Brake My Bones ✓

00 | Prologue

"Blue and Brown, we only had just exchanged a frown."

- e.k.

G A B R I E L

"Hey, throw me a drink!" A jock shouted from across the sand. He held his hand out as Nicandro Adriano, my best friend, shot the beer bottle from his hands and into the jock's hold.

"Don't do that next time," River Lewis grumbled from beside us. He and I had been friends since middle school. "He's got legs of his own. He can use 'em just fine."

Zion Oceans eyed the jock. It was Jarrett Coleson, a douchebag narcissist. No one liked him, and I didn't even know how he was surviving high school. I wasn't even sure how he managed to not get kicked off the football team.

"Keep staring at him like that and maybe he'll actually grow a brain or something," Nicandro, or Nico as we called him, nudged Zion's shoulder, trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't too hard to do so with his bright blue eyes and contagious grin. 

Zion was feeling shit lately, and I didn't think Nico picked up on it. River did. So did I. He'd been my friend since we were in diapers. Our parents knew each other when they were in University, and though they've drifted apart a little, Zion and I hadn't. We were like brothers. I knew almost everything about him.

"Idiots," River murmured, and I watched him glare at the group cheering near the bonfire. "Why did we even come here?"

"Because you're all boring," Nico stated, rolling his eyes. "And we gotta do something fun every once in a while."

"Like what? Watch them jump like children at firecrackers?" River pointed and rolled his brown eyes, oblivious to the attention of some jocks he caught.

"Hey," Nicandro slapped River hand down. "Don't point. It's rude."

River narrowed his eyes on his blue-eyed friend. Nico just smiled innocently, like he didn't have a care in the world.

I turned to glance at Zion. His dark eyes were fixed on something in the distance, and I followed his gaze. A girl was laughing with two guys standing on either side of her, her charcoal hair gleaming an orange hue from the bonfire. Her eyes were squinted as she smiled, but when she turned away from the men, something changed on her face. Her smile fell, and I knew it had been fake.

"Is that Pearl Raven?" I asked Zion.

He furrowed his eyebrows and turned to me. "What?"

I raised my eyebrows, blinking at him. "Don't what me. You heard. Do you have a thing for her?"

Zion clicked his tongue and threw an arm around my shoulder, turning us both around.

"Yallah, tell me," I urged him, grinning at his confused face. [come on/ hurry]

"I don't. There's just something wrong," He shook his head, sparing another glance behind us and back to Pearl. She was speaking to a guy with tattoos on his neck.

"Who are those guys?" I speculated.

"Not sure," Zion replied. "But they look familiar."

I squinted my eyes to get a better look. Something about them seemed eery, like they might be involved in something bad. I didn't want to judge them based on how they appeared, because that would be wrong, but the way the man next to Pearl stood still made me feel weird.

He looked similar to the guy beside Pearl, and I guessed they were siblings. He appeared to be paranoid, always checking his surroundings.

"We shouldn't stare," I mumbled, diverting my gaze back to Nico and River.