Soul Splinter

Chapter One

Darkness laced the cloudy night as I stared out the back seat window of Parker's Honda on our way to our grad campout. Each breath I attempted to take felt shallow and ragged, as if the air resisted entering my lungs. I had never been much of a partier or social in that aspect. Ellie's rap music blasting in my ear kept me from panicking.

As my eyes traced the contours of the mountains, a seagull's graceful V-shaped flight across the shyly appearing moon caught my attention. The once towering skyscrapers, now merging into tangled brambles and overgrown bushes before my very eyes as we left Brentford. Once soothing, the distant cry of the ocean grew fainter with each passing moment spent within the confines of the car. Bottles upon bottles crashed together with every sharp turn, and I cursed at Parker silently for giving me whiplash.

I could smell the alcohol on Ellie's lips as she giggled, sitting close to my boyfriend on the edge of her seat. Instead of cowering in the back-I should have said something. I should have placed my head between them and batted my lashes, but Ellie had been my best friend for nine years, and we had been a package deal during my three years of dating Parker. She was a flirt, and I'd call her a social butterfly, but Ellie was more like a wasp with her sting and bite. And all day, she had been gushing about a guy she met a few weeks ago.

"I invited him tonight, and he's from London," Ellie said as I zoned back into her tangent.

She bit her red-stained lips, then carried on about his accent and worldly travels. I had heard enough to understand Ellie liked him, which was a compliment.

"Oh, he's nineteen, which means he can boot for us this summer." There was a silent pause after, before Parker or I responded. This summer would be our last one together before we moved to the city for school. It was always an awkward topic, and we both braced for Ellie to bring it up again.

"I thought it was just our grad class coming?" I asked. My stomach sank lower, surrendering into the gnawing pit.

I didn't want to go, and having outsiders there made it worse. Beyond the muster of lending someone a pencil and daring to ask for it back, I avoided crowds.

"You promised you wouldn't ditch me." My voice quivered, and I couldn't stop the sting in my eyes.

Ellie shrugged her shoulders, tossing her long rose-scented copper hair over her headrest. "My fingers were crossed."

I was the clouds to Ellie's storm, and Parker was the lightning. Sometimes I wondered how we all ended up as a trio.

I didn't respond. My aunt had always taught me that controlling one's emotions was a virtue, and I wasn't one to overstep. 'People will disappoint you; take your father, who drove drunk and killed him and your mother.' I had learned emotions were only temporary. Fear never seemed to last as long, but sadness had hooks and would lynch into your body like a blood-sucking leach. Happiness was a mask of a smile and the glint of laughter. I was too serious for my liking at the ripe age of barely eighteen. Helen always said I was an old soul, baking casseroles by sixteen and believing a chess game was riveting.

"Scarlett," Parker cooed, twisted his face to peer back at me and burrowing his icy blues into mine. My heart always seemed to jolt whenever he looked at me, like the idea that Parker Green was my boyfriend was unbelievable. "Promise you'll have fun. It's our grad campout and our last taste of freedom."

I didn't think Parker knew what the word freedom meant. His parents had him tied to a tight chain his entire life like a well-trained dog, and I figured it was because his dad had been on the police force for twenty-two years. Whereas Ellie was a partier, living for the thrill of Saturday like an addiction. But, even Parker's letterman jacket was unzipped halfway, breeching the lines of conformity.