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A NOTE FROM RYKE

My life is full of unconventionalities, abnor situations

If you’re easily offended by crude language and inappropriate talks, you’ve taken a wrong fucking turn somewhere You won’t understandto try to explain myself

I’m raw

I’m hard

I’ you shy away from

So I’ you now Back away

Because once you enter my life, I won’t ever let you leave

RYKE MEADOWS

Every Monday was fucking identical to the last No matter if I was ten or twelve Fifteen or seventeen A driver named Anderson came to my house in a suburb of Philly at noon He dropped me off at a country club tentable in the back corner, by that sareen tennis courts He ordered the sanon with hundred-year-old scotch) and he asked the sa questions

“How has school been treating you?”

“Fine,” I said I had a 40 GPA I was only seventeen, and college recruiters were scouting me for track and field I rock cliled both sports I built this plan in e to run I wouldn’t touch a diet as far away from my father and et about all the lies that clung to me

My dad sipped his scotch “Yourto tell oddaoing to have to do? Call strangers to ask about you? Your teacher? They’re going to think I’ parent”

I glared at the table, not touching my chicken sandwich I accepted the food when I was ten I always ate the burgers when I was eleven But when I was fifteen, I woke up, and I finally accepted that I was eating with a fuckingto say,” I told him

“Are you suddenly deaf noas your week? What’d you fucking do? It’s not that hard of a question” He downed his scotch “Ridiculous,” he lass “You’re supposed to be the intelligent son” Then he motioned to a waiter for another round

My muscles flexed at themy whole body

I had no control over this anger It just consu forest fire

“Can we cut this short?” I asked “I have fucking places to be”

The waiter arrived, filling ed him to continue, and he poured more, three-quarters full “He’ll take one,” my dad said

Jonathan Hale i in billions of dollars from Hale Co, a baby supply company He paid the country club staff to stay quiet about the underage drinking It was fucking normal by now

My stoht of the alcohol I decided only four days ago to stop drinking for good I knew every Monday I’d be tested by my father And I wouldn’t tell him that I quit I didn’t want to talk about it I would just avoid the fucking drink I’d ignore it

The waiter poured lass and corked the crystal bottle

He left us without another word

“Drink,” my dad insisted

“I don’t like scotch”

My father cocked his head “Since when?”

“Since it beca drink”

He shook his head “You and your brother love to rebel like little punks”

I glared “I’ like that prick”

“And hoould you know?” he retorted easily “You’ve never met him”

“I just fucking know” I gripped et out of there I couldn’t stand talking about Loren I always knew I had a half-brother It wasn’t fucking hard to deduce that the kid of Jonathan Hale would also be related tofather But ht until I was fifteen After my mom bitched about that “bastard” kid, I asked ave me three facts that cleared up a picture I’d already started to construct

One: Jonathan cheated on Sara, my mom, with some other woman when I was a few months old

Two: The “other” wonant Loren was born a year after er in the picture

Three: I lived with Sara My half-brother lived with our dad And the whole fucking world believed Sara’s kid was Loren Hale Not me I was Meadows I shared the last name with my mo to do with her

My mom was Sara Hale

My dad was Jonathan Hale

I was no one’s son

After the truth becaht up Loren He always asked the sa question, and I didn’t want to hear it today

He swished his glass “What’s made you into such a pussy?”

My nose flared I couldn’t believe I thought he was fucking cool when I was nine years old He had acted like ere bonding, letting h to letrules But I wondered if it was all just some ploy to make me as miserable as him

“I got into a car accident,” I suddenly said

He choked on his scotch and cleared his throat “What?” He glowered “Why a about this?”

I shrugged “Ask Mom”

“That bitch—”

“Hey,” I

cut hirade her I was fucking tired of listening to rate him I just wanted them both to stop They’d been divorced since I was a kid, not even a year old When was the fighting supposed to end?

He rolled his eyes, but he looked serious again, more concerned If there was a heart in Jonathan Hale’s chest, it was fucking subed beneath an ocean of booze “What happened?”

“I drove into the neighbor’s mailbox” I have no recollection of how I arrived ho knocked over a fence I basically passed out at the wheel, and I woke up when I crashed

I wasn’t driving ho party

I had been drinking alone on the soccer fields of Loren’s prep school I fucking hated Dalton Acadeo to Maybelwood Preparatory, an hour from where I lived becauseday And because no one could know that I was her son

So Loren had gone to the closer school, where I should have been, while I was banished and cast out

And I fucking hated hi body Mywrath She constantly said, “Your brother is full of hi in our money You want to be surrounded by Jonathan Hale’s brat, then you’ll be headed nowhere good”

I’d nod and think, Yeah, that fucker

And then days would pass, and I’d begin to question everything

Maybe I should meet him

Maybe I should talk to him

But he’s a spoiled rich kid

Like me

Not like you