Trouble

|Chapter Twenty-Eight| Red Carnation

[Deep Red Carnation]: Alas! for my poor heart

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Flashback

Connor was leaving her for good.

He wasn't going to see her big brown eyes sparkle with mischief, wasn't going to hear her loud laughter ringing in the hallways of their school, wasn't going to have her sneak into his room, touching everything even though she knew he'd give her hell for moving his shit around.

In reality, he loved having her in his vicinity, smelling her apple scented shampoo in his room long after she'd be gone, he was just scared she'd accidentally see something she wasn't supposed to.

Like the olive hairband he stole once and wore around his wrist whenever he'd be away, the photos he took of her with his camera and kept them at random places around his room so he could see them everywhere and brighten his day, her broken pendant, or his collection of every post card she had ever made him for Christmas.

He was afraid she'd find out he was obsessed with her somehow and hate him for it. Because in both his head and mind, he knew it was wrong, knew it was messed up, but he couldn't stop.

Didn't know how to stop.

And now that it was all going to come to an end... it scared him to death.

His world stopped the second he heard his father have yet another loud fight with his mother.

Connor's parents were getting a divorce, but somehow it didn't surprise or bother him anyway. Not really. He almost got to his knees and started singing Hallelujah even though he didn't remember the last time he'd prayed. Not even the first time: no one taught him that when he was a baby.

He knew the divorce would happen eventually, more so after his mom caught his dad fucking one of his lawyers in his study last week. They were back early from yet another random trip to Greece, something his dad didn't see coming, or he wouldn't have Mrs. Iverson bent over his desk as his son and wife pushed the door open.

Now Connor had to bleach his brain to get the mental image out of his head. Disgusting!

He couldn't believe he was still going to keep seeing his father's face, living with him under one roof even, because that was the deal he heard just now: his father was going to keep him, and in return his mother was getting the house. Keeping him was the only condition his father had, while his mother didn't even mention him in her demands.

For some reason it felt like his mother had just... sold him. He wasn't close to her or anything and most of the time he hated her for giving birth to him when she didn't know the first thing about parenting, but still it felt like a betrayal. Another one to add to the list because that's what his parents always did to him - they always betrayed him, they always let him down.