Read the note at the bottom! It's important this time! Implied child abuse in this chapter, but no descriptions.


Harley


I can hear Azalea thinking, and it's disturbing.

I probably shouldn't have said that thing about Dad. I mean, he is back on the vodka, but that's not the reason I got hurt. I get good verbal thrashings from him when he's drunk, but never physical ones. Even drunk, Dad knows that if he lays one grimy finger on me, he'll be on the ground with pepper spray in his eyes before he can even breathe.

The actual thrashing was courtesy of my dear mother.

I'm sure I look like I've been wrestling with an alligator. That's because I fought back. Big time. Mom's going to flip when she finds out what I did.

There used to be a hole in the fence that Mandy and Jane and I snuck through to get to the woods that surround the town and our house. Mom finally replaced the wood there five years ago, when Jane declared herself transgender. I reopened the hole, using mainly my hands and a sharp piece of Dad's car that fell off this morning. Cut myself up well, too, crouching on the ground on my side like that. Since the time the hole was fixed, thistles have grown wild and untamed there. It didn't help that someone had been out partying last night and had thrown an empty beer bottle to the ground, leaving it in tiny, shattered pieces for me to find the hard way. I don't even know why I made a new hole. I just did.

People think I plan things. People think a lot about me. I can practically see those gears turning in their heads when they try to figure out what I might do next. But that's the whole point of being the man with the plan: you get to decide exactly when everyone gets to know about your plan. And, because most of the people in this town are under the "idiot" category, they typically don't find out what my plan was until the next day.

Outside of my family, Ben and Amara were the first to figure that out. We also figured out that they need me and I need them, which is why Amara isn't going anywhere near heaven just yet. Not while I'm around. She's involved in twenty-three plans I have yet to put into action; if she dies, my whole inner world will rearrange itself, and twenty-three plans will be wasted.

Whether most people here know it or not, my plans are what keeps this town running smoothly. If I weren't around to stop the dumb ones and the mean ones in their tracks, what would this town be? A town of dumb people and mean people, that's what.

Think about it logically. The police system around here is a joke. Some of my plans have involved things like trespassing, breaking windows, sabotaging cars, and doing graffiti. Even the gentler plans are probably enough to get me sent to juvie in most places. But here, stuff like vandalism runs wild because everything's so spread out. Besides, we're in the middle of the goddamn woods. Any serious criminal who tried to pull something here would get lost in the woods, and they'd either never be seen again or come rushing back to the police with open arms once they found a road.

Basically, our legal system and police system aren't worth shit. It's been my job to keep people in line ever since I figured that out.

By keeping people in line, I mean watching out for people I know are good inside. I don't just favor my friends. I make friends because I know who they are inside. Anyone who's good on the inside but bad on the outside just needs a little scare every once in a while. They'll come around eventually. But some people are just plain bad, and they're the ones I've really got to watch out for.

The kids that bullied Amara to the point of attempting suicide, for example. Some of them are probably good inside, but, unfortunately for them, they've crossed the line. Death isn't a thing to be approached. To drive a person to suicide is, in my opinion, murder. Meaning that in my book, those kids attempted to murder my best friend.

They'll pay. I know they will. They always pay in the end, because no one gets in the way of my plans.

Why? Because I know everything about people. I know their middle names, their ages right down to the second, their favorite foods, what they ate for breakfast this morning, what they're scared of, what makes them happy, what could destroy their spirits, what could anger them, and so on. I know people. I know how to read them. And since I know everything about them, I also know how to manipulate them, and how to push them straight into a trap. I'm not the smartest, but my mind works faster, which means by the time people figure out what I've done, it's too late to stop me.

I'll already be gone.

The only exceptions to these rules of nature are my parents, which is why I avoid them.

What Azalea's probably thinking is true; I am terrified of my parents. But not for the reason she thinks. I'm scared of them because if they interfere, the plans stop, and my world stops.

My mind is different. It revolves entirely on a specific routine, and specific people. I have to complete at least two of my plans before I even think about sleeping, and if one of the people in my little universe goes missing, there's trouble.

Amara is an entire galaxy in my universe. If she dies, so do all of the possibilities that surround her. She can't go.

So, I have a plan.

As always, I have a plan.

But it involves people I've never met, people I don't know. People that I probably wouldn't want to manipulate unless I absolutely had to.

What if it goes wrong?


Okay, I'm trying something new here. Every time I post a chapter, someone (I don't care who) has to leave a review, good or bad, before I post a new one. Meanwhile, in return, I will review every single fanfic I read, good or bad, because I understand the struggle. Seriously, review. In the wise words of Shia LaBeouf, "JUST DO IT!"

Love you all,

carrie