t hear anything.
I haven’t actuallyseenLandon in a while, and that makes me nervous. I need to put a tracker on him or something so I can be aware of his location in the house at all times.
Yeah, that’s a good way to live.
I shove that unhelpful logic aside and turn the corner.
My heart slams to a stop when I catch sight of movement, then accelerates like it’s on jet fuel when my mind grapples with the reality of what I’m seeing.
Landon Atwater, shirtless in just a pair of gray sweats and cross-trainers that probably cost more than my laptop. He’s using a piece of gym equipment, a metal frame with a bar across the top. His feet aren’t touching the ground and, without meaning to, I watch as he lifts himself until his chin goes above the bar. The muscles in his body flex with the effort, but he makes it look easy. He’s glistening with sweat, so I guess he’s been at it for a while.
