Page 7 of A Vicious Rumor

“You do realize that I have a car, right? And a license? Just how do you propose to force me to stay at some place I don’t want to be?”

My father sighed. “I really didn’t want it to come to this, but, if you don’t agree, I’ll cut everything off. I won’t pay for the insurance and I’ll terminate the lease on the vehicle.”

“You’re a fucking coward,” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that young man?” my father asked, raising his voice.

I stood up straight and raised my own to match his. “I said, you’re a fucking coward. I’m glad I’m going to get a break from you for a summer. I wouldn’t want to stay here and watch you continue to run our company into the ground.”

“Our company?” he scoffed. “The hell do you mean, ‘our company?’”

I shook my head at him. "This is where you choose to develop a spine? I'm so done with this place anyways," I said, storming upstairs to my room.

My father yelled something from downstairs, but I slammed my door, not caring. He'd never ever chased me into my room, and I knew he wasn't going to start doing that today. He was shipping me off to my mother's because he was tired of me. He never wanted a child. I'd overheard him say it to someone on the phone once. Probably a therapist or some shit.

Told them I was a mistake.

A surprise.

An accident.

A life that destroyed his.

And then he wondered why I got into fights as a kid.

No one seemed to get me.

I crashed onto my bed and stared at the ceiling for a while, just letting the thoughts swirl in my head. I lifted my hand up and stared at the tigers eye bead held onto my wrist with a braided leather strap I'd created myself. Well, maybe one person in this entire fucked up world got me. But who the hell even knew where she was now. I rolled over onto my stomach and sighed.

The last time I'd been forced to stay with my mother I'd tried to track Lily down. The only piece of information I had about her was that she lived somewhere near Anacostia when I was thirteen years old. I'd gone to the library and asked for help, but the librarian told me even she wasn't that good.

Irritating.

All of it.

All of them.

My phone buzzed and I turned over to grab it

“Scissors: Change of plans. Meeting now. Then party.”

I tossed the phone back on the nightstand. I thought about an entire summer away from fucking Scissors and everyone else at the school. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. The kids that attended King's Academy were all fake, judgmental assholes. They'd never been through anything difficult. Their lives were cushy and it showed.

The moment everything about "mom" leaked, my life changed forever, and it changed me forever. I wondered if anyone knew that I'd never fit in with anyone from the upper crust world after that.

I wondered if anyone even cared.

My phone buzzed again and I growled but still grabbed it.

"Paper: I requested the meeting be changed as we do have things to discuss, and I'd prefer doing it when the both of you aren't hungover. Please arrive at your earliest convenience."

Paper I could stand, but I still never got why he was so fucking formal. His entire family was that way. Maybe it was because he thought he had something to prove. He was the second son in the family, so naturally, his brother was set to inherit the family business. I wonder if I wasn't the only one that felt like they didn't belong.

Yeah, alright, I replied back to Paper, ignoring Scissors’ text. I rolled off the bed and changed into a pair of jeans and a black V-neck tee shirt.

I bounded down the stairs, not caring if my father heard me.

"And just where do you think you're going?" he called out at me from his office.

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