Chapter 3

The days dragged on like that, one after another.

One afternoon, Dad went out to the grocery store to buy walnuts for me because they were supposed to be good for brain function. It was rare to have the room to myself. I'd been pulling all-nighters working through problem sets and had passed out face down on my desk.

Dylan Miller came back from outside carrying a bag of fresh fried chicken, and the smell filled the entire room the second he walked in. He passed it around to everyone, and when he noticed I'd woken up, he hesitated for a moment before asking if I wanted some.

I stared at that golden, crispy drumstick and swallowed hard. I wanted it, but more than that, I wanted the chance to just be normal with them for once.

"Thanks." I took it gratefully and bit in. The flavor burst across my tongue, and after going so long without anything like it, I nearly started crying.

That was when the door slammed open. Dad stood in the doorway, a bag of walnuts in his hand. His eyes locked onto me and the piece of chicken I was holding, and the color drained from his face. His features twisted with fury.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He charged across the room and knocked the chicken out of my hand.

"Dad!" I cried out.

He whipped around and jabbed his finger right in Dylan's face, screaming. "You little punk! What are you trying to pull? You don't care about your own health, stuffing yourself with this cancer-causing garbage every day, and now you're trying to poison my son with it?

"You bottom-of-the-barrel failures are just jealous that Tyler is smarter than all of you! You're trying to rot his brain with this greasy filth, aren't you? Let me tell you something. My son is getting into a top grad program, and your pathetic little schemes make me sick!"

"Sir, you've crossed the line!" Leo and my other roommate, Ryan Reed, slammed their hands on their desks and stood up.

"We've put up with you for a month! This is a university dorm, not your house! You have no right to talk to people like that!"

"So what if I do? None of you were raised right! I'm going to the student advisor and getting every single one of you written up!" Dad planted his hands on his hips like some deranged tyrant.

I stood off to the side, shaking all over, my stomach churning. I looked at my roommates' faces, flushed with anger and hurt, and then at Dad's, contorted and vicious.

"Stop it..." I pressed my hands over my ears, my voice barely a whisper. "Please, just stop."

My roommates didn't back down this time. They marched Dad straight to the student advisor's office.

They didn't exaggerate or embellish anything. They just laid out exactly what Dad had been doing in the dorm for the past month and the near-pathological control he had over every aspect of my life, plain and factual. They even had audio recordings they'd secretly made of him screaming at them.

I stood in the hallway outside the office, listening to the muffled argument through the door.

Ten minutes later, Dad shoved the door open and stormed out. "This garbage school and this garbage dorm! We're done here!"

He grabbed my wrist so hard it felt like he was going to crush the bone and dragged me back toward the room. Once we got there, he yanked the big woven bag from under his cot and started frantically shoving my clothes and books inside, ranting the whole time.

"Tyler, pack your things! I'm renting us a place off campus! I don't care if I have to dig through dumpsters for a living. I'm going to make sure you have the cleanest possible environment to study in!"

I stood in the middle of the room, watching him scramble around, and something inside me that had been wound tight for over a decade finally snapped.

I didn't feel angry. I didn't feel sad. I just felt tired, a bone-deep exhaustion so total that even breathing felt like too much effort.

I turned slowly and walked toward the balcony. Our room was on the sixth floor. From up there, the concrete below was pale and blinding in the sunlight.

I didn't hesitate. I climbed onto the sink ledge, pushed the window open, and jumped.