Page 1 of Comp's Chance

Prologue

COMP

16 YEARS OLD

“You think you can come back to our fucking school all buffed out and trying to take our girls? Fuck that. You are the same old dork as last year and all the years before that. Nothing’s changed just ‘cause you bulked up; it don’t mean shit. You think you’re a tough guy now?” Eric, our star goalie for the school soccer team, says, pushing me from behind as I try to walk away. I knew I shouldn’t have come to this stupid school BBQ. I just wanted to get out and have some fun for once. I wanted to have someone, anyone, to talk to. Now, I’m stuck between three of the fucking soccer jocks and the unmanned grill behind me. Where the fuck did that teacher go?

These assholes have been giving me shit my entire life. Eric and I used to be best friends until third grade. I gained too much weight over the summer, and he got popular when he started playing soccer. I was told I was too lame and fat to hang with him. That was the end of it, or so I thought. It only started as taunts for the next few years, but then his friends joined in. It quickly turned to them beating the shit out of me, slammingme into lockers, locking me in the showers with no clothes… you know, the normal uncreative bullshit fuckers in high school think is funny.

“Just leave me the fuck alone,” I say, finally having had enough.

I used my summer to go hard in the gym. I wanted to make sure that I could at least look intimidating when I came back so they would leave me the fuck alone. Every time she gets a call, it kills my mom that something else happened to me because of these assholes. The last thing she needs is to worry about me. My mom and dad work hard to give us a good life, but we are still considered lower middle class. They work their fingers to the bone and still struggle. I hate it with everything in me, and I’m tired of all the shit plaguing our lives.

“Oh… it looks like he grew some balls along with all that muscle. What does your mom think about that? Or can she even speak anymore? I heard she’s on her deathbed or some shit. How much longer she…” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence because I’m on him, grabbing him by the throat.

“You can talk all the shit you want about me, but I swear to Christ, you put my saint of a mother’s name in your mouth, and I’ll kill you with my bare hands,” I say, picking him up off the ground.

I’m tackled from behind by the two fuckers who were laughing at Eric’s stupid ass jokes. They pound on me, but I block my face and bide my time. It doesn’t take long before they let their guards down just for a moment, and it gives me my chance. I swing at one, hitting him in the temple and knocking him back. He doesn’t get back up. The next one is momentarily distracted, letting me get a shot to his gut and then another to his nose. When he goes down, I turn back to Eric.

“So, that’s how it’s going to be?” he asks me.

“You stupid fucking asshole, are you really asking me that? Seriously? Since third grade, you’ve made it your mission to make my life miserable, and now you're pissed because I’m actually standing up for myself?” I ask him, shaking my head in disbelief.

“You think you’re hot shit all because you bulked up, but you’re not. You may have gotten that pretty face and huge body over the summer, but it doesn’t change who you really are… and you’re not taking my girl,” he says, pulling a knife out of his pocket and flicking it open.

“I don’t want your fucking girl. She’s slept with half the damn school; I don’t want my dick falling off by sticking it anywhere near her,” I tell him.

Stacy came onto me, sure, but I remember she joined in on the teasing just last year. She even asked if she could kiss me at my first and only party. I told her no, and she informed me she was dared to kiss the fat geek. I’m thankful as fuck I didn’t let her anywhere near me.

That was apparently the wrong thing to say to Eric, though. He lunges at me, and I take a step back, barely missing the knife scrapping across my chest. We go around and around; he gets little knicks and scratches here and there, making a very distinct one across my chest that I know will leave a nasty scar.

That pisses me the fuck off. I swing and hit him in the nose. The knife goes flying across the concrete, and when Eric sits back up, wiping the blood from his lip, I watch his eyes. I don’t want to use a knife against this bastard. Only a pussy brings a knife to a fistfight. However, I know if he gets hold of that knife again, he might actually kill me. So, when he goes for it, I lunge after him. I try to pull him away from it, and we roll around for only a minute before I see a flash of silver. I feel a burning stripe of fire scrapes down my face.

“AHHH…” I yell, rolling to the side and holding my face. I feel blood leaking out through my fingers, and the pain is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I roll one more time, pulling my hands back and seeing all the blood. I didn’t realize how close I’d gotten to the grill. The next thing I know, fire blazes across the right side of my face, from the roots of my hair down my neck. My face is on fire, and I’m screaming. Screaming for someone to help. Someone to make it stop. I hear yelling, but no one comes to help me. I hear the retreating footsteps of the assholes who started this shit, and I know I’m done for.

No one is going to come to my rescue. They never do. I try to turn and stand, but all I feel is blood and fire. I lay back on the pavement, finally letting the pain take over. The fuckers got what they wanted when they came here. They turned me into a monster. What they don’t realize is they did it from the inside out.

My face might now be that of a beast… but they also created one deep in my soul. One they will find is not as gentle and forgiving as I used to be. One that will devour everything in its path just for a taste of revenge.

I won’t rest until I get it.

One

SUNNY

My phone ringing pulls me away from the book I’m currently working on editing. The client asked for a turnaround time of two weeks. How the hell am I supposed to get a one-hundred-thousand-word manuscript back in two weeks when there are a few plot holes and a metric ton of grammatical errors? There’s just no way, but I’m going to give it my best ditch effort. I look up from the manuscript and cringe when I see who’s calling me. My ex, Jason. Also known as my baby daddy, who has been involved in absolutely zero percent of my daughter’s life since the day we made her.

He called me out of the blue last week, wanting to see Paisley, my now seven-year-old baby girl. She turns eight in less than a month, and we have been doing absolutely amazing on our own since day one. I had to work two jobs and go to night school, but with the help of my best friend Milani, we found a way. Now, I’m a successful self-employed editor, and life couldn’t be better. Well, unless this fucker would disappear out of my life. I know he has some ulterior motive for reaching out, and I’ve heard talk around town that he wants to take me to court to sue for custody. I’ve always had a feeling if I let him see her once, I would never see her again. That’s not a fucking option.

I look up when I see Milani walk through my front door. I wave and start to talk, but my phone rings again. I know he’ll never go away if I don’t answer, so I take a deep breath before placing the phone to my ear.

“Hello,” I snap, annoyance clear in my voice.

“Don’t you ever fucking ignore me again. When I call, you answer,” Jason snaps over the line. I look at the phone like he’s gone fucking insane. What happened to the sweet boy who doted on me twenty-four-seven while we were dating? Who brought me flowers and told me I was beautiful, that he would love me forever? Oh, that’s right! It was an act from the beginning.

“Who the fuck do you think you are talking to? You don’t have any right to talk to me like that. You don’t even exist in my world,” I tell him, fuming, finally having had enough of his bullshit and standing up to the cocky fucker.

“Listen bitch, you will give me my child. Whether or not it’s by force, I don’t care. Kerry and I are getting married next month, then I’m officially running for mayor. I can’t have it look like I abandoned my child. Plus, Kerry doesn’t want kids. It would ruin her body like it did yours,” Jason says on the other end of the line. He is delusional if he thinks any of that changes things for me. He let me in on his plan, and come hell or high water, he will never see my daughter as long as he lives.

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