𝗱𝘆𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗲𝘂𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮 || [1] Nate Jacobs

1

The day Destiny Taylor was born, her mother, Lilith, spent most of her time in a hospital room overlooking the ocean.
The sun shone through the window and her father, David, sat at her mother's side.
It was a picture-perfect version of a child's birth.
That's what differentiates her and me.
My birth was in a shabby hospital three days after 9/11.
Against my will, I was ripped from my perfect bubble and squeezed around in a disturbing way before being presented to my parents.

My mother and father spent two days in the hospital, holding me under the soft glow of the television, watching those towers fall over and over again, until the feelings of grief gave way to numbness.
And then, without warning, a middle-class childhood in an American suburb.
And to top it off, I was diagnosed with four different mental disorders before I could even count to twenty.
Pharmaceuticals and drugs are the only constant I've ever had in my life.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm fucked up.

I didn't choose this life, it chose me.

But Destiny had everything she ever wanted.
Her parents seemed to lead a happy marriage and just shortly after there was the big surprise.
A little sister.
Overlooking the ocean in the same hospital, Destiny's new best friend was born.
She was so damn beautiful as a newborn, so they named her Naomi.

The sisters actually grew up happily, could live out their dreams and fantasies and knew no problems.
Fucking perfect, right?
Yes, that's what one would think.
So how can it be that Destiny ended up even more fucked up than me?
Simple...she found a deadlier drug than I did.

Nate fucking Jacobs.

————

I spent a good portion of the summer before junior year in rehab.
It was the end of summer, the week before school started.
I had no intention of staying clean and Jules had just moved to town.
The Taylors a few weeks earlier.

According to the gossip in the city, Destiny's parents live in separate houses, the children divided between them, but not divorced.
The women in this town are running their mouths about it, but no one but the family itself knows the reason.

"There's some new girl in town that I think you gonna be friends with," Fezco calmly tells Rue, lighting up his joint and taking a drag.
"Who?"
"Shit, I don't know.
She came in yesterday lookin' all Sailor Moon and shit.
I'm thinking to myself, like, look like somebody Rue would get along with," he says in his typical slow and chill way.

Which was sort of like a dead-on observation for Fezco, who's not normally revolving in the same direction as planet Earth.

"So, how long you been back?" he asks.
"Five days"
"And like, how are you feeling?"
"I mean, ever since I gave my life over to my lord and savior Jesus Christ, things have been, like, really good," Rue answers calmly, and he looks at her in surprise.
"Word? That's what's up"

"Yeah. I'm fucking with you. It was a joke," she says and he nods slowly.
"Shit. Hey, I don't judge"
"But low-key, is Ashtray in the back?" she asks and he looks at her through his long lashes.
"Are you serious?" he inquires.
"What, you think because I went to rehab I stayed clean?"
"I mean, isn't that the point?" he replies, taking a drag of his joint.
"Yeah, well, the world is ending, and I haven't even graduated high school yet," she tells him, making her way through the store's fake refrigerator and into a secret room.

————

Fez leans back in his chair and continues to smoke his joint, until at one point a car with tinted windows pulls into the parking lot of his gas station and a unfamiliar girl gets out.
She's about 5'5" from what he can make out.
Her hair is styled in dreadlocks on top of her head, she has beautiful brown skin and curves in all the right places.
But what really wins Fez over are her beautiful smile and dark brown eyes.

She walks towards him with a friendly smile on her face.
"Hey, do you work here by any chance?" she asks him and her voice sounds like music to his ears.
"Family business. So, how can I help you, Ma?" he asks her, exhaling the smoke of the joint.
"Do you sell cigars, too?" she asks him and he nods, then knocks against a window once.

A little boy with tattoos on his face and Rue walk back into the store through the refrigerator.
"Yo, Fez, what's up?"
"Ash, show her our cigars. I have a customer coming in," Fez says and the girl looks at the boy who is definitely too young for this job.
Ashtray turns and walks off to get the cigars.

Meanwhile, Rue looks at the girl, who must be around her age.
"Hey, I'm Rue. You new here?" she introduces herself and the two shake hands.
"Yeah, I'm Destiny. My friends call me Dez or Desi.
Nice to meet you both," Destiny replies.

Behind them, a silver truck pulls into the lot and parks next to her car.
"That's my customer. See you around, Ma.
Later, Rue," Fez tells the two girls and walks towards the truck.
A tall, muscular guy gets out and greets him before they start loading things onto the truck bed.

"So, what the fuck you want?"

Surprised, Destiny looks at Ash, who is suddenly standing in front of her with a selection of cigars.
His language and tattoos definitely don't match his age, but she tries not to judge him too quickly.
"Three of those," she replies, and he presses them into her hand.
"That'll be 85," he tells her and she pulls the money out of her back pocket and places it in his outstretched hand.
"Pleasure doing business with you," he tells her and disappears back into the store.

"McKay, don't be such a fucking pussy and just carry the keg!"

Irritated by the guy's loud and rude voice, Destiny looks over at the truck.
"Ew. Who be talking like that?
And to his friend, too," she says with furrowed brows, and Rue shrugs.
"That's Nate Jacobs.
He's kind of the ass around here," Rue replies.

In truth, I didn't have much of an issue with Nate until all the bullshit with Jules and Desi.
I mean, I never liked him, and once, during freshman formal, he tried to finger me on the dance floor without my permission.
But like...it's America.
And if they were throwing an end-of-summer party...

In a typical handshake, Nate presses money into Fez's hand before getting into his truck and starting it up.
As he drives by, he rolls down the window and looks back at Rue.
"Yo, I'd do it for Rue!" he shouts and kisses his fingers like they do in The Hunger Games.

...of course I'd fucking go.

"That was disgusting. Anyways, I gotta go.
It was nice to meet you, Rue," Destiny mutters and gets into her car.

————

an introduction to Destiny