Page 4 of All Roads Lead to You

No shit. I’d been attracted to Nick since he bulked up at age sixteen. Now, at nineteen, he was fucking stunning with his dark chocolate eyes and olive skin. Yet I hated him for coming into my life, which I eventually got over… sort of. Then I hated him because I was attracted to him. I hated not being able to have what I wanted. It was easier to fester with resentment than with want. I never said I was rational. Once I found someone new, Nick would be forgotten.

There’d been other boys at school I found hot, but I just couldn’t go there. It was easier to block them out than it was Nick.

Hunter sat up, hopped off the truck, and put his smoke out on the asphalt. “Let’s bounce. I’m hungry for some McDonald’s.”

I jumped off the hood, too, and climbed into my truck. “Sounds good.”

Chapter 2

Nick

Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ blared through the large stereo speakers in my bedroom as I shook my ass and sang along to the lyrics. I never got tired of this song.

I stared into my full-length mirror and popped up the collar of my hot pink polo shirt. Then I grabbed my comb off my dresser and fixed my bangs, brushing them upward. Once I had my hair just right, I sprayed it with an ungodly amount of hairspray to keep every strand in place.

I turned to the Miami Vice poster and spread my arms out to Don Johnson and Michael Phillip Thomas. “Well? How do I look? Fucking good, right?”

After I put my small silver hoop in my ear, I grabbed the beige sports coat and shrugged it on, rolling up the sleeves below the elbows and popping the collar on the jacket, too.

The phone rang in my room, and I snatched the receiver and pressed it to my chest. “I got it!” I yelled at my family so they wouldn’t answer.

“Hello?”

“Nick! You almost ready for this party? It’s gonna be bitchin’, man. Everyone’s gonna be there,” Caleb said.

“Mad excited for this party, my man. I’m about ready. After I grab Lauren, I’ll swing by and pick you up.”

“Well, book it. I need to get drunk tonight and find someone to fuck. I snagged Dad’s bourbon stash.”

I snorted a laugh. “He’s not going to miss being short a bottle?”

“Nah, he’s got tons of shit. He won’t miss one. I’ll replace it later. We need to grab some smokes on the way, too.”

“No prob.”

I rarely smoked, but I tended to do it more when I was drinking. My stepbrother, Logan, smoked way more, which was weird because he was an athlete. I was, too, playing on the varsity tennis team, which was how I got my athletic scholarship to Stanford, along with straight As. But smoking winded me if I did it too much.

“There’s supposed to be some college chicks partying tonight, too, from George Mason. Fresh meat!”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you ever get bored with hopping from one girl to the next?”

“It’s like you don’t even know me.”

I snorted a laugh. “Whatever… Gotta bounce. See you soon.”

I hung up, spritzed on Polo cologne, and ran downstairs, jumping the last four steps and landing on the hard tile in the foyer.

This summer was going to be radical between parties, saving up money from my job, and moving to California with my girl. After graduation, we planned to get married and have some kids. I wasn’t sure if we would come back to Virginia or stay in California, but we’d probably stay there. Maybe we could find a place close to the beach. That would be bitchin’. Maybe I could even learn to surf.

I stepped into the kitchen with flowery yellow wallpaper and sat down at the kitchen table.

“Jesus, Nick. You’re a herd of elephants coming down the stairs,” Mom said, feeding Hannah some rice cereal on her lap while my stepdad unpacked bags of McDonald’s burgers and fries for dinner.

“You always say that,” I said.

“Because you always sound like that. Can’t you walk down the stairs like a normal human being?”

“I’m a teenager. Aren’t we supposed to make a lot of noise?”

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