Corrupted

Chapter One

Some things are just so tragically beautiful, you don’t even see them coming.

 

It’s seven in the morning and I’m sitting on the soft grass outside of Adam’s house. He’s beside me, lying on his back to stare at the sky. Sydney, his sister sits in front of me, with her legs stretched out. Her shoulder-length brown hair is pulled back in a braid, looking lovely. Gemma—the badass of the group, lies on her stomach, playing with a clover.

“Dylan?” Gemma questions.

I hum a little in response.

“Can you make me a flower crown too?”

I look up at her to find her staring at me already. “I can.”

“Ooh, me too,” Sydney says.

“Okay,” I reply.

“So, did you really ride an elephant?” Gemma asks.

“I did. I think I’ve told you the story six times,” I laugh.

“Hey, attitude, I just think it’s cool. None of us have ever traveled or done anything like that before.” She shrugs and stands up, dusting off her pants. “We’re going to be late for school. It’s the first day of senior year, we can’t be late.”

“We’re coming,” Adam groans and slowly stands up, grabbing his backpack off the ground. He pulls me to my feet and gives me a grin, which I raise my eyebrows in response too. “First day as a senior in a new school. Nervous?”

I shrug. “Guess not.”

“It’ll be great. We’ll get you a girl, you have friends, and everything is going to be okay.”

I follow them out of the yard and onto the sidewalk. I never told Adam I was gay, because I don’t want it to end up like my past. My terrible, awful past where my dad beat me and I lived in an alley for two years. My past where people bullied me for being “homeless” and dirty, because I didn’t have anywhere to shower for days at a time. That is, until Ashton and Stella saved my life, by taking me away from that town and those people. They took me with them to travel and Erin went too. Their home life was kind of shitty too, so we all just left. There are nights when I dream of listening to Ashton play his guitar by the waves and the fire crackling, or playing bongo drums with strangers.

Sometimes, my flashbacks occur though. I used to have nightmares every night from the memories of my dad beating me and living on the streets—where he would sometimes find me. I shudder at the thought. I only had one nightmare over the summer and that was when I was sleeping in the van and it was unbelievably hot. I woke up sweating and panting and realized I was alone and not in the van. For a brief minute I thought I was back at the alley and depression washed over me, until the van door flung open and Ashton ran out.

“Why are you screaming? Are you okay?” he had panicked.

I shook my head no and buried my face in his chest when he kneeled down beside me. I fell asleep against the van, that’s why it felt so hard on my back, like a brick wall. That night he pulled me into the van and I fell asleep in the bed with Erin, since Ashton and Stella shared a bed.

But now that school is getting close and the anxiety of being bullied is in my head, flashbacks are starting to happen. Flashbacks are worse than nightmares, because they happen randomly and I curl up in a ball and fall to the floor, sometimes sobbing and shaking. I’ve only had two since I’ve been here. The first one I was alone and the second time I was with Adam, so I told him about my dad and the bullying, but never about the gay part. He doesn’t need to know that.