Page 75 of 2204 Hunter Lane
I’d been sitting in this damn block for nearly two hours until a commotion broke out in the hallway and my dad plowed through the door.
“I paid the damn bail, now get him out Pat.”
The bald cop in a blue and grey uniform took out a set of jangly keys and clicked open the bars, allowing me to pass.
As we walked through the sheriff’s office, a few whispers floated through the cramped space, fading off as I exited the building.
My dad’s truck was parked smack dab in the center of the lot, still running as he stepped inside and slammed the door.
Fuck, this isn’t going to be good.
I followed suit and slumped down into the passenger seat, my buzz completely exiled from my brain as I stared forward.
My dad’s stare bled into my skull as he turned onto the dark road, grunting in agitation.
Let’s just get this over with.“Dad –”
“No.” He interrupted curtly. “Not a word outta your mouth, boy.”
I cracked my jaw, forcing my head forward as he unleashed his fuckin’ wrath on me.
“You know what I did for you back there? I paid your five hundred dollar fine to get you out of a goddamn jail cell! You hear that?
“What the fuck is with you? You hit your head or somethin’? Think you can just go around getting arrested without it tainting my name? Payton’s?
“I talked down Sherriff Cordon to a sixty day licence suspension and four demerit points. But you’re workin’ off that five hundred dollars and your keys stay with me, Hunter. You hear me?”
I clenched my fists in attempt to keep my cool as I grumbled out in response. “Yeah, got it.”
My dad’s head hung low as he drove, glaring at me occasionally before he snapped once more.
“You’re lucky that boy at Cid’s didn’t press charges. Marley vouched for you, sayin’ he was harassing her and if it wasn’t for you she would’ve socked him herself.”
“Don’t,” I spat. “Don’t say her fuckin’ name to me again.”
His bemused laugh filled my ears, painting a real pretty picture of death in my goddamn mind.
“She ain’t to blame and you fuckin’ know it.”
“I’ve been driving drunk for years! Never been caught for fuck’s sake and she strides into my life and now I don’t got a license!”
His hand slammed against the wheel. “Are you fucked in the head, boy? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re lucky I didn’t tell Cordon ‘bout your dumb ass stunts cause you’d be rottin’ with the rest of the low lives in prison right now!”
Anger. Heat. Rage, that’s all I fucking felt. All I allowed myself to feel. I got no truck, nowhere to go, a prisoner of my own home and a disappointment to my family once more.
All the progress I’d made, the smiles I’d shared, the laughs I let out, all of that – six feet under. Fed to the worms.
All because of her.
I tuned out my dad’s incessant beratement as I shut my eyes and allowed the darkest parts of my mind to consume me once more. I lived in the shallow end of the water, but slowly, slowly I dove deeper. Deeper, and deeper until I hit the bottom of the sea and I couldn’t be pulled up. Unsalvageable, wrecked and ruined.
Marley, you’re fucking dead to me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Adam
The congested New York City air polluted my lungs as I stepped into the front garden of Darlington Circuit, where my parents resided.
