Slice (The Elledge Family #1) (2 page)

I melted in my seat.
Say something you dimwitted fool. Speak the words
! My hand barely rose from the desk and I could feel the rush of red heat as it flowed to my caramel cheeks. Damn it!

“Alright class! Let’s get this started.” Her voice rang over the small talk and chatter. “I want to hear about the summer in a short story.” She turned to the blackboard with the white chalk in her hands and wrote. “I want it to be called A Summer in Paradise. 30 minutes, generate magic!”

The title was just as cheesy as she was and my summer was not paradise but I could work something. More students continued to pour in the desk beside me was no longer empty and the classroom door was closed and locked. All that was heard in the room was the clicking of pens, while the writer thought and the sound of the pages turning.

My page was only half way through when her loud hand clap snapped us away from our mental frenzy and back into reality. I closed my notebook while she ranted about her summer and she spun out the gold in her short story like it was so easy to create what she had said. I had created garbage. Pure unadulterated garbage, I had some training to do.

A Summer in Paradise
                  
By Cypress Tucker

The summer started out like any other. The kids frenzied along the neighbor like they had been freed from some prison, not to simply realize they had it easy. Easy, shit my life had not been easy. I had to let Prince Charming know that I would be resigning as his Princess and the whole kingdom was bound to go into disturbia because the throne would be left unattended. Being born into that life was not what I wanted. I wanted to be free. I wanted to live without the weight of him…

I let Prince Charming down easily, but things got messy, there were tears… mainly from him. The
bitch and pitchmen…
King and Queen from each fucking kingdom realized that I had tarnished the name. I was banished from kingdom they saw it as a punishment I saw it as an opportunity. I packed up a few things, leaving behind my horse and carriage and tossing in my Sketchers, Paradise was around the corner and…

I nodded my head at the grisly sight I should have been more prepared. I tried to tear it out of the notebook and a hand clasped over mine.

“It’s alright, if it’s tainted…” the accent was thick and beautiful.

I turned my head and met the eyes of my neighbor, god he was so beautiful and here I was still unable to formulate a decent sentence to him. “I just don’t want it… to be seen.”

“We’ll work on it.” Fuck! I looked over at my neighbor. He smiled timidly and handed me a piece of graphing paper. “Breathe, these exercises are to let you know that your worst can be a masterpiece to someone else.” He smiled and his accent was overwhelming, English and perfect. He pointed to the board. Apparently I had missed the whole conversation about partnering up with the person to my left. He took my notebook and he handed me his. Lucas Elledge, my heart was about to fall on the ground. I had held onto his book and read three times before I could put it down and then started reading it again. He was published and New York Times best seller. What was he doing here?

The Last Paradise
                        
By: Lucas Elledge

Was there such a thing as Paradise? I had spent my entire summer dwelling on this issue. It could not possibly be a paradise when she existed no longer. Her locks of hair, gone, her smile that healed was gone. She was gone and there with her, she took paradise.

The monster had made its grand entrance a year earlier. He attacked her in ways that she had never experienced. He weakens and he takes and never gives anything but a new pain. She suffered, more than I could bear, more than I could watch. Paradise was fucking over. There was no more laughs and giggles about the thrills of paradise and there was no more care.
She sat in agonizing breathtaking pain…
and paradise left.

My mother died on a Saturday and even the skies cried for her. The drought ended and there she did too. The monster had won and my paradise was lost.

Well, damn it, I had been partnered with some literary genius, this was his quick, easy short story and it was only three paragraphs but damn it! I dropped the notebook and my face was white, was I really supposed to be in this classroom? Lucas Elledge was a fucking genius.

“I like it,” He smiled. “Uhm, we have to critique each other,” Lucas looked at me, his curls falling his face. “I feel like you could do better, are you nervous?”

I swallowed hard, I was embarrassed. No, it was not my best work. It was complete garbage.  “Yeah, I was a little nervous.”

“Well don’t be, I promise it gets worst. We have to learn how to take it.” Lucas nodded his head understandingly. “The teacher wants us to take criticism and understand that they are always helping not really bludgeoning us like it feels. So lightly I say your story is stuck between two worlds and you should choose one so the reader isn’t lost… you started with children leaving school and then went to a kingdom… stay in the kingdom… tell it differently. My name is Lucas, what’s yours?”

“Cypress,” I smiled.

He continued to talk and it was hard to understand anything that he said. My mind still pondered as it tried to accurately comprehend the level of his grief, he said even the skies cried for her… he was amazing. “Okay, I understand…”

“Okay, well, what about mine?” Lucas waited as he stared at me inquisitively… he turned his head waited almost impatiently.

I looked over the writing again, it was perfect. I nodded my head, “I actually don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s really good.” I bit my lip and handed the notebook back to him. “I mean the title doesn’t sync well, but other than that it is perfect.”

“There is always something that can be fixed, no one is perfect.” Lucas nodded his head. “How long have you been writing?”

“I have been writing for about 12 years. I have better work, but it was unexpected.”

“She does every morning that class starts. She wants people to use what they can and write, tomorrow she’ll ask us to finish the short story and give it to the person on our right to be edited. Then she’ll pass it to the person in front to be critiqued and then she’ll grade them and send them to creative publishing class. I’m in that class, it’s nice.”

“So everyone will see my paper.”

“We’re working on it today, it’s the assignment.” He pointed to the board. “I’m free this afternoon around 5. I have to take my sister to her yoga class, then some other things. Can you come to the library and we can start there?”

“I can.” I jotted down
5pm library
in my planner for the day and then wrote the assignment down. Luckily, there was only one more class after this and I would be done early enough to car shop. I was not fond of the bus system.

We walked out of the classroom and he stopped me in the hall, “Pardon me,” He said pushing pass some students. “Cypress, you done wonderful in class. I hope that I was not a wee too harsh. Forgive me?”

“You're fine,” I ran her fingers through my untamed curls and his eyes had me caught in some form of trance. Do not stare, this is just the guy who wrote the book that had made your summer better than it was going. “I really am rusty.”

“Well, I would love to get together sometime and work to improve. I see real potential and I want to help. And I would like to date you, but I'm sure our love for English will be enough for now?”

“I actually would love to.” She was a honey color, but her cheeks were on fire red. She crossed her legs standing and nodded her head. If she only knew what the fuck she had just gotten herself into. These American women could not resist a good accent.

“Perfect, let's just go to the library tonight and then Friday night I can take you to The Summit.”

“Sounds like a perfect plan to me.”

Asher

I had never put much into what the hell I was wearing, but today for some reason I put some thought into it. I grabbed my red polo and tossed it back on the ground. It was the day I finally met Lucas Elledge. There was some excitement here for me. My father had warned me to be careful and to not push him. It could be dangerous, this I knew. This research was like stepping into a lion’s den knowing that there was no lifeline if I was found. But my PHD rested on this interview, or rather yet this observance if he even let me in.

Lucas Elledge was unlike any other human I had ever seen. He had successful committed almost ten murders this year alone. And no that is nothing to brag about, but there was no evidence tying him to any of the murders and those murders were just the tip of the iceberg for him. Lucas hunted like a lion. He stalked and lurked and then once he knew that they were at their most vulnerable moment he moved in to demolish whatever was in his path. I loved the thrill of it all and to the world he would be known as the one who got away, but to me he was Case Study B.

I slid on a plain black T-shirt and some black jeans. I looked at my hair in the mirror and scrambled my hands through it making sure that it was perfectly messy. I made my way out of my new apartment to my first class, this university had the worst psychology department but he had not chosen the college for the department. Lucas' had adopted parents who lived three towns over and they were crazy over the Brit. He wooed them as he had done the rest of the world, blending in perfectly even though his real home was across the globe.

I sat through class jotting down notes, but my mind was fixated on the stalk. How would I get this guy to let me in, Psychopaths were people that were good at not letting people in? He would kill me before he let me see the real him. My father said the only way to get his attention would be to call him out and let him know the cards that I held. I had sufficient enough evidence for there to be a formal investigation on him and he shouldn't kill me. That shit would not work.

I walked to my next class and ignored all the ogling eyes of the university girls that followed me. I was handsome, I knew that. My looks came from my father, he passed me the charm as well. Sex was not hard to come by, which made it even harder to find someone to marry. My mom wanted grandchildren and I had nothing to offer her. I refused to be tied down to someone that would sleep with me before they knew my last name. I had ten minutes to get to my next class and pretend to listen again.

This time in class I made strategies as to how to get close to him. He had a step brother named Mark and to be honest, I felt like he was a psychopath as well. He had no empathy. He had made three girls get abortions and then he stepped on people to get where he wanted to be, it was sickening. He had no remorse that one girl had even killed herself over him. He acted as if it never happened. He was a case study C, once I received the grant.

“Pardon me,” Lucas said as he moved passed me to some girl. She was attractive and not the usual type he went for. He loved the promiscuous women who gave up easily and moved on. He wanted no emotional connection with them, he wanted everything but, four of his ex-girlfriends had gone on trips and never returned. “Cypress, you have done wonderful in class. I hope that I wasn’t a wee too harsh. Forgive me?”

She looked flushed and her eyes wondered his body as if he was some kind of God. “You're fine,” she ran her fingers through her curls and her eyes never left his. She was infatuated. “I really am rusty.”

“Well dear, I would love to get together sometime and work to improve. I see real potential and I want to help. And I would like to date you, but I'm sure our love for English will be enough for now?”

He was so blunt. I leaned against the wall pretending to be intrigued with my phone, but I heard every word of the conversation. He had won her over without trying. I checked charming on the list.

“I actually would love to.” She was a honey color, but her cheeks were on fire red. She crossed her legs standing and nodded her head. If she only knew what the fuck she had just gotten herself into. These American women could not resist a good accent.

“Perfect, let's just go to the library tonight and then Friday night I can take you to The Summit.”

The Summit, it was his home and his business with his foster brother. A three story warehouse that used to be void and was nearly condemned a few years back was now the hottest place to be in town. Mark and Lucas had turned the ground floor into a club and it was thriving. People came from everywhere just to get in, I had received an invitation, but I hadn't put it down yet. Large crowds were not usually my thing. The second floor was the home of Mark. He was very private. He rarely even brought girls back there Lucas owned the third floor and liked to have guest sometimes when he wasn't busy perusing his blood lust. But the success of the club and his book ensured that he would not have to work. His book The Skies Cry had been on the top seller list for almost a year now and he refused to sell the rights for a movie. He just enjoyed the money for his work.

“Asher!” The familiar voice said from behind me.

I turned and there was an old friend. And I mean old. I had not seen her since Middle School and it was not a pleasure seeing her again. She had been obsessed. “Whitney! How are you?”