Twisted Love

Chapter 29 - Acceptance

Third Person POV

Some days life felt like when the sun was beating down on your skin, giving it that warm, soft, glow. Nothing else mattered when your eyes were closed and your skin was soaking up the sun and glistening as if it was the purest form of gold. Other days, life felt like when you got caught in heavy rain. The pelting of the rain battering your umbrella while the strong wind pushed you from side to side. And no matter how many times you tried to steady your umbrella, the force of the wind blew it inside out, causing the rain to drench you from head to toe.

Today was one of those days for Justin.

He threw a new pack of socks into his duffle bag and exhaled deeply, flopping down on his bed. It was his last week in Atlanta before he was heading to Stanford for Spring Break where he was set to train with the basketball team. Hopefully, if everything went well, he would have secured his scholarship for the Fall.

Despite this exciting fact, no matter what he did, he couldn't get his mind off Rae. It had been a month and she still refused to speak or see him. Running a hand through his rough and unkempt hair, he gritted his teeth. He didn't know what else to do. He'd left her alone for a few days and then tried again but still to no avail. He'd tried so hard to follow Jace's advice but it was proving far too difficult and he was quickly running out of options.

A knock on the door distracted him from his raging thoughts. Closing his eyes, he exhaled before dragging himself up, letting his legs flop at the edge of the bed.

"Dinner's ready," Grandma said, poking her head round the door. "Do you want to eat now or later?"

Shaking his head, Justin yawned unsure of whether he would even eat at all. "Later," he mumbled so she would leave him alone.

"All done with packing?" she asked.

"Pretty much." He shrugged. "I'll add the finishing touches on Friday since there's no practice on Thursday and Friday."

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out."

She had a small smile painted on her thin lips and she fumbled with her fingers as if searching for something to say to keep the conversation going. But instead, she nodded her head in Justin's direction before closing the door behind her.

Justin blew out a breath and stood up. Slipping on his slides, he plugged his iPod into the dock and turned on music to drown everything out.

When he had returned from Jace and Aunt Veronica's house, he hadn't spoken about his breakdown at all. It was the unspoken event that had occurred in the family. In fact, Justin never spoke about his mother or the businesses again. In the past twelve weeks, he'd basically disowned his biological parents. That way, he didn't have to think about the repercussions that their actions would have on his life. Instead, he was focused on building his own life and working hard for everything, so no one could ever take anything away from him.

Spending time with Jace and visiting his therapist twice a week had helped him massively. There was only one way that he was going to end up and that wasn't in prison or dead – it was defying the odds and becoming the best version of himself that he could ever be.

Picking up his phone, he decided that he would try once more to get through to Rae.

To: Rae
Can we please talk? It's my last week in ATL. I'm spending spring break in Cali.

Clicking his phone off, he rested his head against the window and allowed the soft music to take him away.

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