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He doesn’t care about anything but himself

Like me

Not like you

He’s a drunk loser

Like me

Yesterday, I thought about going toher to just get over thisabout Jonathan Hale’s infidelity and to quit being consumed by the life of his bastard kid

“Loren Hale got suspended fortoo leam in her eye His failure was Jonathan’s failure And to her, that equaled fucking success

But I couldn’t say anything Who was I to tell a wo like that? She had been cheated on She deserved to be mad, but I had to watch that hate eat at her for almost two decades There was no justice in her pain There was just loneliness

But deep in the pit of o, so I could too

So yeah My father, he fucking ruined er, she could have moved on Maybe if I was a better son, I could have helped her

I’d driven past Dalton, and I was ae Because nobody knew the realMeadows, an all-Aot detention for cursing almost every other day

Loren had both my parents on paper

He had the last name

He had the billion-dollar legacy

I didn’t even kno much they told him—whether he knew about et over the fact that all this ti and screa child of Jonathan and Sara Hale

So why the fuck did I have to pretend to be the bastard? Why was Loren given the life that I was meant to live?

On the field, I had chugged a bottle of whiskey I was nuoal post, hoping Loren was a soccer player, hoping it’d cut up his fucking feet, and every ti

And then the nexttoo fuckingdead I didn’t want to be like that Ito destroyto get ether

I’d run

I’d go to college

And I’d find my peace

Fuck Them All

My dad relaxed “A s” He shook his head at the es And then his eyes flickered up to me, and I knew the question was about to come “Do you want to meet him?”

I opened my mouth, but he cut me off

“Before you say no, hear me out He’s had it much different than you—”

“I’y on Loren anymore I was done

“It’s not easy growing up with the Hale name Our —”

“I don’t give a shit,” I sneered We were both living a lie, but mine orse “I was never allowed to tell people who you were Did he have to do that? Mom used to say that people would treat me differently if they knew my dad was a billion-dollar CEO, but really, you both were trying to fucking hide me” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms For fuck’s sake, she had to keep Hale as her surname, a stipulation in the divorce settlement, while I remained a Meadows

“Not exactly,” he said “We were trying to cover the fact that Loren wasn’t Sara’s child She was only pregnant once We couldn’t justify both of you without ruining my reputation”

That hy , to protect Jonathan And every day she had to help this soulless prick, it fucking ate her up again But she did it for thepain of these lies

Everything was to save face

“Why choose hi hidden?” You love him more

His face re to me He wore a dapper suit that s worked out It was easier for you to take your mother’s maiden name Loren only had one option And that was me”

I ground my teeth “You know, I just tell all my friends that my dad died Sometimes, I even find clever ways to kill you off Oh yeah,boat accident; perished in his golden fucking yacht while he was shitting on the toilet”

He beca more

He licked his lips and swished his scotch, notfunny “Listen, Jonathan,” he said

“It’s Ryke,” I shot back “Howtimes do I have to tell you that?” I didn’t want his naenes I planned to use my middle name forever

He rolled his eyes again and then sighed “Loren isn’t like you He’s not good at sports I don’t think he’s ever aced a test in his life He’s wasting his potential by going to parties If you’d meet him, you could help—”

“No,” I forced I put my forear to do with your son So stop fucking asking”

He took out his wallet and passed me a picture, one he’d shownon the stairs of our father’s rew up I always looked for similarities in our features and felt sickened by them

We had the same eye color, only his were more amber than my brown My face was harder cut, but our builds were more alike, lean not bulky He wore a navy blue tie and a white button-down, the Dalton Acade at the ca I’d seen before He looked like a fucking douchebag, like he’dopen beers with his buddies than sitting there

“He’s your brother—”

I slid the picture back to him “He’s no one to me”

Jonathan downed the second glass of scotch, pocket

ing the photo And he grumbled under his breath about my “bitch” of a mother She never wanted me to meet Loren, just the same way that she refused to coht Sara was his mom like the rest of the world Or maybe so bastard

I wouldn’t know

And frankly, I didn’t fucking care

What difference would it have made anyway?

NINE YEARS LATER

RYKE MEADOWS

I run Not away fro suburban street lined with four colonial houses and acres of dewy grass It’s as secluded as it can be Six in the h to see my feet pound the asphalt

I fucking love early s

I love watching the sun riseit set

I keep running My breathing steadies in a trained pattern Thanks to a collegiate track scholarship, and thanks to cli crave—I don’t have to think about inhaling and exhaling I just do I just focus on the end of the street, and I go after it I don’t fucking slon I don’t stop I see what I have to do, and I fucking make it happen

I hearas quickly astowards shit My brother—he’s always running away I listen to the heaviness of his soles, and I want to fucking grab his wrist and pull hiht, to feel that runner’s high

But he’s weighed down by too ood I don’t slow to let hio I know he can get here

He just has to fucking try

One minute later, we reach the end of the street that ere shooting for, next to an oak tree Lo breathes heavily, not in exhaustion, er His nose flares, and his cheekbones cut brutally sharp I re him for the very first time