[REDACTED]

II

chapter name: prologue

George was sitting on the edge of the pool. His thin bleached yellow shirt was loose on one shoulder and caught in his boxers on the other. The pool water was still cold since it was so early in the morning. The sun was still trying to rise while the birds woke up. It was a rare day that George woke up before the dew in the grass dried, and it had been a while since he had been this restless.

George hadn't spoke to anyone but his mother and best friend in 6 years, and now he had to leave those two comforts behind to go to school in America. He had gotten a scholarship for his tech skills, and got into an all exclusive school. There were rumors that recruits in some of the worlds larger unknown mafia groups were hired from that school. He smiled at the thought.

George nearly fell into the pool when he heard a yell behind him, "George, the car is loaded it's time to go." George sighed before standing up and walking through the grass back into the house, he smiled at his step-dad who had called him inside. In his room he had some comfortable yet presentable clothes a blue sweater and some black jeans, then his black nike slides and his watch that his dad bought him years ago.

The car ride to the airport with his mom was mainly silent, she knew he didn't like to talk and he was lost in thought anyway. He was excited to see new places and knew that America was one of the more acceptive places in the world so maybe his selective mutism would be respected in his school. It would make since seeing that his profession was strictly technological, and wouldn't require much talking.

George's Father's side of the family had money, and a lot of it, but despite that George decided to stay in a dorm room at his new college. He liked the idea of having a roommate, but he also had a slight fear of living alone somewhere. He was taking all of his favorite clothes, and his laptop with him. Along with some other things. George's secondary scholarship he was working with was photography and editing it. Through highschool he made his own website and program so he could take and edit photos in a way that he easily understood. His mother and father and even his step-dad loved his hobbies.

George's favorite part of it was seeing the media's reactions. He had a large following of a couple million on his instagram which is where he posted some of his photos. He rarely posted his face and when he did they were blurred over his eyes. He like the attention, but didn't want to be doxxed or recognized. George did a face reveal years ago but quickly took it down once his following reached 4k. So far nobody had brought it up.

All of George's photo shoots were music inspired, wether he liked the song or not he always found a stance willing to fit the beat. He didn't only pose photos of himself, he did photos for other people to, but those were normally family things and tinder profile pics. He had no intention of showing his followers his face anytime soon, thought it did make him feel a bit bad that they would never clearly see his face or hear his voice, but he knew protecting himself was more important.

One thing that being online had also done for George was teach him how to appreciate himself. Now he would never call himself a narcissist, but he knew that he wouldn't fall ugly on the average persons scale. It did help his confidence, considering how much he had been previously bullied for never wanting to talk in school. Of course he wasn't gonna think about elementary school a lot, since that's when the... incident, in question happened. It scared him, and since then only a few people know why he doesn't talk. Including his therapist, she also knew the reason why he hadn't muttered the words 'I Love You' for 8 years.

He had been nervous to leave his therapist so far away, but she recommended another person in the US that she personally knew. After a few FaceTime calls and file transfers they had arranged for George to still be in therapy while he was a in the states. It even fit nicely with his school schedule. The only thing he would really have to worry about was getting there, hopefully public transportation wasn't very costly in America, yes he had plenty of money saved up since he thought he would be paying for college, but things changed and now he had that money to spend for himself instead.

He didn't plan to waste it either. George subconsciously felt the car jolt to a stop, along with his mother clearing her throat, a few seconds later he snapped out of his thoughts and faced her. He smiled, and she knew that he would be leaving her now. She was sad to see him leave, but happy to see him go.