Page 1 of The Bridges I've Burned

PROLOGUE

Five minutes.

Five minutes, and I’d be free.

I hadn’t been able to sleep a single wink. Since the sun had sunk into the horizon, I’d been pacing the worn carpet in my tiny room.

Just waiting.

I checked my watch again. Never in my life had I been this obsessed with my watch. Well, there was that one time…

Last year. New Year’s Eve.

I’d met this girl, visiting the island with her family. She was pretty, blonde, and way out of my league. She wanted to be a doctor. I just wanted to play guitar. We’d snuck off to a remote part of the beach before the fireworks began. I could feel the excitement in the air as the second hand ticked closer to midnight.

A kiss on New Year’s was a pretty sure thing after all.

Ten, nine, eight…

I didn’t even remember her name. I barely even remembered the kiss.

Tonight, however, was a night I’d never forget.

The second that clock struck midnight, I was getting out of this place.

Out of this tragic little house, out of this suffocating town, and away from my fucked-up family.

For good.

I’d been planning this for months. I squirreled away money, clothes, and even my birth certificate, slowly packing my brother’s old pickup truck so the old man wouldn’t notice. Not that he ever noticed much beyond the drink in his hand. But I couldn’t risk it. Any whiff of suspicion, and he’d have my keys and cash in his back pocket faster than I could start the ignition.

It wasn’t that he cared about me. He just hated the idea of being publicly humiliated.

He’d already had one son bail on him…

So, I’d been careful. Cautious.

Now, all I had to do was wait.

Two minutes to go…

I sat on my twin bed and took a long look around the four walls of my bedroom. The pale moonlight streamed through the dingy curtains, casting a ghostly shadow that only seemed to magnify the emptiness surrounding me.

But that was how everything in here felt since Macon had left.

Empty.

When Mom had died, it was supposed to be the two of us together, against the world. Against…him.

But now, it was just me. And I couldn’t face him alone anymore.

I rose from the bed, the springs letting out a deep groan. I froze, listening for any movement beyond my thin walls. Usually, the asshole was passed out by now, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

After a few seconds, I was able to move again. Looking down at my watch, I let out a silent, deep breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

It was midnight.

Happy fucking birthday to me.

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