Page 2 of Something Good
PART I
ONCE
1
SAMMY
Seven Years Later
Today had been a shit show.
Graduation day was supposed to be a day of celebrating your accomplishments with friends and family. Looking forward with hope and optimism. Bright future. Endless possibilities.
My classmates—all one hundred and fifty-three of them—had walked down the aisle to receive their diplomas in brand-new outfits, with their hair styled and their makeup selfie-ready. Their families held cookouts and catered parties and brunches with clever themes. They were showered with gifts and cards with money inside. One kid in my class even got a car. Later tonight, there would be a bonfire at the lake, where most of the kids would gather to celebrate and reminisce and promise to keep in touch. There’d likely be alcohol flowing that some parent would provide while pretending to turn a blind eye and saying, “Kids will be kids.”
I hadn’t done any of that. Hadn’t walked across the stage to accept my diploma. There was no party. No gifts. I thought aboutheading out to the bonfire later, but I didn’t have a ride, and I didn’t really like most of those people anyway.
While Hannah Sinclair had been giving her valedictorian speech, I’d been in the middle of getting yelled at by an angry customer, two hours into my eight-hour shift at Walmart. As my classmates party-hopped from brunches to backyard barbecues, I ate an overcooked hotdog and a bag of chips in the parking lot on my break. I stocked canned goods, cleaned up vomit in the men’s room, and stood at the register for another three hours before walking nearly a mile home.
Ihadgraduated. I planned to pick up my diploma in the school office on Tuesday since it was closed for Memorial Day. I’d been so tempted to ditch the last year of high school and just get my GED, but my brother, Jimmy, had started high school this year, and I’d wanted to keep an eye on him. So I’d taken the bullshit classes I was never going to use and earned the stupid paper.
God, I loved that kid.
Sometime toward the end of middle school, I’d shot up in height, but over the last year, I’d also filled out enough that I no longer looked like a string bean. I couldn’t afford a car, so between skating and walking my ass everywhere, I’d developed lean muscles and a six-pack I wasn’t mad at. I’d retained my blond halo of curls. These days, I wore them thick and messy, rarely doing more than running my fingers through them, which seemed to fit my overall vibe.
Jimmy had the same curly blond hair and slender frame but hadn’t developed the height or muscle mass I had. He was genius-level smart and painfully shy, so he’d spent much of his school years getting picked on. It added another layer of stress for me because I always felt like I had to look out for him. I wasn’t sure how next year would go for him now that I was out of school, but unlike all those kids hosting their fancygraduation parties, I wasn’t college-bound. I was stuck in this town indefinitely, so if anyone gave him any shit, I’d be around to remind them to mind their fucking manners.
My brother and I’d had a fucked-up childhood, but the effects manifested themselves in each of us in different ways. Jimmy tended to overthink, overanalyze, and worry about everything. I was sure he had anxiety, but he was undiagnosed. People like us didn’t have healthcare and couldn’t afford a fancy therapist or medication, so his way of coping resulted in him being tightly wound about everything, asking a billion questions, and overpreparing well in advance.
For me, the trauma of my childhood had left me with a constant low-simmering rage and afuck around and find outattitude.I’d been in and out of the principal’s office over the years for things ranging from inappropriate language to fights and drugs. My sophomore year, between truancy and fighting, I’d almost been sent to the district’s alternative school, but I’d managed to toe the line just enough to stay out of there.
I hopped off my board just before it hit the curb, kicking it into my hand as I cut through the trees to get to the trail. It had been ages since I’d been out here. I’d been working my shitty job at Walmart most of the school year, so I hadn’t spent as much time out here as I liked. I was a loner, so I certainly hadn’t shared it with anyone. Or at least, not since Will left.
I climbed on top of my favorite boulder and pulled out my last joint. Lighting it up, I inhaled, letting the sweet smoke drift around me as the drug wound its way through my system, smoothing the edges and easing some of the tension in my body.
As I often did when I sat in this spot, I thought of Will and wondered what had become of him. We’d exchanged exactly one letter each, and then I never heard from him again. Being cut off from him so abruptly had hurt and had kind of pissed me off, if I were honest. He’d suggested we write to each other.But I supposed he’d probably made new friends and couldn’t be bothered with a loser like me.
Whatever. That was ancient history. I had more important things to worry about than whether some kid had written me a letter when we were fucking eleven years old.
Footsteps sounded on the path, pulling me out of my memories, and I watched as a guy who looked about my age came into view. I was perched high enough that he wouldn’t notice me unless he looked up, so I had the advantage of watching him without his knowledge. I took another hit off the joint as my eyes trailed down his form, from his neatly styled dark hair, down his Vineyard Vines tee, fitted over an impressively built chest, down to a trim waist. His thick thighs filled out preppy shorts and he sported a pair of Hey Dudes that looked out of place in the woods.
His body was hot as fuck, but damn. Preppy douches were not my jam.
“Lost?” I called out. Shit. I didn’t know what possessed me to open my mouth. I guessed I was in the mood to fuck with someone.
Startled by my outburst, his feet ground to a halt and blue eyes shot to mine.
Shit.Motherfucking goddammit.
“Sammy?”
2
WILL
“Sammy?”
My heart raced, both from being startled and from realizing I was staring at my childhood best friend. The only person who’d ever really known all the pieces of me, inside and out.
