One for Sorrow by Louise Collins

Author:Louise Collins [Collins, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780369500892
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Hands were over Chad’s eyes. They shook with excitement; a giddy heartbeat punched his back.

“Ta-dah,” Neil announced, removing his hands.

Chad blinked up at the massive house. The sheer size left him speechless. The garden was immaculately pruned, the windows were spotless, the walls were painted beige, and the window frames were black. It looked like the house had been plucked from the pages of a glossy magazine and put in front of him. Houses like that were not meant for people like him.

He was meant for shabby apartments, with paper-thin walls and watermarks leaking across the ceiling. He was meant for streets where there was constant shouting, the sound of breaking glass and sirens, not a house set back from the road, with a huge driveway, and no neighbors in sight.

Neil took his hand and tugged him around the side of the property. Chad couldn’t tear his eyes off it, but Neil yanked his hand hard to get his attention. Chad’s eyebrows shot into his hair when he saw the pool. An actual pool that wasn’t green with mildew like the one he’d swum in when he was away with his mum. It wasn’t a vacation; it was a stay in a rundown hotel while she did her business upstairs. Seven years old, he couldn’t swim, but went into the pool anyway. He’d thought it was a balloon floating on the water’s surface, but he now knew better, had learned what kind of places his mum took him.

“It’s heated,” Neil said, cutting through his thoughts. “We can use it all year ‘round.”

“You’ve got a pool?”

“No, we’ve got a pool. It’s our home, Chad. Do you like it?”

He smiled. Of course he liked it. Who wouldn’t like a huge house with a swimming pool?

“I knew you would,” Neil said, tugging him in for a kiss.

Chad froze. Thoughts flew through his head in a nanosecond, but then he reciprocated. He loved the house, the pool, the vacations, the gifts. He loved them, but he didn’t love Neil.

Chad could hear knocking, but Neil didn’t seem to notice.

“Chad … is it hurting again?”

Kissing Neil didn’t hurt. It felt empty, a lie, and the lie morphed into guilt, and self-loathing until Chad usually broke the kiss. Sex was easier than kissing. It was all about the chase for pleasure, not love, even if Neil did whisper that word afterwards.

He didn’t deserve Neil. Neil would’ve been better suited to someone else, but he was selfish.

“Hey.”

A thumb brushed under his eye, and he registered the wet on his face.

“Happy tears,” Chad forced out, hoping to appease Neil so he wouldn’t ask.

So he wouldn’t be tempted to blurt out the truth and destroy his messed-up piece of happiness.

It was a lie, and lies always came out in the end.

“You don’t look very happy.”

The voice wasn’t Neil’s, and the memory started to fade into darkness. Chad could hear tapping, and when he opened his eyes, it took a few minutes to adjust, and realize it was rain hitting the window beside him, fortunately not a magpie.

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