Fortunate Son

by Jay Crownover

  He wasn’t the kind of guy who popped up in fairytales very often. He was too goofy, and his unpredictable temper could be scary. He generally saved his anger for only one person, his brother, but when it was unleashed, he was like a whole different person. For me, he was always the hero in every situation and story. There wasn’t a person with whom I wanted to spend all my time, or one I looked up to more than the second son. Next to my mother, he was my favorite part of my forever-conflicted life.

  Much to the annoyance of the supposedly perfect son.

  One treated me like a beloved little sister and watched out for me from the get-go.

  The other treated me like a possession, like something that belonged to him and him alone.

  I figured out the hard way that it was very possible to be caught between right and wrong. Anyone removed from obscene wealth would think those two things were absolute with no room for interpretation. When money was involved, right was more like a suggestion, and wrong was a judgment call. I lost count of how many times the second son was punished for outshining the first simply because it made the family look bad. It was predetermined who was supposed to shine and who was supposed to fade away, but the bastard child had nothing to lose, so he refused to play by the rules that were created against him. I grew immune to the legitimate son receiving praise for abhorrent behavior. He was a bully and a beast, and his mother encouraged the hell out of him, making everyone around him feel like they were less than.

  Especially his half brother.

  I was enamored with one boy and terrified of the other. I lived my life like a human ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between them. One was my savior, the other an enemy I couldn’t escape. One tried to protect me with everything he had, while the other used my one and only weakness—my mother—to manipulate me and make me behave exactly the way he wanted.

  If my life were a fairytale, when the second son promised me a life beyond everything I knew, I would have believed him. I would have waited and trusted that there was going to be a happily ever after for at least one of us.

  But my life was more like a horror story. The golden child always got his way, and not only did I throw away my life and any chance at happiness, I also betrayed the only boy who ever made me feel like I belonged.

  In the end, I was more of a villain than the perfect, wicked boy I hated with every fiber of my being ever was.

  Chapter 1

  Ollie

  “But… you’re a girl.”

  It wasn’t the second or even third time the very cute boy who answered the door had muttered the exact same phrase. I had knocked and announced I was the new roommate moving in today. He looked adorably dumbfounded, and the other boy standing in the entrance to the living room with his arms over his wide, muscular chest looked very annoyed.

  I’d expected pretty much this exact reaction since I’d gone out of my way to make sure the current residents of the house didn’t know my gender when I filled out the rental application a few weeks ago. The ad clearly stated a male roommate was preferred, and it was common knowledge on campus that this particular house had a ‘no girls allowed’ rule. Apparently, it was how the boys who had all lived together in this house since they finished freshman year kept the peace and managed to remain friends rather than rivals all these years. One of the roommates had graduated an entire year early, leaving the other three boys behind, and left a vacant room in the converted Victorian a couple blocks away from campus. It was a highly coveted rental, so surely I wasn’t the only female applicant hoping for a chance to get past their gender preference, but my reasons for pushing so hard to get picked had little to do with the location, and everything to do with one of the current occupants.

  I sighed and cast a dramatic look down the length of my body.

  “I am a girl. No matter how many times you say it, or how hard he glares at me,” I hooked my thumb in the direction of the glowering football player hovering behind him, “that isn’t going to change. The fact that I already signed the lease and put down a deposit, as well as the first and last month’s rent, won’t change either. I know the rental ad said you would prefer a male roommate, but the actual homeowner picked me as the best applicant and already took my money. This is a done deal.”

  Thank goodness.

  The elderly landlord picked me, but only after I’d tracked him down and begged and pleaded with him to let me move into the house regardless of any objections the boys might raise. Luckily, he was a kind, decent man who wasn’t immune to big ol’ crocodile tears. He was also the father to several daughters, and a grandpa to a couple adorable little girls. I don’t think the no-girls-allowed rule was ever his in the first place. I gave him the CliffsNotes version of why I had… no, why I needed to move into the Victorian, and promised I’d be the best tenant he’d ever had. The biggest selling point: I reminded him that the three boys currently occupying the property were going to be leaving soon after graduation, but I still had three years left of school, if not longer. I was undecided on my future plans and pretty much everything else in my life. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was exactly where I needed to be at the moment.

  The big, unsmiling jock grunted and narrowed his eyes at me from behind the smaller guy in the doorway. It was a struggle to keep up a calm, cool front when the guy’s stock in trade was being good at intimidation, both on and off the field.

  “The old man must be going senile if he approved you. I’ll call him right now and get this straightened out.”

  I lifted a dirty blond eyebrow back at the big guy and plastered on a fake, sickeningly sweet smile. I’d had a lot of practice playing nice with someone who wanted me to cower and walk away from confrontations. “Go right ahead. When you get off the phone with Mr. Peters, you can help me haul the heavy boxes on the porch up to my new room. I’ll wait.”

  All I had going for me at the moment was false bravado… and a signed lease.

  However, if I didn’t put up an unbreakable façade, I knew I would cave and let these two send me running with my tail between my legs. And that just wouldn’t do. I’d put everything on the line in order to stand exactly where I was right now. I was sick of scheming and sacrificing. Of lying and evading.

  When things changed this summer and I finally found an inch of freedom, I took every risk imaginable to stand on this very doorstep. I hired a private investigator to track down these boys and get every bit of information on the three of him he could. I changed schools. I emptied secret bank accounts. I left behind the only home I’d ever known and escaped the crushing hold that nearly killed me. I hadn’t put those things in motion without suffering a huge, tragic loss. Instead of spending my time grieving, I decided to take back control of my life. To do that, I needed to be here.

  These two gatekeepers weren’t even the ones I was worried about.

  Oh no.

  The biggest obstacle wasn’t home yet, and I knew once he finally showed up, I was going to have the real fight on my hands. So, refusing to cave under the weight of the football player’s glower was nothing more than practice. The big guy growled at me again and stormed off with his cell pressed against his ear. Once he was gone, I wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but I couldn’t. Curious gray-green eyes were peering at me like I was some kind of scientific experiment, and he was ready to dissect me on the spot.

  Harlen Danvers definitely had the brawn part of this friendship group covered. He was big and imposing in all the right ways. It was well known on campus and in college football circles that he took no shit from anyone. He was loyal to a fault and would gladly break the knees of anyone who crossed his friends. That went double for the young man standing in front of me.

  If ever there was someone suited to the term ‘pretty boy,’ it was Vernon Banks. He also happened to be an actual genius. He was younger than I was, but just about to graduate from college. Vernon had the ‘brains’ in the friendship the three remaining boys in this house shared. He was so smart it was
scary. He was also undeniably beautiful.

  He was about an inch taller than I was, which would put him around five nine, give or take a few centimeters. He had lovely golden skin, and wide, dark eyes that lifted just slightly at the outside corners, hinting at a touch of Asian heritage somewhere in his lineage. He had thick, well-groomed eyebrows, one decorated with a silver barbell. His naturally dark hair was bleached a startling white, giving him an anime vibe that I knew the girls on campus went bananas over. They all wanted him to help them with their homework or to help them get naked. However, Vernon was known to be shy and reserved around the opposite sex and strangers in general. He was far more interested in video games and grades than dating.

  Which was the exact opposite of the boy standing behind him. From what I knew, Harlen Danvers was a ladies’ man through and through. He hadn’t had a steady girlfriend since he started school here, but he never lacked for company. He wasn’t the most talkative type. However, he didn’t need words when his perfect smile was enough to have half the campus fall to their knees for him. Harlen was tall, way taller than me, and he carried his bulk well. He had dirty blond hair, which had a slight wave. He kept it longish, but it was a good look for him. It kept him from looking like a stereotypical college athlete. He had pale blue eyes that were responsible for making a hundred different girls hand over their hearts to him without question. He had a smattering of freckles across his nose, which were only visible if you got up close and personal. He was ridiculously good looking, but not pretty in the way Vernon was. They made a dynamic duo, and when the third Musketeer was around—oof—no one was safe from the impact of the three.

  It was no wonder my private detective had found fan pages on the Internet dedicated to them. It was impossible to Google anything about this private college in this small, midwestern town without tumbling across these boys. I’d avoided it until recently because I’d always been scared of the repercussions. Not knowing anything was better than being informed and having that knowledge held against me at every single turn. It’d been safer to pretend the third and final roommate didn’t exist, even though he was always and forever at the forefront of my mind.

  “Mr. Peters called you Ollie. Did you lie about your name just so you could move in here? Are you some kind of stalker? You know there are laws against that, don’t you?” Vernon’s voice was soft and critical. I nervously cleared my throat and lifted a hand to twist one of my gold curls around my finger. It was a nervous habit I’d had since childhood that I couldn’t seem to shake.

  “My name is Olivia, but I’ve gone by Ollie since I was little. Mr. Peters has all my legal information. He knew exactly who I was when he agreed to let me move in here. Frankly, I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about it. Girl or boy, you were getting a new roommate, regardless. You’re only going to be stuck with me for a year. What’s the big deal?”

  Vernon hummed and lifted a finger, which had the nail painted black, to tap his full bottom lip. “It just seems weird. Mr. Peters never objected when we told him to find us a new male roommate. He actually seemed to appreciate that we weren’t looking to change up our dynamic. And how come I’ve never seen you around campus? Even as big as this campus is, our paths were bound to cross at some point. I never forget a face.”

  I kept fiddling with my hair as I tried to calm my racing heart. One would think I would be a better liar by now, considering how often I did it. But I wasn’t. My nervous energy always gave me away. I was simply hoping that since he didn’t know me at all, Vernon wouldn’t notice. Just because I knew pretty much everything about these boys didn’t mean they had the first idea who I was or why I was so desperate to get close to them.

  I didn’t want to tell him I transferred over the summer with every intention of getting as close as possible to his missing roommate. I didn’t want him to know it felt like a sign from above when I found out their other roommate was leaving, clearing the way for me to insert myself in their lives in the most inescapable way possible. It sounded desperate and creepy because it was.

  “I keep to myself mostly.” I was no dummy, but I also wasn’t a savant. I was a couple of years behind all of them in terms of academics. “I transferred recently, so there’s been no time to go out or make friends. I’m not exactly a social butterfly anyway, and I have a part-time job, so I keep busy away from school. It makes total sense that our paths haven’t crossed before. As for remembering my face,” I flashed that fake smile once again, “mine isn’t all that remarkable.”

  I was cute, at best. I knew how to work with what I had, for sure, but I was under no illusion that I had some kind of heart-stopping beauty. I did have pretty chocolate-colored eyes. I had strong, sharply angled brows that could look a little villainous if I wasn’t careful about keeping them tamed. I was also blessed with good skin and a great head of hair, but all of it was just a step above average. If you didn’t take into account the pink, slightly jagged scar that started below my left eye and zagged down my cheek until it disappeared underneath my chin, my face was all right. The scar was more memorable than all of my other features combined, and I knew it was what Vernon was referring to when he said he’d never forget my face if he’d seen it around campus.

  Vernon didn’t look convinced. However, whatever argument he was going to give died when Harlen made his way back into the living room. The football player didn’t look happy, and it really took every ounce of control I had not to wilt to the floor under the weight of his irritated gaze.

  “Mr. Peters said she’s here to stay. He verified that Olivia Adams, who goes by the name Ollie, was the best candidate of all the applicants who applied to rent Fisher’s old room. He even told me we better be nice to her or there will be hell to pay.” He rubbed his temples as if he suddenly had a splitting headache. “Huck is going to lose his mind when he hears about this.”

  I thought I was prepared to hear his name after all this time pretending he didn’t exist.

  I wasn’t.

  A small gasp escaped before I could stop it. Luckily, Vernon was working himself into a state of panic, and his sounds of exasperation covered my own rising anxiety at the thought of dealing with Huck Snyder.

  Huck was the whole reason I was here, after all.

  The second son. The unwanted one. The boy I burned and betrayed because I had no other choice.

  “Shit. You don’t think he’ll be mad enough to do something like move out, do you?” Vernon’s voice rose, and his eyes widened.

  The football player gave me a steady look and shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows what that unpredictable bastard will do?”

  Vernon made a squeaky sound and twisted his hands together. “We can’t let him leave. We already lost Fisher.” I knew these boys were close, but I didn’t realize exactly how close. The pretty genius sounded devastated at the thought of being separated.

  “If Huck goes, we’ll go with him, and she can keep the whole fucking house.” Harlen said it so matter-of-factly that my heart immediately sank into my shoes. Having them all pack up and leave me alone in this rambling old house wasn’t something I’d planned. It was actually the worst-case scenario. I only wanted to be here because this was where Huck lived.

  “Where am I going? And whose crap is scattered all over the front porch? What in the hell is going on right now?” Huck’s voice was the same raspy rumble I remembered from childhood.

  He always sounded like he smoked no less than a pack a day when he didn’t even smoke at all. His voice never fit with his soft, pudgy face and jittery movements. The voice always sounded like it belonged to a man who’d been through hell and back, while Huck always looked like an excited kid on Christmas morning.

  I froze, unsure if I wanted to run or melt into the ground. I knew getting in the door of this place was just the beginning and that the biggest challenge had yet to come. But I thought I’d have a chance to get more settled, with a moment to possibly win over the other boys before I had to face the big boss. I figur
ed if I could unpack, it would be harder for Huck to throw me out, but my stuff was still in boxes at everyone’s feet.

  “Uh, it’s her stuff.” Harlen pointed a finger in my direction, much like I’d done at him earlier. I closed my eyes briefly and ordered myself to get my shit together. I knew what it meant to be scared of another human all the way down to your soul, but I’d never felt that way about Huck. I would hate to have to start now. “She says she’s staying, and Mr. Peters agrees with her. V and I were just wondering what you were going to do about it. We know you don’t want a female roommate.”

  Harlen was the brawn.

  Vernon was the brain.

  Fisher had been the quirky, irreverent one.

  But there was no question that Huck was, hands down, the leader of their little gang of heathens and outcasts.

  He was the one they followed. The one they looked to for guidance. He was the one who made the rules and made sure they were followed. All of that applied outside of this house and their tightly knit group as well. Huck was at the top of the food chain when it came to the hierarchy on campus. He was infamous, and the sole reason I’d run away and transferred here.

  I wasn’t a stalker. Not really.

  I just happened to know Huck Snyder almost as well as I knew myself. And I’d been dying for any information on him since he left home when he was sixteen. He always did everything first while I ached to follow. Including running away and leaving a really toxic environment behind. The enemy of my enemy had always been the best, and only, friend I’d ever had.