One Word | H.S.

Chapter Fifty-Five

The first of lasts.

What a twist.

~

Cade's POV | Present Day

~

Harry.

~

I'm living a fuckin' nightmare, but I've never been able to wake up.

From the time I was a future-less kid, I was scrapped of the normalities that life was promised to offer. Absolutely fucked parents, beatin' me until there was nothing but a bruised ego and shattered ribcage, that's all I knew. The counselors would constantly tell me that the coming times held promise, handed me different papers to potential foster parents that would provide the glorious life I had always dreamed of.

They all hated me.

Not even sure what the fuck I would do wrong, doin' the washing went it wasn't my day, broke from gift-buying dreams of gathering love, but they still managed to find the broken parts I so-desperately hated to my core.

Then, I met Levi.

Rough-around-the-edges, fucked to the brim of absolute insanity, the town's most feared teenager as he reeled in every person imaginable, but also terrified every parent. We met when we were only kids, nine at the youngest; misguided, good-for-nothing idiots that were just trying to find our way in a system that would blare in our ears how unwanted we were.

Fuckin' criminals, they would say. Weren't too far-off with that one.

No one really liked him, but not because he had a shit personality, never that. He didn't desire to have many friends, only went for a select amount of acquaintances that he could tolerate for a ten-minute conversation. Wasn't the guy to really do friends, probably the towering narcissism that prevented such a thing.

For some unknown, completely whack reason that his looney brain decided to accept, he took me under his wing.

We were near inseparable, the daring duo that no one bothered to taunt, even out of hysterics. They knew not to step more than four-feet close to us, would probably lose an ear or something.

Not to mention, our brains were bigger than what most gave us credit for, brilliance laced with the pepper of madness. We went to UPenn together on academic scholarships, not able to present the money ourselves, but luck seemed to run on our side.

And then, I met Harry.

The cheerful guy walked into the apartment on move-in day with the biggest smile, grin stretched ear-to-ear as he just moved from his hometown, travelled across the fuckin' Atlantic to study in the states. Never seen someone so giddy in my entire life, ready for a barrel of new friends, most-likely real popular back home.

Levi and I gave him such a run-for-his-money, so fuckin' tormenting. We'd mess with him by fuckin' up his room, or by pouring various tea-bags into kiddie pools to rile him up, but he wouldn't get too upset.

Shit, we even painted over his purple walls—painted 'em blue.

It wasn't until one night—a night filled with endless supplies of bitter Balvenie and rubbin' alcoholic vodka—that we sat down and found small pieces of who we were in the other, drunken stoops of freshly formed friendships.