Nathan Northwood is simply living the perfect life every teenage boy dreams of. He is rich, handsome, captain and star player of the basketball team, could have any girl he wants and is basically the king of EverGreen High. However, Nathan wears a c...
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NATHAN
There were a lot of words in that little paragraph that came out of Hope's mouth that injected both shock and fear in my blood.
Acted
Perfect golden king
fifteen
Sad
Are you okay?
Wordless, I stared at her with my head tilted slightly to the side.
She noticed.
Of all people, Hope Lance noticed.
I couldn't stop myself from taking a few big sips of my beer before I said, "It's Maya Greene's return and all those stupid group sessions. It's their fault. All their fault."
It was true. For the first time, I wasn't lying or pretending. Maya Greene's return and the group session had made it hard for me to keep pretending that the dark cloud constantly looming over my head was nothing serious. Maya, Bree, Heaven, Cayden and Owen opening up about their struggles and problems helped me put whatever I was going through under the light instead of pushing it deeper into the dark. And that scared me. It really scared me.
I knew something was wrong with me. I knew it. I had known since I was ten years old when I started obsessing over pleasing my dad and being perfect for him. I had gotten really good at covering it up though. By pretending and putting on a perfect fake smile.
The thing is, I kept the unhappy, unpleasant, sad, weird and crazy parts of myself away in a dark, narrow closet. I only kept and showed my good parts to my parents, friends, teammates, my coach and basically this whole town. However, I couldn't keep those negative parts hidden forever. They wanted out so badly.
I blinked when Hope suddenly waved a hand in front of my face. She looked at me with a bewildered, but concerned frown on her face. "You keep zoning out all the time. Are you okay?"
Instead of answering, I took a huge swig of my beer. The can was almost empty.
Fuck, stop drinking.
I didn't stop.
In fact, I was about to empty the can but Hope was quick to grab my wrist. I flinched, slightly. Her touch was unexpected but it was warm and gentle.
"Let's put that away now." She gently took the beer out of my hands, aimed with her right hand, and tossed it. It went flying across the air and landed in the trash can by the pushed open glass door to the loud living room.
