Bad Intentions

“What’s taking you so long…you should have shot down that tree and we should have been on our way already,” Teresa whispered loudly to me as I ran toward her. I knew what her beef was, we were going to the party of a lifetime, the first time that we’d ever been invited to Rex Brentwood’s house. He’d seen me with Abe a couple of times and maybe assumed that we were dating or something, cause the last day of junior year, he invited us. Me. I couldn’t believe it. Rex was the popular guy and the rich one. His house had a pool, staff and shit like that. The kind of guy that didn’t hesitate to flash his money. His parents were old money. The type that nearly owned everything in town from the local bars, businesses and everything. His great granddaddy bought the land, his granddaddy (his words, not mine) built on it and his daddy profited from it. That’s the story in high school. His family’s name is on practically every business here. Kind of crazy. Our town’s small compared to most towns,

“Rested,” I lied and nodded, as I sat facing the breakfast buffet. Usually I would grab everything in front of me, but it was all too much to take in.I lost my mom and my home (I couldn’t go back in there. Not live there without Mom) on the same night and after spending a night away from the place that it happened, I didn’t feel any better. Why should I? It wouldn't bring her back.“I didn’t sleep at all. All this was going on with my twin sister and I was out there….”I choked, “All this was going on and I lived in the same house.”I stood up in the noisy restaurant and swallowed the ball of grief in my throat down. I saw the food spread out in front of me and began to reach for things, as if my mom hadn’t just died and guilt didn’t consume me. I did what I’d done so recently and tried to drown the weight of guilt out with the weight of food. When I first came into the room I didn’t feel like eating, now I couldn’t think of anything more welcoming than the crispy bacon in front of m

“You wanna watch something?” Teresa asked after I ended up at her door like a lost dog. That’s exactly what I felt like as I ignored Aunt Rose’s phone calls, which I thought would stop the moment I sent her a text saying that I was okay and just wanted some time alone. That seemed to give her the idea that she needed to call me so much that I got pissed and turned my phone off.I’d gone from a Mom who ignored me when she hooked up with her boyfriend that soon turned into her husband which then turned into her being my best friend when we went away as her mom died, to her dying when we came back. “Wanna go out?” Teresa prompted, totally uncertain of what to do for me, but feeling obligated that she had to do something to help me. She was my friend, of course she would want to make me feel better. That just made me feel even worse because all I wanted to do was sit here and stew in anger.“No,” I finally answered her. That was one thing that I knew that I didn’t want to do. I definite

The last few weeks had been a whirlwind, Aunt Rose left for New York, Graham left to get his name in lights and my mom was laid to rest. I didn’t feel the hatred that I’d had a couple of weeks ago. I’d found peace even though Stuart was still out there. The police came to the hotel and I thought that it was with good news, but it was the same old story. If we could think of anything to help them with their investigation. If they thought that a journalist and a teenager could do better than law enforcement, then I struggled to find their purpose in life. My life anyway. I took a deep breath as I packed what little I had in a small suitcase, getting ready for a car to take me to the airport and on a flight to Boston. It was as if every little detail had been thought about and it made me even more nervous. But I said that I would give it a chance and that’s exactly what I intended to do. I hated the idea of not saying bye to Abe. He asked when I was leaving, and I told him that I woul

As we got to the gate, I’d nearly fallen asleep in the car. The drive had turned out to be over two hours or way longer. The city was so big and the drive to the academy added more time to it.“Are we driving to Hotel Transylvania?”“That’s not in Boston!”Yeah, I knew it wasn’t, but it was a joke. His face was stern and seemed concerned, as he stopped to glance at me as the gates opened. I’d said it as a joke, but he wasn’t the type of person to joke with, figures!Once we started to get closer to the gate and I saw the sign, Hawk Academy, my stomach roared like a lion. I was hungry or it could have been the nerves, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as we arrived at the gate and I had a feeling that life wasn’t going to be easy here. It looked creepy, some place that I should avoid rather than welcome with open arms.“Don’t worry, this place looks scarier than it is. It’s big and old, but that doesn’t make it creepy,” Albert said with a smile. His words became my reality as we a