Page 1 of On The Edge

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PROLOGUE

SEVEN YEARS AGO…

“Hey man,”I call, tipping my head in greeting to my best friend Kai as we approach the band room to pick up ourfriend, Melody.

Calling her my friend tastes like ash in my mouth.I want her to be mine. I wish she was mine. And unfortunately, so do my best friends; Markus, Adam and Kai. It’s no secret between us just how much we each want her. I try not to snarl at the memory of Markus picking her up and wrapping her legs around his waist, ‘all for the game’ we were playing one night. Fucking prick.

After Mel left, Markus and I got into a fist-fight that almost ruined our friendship. I threw the first punch, and I’ll own it, but heknewI don’t like them touching her.

But I can see the way her eyes light up when it happens. She looks the same when I do it.

And that makes my chest hurt. Because it means on some level… she might want one of them more than she wants me.

So after Kai and Adam pulled Markus and I apart, we made a pact to let her choose which–if any–of us she wants. We can’t tryto sway her to pick or ask her on dates, but if she actually makes a move on one of us, the rest have to bow out.

But that doesn’t mean that we change anything now. We still all hang out pretty much twenty-four/seven; we still take care of her, hold her hand, hug her; she still comes to all our concerts in my garage and cheers us on. She smiles at each of us like we’ve hung the moon and makes it impossible to not crave her more and more each day.

Kai and I usually pick her up after her last class of the day on Fridays, choir in the band room, and then we all pile into Adam’s beat-up old truck and drive out to my house to practice our music for the band we’re starting.

“Hey, Reisyn, how was class?” Kai asks. I shrug and lean back against the white-painted cinderblock wall, stuffing my hands into my pockets and crossing my legs at the ankle, my black boots knocking together.

“Shitty. I can’t wait for us to be done with this fucking town and finally go to New York.” I shake my head, running a hand through my shaggy black hair in frustration.

I want to get the fuck out of here. No one, not one person around us, understands why we love rock music. My family doesn’t understandme.More specifically, my mom doesn’t. She thinks Melody is the devil come to tempt me away from heaven, and she’s determined to tell me exactly how I’m wasting my life writing poetry and songs.

My favorite phrase of hers is, “If you don’t learn a practical skill, you’re going to be out on the streets and I won’t have a son that isn’t successful.”

All she cares about is image and money. Oh, and forcing her religion on everyone she meets.

She barely contains her disappointment for me when I leave every morning wearing ripped jeans, black shirts and blackboots, my hair ‘unacceptable’ and the promise of sin in my smirk.

I’ve long since given up trying to be the perfect poster boy for her, no matter how many light colored polos and khakis she buys for me. They all end up in the same place: the trash.

No, I actually give them to the school for others that might need clothes, or I strategically leave them places—the locker room, the gym, or the donation pile.

Kai, Markus and Adam are the same. Their parents are a little more understanding, but… we live in Oklahoma. In the Bible Belt. So no onereallyunderstands.

No one except her.

Melody.

She understands. She understands and sheseesus. Sees me.

“I know, same. I would leave tomorrow if we could take Mel with us. The year after graduation is going to fucking suck, but then…” He sighs happily, his light green eyes sparkling with excitement. “Then, we’ll all be together.”

“You think she’ll actually move with us?”

“Hell yeah I do. Melody said she doesn’t want to stay here either, and New York City is closer to Connecticut than Oklahoma.”

Melody moved here two and a half years ago, in the beginning of her freshman year. We’ve all been inseparable ever since this little beautiful sprite sat down at our lunch table–the one the other students usually gave a wide berth because they think we’re fucking weird–and told Adam she wasn’t going to leave, and for him to get the hell over it. All while pointing at him with the end of her plastic knife.

We all nearly fell to our knees right then.

“True.” I nod, turning to stand a little closer to the door.What the hell is taking her so long?“Do you think she’ll be mad that we’re planning on sticking around until she graduates?”

Kai stands on the other side of the band door, arms crossed across his chest as he sighs heavily. Knowing exactly how Melody’s going to take the news.

Badly.