Beyond Redemption

Chapter Four

"Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better." Henry Rollins

Phoenix's POV:

Ah, the highlight of my week.

Friday night.

After a rather mind-numbing hour spent with Brady in detention, I was exhausted beyond relief. I'm not sure which was worse, having to watch Brady fight the urge not to succumb to his fatigue or having to battle with my own weariness.

Either way, as soon as my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light. And what I thought was a fifteen-minute nap turned out to be a whopping four-hour slumber.

Usually, it's hard for me to fall asleep at night hence why my power naps are so...powerful.

As a result, however, I was going to be late to the club, I had promised Ajax to attend. We had already finalized on meeting at 9:00 pm but it was 9:30 pm and the suds of soap were just about disappearing from my body as the scalding water beat against my skin.

Maybe I was going to be a little late.

While pushing the knob to stop the overhead spray of water, I grabbed my towel. Stepping out of my glass-enclosed shower, I ran the towel over my unruly hair, trying to dry it in the process.

As I rubbed the rest of my body with the piece of cloth, I opened my chest of drawers and pulled out a worn-out white tee that got washed more times than I could count and a good old can never go wrong with, pair of blue jeans.

After wiping my skin to a crisp, I hurriedly threw on my outfit followed by a pair of socks. Returning to the bathroom, I finished my routine before grabbing my keys and wallet, not forgetting to check for a sufficient amount of condoms.

Hey! A man has needs that oftentimes can't be satisfied by one woman.

As I stuffed my belongings into the ass pockets of my pants, I heard the faint footsteps of none other than...drum roll, please...

My loving father. He casually walked down the hallway towards me, his footsteps echoing and against the tight space bounded by two walls not even three feet apart.

My father always had a seemingly easy, relaxed aura. Maybe it was his casual gait or the way he would keep his arms in his pockets all the time but whatever it was, it seemed to always piss me off without fail. Nothing ever seemed to bother him and as a little kid who begged for his reaction, emotion, anything, it angered me beyond relief.

By the looks of it, he was patiently waiting outside of my room, like a sentry on the graveyard shift so that he could ambush me in the darkness of the passage.

For the entirety of this week, I was successful in my plan to avoid him but somehow the universe never gets tired of bending me over and fucking me in the ass.

Closing my bedroom door, I turned briskly on the balls of my feet darting towards the landing leading to the staircase. But unfortunately for me, the universe hadn't come yet and still pounded relentlessly.

Fucking hell.

"Son?" To outside ears, it would have sounded like a whisper but to me, that was the usual decibel of his voice.

Drawing my feet back to an abrupt halt, I turned around to face his annoyingly calm face. "Don't call me that, you lost that right a long time ago." I snapped.

Somehow, someway, his facial expression hardened upon hearing the words leave my lips yet I couldn't find it in myself to give a flying fuck about how I made him feel. After all, he did and allowed to happen to me, under this same goddamn roof that he had the audacity to call me 'son' under, he deserves every fucked up thing this life has to offer.