Page 40 of Soul So Dark

I’m going to be clear and not leave any room for doubt. After a few minutes, I assume he’s decided against it, but my phone buzzes again.

ALEX (6:21PM): Leave your window unlocked

ME (6:22PM): It’s always unlocked

ALEX (6:24PM): That’s not very safe

My muscles pull at my cheeks, and I can’t resist laughing to myself.

ME (6:24PM): You’re right. Any creep could just come in…

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Alex

My phone starts going off with multiple texts all at once, vibrating across my dresser while I dig around in the closet for my Ariats. When I pull them out, my eyes linger on the faint line on the drywall where the paint is slightly different, no matter how much I tried to blend it. But with the dim light and all the shadows, it probably isn’t noticeable to anyone but me.

Just the way I intended.

I slam the door and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Just like every other first day of school for the past three years, we wear our soccer jerseys: blue and white with the Dire Wolves insignia on the front and my number 23 on the back beneath my last name. It’s weird to think this will be the last time.

I grab my phone off the edge of the dresser and pull up the group chat we’ve had going for years. I can’t even remember when it started. And, as usual, Aiden kicks off the morning with an ominous note.

AIDEN (7:24AM): Happy First Day of Senior Year…I’m bringing a surprise

COLSON (7:28AM): Ketamine?

AIDEN (7:28AM): You wish

MASON (7:29AM): Your stepmom’s ass?

AIDEN (7:30AM): Close

Then another immediately comes through.

AIDEN (7:30AM): But better

There’s a big-ass blueberry muffin from the bakery in town sitting on the counter with a Post-it note stuck on the countertop next to it. I recognize Adrian’s jagged, all-caps handwriting immediately.

HAVE A GOOD LAST FIRST DAY FUCKER

There’s never been a more fitting start to the school year. As much as he tries to emulate our parents, he’s still Adrian and it’s nice to know that he still exists somewhere beneath all the nagging and responsibility. It’s also fitting considering that this is the last first day of school I’ll ever have.

I guess that’s not totally true. I could still go to school after I do my time in the Corps. Regardless, I should be pumped about senior year but, at the moment, I already want it to be over.

I need to get away.

The house has been quieter than usual. I would say it’s like the calm before the storm, but the storm already happened and now it’s the calm after everything’s been splintered and destroyed in the wake of a tornado. Maybe I just need something else to happen to dilute the dumpster fire that was last summer. Maybe Aiden knows it and that’s why he’s teasing some macabre surprise for the first day of school.

But when I drive into the senior parking lot and pull in next to Colson’s Civic and Mason’s BMW 3 Series, Aiden’s not even here. His Lexus is nowhere in sight and the bell’s going to ring in five minutes.

“Where’s this surprise?” I call to them as I grab my backpack from the passenger seat.

“It’s actually that he’s in jail,” Colson replies, emptying the remainder of an energy drink into his mouth, “he opted for a text instead of a phone call.”

I slam my door. “That’s unfortunate, my day just got a lot more boring.”

Assuming that Aiden won’t appear in the next 30 seconds, we start making our way across the parking lot to the back entrance of the school. But when I stop at the bottleneck, I feel a tap on the back of my shoulder. As soon as I look to my side, I immediately look away again and dread washes over me when I see her familiar blue eyes and shiny cornsilk hair.