Accidentally, On Purpose.

He presses his lips to the glass of the bus and blows hot air, which he wipes away with the sleeve of his shirt. In the distance he can see the boarding school.

"This is it..."

He'd asked the bus driver to let him know when it was his stop. Sure enough when he pulls up he realizes that he is definitely at the right place. It's a rainy day and the bus driver has been nice enough but when he looks out the window he seems a bit reluctant.

"Thanks..."

"You sure you want to get out here man. This school isn't for...normal people. You know that right? This is that gay high school."

He looks out of the window away from the bus driver. Arthur A. Dread's institute for Queer Theory and the Social Construction of Sexuality. It was an experimental school. You pass the experiment successfully and graduate and you get your full tuition paid for to any college of your choosing. Any college. Parents sent their kids to this high school to see if they could help them "come to terms" with their sexuality, but the kids agreed to make sure their future was intact.

"This is the place."

"You sure?"

"I'm positive."

"Positive huh? You will be if you get off this bus. HIV positive, Herpes positive, Gonorrhea, positive, Chlamydia positive, Syphilis positive. You are going to come back with the crabs, the clap, the football head."

"The football head, huh?" he asks the bus driver, "That's a new one..."

"Sure is. Word on the street is the whole gay high school is a front. Word on the street is they do all sorts of weird gay experiments Word on the street is they just got a whole bunch of sissies up there to come up with new STDs. You know there is a shortage of monkeys. I saw it on Bill O'Reilly."

Gays are the new test monkeys?

He laughs at how serious this bus driver actually is, "Sounds fun."

"Stay on the bus man. Don't go to that place. It's hell."

"Well, why didn't you tell me. You might need to hurry up and let me off. I always wondered how big the devil's dick was."

The bus driver damn near shits himself, literally.

He gets off the bus just in time to avoid a real talking about moral etiquette. He usually wasn't the type to be rude but the bus driver definitely had it coming.

He looks around. The place is bigger than he thought. It almost takes a mile just to walk up to the front gate and once he checks in with the gates person he can see the incredibly big campus just beyond. They called it Dread Fort because the place used to be a fort back in the day. It wasn't that now.

"Name?" the man at the front gate asks.

"Karma Patterson."

"Welcome to Dread Fort," the man at the gate states, passing him a bag.

Karma looks in the bag. He expects to see a bag full of books and pamphlets. Maybe a map of this enormous campus for recent transfers. He's wrong. The bag is full of condoms, lubricant and a notepad with a font header entitled: My Sexual Experience.

Karma looks back at the bus. His heart drops in his stomach. All of a sudden he thinks that maybe he has made the worst mistake in his life coming to this school.

Maybe the bus driver had a point after all...

~

GQ

It's been several years now that I've been at the Dread Fort. I came up in middle school. My brother's girlfriend has a thing for telling me to "kiss his ass" to everything I tell him, yo. He's a real smart fucking ass yo. He's a Harlem nigga. Up around that way they were all smart asses. He used to come around all the time and sag his pants and what not. Then he would say some gay fuckin' shit.

"You always coming around asking for money," I remember telling him one day.

My sister was a dummy too, yo. The girl gets him all comfortable on her couch and shit. Then she takes the car and goes to the bank to get the money. The weird thing is my sister wasn't even ugly. She was a cool girl. Gorgeous really. She just didn't know how to play the game right. She got used...often. That's just how it was with her. I got it though. I got the game so every chance I get I was calling her broke ass boyfriend out on his bullshit.

"Yo GQ, kiss my ass."

GQ is what I go by to a lot of people. Other people call me Daddy. I look over at my sister's boyfriend. He sits on the couch, rolls up his blunt and starts smoking. I had no doubt my sister was running to get him money for some more weed. I don't like the nigga's personality but he rolls a good blunt. Before I know it he's complaining about what's on TV.

"Why you watching this lame ass shit?"

He has a smart mouth like that.

"Yo...go change it then."

"I don't got no remote."

He gets up off his ass and walks over to the television looking for the moment. His pants are all sagging and shit. I can see his underwear. He has a tight little ass. His boxers are red. He's sagged before but today he is sagging a little bit more than I've seen him sag before. He turns around right when I'm staring at that thing. Maybe he knew I was staring at it. Maybe that was his plan all along. I'm not even sure.

All I know is that the dude starts laughing. Something's funny.

I blow the smoke right in front of his face.

"So since you been wanting me to kiss your ass, why don't you come over here."

I know what you're thinking. It's bold right? Yo---truth is, I'm just that kind of guy. My name is GQ after all. So when he's trying to play all straight.

"Man I ain't with the gay shit..."

"Who said anything about gay shit?" I ask him, "I'm not gay. But you wanted me to kiss your ass yo..."

"It's a saying."

"It's a feeling too. Come here shorty---lemme show you what it feels like."

That's how GQ does it. I'm smooth, real fucking smooth. My deep voice. The way I push my lips out. Straight dudes love that shit. I can tell he's hesitating. It's not hard to see that he's never experienced nothing like this before. No one has ever come at him like this before. Maybe he's heard rumors in the streets about me.

Before I know it he's looking at my lips. He's squinting at my eyes and then he's noticing me grabbing my hardening dick in my jeans.

"What's good then bro?" he asks me.

I have to admit usually I have boundaries. I mean he was my sister's boyfriend and shit, but he'd been parading that tight boy pussy in front of me for a while and I been wondering what it tasted like. So I grab him by his underwear and pull him close. My hands are all up in that crack of his. It's clean and a bit hairy when my fingers move up in there. He seems nervous but that doesn't stop him from dropping those drawers and bending over on the couch.

I watch how he looks at my lips. The nigga is obsessed. So I give him what he wants. I slap those cheeks of his and dive head first in between those cheeks. My tongue does the rest. After a few flicks and vibrations I have this straight boy moaning like a little fag.

"Kiss my ass!" he's moaning.

He's loud, just like a little bitch. He's clawing on my grandma's couch like there's gold in there. Two minutes later I whip my 9-inch dick out. I'm ready to fuck him raw and he sees it. He's not going to stop me. He's wet as fuck and willing to do whatever I say.

"You want daddy's dick?" I ask him.

I'm taking a risk at this point. He's a straight man. I know that. Still, I was Daddy. I always was.

Before I even get to go balls deep in that ass, my grandmother's fucking bible study class comes home. I don't even get a fucking nut off, yo. It's fuckin' ridiculous to tell you the truth.

Before I know it she's threatening to kick me out. I'm going to be homeless. One of her home girl's was watching TV and there is this school that supposedly can help me with my sexuality. A part of me thinks it's some type of reformation type shit...but the Dread Fort isn't exactly that. The Dread Fort is a lot of things. A lot of weird...crazy fucking things and I was going to experience all of them if I got my chance.

That was years ago...

~

"What's your position?" someone asks.

Karma is sitting in the main office, or at least he thinks it's the main office. On the wall there are all these charts and things like that. He swears he's walked into some sort of doctor's office or something. The more he thinks about it the more he really is starting to regret signing up to attend this experimental high school in the first place.

"My what?"

"Your position."

"In?"

"Sexual position."

Karma isn't quite sure how to answer that question, "Um..."

Karma had seen other boarding schools

"The Dread fort is separated into five dormitories. T, B and V dormitories are to the right. D and P dormitories are here to the left."

The man points at the map. He circles the points on the map.

"So..."

"So which dormitory do you belong in?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me that."

"What do I look like your fairy Godmother?" the front attendant asks, "T, B or V? Tops, Bottoms and Versatiles are for the male dorms. They are pretty much self-explanatory. The female dorms are Dominant and Passive. I'm assuming you're not a transman..."

"No. I'm not a Transman."

"Then what is your position?"

"I'm actually...a virgin."

"Like a Virgin? Like Madonna."

"No... not like a virgin. I'm an actual virgin."

The attendant looks at Karma up and down like he's just discovered some mythical creature or something.

"One moment please..."

The attendant disappears. He walks into an office. Karma stands out there feeling the most awkward he's felt in all his life. He'd always wanted to have sex, but never actually got to it. The idea of having sex freaked him out. He knew he was gay. Seeing sexy men on television turned him on. He didn't know his position though. He didn't know what he liked.

He also didn't know what the big deal was. Within a matter of seconds, the attendant reappears with a few other members of the faculty. They study Karma for a while in silence. Whisper a few things to one another and then walk back into the office.

30 minutes pass.

1 hour passes.

Finally, the attendant comes back out. This time he isn't alone.

"Karma, this is Dr. Pine. He's headmaster here at the Arthur A. Dread's institute for Queer Theory and the Social Construction of Sexuality."

This was escalated to the Headmaster? Was it really that important. Dr. Pine is a slim looking man with square glasses and a face that makes Karma really uncomfortable. His face is so boney that Karma swears that he is sick or something but he doesn't want to be rude and actually stare at how his skin barely clings to his bones.

Dr. Pine shakes his hand with those boney fingers of his, "It's so nice to meet you Karma. I'm sorry for the confusion here. Usually a pre-requisite for our school is sexual experience. You see, our students are here to learn, attain a high school diploma but also help society in the Social Construction of Sexuality. Usually that would require students to have some sort of sexual...I don't know...construct to begin with."

"I'm sorry."

"No. I am just unaware of how that was somehow overlooked on your application," Dr. Pine states, "Do you have any idea what your sexual role is or where you are leaning towards? It's critical in drafting a curriculum for your specific needs."

"I have no idea..." Karma responds, "Haven't really thought about it."

Dr. Pine pulls up some papers. He scrolls through them. As a few moments pass Karma almost thinks that the doctor has forgotten about him, but he hasn't. The doctor lifts up his head and looks over at Karma. He places the envelope on the desk.

"Place him in the T dormitory."

You would think the Headmaster had said the most taboo thing in the world by the reaction to that. A few of the other faculty that are around the office have completely stopped.

"Sir...do you think that would be the best idea?" someone asks, "The T dorm has been somewhat...challenging to say the least."

"That's why I think it would be interesting to drop someone new in there," Dr. Pine states twiddling his fingers, "The data would be amazing."

Data? Karma's mind is wringing with how scientific Dr. Pine sounded. Was this a school or a laboratory?

"Is there something I should be...concerned...about with the T dorm?"

Karma's question gets him weird stares from the staff. Maybe if the Headmaster wasn't there they would say a little bit more but right now everyone was acting awkward. Awkward may even be an understatement. There are whispers. Karma ignores them but there is this sound in the background. Something about a Trinity. He thinks he's hearing it right but he doesn't quite make it out. This was strange behavior and Karma felt like he wasn't quite sure how to confront this situation.

"You'll be fine. Every student has journals. Make sure you note up your experience as you start your classes. The more information in your journals...the better," Dr. Pine responds.

~

T- Dorm.

The big antlers on the head showed off the Stag which was our motto. I walk past it as I make my way down the winding staircase that leads out into the courtyard. The Dread courtyard was complete with a tennis court, a track, a football field and a full length outdoor swimming pool. Sometimes I wonder how they got the money to finance all this shit in the first place.

"Wassup man, we getting ready for the Comp."

The person who is asking me this is Imani. Imani is my best friend. He's the pretty boy of the group. He's 6'1". He's light skin. Where I am bulky, Imani is thin. He used to be in a real popular boyband group until they found out he was gay. I don't think Imani ever got over the fact that he wasn't a star anymore. The only way I could describe Imani is if Trey Songz, Chris Brown and August Alsina all had some sort of three-some love child. Imani would be there bright yellow looking like some sort of yellow highlight boy pussy magnet.

Only problem is magnet's only pulled one way. I mean all my friends are handsome. That isn't what I mean by pretty boy. Imani is a top. He's always been a top but he's always had that "shit don't stink" thing about him. He didn't fuck a lot even though guys threw ass at him all day from both the V-Dorm and the B-Dorm. Imani loved playing hard to get because at the end of the day he was kind of stuck up but in a good way.

"We always win the comp... especially with Sire."

Sire was Imani's other best friend. I would definitely consider him more like a brother than a friend. It's not that we liked each other. I considered him a close friend but it was more by association. We had grown up together. When I found out I messed around with boys, Sire's folks were the ones who let me know about the school. We had grown up together until something happened. He hated me because I slept with some guy that he liked back in the day. Sire and me were never the same after that.

"Where is the jock?" I ask.

"He's waiting for us at lunch. He just got out of the Science of Semen webinar that they had."

Imani says it with a straight face.

"What's so funny?"

"Science of Semen? Really?"

"That's the name of the class..."

"I know. It's just a few years ago that there was a class called the Science of Semen was so weird to us. Now it's like we are so used to it. It's official, Imani. Yo we have drunk the Dread Institute juice. Or maybe I should say we swallowed the semen."

We start laughing but Imani sinks into silence. I can see the boy rolling his eyes. I know exactly why. Imani was the most standoffish of us. I know almost immediately he is annoyed because someone is in our presence.

The boy is kind of cute and I'm tempted to flirt but Imani gives me 'the look'. The look meant to get rid of him and in a way Imani liked to think that he was the leader of our little group. He really wasn't. He was just so goddamn extra sometimes that it was easier to give into what he wanted than to argue.

"Oh my god...GQ..." the boy says.

He's a V. I can tell by his yellow tag he wears on his outfit. He's not alone. His other V-Boys are standing not too far away. They are gawking at Imani and I as though we are some sort of celebrities or something.

I'm used to the attention. I get it all the time. It's not hard when you look like I do. We run this school. We always have. It's just how it's been. Most of these boys would probably sell their souls for one night of sucking Daddy's dick. There are currently 789 students enrolled at the school. We can tell because the Headmaster loves to keep his count. Sire likes to joke that I fucked all 789 but that's a lie. About half of them were too ugly to really get the dick.

"Is there something you wanted?" I ask the boy who approached our table.

I can tell I'm immediately annoyed. Sire is a lot nicer than Imani and I. He's one of those guys who wants everyone to be in love with him. He can't fucking help himself for some reason. It's actually really quite annoying. Luckily Sire isn't here.

I barely recognize the boy.

"Can I talk to you in private for a minute?" the boy asks.

The courtyard is crowded. Most of the students are headed to lunch. It's the middle of the day. It's too crowded. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to this guy in private. The Top dorm doesn't really kick it much with the other dorms, especially not my little group. We ran the Top dorm.

"I don't even know you," I state, "Why would I want to talk to you in private?"

The fact that he was speaking to me in public took some balls. I had to admit that.

"You fucked me two days ago," the boy states.

"Not ringing a bell."

"Are you serious?" the boy asks.

He's hurt. It's not the first time. If there is anything recognizable about this boy to me, it had to be how hurt he looks now that he knows that I didn't actually mean to fuck him. When you look how I do sometimes you smash a few bottoms and they get emotional. They get attached. Usually the versatiles are even worse. They don't give away their ass hardly as much so when they do they feel like you owe them something for it.

"Why wouldn't I be serious?" I ask.

"You told me that you were feeling me."

"Yeah I was feeling you. Literally. Feeling those guts."

Imani and I break out in laughter. Sure. We might be mean boys. We own up to it. I went to the gym every day, twice a day. I was 6'2", 190 pounds of hard, sexy muscle. I had good skin, a killer smile and I had a big dick. I was the type of dude that looked like he played professional football just by how put together I was. So yeah----I earned the right to be a little bit of a dick.

"You said you were going to call."

Imani butts in. This is getting pathetic and embarrassing. I had to admit, if Imani wasn't here I'd probably flirt with the guy and go have a round 2, but for some reason Imani's behavior rubs off on me sometimes. I'm not surprised when he gives the boy a stiff arm.

"Listen, what my friend meant to tell you wasn't that he would call. He meant to tell you that he would NOT call. Ever."

The guy is pissed. I don't blame him for being as embarrassed as he is. I find myself amused to say the least.

Yeah...we weren't the nice boys. We were the popular boys. We were the boys all the other tops wanted to be and all the rest of the gays at this school wanted to fuck. The Holy Trinity.

I know what you're thinking? I can see you reading the stories of my journal here and you're probably thinking what a lot of people think.

He's a dick. True. Just remember I have a big dick.

He's a jerk. True. But I saved him from jerking his dick while thinking of me.

He's an ass. True...but I eat ass better than an obese kid fresh off Michelle Obama's weight loss program.

You're probably right about all those things. Hate me if you want but don't pity these boys. The boy knew who I was. He had heard the stories about GQ. The school wasn't that big. He decided to shoot his shot and I granted him a little charity that night. Blame it on the Henny.

The boy walks away. He's embarrassed. I've seen worse. I've done worse. Don't feel sorry for him. All I had to do was catch him at one of Zaire's parties. My homie Zaire was this bottom boy who threw the craziest parties. We called them Trap House Safari's. If I caught that boy at the Safari, I guarantee he would be right back in my face trying to get me to give him some dick before the end of the night. That's just how shit worked at the Dread fort. So yeah...don't feel bad.

And shit was all good. We just had two more years left to graduate school. The plan was that me and all my friends would go to the same college. Everything would be dope. Everything would be real fun. That's what we all thought...

That was until the count changed two days later.

I'm in the dorm. Patrick Murphy is doing my homework for me. Patrick Murphy is my twink. What's a twink? It's slang for a young, attractive, usually slender or physically fit gay young man. And GQ daddy loved him some twinks.

"Daddy I'm almost done..."

T-Dorm is the nicest dorm. It's probably because of me. Patrick Murphy has a lot of money. He's my favorite bottom and his father just so happened to invest a lot of money into the school. Before I know it I get the hall of T-Dorm lined up. The common room has a projector television, a pool table, Persian carpets, a new fire place installed and decorated with the blue colors of the T-Dorm. I used to frequent the B-Dorm back when I was a freshman and Patrick Murphy didn't even decorate his own dorm like this.

Over the fireplace is a huge portrait of Tupac. It's the picture where he's in the bathtub covered with jewels. It was Imani's idea to put it up. He wants everyone in the T-Dorm to realize just how lucky we are to be Tops in gay society, especially handsome, athletic, jock-type tops. It's just...easier.

No stress. No drama? We got everything we wanted. If the headmaster wanted to understand human sexuality all he needed to know was that we were at the top of the food chain.

"You know you don't have to do that right?" Sire asks Patrick Murphy.

Sire can be a hater sometime. Sire is a good looking guy...don't get me wrong. Where I am more on the caramel, redbone side, Sire is chocolate. He looks like the usual jock type. A lot of people say Ray Edwards and his family comes from money. There was even a rumor going around that Sire was an African prince but I knew better. He wasn't a prince. His dad used to work for a bottling manufacturing company and got into an accident when equipment malfunctioned. Sire's dad sued the fuck out of company and got all that money. Back then Sire was just a basic ass dude. However, he got that money and I guess he needed a new look to match it. He started going to the same gym as I did, he started getting his hair cut twice a week like I did, got veneers and started playing football. Before we came here we were both football stars in school, destined to make it to the big leagues. Then our families found out we were gay and... well...here we were together. I couldn't shake the fucking guy.

"Such a thing as minding your business man," I state.

Sire is in a towel. I know he's doing it on purpose. He loves to make it seem like he's this good guy. Maybe he was, but Imani and I weren't bad guys. It's just Sire went SO hard trying to portray this prince charming type. But the guy rarely had a shirt on and fell in love every month. For someone who is such a good guy and a romantic, why was he having such a hard time keeping something meaningful?

Luckily my bottom is loyal. Patrick looks over at me. Then he crosses his arms and shakes dramatically shakes his head. "I like doing Daddy's homework."

"See like I said. Mind your business bro. Go put on some more coconut oil or something..."

"Why you got to be such a fuckin' ass."

"You know what they say. You are what you eat," I laugh.

This tickles Patrick Murphy who starts laughing. He's sitting in the T-Dorm common room folding up my books and putting them away for me. I watch Sire roll his eyes and return to his bedroom. There's always this unspoken tension between us. I watch as he gets dressed immediately, picks up his stuff and heads out.

He storms out just at that moment.

Imani comes out of the room that he shares with Sire and this other Top we all call Joker. Imani likes to think he's in control of everyone so when he walks out I immediately know what this is all about.

"Can you two not get along for two minutes?" Imani asks me.

"I don't know what his problem is," I shrug.

"You tried to fuck his boyfriend."

Sire was dating this Vers guy named Winter. Winter was probably one of the best looking Versatile boys in the school. He was also really popular. They've been dating for a few months now. And we were at one of Zaire's parties...shit happened and before I knew it...shit went down.

"I didn't try to fuck him."

"You pulled out your dick in the bathroom and showed it to him," Imani states.

Imani is saying this right in front of Patrick Murphy. Patrick looks immediately pissed, gets up and walks out. I am annoyed.

"Great..." I tell Imani.

"Fuck him, you should worry about fixing things with Sire."

That was another thing about Sire. He was so goddam emotional. Sire dated some nice looking guys but he always ended up breaking up with them. I couldn't limit my sexuality because he was trying to fall in love with all the sexy ones.

"Listen...Winter said he wanted to travel the world and see nice things. So I whipped my dick out. I told him he didn't have to leave the Dread Fort to see nice things. It was a joke. I wasn't going to fuck him."

Imani gives me a hard look.

"After what happened..."

"We weren't supposed to talk about that," I respond quickly.

Just then Joker walks out of the bedroom into the common area. He has his books in his hands. Imani and I wait patiently until Joker walks away. There were secrets at the Dread Fort...secrets that no one needed to know about and Imani needed to be way more careful to keep those things locked away. The issues between Sire and I were a lot deeper than anyone could imagine.

Imani walks over to me. He gives me a hard look, "Fix things with Sire, G. Seriously. All we have is each other. So many people are jealous of us. We have so many haters in this school and if they knew what we did..."

"You don't think Sire would talk, do you?" I ask.

"No, of course not. That would be his ass too. Still. You know he's...emotional. Let's go make things right with him."

The past has a weird way of catching up to you. The past has a weird way of mixing things up. So Imani and I walk down the steps we realize things are hard. It's hard being at the top. It's lonely and it's even lonelier to stay at the top. We couldn't have what happened in the past happen again...not with us. Imani was right. Even though my friendship with Sire was shaky at times, we knew secrets about each other. Secrets that would ruin both our lives forever if they ever came out.

We head down the steps and everyone is whispering. I knew immediately what that meant when everyone is pulling out the little tab devices. A new group of students were coming into the school. A new group of boys. The school was more like an experiment than anything. Boys were airdropped into this bitch randomly to 'shake up' the experience. God knows what that meant. All I knew is that the Headmaster was a perv and every time I saw a camera move I was sure that he was behind it watching out entire move. Studying. God knows what the point of this study was even after all this time but I didn't give a fuck. I was going to put on any type of show he wanted as long as they paid for me to go to college and finally get back into football.

"The counter went up," I tell Imani.

Imani is the only one who hardly cares. While the rest of us get excited about new potential regarding dating or sex...Imani just keeps to himself. He acts like he is above the fray or something.

"Just what we needed. More gays. How many new?" he asks.

I pull out my tablet. I was just hoping it wasn't more girls. I mean don't get me wrong. I had my experience with enough of the lesbians here to last a lifetime, but for some reason I was in the mood for a real sexy guy. The Headmaster keeps the log on our main page of how many students.

"The counter's at 790. Just one new boy."

"That's weird."

"I think I found him."

It's a beautiful day in the courtyard. There are several buildings where our classes take place but in the middle is the huge courtyard where all the different dorms gather. I didn't only find the new boy. I also find Sire talking to him.

I'm immediately annoyed. Sire liked to make it seem like I was the man-hoe. He liked to make it seem like I had a sex problem but one handsome new boy and he couldn't help himself. Sire probably slept with just as many boys as I did but the only difference is he loved to date them and I just kept it 100 on what I was looking for.

I think about just ignoring it. Sire could have him if he wanted but then I stop. I stop and I stare.

"Imani...look at that boy."

I look at the boy that Sire is talking to. He has brown hair. He had dark skin. His lips are full. His teeth are white as he smiles back at Sire. He has a slim body and is a little bit shorter. I look at his body and frame. He was just normal. Nothing special. That wasn't what was keeping my eyes on this new boy. I look in his eyes. There was something in his eyes. He had brown eyes but there was this strange tint of golden speckles in his eyes. It's rare. I've seen it before.

"What am I looking at?" Imani asks me.

"The new boy."

Imani shrugs, "I mean...he's aight looking..."

"Imani look at him."

"You're freaking out, G. What's the big deal about this new boy?"

I can't take my eyes off of him. My heart is beating faster and faster. My mouth gets dry. All my life everything that I worked for is immediately threatened. I'd never forget those eyes. I'd never forget them and how they looked up at me the day that it happened.

"Henry...he looks like Henry."

Imani grabs me up. He grabs me by my throat. He pulls me away to the nearest tree and is choking me hard.

"We said we would never say that name again," Imani is telling me.

There is so much anger in his voice. Imani has to be in control of everything. Immediately, I have tears are rolling down my eyes. I only cried once in my life before. This would be the second time. I never thought I would see those eyes again. I never thought I would have to worry about the past. It was coming up to us. It was coming back to us again.

What we had done was coming back to us again.

And there was nothing we would be able to do to stop it.

It's at that moment I knew this boy...this new boy would change the lives of three best friends forever.

Imani, I state whispering through pursed lips, "He has the same eyes of the boy we murdered."

To read the next chapter in advance go to www.crushedcrown.com