Prologue #2
“But… your mom’s here and…” he trails off.
“And what?”
“Me and dad are here. We wouldn’t be a family without you.”
I almost scoff. Yeah, when it came to school, I was a goody two-shoes.
Everywhere else? I was a hellcat. Axel is sweet, really.
He has that kind of golden retriever loyalty about him.
Ash is right about that. He also, very annoyingly, tends to guard me.
Just another reason I haven’t really dated or gotten around to losing my pesky little issue. (My V-card.)
The throngs of students are thinning out as we reach the music hall, when someone (a very female someone) shouts, “Axel!”
With a grin he says, “Can I meet you there?”
“Just go, Ax. Have fun.”
“Are you sure? It’s kinda dark out here. They still haven’t fixed that light post, and I don’t know if that security camera is working. If something happens to you, mom and dad will kill me.” Mom and Dad . Not even dad and Sofia like I call them Sofia and John. He calls them… Mom and Dad.
This time, I do scoff. “There hasn’t been a crime on campus since Black Thorne University stole the mascot’s costume in 2001.
We – specifically you – won the game. Everyone is out celebrating, you should be with your teammates making friends, not worrying about me.
Go. Have fun without me for once. Maybe you’ll have a date to the Homecoming Masquerade Ball next month that isn’t me.
” I wink and make a shooing motion at him.
He flashes me that mega-kilowatt smile that makes my friends drool and I melt a little bit. “I don’t mind going to functions with you, Cookie. You make them fun when you aren’t pranking me.” He glares and I stifle a laugh. “But okay. See you Sunday night for dinner?”
I roll my eyes. “Who would miss their own birthday dinner?”
Me . I would. It’s the most pretentious fucking thing ever. A big, ostentatious, flashing of money Sofia and John get to do for any little thing they can. Birthdays, holidays, Mother and Father’s Day, their anniversary… it’s all a big fucking show and I seem to be the only one that hates it.
When I was turning sixteen and I just wanted to have a sleepover, something small with friends, Sofia and John had scoffed at me, said they’d already booked Justin Bieber for the event.
I didn’t even like him. Fall Out Boy or Good Charlotte would have been way cooler.
But I understood I was different from my teen-pop friends in that regard.
I could appreciate pop music; an artist is an artist and music is music.
But there was something about actual instruments that consumed my soul, even as a kid.
“Okay. Good night.” He pecks my cheek and goes to the blonde that’s waiting for him.
I check her out a little. She looks familiar.
She’s older, maybe a senior, but she’s cute.
Good job, kiddo. I think, smirking because I know if he heard me, he’d be scowling.
I’m a month older and he also hated that as kids.
“ We’re the same age, Ray.”
“For a whole month we’re not, and as your big sister-“
“STEP.”
“As your big stepsister, you have to give me a bite of your chocolate chip cookie. It’s the rules.”
“Galvina made these just for me, because I’m sick.” He sniffles.
“I bet they’re store bought.”
He coughs. “No way.”
“Prove it and give me a bite.”
“Raaayyyy.” He whined. I made big eyes at him; the ones he could never refuse and handed me the cookie. “Fine.”
I ate the whole thing and then cackled as he chased me out into the snowy yard. We both got pneumonia that winter. Mom blamed me when we ended up in the hospital but he ended up in the ICU.
I guess it was my fault. It’s always my fault. I push Axel to do the things he doesn’t want to do and when it goes bad, well, yeah.
I cut through the courtyard, chuckling at my memory, even though the bite of guilt of seeing him in the hospital getting his lung drained makes my stomach churn.
He’s okay now, Ray. I tell myself, cutting through the quad to make it to the Music Hall a little faster when I feel a breeze flip my skirt up.
I’m really regretting not changing out of my uniform or at least pulling on tights before the game now.
Late September nights in Massachusetts can get really fucking cold.
I walk faster when I hear an owl hoot close to me.
Fuck that.
I rush to the music hall just as Lex, the custodian, flips off the lights and only the ones at the end of the hallways are on.
It’s creepy, but not too dark. Besides, this building is new, only ten years old.
There’s no ghosts here. I pass the six dark, empty classrooms, three on either side of me, turn to the left, past the auditorium, go down the flight of stairs to get to the practice room.
It’s so fucking silent I can hear my heart beating.
“Who’s there!”
I scream and start laughing when I see Lex at the door. “Jesus, Lex, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Me? Miss Raven I almost had a heart attack.”
I let the broad smile stay on my face. “You practicing tonight, Lex?”
“Nah, storm’s coming. Might come back tomorrow in case it floods.
Should’ve called this place Rayne-Less .
” He jokes for the thousandth time since I’ve known him but I still smirk his way.
What can I say? The old guy’s grown on me.
“Maybe then it wouldn’t rain or snow so much. You practicing tonight honey?”
I shrug. “I might. Julliard and Berklee accepted my requests to audition to hopefully transfer next semester. Just, you know, don’t tell Mr. And Mrs. Monroe.” I wink at him.
His brown eyes light up and a wide toothy grin spreads across his face.
Arms out wide, he comes to embrace me. “Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you!
You’ve worked so hard! You know, we’re gonna have to jam out before you go.
I know Jolene would just love to have you over for dinner again.
” He chuckles and his laugh reverberates through me.
He smells of old spice and cinnamon and he gives me all the good feelings with this hug.
It’s the first full hug I’ve had in years.
I can’t even remember the last time my own mother hugged me with both arms. It’s usually one of those one-arm side-hug things at Christmas with a pat on my shoulder.
She’ll embrace Axel, sure. Me? The hellcat?
Her “fat” daughter? The bane of her existence? Not so much.
“I would love that.” I say, willing the tear that wants to drop back into my eyeball.
He finally lets me go, unshed tears shining in his eyes.
Eyes that are full of wisdom, that crinkle at the sides, revealing his age and laugh lines that say he’s lived a happy life, even if he never became a world-famous composer and had a music career cut short due to a car accident that left his dominant hand broken.
By the time he was able to play again… he was no longer a prodigy and was forgotten about.
He took a job working at the university cleaning the halls to support him and his young pregnant wife. He’s a good man, this man.
“You be good, okay? I wanna hear all about what you’re going to play during your audition.”
I nod. “Yes, sir.”
“You’re going to be incredible, Raven Monroe. You’re gonna dazzle them all and leave them speechless.”
I still don’t let that tear shed when his confidence, his pride for me makes me feel all tingly inside. “Thank you, Alex. Say hi to Jolene for me?”
“I will. Lock up when you leave, will you?”
“Of course.”
He backs away from the room, whistling Ludwig’s Sonata No.
14. And I can’t help but stay grinning. I grab my cello from my designated locker and open it up, what’s an extra hour or two of practice?
I have to knock the Julliard and Berklee recruiters dead.
I’m so lost in thought when I hear footsteps coming back to me.
“You want to jam out tonight instead, Lex?” I call out, still bent over my cello case.
I gasp but my breath is cut short when something is wrapped around my throat. My cello is kicked aside, and my head is rammed against the locker’s edge. My vision blurs as something warm, thick and wet trickles from my forehead, down.
Holy fuck it hurts.
Once, twice, they bang the locker door against my temple, still holding onto whatever is wrapped around my throat. “Ple-“
“Shut up, slut.” The voice is garbled and low. Familiar, but I’m not sure. Female, for sure.
“I have mon-”
“I don’t want or need your fucking money. I need you to die .” A different voice says. It’s low and also familiar.
What? Die?
I grunt when another shooting pain comes, this time to my side, and then I’m tossed to the ground.
Fist after fist comes flying at me when I realize it’s not just one guy.
It’s three and one girl, a blonde, wearing balaclavas and black contacts so I can’t see the color of their eyes. Then the kicks start.
“T, break her fucking leg so she’ll fit.”
“She’ll stink up the place by Monday, S.”
“We should take her to the ravine. Let the water take her far away.”
“Too many cameras on campus, A.” The one called T says.
“You don’t have to do this.” I gasp out through gritted teeth.
“Yes I do,” the taller guy, S, cuts in. “So shut the fuck up and die, bitch.”
Other T, stomps on my leg, the bone crunching under his boot and when I try to scream he shoves something in my mouth to gag me and pulls that thing around my throat, pulling it tighter and tighter. My wrists are tied behind my back. Whatever is in my side, is pulled out.
“Jesus, J. You’re only supposed to be the lookout.”
“She's always been a stuck-up bitch. I needed to get one in.” J replies.
Stabbed. I’ve been fucking stabbed .
“In that case,” there’s a dark chuckle that comes from the corner of the room.
I howl when a fist hits my temple where I’m pretty sure I’m already bleeding. I’m mumbling please but it’s muffled like the rest of my pleas were.