Page 1 of Pocketful of You

Preface

Long after the bullet perforated my flesh, whiskey-colored eyes continued to materialize just beyond my reach.

In the emptiness of nothing, only one face kept me company.

Romi.

And still, I couldn’t fight my way out of the darkness.

I couldn’t get to her.

The hauntingly honest lyrics of Selena Gomez’s songBack to Youlooped through my brain continuously. I knew there was a reason my brain insisted on this particular song.

Junior year.

The Winter Formal.

Romi was my brother’s girl that night but, for one song, one three-minute dance, she was mine.

At the time, I had felt like I had died and gone to heaven.

Maybe this time I really had.

1

Romi

"You're making a terrible mistake. Pull that trigger and all hell will break loose. You'll start a war you can't win, Cal."

A sense of déjà vu washed over me as Mr. Capaldi's words of warning poked at some part of my subconscious.

I'd heard these words before.

In a dream?

A nightmare?

I couldn’t be sure.

But this was different.

This was reality.

I'm already at war,I recited the words in my mind moments before my father uttered them aloud.

"I'm already at war," my father sneered.

And then he pulled the trigger.

The gunshot rang out, loud and shrill, leaving a hole inhischest that ricocheted straight throughmine.

I watched the blood drain from his body and, at the same time, felt the life fade from mine. It was in that exact moment in time that I was certain that my heart did indeed beat for Sketch Capaldi.

He was dying.

And so was I.

Maybe it was for the best.

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