Page 16 of Sour Lollipops and Sweet Nightmares (The Society #1)

Issac

T here were various rules and doctrines that The Society expected us to follow.

Some of them were confusing, some were straightforward, and others were open to interpretation.

The rules my father expected us to live by…

those were set in stone. There were three of them.

The first one, Ravi, Levi, and Slater failed as soon as my father saw them.

Public appearance was important. Always look your best.

It didn’t matter that Georgia had pepper-sprayed them. Burning skin wasn’t a reason to lose your composure. It was their fault if they didn’t see the attack coming. If one of us died, he’d probably tell us to walk it off.

His second was to follow Society Doctrine.

We failed that one, too, when my father overheard our plan to make Georgia ineligible to become a bride.

He didn’t say anything about it, but he knew.

There was no mistaking that look in his eye.

I grew up with that oppressive stare of disappointment and shame.

The final rule was the reason for my leisurely stroll around the park. Always be on time. My father was a busy man and valued his time. I, however, did not value his time. In fact, I made it my personal mission to waste his time every chance I got.

Slater was always telling me to stop testing my father, but what was he going to do?

Kill me? He put too much time and effort into me to do that.

Besides, I was the only heir my father had.

Everyone else could ask how high when he said jump.

I would keep my feet on solid ground until I decided to jump.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t respect him. It was quite the opposite. I respected my father very much. I just wasn’t afraid of him. I didn’t fear anything, and that wasn’t some egotistical, I’m so tough bullshit.

Not once in my life could I recall fearing anything. I couldn’t even describe what it felt like. I knew the reactions others had. Wide eyes, trembling, and a quickened pulse, but I had never experienced it.

Guilt, remorse, and sympathy were also foreign concepts to me. Ravi said I was born broken, but I would argue that everyone else was. I’d never fuck up because I was panicking. There was a reason I passed my trials by the time I was fourteen.

I didn’t have a conscience to get in the way. I was more disagreeable than my friends, however. Especially when it came to my father. Hate was an emotion I knew well. I might respect my father, but I also fucking hated him.

I paused on the path, long enough to bend over and inhale the floral scent of a rose bush. Stopping to smell the flowers was not something I ever did, but my father gave us twenty minutes to clean up and meet him at the dean’s office, and I was only ten minutes late.

Ravi, Levi, and Slater, of course, took off almost immediately to get changed. I stopped by my room to drop Georgia’s bag off, got a soda from the vending machine, had a five-minute conversation about birds with some random guy, after which I took the long way to the administration building.

One thing I hated more than my father’s rules were his random unannounced visits. He did it to catch us doing something wrong, more specifically me, although I wasn’t sure why. The Society had eyes and ears everywhere. Keeping an eye on me was a waste of his precious time and resources.

Every second of our lives were accounted for, either by camera or one of their various spies.

There was no need for his sporadic check-ins, and he sure as hell wasn’t doing it out of parental obligation or love.

I spent more time with the maids growing up than I did with him.

Half the time, I wasn’t sure that we lived in the same house.

Most of us grew up in similar circumstances. Unless it was preparing us for trials or future positions, none of our parents were that active in our upbringing, except for Levi.

His family life was vastly different from the rest of ours. His parents showed up for family days at school and checked in on him at least once a week. If Levi wanted something, they would send it to him, no questions asked.

Personally, I thought they spoiled him, but whatever. I couldn’t wait for the day when Levi couldn’t have what he wanted. Watching his perfect world burn down around him would be the highlight of my life.

Thirty-nine minutes and sixteen seconds after my father left us in the cafeteria, I sauntered through the doors of the administration building and headed up the stairs for the dean’s office. The extra nineteen minutes were perfect timing. I wanted to be late, but not too late.

When I walked down the hall and turned into the reception area, I saw Levi and Slater sitting in two of the chairs outside the closed door to the dean’s office. That was strange. They should be in the office, getting lectured, not sitting out here looking bored.

“What are you two doing out here?”

Slater rolled his eyes over to me and grumbled, “Look who finally showed up.”

“I’m not that late.”

“Well, maybe if you were on time, we wouldn’t be sitting out here,” Slater argued.

Levi didn’t seem to care either way. He was too busy scrolling through his phone to give a shit.

Did I feel bad for making them wait? No. Besides, I highly doubted they were on time. When they left the cafeteria, they were a mess. Now, no one would know they both got hit with pepper spray.

Slater had a few blotchy patches on his face and bloodshot eyes, but he looked the same when he had a hangover. There was a chance he had an allergy to alcohol. Not that he would get tested, despite my many suggestions that he do so.

“What took you so long?” Levi asked while continuing to stare down at his phone. “We were on time.”

I found that hard to believe. “Not all of you were on time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ravi’s not here.” I pointed out while eyeing the empty seats next to them.

That was when Levi finally tore his eyes off his screen and looked up at me. “Isn’t he with you?”

“Why would he be with me?” Ravi was hit with the pepper spray, too. I was the only one who didn’t need to clean up. Not that I would’ve. If my father wanted to talk to me, he could do it while I was in wet clothes with my eyes watering.

“I don’t know,” Levi shrugged. “Don’t you guys suck each other’s dicks at night?”

What the fuck. “No!”

“Huh?” He paused and narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to find a lie in my expression. “You guys spend so much time together, I just thought…”

“So. That doesn’t mean we do that shit. You’re not sucking Slater off?”

“No, but he’s sucked me off.”

“Hey!” Slater slapped his shoulder.

“Oh, calm down,” Levi dismissively waved. “You weren’t that bad.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

Slater looked over at me. “It’s not what you think. There was a girl involved, and…”

I held up my hand, cutting him off. “I don’t want to know.”

If I could scrub this entire conversation out of my head, I would.

Changing the subject before I got any more information, I turned the attention back to our missing member. “Any idea where Ravi is?”

Both Levi and I turned to look at Slater.

He cocked a brow. “What?”

“He’s your brother,” Levi explained.

“So?”

“So, you should know where he is.”

“Why? Because we’re twins?”

“Yes,” Levi nodded. “Don’t you have that twin ESP crap?”

We both stared at Levi for a second before Slater said, “No. That’s not a real thing.”

“That’s only because you and Ravi are the worst twins ever.” Levi huffed and slumped back in the chair, disappointed that Slater couldn’t mind-meld with his brother.

That was not an ability I would want if I were Slater. I roomed with Ravi. No one wanted to see that, let alone know what twisted shit was happening in his head.

That’s when I noticed something else. There was not a single person in here working. Every desk was empty. Even the receptionist was gone, and that old bitch was always here, giving people the evil eye when they walked in.

“Where is everyone?”

Levi looked at me like I was dumb. “We’re right here.”

Idiot.

“Did you not notice the empty desks?”

He leaned over to look around me. “Is there supposed to be people at them?”

“Really?” Slater’s brows furrowed. “You are so unobservant.”

“Would an unobservant person notice that Lisa Kewell wasn’t wearing panties this morning?”

Slater huffed out a sigh. “Is this your way of telling us you have her panties in your sick collection?”

“They were hard to get.”

Slater smacked his lips together, unimpressed. “You know, every day I ask myself why I don’t push you into traffic.”

“You wouldn’t push me in traffic. You love me too much.”

Slater arched a brow. “Oh, I’m definitely gonna push you into traffic.”

“Not if I push you first.”

Fuck’s sake.

I prepared myself for yet another Levi/Slater smackdown. Fortunately, my father stepped out of the dean’s office before either of them could take a swing. However, they were poised for it.

My father came out as Slater balled his fist, and Levi froze with his arm cocked back.

Father's brow arched over at them. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Levi quickly dropped his arm and smiled. “Just waiting for you.”

I sighed and shook my head.

For someone who was supposed to be so smooth, he was shit at lying, especially when it came to my father.

Mind you, Levi’s charm enhancement wouldn’t work on Father because his enhancement prevented that.

I called it master manipulation. My father couldn’t control people’s minds, but he could influence their decisions with a simple sentence.

He used to do it to me when I was a kid. ‘No, Issac, you don’t want the yellow truck, you want the red one.’ And so, I would pick the red one, because at the time I really did want it. Then I would get home and wonder why I wasn’t playing with the yellow one.