HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 4

Author's Note: Surprise! Extra chapter for you beauties since I had such a long delay! I had a huge bunch of horrifying crap happen to me before, during, and after Christmas which heavily impacted me psychologically and emotionally. Some of you may have seen the post I left a while back about it, which I removed because I wasn't okay at the time, I was alone with my troubles and felt trapped with them, and also, the shock factor was extremely heavy at the time.

I plan on explaining to all of you what happened at a later date, but for now, feel free to enjoy my writing. I apologize for the delay. My health is much better. I'm not at a full 100% yet and there are still some concerns, but I'm doing better than I've been in the last year.

Look forward to more frequent updates. And most of all, stay safe, okay?

Every single person here who leaves a comment, you have a life and its precious. Be careful about who you talk to on the internet and how much of yourselves you give out. I learned that the hard way, and it really left one of the biggest impacts on me that I've ever had the misfortune of receiving.

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Chapter Four

Birthdays are weird. 

Everybody has one, but its like a personal holiday that's meant to you celebrate your individual existence in the world.

People treat it like some big and wonderful thing, with cake and presents and parties and happiness... but ever since I found out what I was, I've always wondered to myself why people celebrated my birthday. Why celebrate something that never should have happened?

Why celebrate me when my existence is little more than a lingering, painful scar?

Thoughts like that crossed my mind the entire ride to Aerin's house, regardless of how hard I tried to shove them away. I kept myself active in the conversations, and playfulness, and banter that the guys around me kept going with all their stories and jokes and whatnot, but behind my laughter and upbeat attitude I was questioning myself and everything around me.

I hid it pretty well, I've gotten good, but Raphael saw through me like he always did.

His eyes were like blades that dug into me the whole time. He gave me chills sometimes, to be honest--he never failed to call my bluffs, unlike everyone else around me who bought into my infectious grins and snarky witticism. I played it off like I didn't notice him noticing, though.

Conversations were fairly idle near the end of the trip, but my pulse picked up when we finally made it to the gate leading to Sebastian's home. Darryl rolled down the window and waved up at something, hollering, "HEY! We're here! Open up the gate so we don't trigger the alarm!"

I leaned forward, peering out the windshield as a familiar high-pitched voice came back.

"HEEEEY!" Aerin called, and I grinned from ear to ear. "COME ON IN! We've been waiting!"

And just like that the gates creaked and opened up, revealing the path to the driveway. Towering oak trees that had to have been hundreds of years old lined the huge half-mile stretch leading to the beautiful plantation house ahead of us. To our left was a patch of forest hiding six cottages, and to our right was more forest hiding some sheer cliffs overlooking the Atlantic ocean.

"I missed this place," I muttered, more to myself than anything as we pulled down the driveway. 

"I'll bet," Rex said from behind me, leaning forward and setting a hand on my arm. "The people here were practically therapeutic for you and your old man. I'm sure they've missed you."