“Right, well. You can get to your rooms via this staircase, but you do have your own at the other end of the house. If you’d like to follow me.”
For once, the three of us do as we’re told and trail behind him until he comes to a stop at a slightly less audacious staircase, although it’s still much grander than any I’ve seen before.
“At the top you’ll find four rooms. Each has a fully stocked en suite, but if you need anything extra please speak to Ellen. You can usually find her in the kitchen, which is directly behind the main staircase, and she’ll see you have everything you need.”
“How about an ounce of weed and a few bottles of vodka?”
He stares at me as if I’m going to laugh at my own joke. It’s not a fucking joke. I’m going to need that and then some if I’m meant to live here.
It’s only a year. You can do this for a year for your brothers.
“If that’s all, I’ll leave you to find your feet.” He spins on his heels and fucks off as fast as his legs will carry him.
“Shall we do this shit then?” Conner asks as we all stand like statues at the bottom of the stairs.
“Fuck it.” I move first, but they’re not far behind me.
I take the furthest door from the stairs, and the one I’m fairly sure will have the best view. I might be here for them, but they can fuck off if they think they’re getting it.
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, walking onto the insanely spongy cream carpet and looking around at my new digs. This one room alone is about double the size of our trailer.
I dump my bag on the window seat and look out at the ocean beyond, exactly as I’d hoped. Staring out at the perfect postcard view, I hope its calmness will somehow transfer into me. No such luck, because when I turn and take in the room around me, the need to smash it up is all-consuming.
I don’t want to fucking be here.
I want my old life. My shitty trailer. My state school and dead-end opportunities.
Pulling my cell from my pocket, I sync it with the speakers I find on the sideboard and turn it up as loud as it’ll go. This house might be a mansion, but I’ll make sure Uncle fucking James knows we’ve arrived.
Retrieving the packet of smokes from my bag, I pull one out and place it between my lips before falling down onto my bed. I can only assume there’s a no smoking rule in a place like this. I smile as I light up and blow smoke right into the center of the room.
I didn’t follow any rules before, so like fuck am I about to start.
I can’t hear anything over the sound of my music, so it’s not until the door opens that I realize someone wants me. Looking up, I expect to find my brothers, but instead Uncle James stands before me in his sharp three-piece suit, slicked-back hair and clean-shaven face.
“What do you want?” I bark, turning away from him and lighting up once again.
“I was coming to see how you were settling in, but I see you’ve already made yourself at home.”
“What the fuck?” I seethe when the cigarette is plucked from my lips, seconds before it’s flicked out the window.
He pulls up the front of his perfectly pressed pants before sitting down on the edge of my bed. If he’s trying to look authoritative, then he needs to try fucking harder.
“A few house rules are in order, I think.”
I scoff but allow him to continue so he can list his challenges, because you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to breaking each and every one just to piss him off.
“No smoking in the house. You want to kill yourself with those death sticks, then you do so outside. You will not bring any drugs or drink into this house. If you want friends here, you can use the pool house. I’ve set it up as a den of sorts for the three of you. That’s your domain.”
“So we can smoke, drink, and do drugs in there?”
“No. There will be no parties, no girls, nothing that will cause any trouble of any kind.”
“If you’re not looking for trouble, then you invited the wrong guys to come and live with you.”
“You are no longer in Sterling Heights.” He frowns. “Things are different around here. I think it might be important for you to remember that.”
“Whatever.”
“School starts in two weeks. Your uniforms are already in your closets. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the place before the hard work starts, because there is no way you’re not graduating this year,” he jibes, knowing full well that I fucked up what should have been my senior year last year. Not my fault that someone had to earn some goddamn money to support my brothers.
I look to the other side of the room as if his mere presence is boring me.
“Dinner will be served in an hour. I expect you all to be cleaned and dressed appropriately.” I see his gaze from out of the corner of my eye drop to my ripped jeans and oil-stained shirt. “My girlfriend and her daughter are coming to welcome you to town, and I shouldn't need to tell you that you will be nice to both of them.”
Well, doesn’t that sound like a fucking fun way to spend our first night in Sterling Bay? A nice, cozy family meal with the man who only wanted us when we had no parents left in this world.
He makes out like he wasn’t aware of what our lives were like.
He’s a fucking liar.
“An hour. I’ve already warned your brothers. We’ll be waiting.”
I do shower and change—not because he told me to, but because I fucking stink, and to be honest, I can’t deny that the rainfall shower in my en
