Slow Burn

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Emelia James

I was always in love with the boy next door. You know the type, the ones with the magical kisses to your boo-boos when you fall off your bike and scrape your knee on the asphalt when you're first learning how to ride your bike together at 6. The one who always helps you and never makes fun of you while something devastating, like getting your first period at the end of summer pool party your neighbors threw at their house, happens in front of a crowd of 12-year-olds who laugh and point at you talking behind your back. The one with bright blue eyes and sand blonde hair that shines almost white in the sun while you are lounging around at the lake house that both of your parents bought together when you were 16 and newly in love with the idea of love together. He was supposed to be my forever, but his life ended way before ours could even start together. The worst part is that I was the one who supposedly killed him and for some fucked up reason, I don't hate the idea that I was the one who got to end his life.

"We are sending you to Montgomery Academy, Emelia." my mother says while I'm just trying to eat my frosted flakes and watch Netflix at the kitchen counter with my dad in tow behind her looking run down and sluggish.

I just roll my eyes and keep eating, she has threatened me with Montgomery Academy every day for the past year but my father has refused to allow her to send me there. It's a boarding school for the misfits, the unwanted, the crazy, the murderers.

Perfect for me. I think to myself holding back the comment as much as I can.

"Yeah yeah Marrisa, like you'd send me away if you did, it, would only confirm everyone's suspicions about me and our whole family," I say back to her while shoveling another spoonful of cereal into my mouth letting the milk drip off of my chin not bothering to wipe it away knowing it infuriates her to see me making a mess in her otherwise spotless kitchen.

"I'm serious this time Emelia. I have all of the transcript paperwork ready and your Psychologist thinks it's a great idea for you to go somewhere with people who are more..." she trails off at the end of her sentence wanting me to fill in the blanks but me being me I refuse to give her the satisfaction of doing it for her. She still doesn't fully understand or know what happened last year no matter how many times I tried to explain it, she dammed me just like the rest of this bullshit town did and it's fine by me, I do not have to explain to her what happened just as much as she doesn't need to spend all of my dad's money on botox and lip fillers.

"Melly, your mom and I were talking and I honestly think it's a really good idea for you to go. Just try it out for the year okay? If you don't like it you don't have to go back but I think it's going to be a really good idea." My dad says looking just as tired if not more than he feels. My dad was a public figure, working in the mayor's office as one of his lawyers but he always made time for me. It took me to work with him when I was little.

He would sit me down at one of the empty desks in the office and let me play lawyer all day long. Interrogating his clients and even other workers in the building. Letting me play around in the courtroom while the judge let me make up the verdicts for the traffic violations that would stroll off the street. He has always been my biggest supporter and if he's telling me it's going to be a good idea to go to this school then of course I have to trust what he says because he's never led me astray.

I huff out a sigh before mumbling my agreement under my breath. I'm almost 18 anyway so they can't tell me what to do in a few months either way but for right now if this allows my dad a moment of peace I'll do this for him.

"I have two conditions on me going there though," I say to Marrisa.

"Of course you do Emelia," She says annoyed that I would have conditions on the fact that she is sending me away. "Out with it girl."