This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, dead or alive are a figment of my imagination and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s mind's eye and are not to be interpreted as real.
All rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2016 Jettie Woodruff
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
EPILOGUE
Prologue
We must be willing to let go of the life we planned
In order to have the life that is waiting for us.
~Joseph Campbell
“Hey, I can’t talk right now. My lawyer and my mom are right down the hall.”
“Okay, I was hoping you were done. Did Mason come out yet?”
“No, he’s in there now. Fingers crossed that he just got a little probation. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done.”
“Thanks again for not ratting me out, Ty. It really means a lot. My dad would have killed me.”
“Yeah, lucky for you, my dad lives a couple thousand miles away. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done.”
That wasn’t a lie. My dad did live in the middle of nowhere, clear across the country in the mountains. Although my mom called him and tattled when I got in trouble, I didn’t have to worry much about him, and I could handle her. Once this was all over, things would go back to normal and I could go on with my life. Every time it was mentioned or thought of, I caught hell all over again. Truth be known, I was getting pretty sick of it;, ready to move on and put it behind me. Almost four whole months of listening to my mom bitch about it was more than enough for me. I was so over it.
“You better. I love you.”
“Love you, too. It’ll be fine. No worries. This will all finally be over after today, and in three days we’ll be on our way to Cozumel for an entire month.”
“Thank God. Good luck.”
“See ya.”
I sat back on the hard bench outside the courtroom, watching my other best friend, Thomas walk down the hall with both his parents and attorney, his head down and shoulders drooped. Due to the pissed off expression that seemed to be a permanent fixation on his dad’s face, I refrained from speaking to him. Playing it safe, I chose to roam around Facebook instead, my mind trying to focus on the upcoming vacation and not what was going on behind the closed court room doors. My girlfriend Avery, whom I had just talked to, was at the mall with her friends. It pissed me off. Here I was about to be sentenced for something she played a part in and, she was out trying on stupid hats with her friends.
Thomas and I exchanged a glance when he sat with his family at the far end, him waiting his destiny the same as me. Lucky for him and hopefully me, his grandmother was the judge. At least mine was next and would soon be over. Finally. Unfortunately, it did little to calm my nerves. The law was dumb and whoever came up with the system was even dumber. Why it took months to be sentenced for a crime you’d done back in March was beyond me. Nonetheless, it was here, at last, the end of all this stupid bullshit.
My legs stretched out in front of me, and I rolled my eyes at the dress slacks my mom had insisted I wore, a sharp crease ironed right down the middle of my legs. I shook my head and swiped my thumb, glancing down the hall and back to Facebook, wondering what was taking my mom so long. She picked a great time for a twenty- minute bathroom break. She knew I was up next. Scrolling with my thumb, I read through my friend’s lives. Lizzy Stanley’s cheesy pizza, Tyler Stewart’s new wheels, Mike Chisel in his back yard, floating around his pool, Mandy Cornwell’s new shoes, and the newest post…Avery and Cara at the nail salon. It was nice to see she was having a good time, out with her friends while the rest of us took the fall.
I jumped clean out of my skin, my heart pounded hard behind my chest, and my phone went flying into the air, skating clear across the floor. All of a sudden the double doors opened, and Mason stormed out in front of his mom and step dad, our eyes not even meeting. That scared me. It frightened the hell out of me. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach, my blood cooled to chilled adrenaline, and my eyes widened.
It intensified when the bailiff called my name, ice- cold epinephrine pumping quickly through my veins. My attorney opened her hand, letting me walk in first and I looked for my mom. I tried shaking my head, a hint for her to go first, but unfortunately, my meddling mother who had appeared out of nowhere put her nose in it. She grabbed me by my freshly pressed shirt and shoved me toward my fate.
I felt a gigantic swallow pass my Adam’s apple when I saw the mean judge, a pool of saliva I hadn’t even realized I’d collected. It didn’t even matter that she was Thomas’s grandmother or that he was named after her very own husband. My friend’s relation status with her had zero influence. Not on Mason, not on me, and I doubted it with Thomas himself. What kind of grandmother let’s her grandson go through this? This one. That’s who and Judge Marx wasn’t about to show mercy. So much for that theory. It didn’t matter who my best friend was. Nothing was in my favor. That hope quickly dwindled when I saw the look on Mason and his family’s faces. This was bad. Way worse than I had presumed.
Out of nervousness, I moved to the second seat and sat, my terrified eyes on Judge Marx. A tight congestion built up in my chest like I couldn’t breathe and a loud thump was heard in my ears. As hard as I tried to tell myself not to show fear, I failed. I was scared shitless and I didn’t care if it showed.
“Stand up, Mr. Sheffield,” she ordered, her voice stern and controlled unlike mine.
I stood, my knees knocking together uncontrollably and my words shaky. How the hell was I supposed to know to stay standing? This was my first time in court. “Yes, Ma’am. Sorry.”
My sentencing was a lot quicker than Mason’s. It was over in a matter of minutes, seconds actually, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. Stand there and look shockingly stupid. That’s it.
“I want you out of my state, Mr. Sheffield.”
“Come again,” I requested, my eyebrows raised with the confusion. Surely she wasn’t kicking me out of California. She couldn’t do that.
“Lucky for you, you were with my only grandson the day you decided to destroy property that didn’t belong to you. You can thank the blood running through his veins for the leniency. You can also thank your parents,” she added, her head nodding toward the right of the empty courtroom.
My head turned to glance at my mom, only it wasn’t just my mom. I frowned at her and then my dad, sitting right beside her, my mind wondering what the hell was going on. Shifting my scowl from my parents back to
the judge, I waited for her to speak. It wasn’t like I could say anything anyway. All my words had dried up with the spit in my mouth the moment I saw him, knowing my future hung by a thread with her holding the only end.
“You can thank Thomas for my generous punishment for you. Had it not been for him, I wouldn’t be dropping all charges,” she said, her words repeating in my head as I tried to figure it all out. Somehow I knew this wasn’t good news. I felt it in my bones. “Since you have two willing parents, eager to take full responsibility of you and your stupidity, I’ve decided to hand you over to them.”
My attorney’s arm on my hand and the stern expression assured me that it wasn’t okay for me to speak, but I did anyway.
“My dad doesn’t live here.”
“I’m aware of that. That’s the only reason I’m not slapping a felony on you. Your dad has given me his word that he’ll keep you far, far away from here, away from my county and away from my grandson.”
I jerked my arm away from my lawyer, my attitude on full display. “I didn’t twist his arm.”
“I’m aware of that, but you should probably worry about your own self, not my grandson. Believe me when I say this, Mr. Sheffield…You truly are the lucky one.”
That was a lie and I still didn’t quite understand what my punishment actually was. “But I’ll come back to my mom’s before school starts, right? I’m a senior,” I added for good measure, hoping she’d feel sorry for me and at least let me come back for my last year of high school. Surely she wouldn’t deprive me of that. No one wanted to be responsible for the therapy that would cause. She wouldn’t do that.
The judge looked to my parents, speaking to them and not me. “My understanding is that your mother will be accompanying you on this trip. Am I correct?”
I tried like hell to send an angry look my mom’s way, but she didn’t look back. She answered, sending more confusion my way. “Yes, Your Honor. That is correct. We’ll be heading out right after this.”
“Wait? What?” I questioned, my eyes going from my mom to the judge, to my dad, rotating around and around the spinning room.
“Would you rather have the felony, Mr. Sheffield?”
I had to think about that one for a second, quickly weighing my options. The Monongahela National Forest or a possible felony, tried as an adult. “What would I get if I chose the felony?”
“Put it this way, Mr. Sheffield, regardless of the charge, you will not be finishing your schooling here, but it is your choice. Would you like to be a senior behind bars or with your parents?”
That made no sense to me. Why would my mother be willing to relocate with my dad? They’d been divorced since I was seven. She hated him. A lot of things ran through my mind. More than I could process at the moment. Move to the mountains in West Virginia with both my parents??? Go to jail and get a G.E.D??? I was screwed no matter which way I looked at it. I was destined to hell.
“My grandson is waiting for his sentencing and I would like to go to lunch,” Judge Bitch said like I was supposed to give a shit, a long breath of exasperation as she looked to her watch and back to me.
No words came out of my mouth, my mind went blank, and I couldn’t think. A few moments of silence passed while my life flashed before my eyes. What kind of option was that?
“I—I—I.”
I jumped when the gavel hit the sound block, a loud crack echoing through the room. “Fine, have a nice life with your parents in West Virginia. Next.”
It all made sense now. All those late night conversations with some new guy had been my dad all along. My mom had been hiding behind my back, talking to him since I’d gotten arrested. Her date the night before wasn’t with some new guy either. It was my dad. It had been my dad all along. For months. I had been tricked. Sandaled by my own mom.
Chapter One
Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful
stroke of luck
~Dalai Lama
I stared out to the empty streets from the only restaurant in town, pissed off at my mom all over again. Three months away from being eighteen, and I still couldn’t decide what was best for myself. She knew and my dad knew, but not me. No, not the one whose life was ruined. The dad of the family knew. The dad who hadn’t even seen me in three years knew better for me than I did. Who was I anyway? Some dumb kid with an attit—.
My eyes steadied, stopping my internal rant dead in its tracks. I frowned toward a girl driving a white cargo van with out of state plates. I couldn’t tell what state, but I knew they weren’t West Virginia’s blue and gold tags. Darker letters where decals had been removed from the windowless wall, told me the van had been used by a plumbing service at some point, from some county I couldn’t make out. The girl looked up to the red light as she came to a stop and then through the restaurant window, right at me. Everything but her face turned into a blur, and even that wasn’t clear. I could barely see her, yet I knew her eyes were on me, and couldn’t turn away. It was so weird. The strangest thing ever. Like déjà Vu, but not really.
The ringing cowbell over the door and a honking horn behind her broke the odd trance shared for a brief moment. When I looked back, she was pulling away, and the weirdness was gone. It was all this solitude. I wasn’t used to all this quietness. One day in the nearly ghost town, and I was already going nuts.
Glancing around the diner, I sighed, continuing the sulking I had come there to do. It was either that or go home and watch the freak show going on at my house with no cell service. I slumped in the booth, biting a cold fry in half, plopping the rest to a pile of Ketchup on my plate. The whole thing sucked. Especially my mom and I couldn’t believe she was doing this. I swiped my phone, ignoring my dad’s call for the second time, opening Facebook again for no reason. It just pissed me off all over again. Seeing all the photos from my friends and my girlfriend, all boarding a plane for ‘our’ beach trip. Even Mason. Bastard. An entire month in an amazing beach house with my hot girl, all the alcohol we could consume, and the best skunk weed you could get, all without me. Not one of them gave a fuck that I was here. This was such bullshit. I should have been flying out with them.
“You Buck’s boy?”
I looked up to the waitress and down to the check, giving the lady a simple smile and a one word answer. It wasn’t easy to admit either. “Yes.”
“Tobias, right? I’m Candy. Your dad just called. He said you should head home soon.”
My eyebrows shot up and an ice cube caught in my throat. I had to beat it with my fist for it to clear my chest, coughing with the ridiculousness of it. “Are you serious? My dad called to tell me it was time to come home?”
“I’m sure he tried your cell first. You sure you don’t want pie? I can wrap it up for you.”
I shook my head and stood, fetching my wallet from my back pocket. Unbelievable. Not only was I stuck in Yogi Bear Land, I was also on a leash. There weren’t even any words to come back with.
“Tell your daddy I said hi,” she said, her gum snapping between her smiling lips.
She wasn’t my problem, and I wasn’t trying to be an asshole to her, yet I sounded like the biggest one on earth, a fake accent matching hers mixed with plenty of attitude. “Yeah, I will. I best be getten’ on home now. You know, with the curfew and all.”
The dumb waitress didn’t have a clue. She had no idea that my words were mimicking her country twang. She winked at me, stuffing my ten in her apron pocket. “Oh you have until ten o’clock for that. It’s your daddy’s curfew you need to be worrying about.”
There was no need for responding. Not on my part. I’d still be stuck and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. It was a hopeless case without a fair trial. I felt like I was stepping out to the dreary streets of Forks Washington. Edward Cullen and Bella Swan setting up to punk me. A warn out tractor getting diesel across the road, a mailman in a beat up car with a yellow light on top, and some lady I’d run into at the gas station. That was it. The enti
re happening town consisted of four people, including me. The lady I’d spoke to at the pump reminded me that I looked just like my dad and also wanted me to tell him hi. I didn’t even remember her name, let alone the story she gave me about her son and me being best friends in Sunday school. Like I remembered that. That was the trendy Saturday night in Odessa Falls. It all made me sick to my stomach.
“This your bike?”
I looked down at the nosy little kid no more than nine maybe ten years old, and straddled the dirt bike, debating on telling him that I stole it. My dad had traded a case of moonshine for it my last ever visit there. Supposedly, he dragged it out of the barn and got it running for me to have something to ride around the mountains. The only problem with that was the fact that he forgot that I wasn’t five feet tall anymore. Not that he would know that of course.
He gave it to me as a welcome home present, only I wasn’t home and he’d already given it to me the last time I was there. I was twelve and he stayed drunk the entire two weeks I was there. That was when I’d finally talked my mom into not making me come back. Now look where I was. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, acres and acres of national forests all around. Without one word to the kid, I kicked the engine started and knocked it into gear.
Taking the first dirt road to the right, I started up one side just to go down another. A lot of backroads, leading to the same place. Nowhere. However, once you started up there was no denying the magnificence. Twists through dense oak, hickory, and spruce trees through the mountains with views of more mountains, separating Virginia and West Virginia. Miles and miles away. There was no rejecting the serenity of it all. Not when you could feel it. A cool breeze no matter how hot it was outside, the scent of pine, and the fresh air were something you felt. Not like it was in L.A. either. This was a mountains thing. Realizing I was lost in something I’d loved as a boy, I couldn’t deject the amazingness all around me. I sped up, winding the engine as tight as it would go, remembering that I didn’t want to be there.