Sparkling Hope (The Eastburgh Devils Series Book 1)

‘The doorbell rang.’

‘Then get your ass to the door, you lazy ass,’ I shouted to Carter in the living room, who made absolutely no effort to get up from the sofa to take the food from the delivery men.

Especially since the money my Dad, Camilla, and Ruby left extra for the weekend was on the table before him.

My Dad and Camilla took Luna’s Mom for the night they spent in New York for corporate meetings. Luna was hanging out somewhere, and I had the house to myself, so I invited my friends over for dinner.

After all, the sixty dollars weren’t lying there for nothing.

‘Are you the host, or am I?’ countered Carter as he propped himself off the sofa and headed towards the door to finally receive the food that my stomach was calling so much.

I should be sitting in front of my desk, burying my head in some books while my fingers are typing an essay in journalism on my laptop, which I have to hand in soon.

Sometimes I thought about flirting with my professor and getting the grade without any essay.

Somewhere I still had my dignity then.

Besides, I would only try this if she was young, attractive, and not almost falling off her skeleton.

  Another idea would be if I grab some girl from my journalism class, make her come with my Weston charm, and she would write my term paper as a thank you for my terrific service.

It worked once before, and I would do it again and again.

When I was done setting the round wooden dining table with plates and silverware, I walked around the kitchen island and grabbed some beer from the fridge that Henry brought.

‘Get your damn feet off the table. It’s more expensive than your college tuition,’ with my foot, I kicked Henry’s legs off the wooden table, who always felt a little more comfortable here at my house because of family privilege.

Plus, he’s my old man’s favorite nephew.

Although it wasn’t possible otherwise because my Dad had only one nephew, but he let me know that he would rather have Henry as a son than me.

Since the summer of two years ago, when we graduated from high school and needed to pass the time meaningfully, Henry has spent his summer working for Dad’s construction company.

While I’ve been teaching hockey to kids at the ice arena.

I thought it would be fun, but it was quite the opposite.

They were naughty, cried as soon as they fell, and screamed.

To this day, he talked about how Henry worked his ass off despite the heat and helped renovate or build houses, and I swear to myself since I taught the kids not to get any of my own.

They were exhausting and scary.

One little boy thought of always biting me and proudly proving he was a vampire with his four missing baby teeth.

Carter returned to the dining table with two bags of Asian food, and Trevor and Henry, who were outside in the backyard for a smoke, found their place at the table.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting my heart when Dad always talked about Henry so big and made me look so small.

Just a little pinprick. That was all the pain I let my Dad give me.

Henry doesn’t know that my Dad talked like this about him because he only gushed about him when I was standing next to him. Dad never liked to talk about ice hockey or listen to me when it came to it.

My grandma always listened intently and called me when she watched the game on TV.

I usually only ever saw her on holidays because traveling from Dallas, Texas, to Eastburgh with three cats proved to be a bit difficult.

The four of us ordered our way through the menu, from appetizers like spring rolls to main courses, finishing off with Lava Cake, which came free with every order, and fortune cookies, which Carter was crazy about.

Luna and I were supposed to go shopping because the fridge was more than empty, but Asian food is just so much more tempting.

So now there were two options.

Either I live on cornflakes until tomorrow evening, or I sleep so long that it’s not worth looking for something edible anymore because the three of them will return from New York by then.

I turned on the program where the hockey game was streamed, and while we quietly passed around the plastic plates wrapped in aluminum foil one by one, all eyes were on the TV once the dishes were full of Asian food.

‘For fucks sake!’ yelled Trevor, who got up from his seat in exasperation and kicked the chair backward, which didn’t stop him from getting further worked up about the opposing team’s bardown.

The scene with the bardown was repeated three times, and the more they showed it, the slower the shot became of the puck hitting the post and then landing in the net.

Carter grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, tossing it on the table.

‘We’re not going to keep giving this to each other,’ he grumbled, taking a bite of his spring roll.

‘I’m going for a smoke,’ Trevor put a cigarette between his lips, which had been stuck behind his ear all evening, and stormed outside.

As if that had been a call for all of us, we followed him with our cans of beer out onto the patio that bordered the green space.

The green space that separated the house and the lake was lit by small battery-powered torches stuck in Camilla’s flowers. As well as the railing of the walkway was strung with a warm glowing string of lights.

Carter and I separated from the small group and walked down to the jetty because he had a joint with him.

‘Can I stay the night? You don’t mind if I sleep on the sofa, do you? Cause I forgot my keys and you know…my Dad,’ Carter mumbled the last words softly.

‘You already have your own toothbrush anyway, Princess.’

Princess was usually his nickname when he slept over, which was not infrequent.

Camilla had bought some toothbrushes long ago, including a purple one with stars from a princess’s wand.

It was not uncommon for him to sleep at my house because the last two words he whispered whenever he asked me were reason enough.

Carter’s father was an asshole through and through, an alcoholic  and the sheriff of this town.

He didn’t give a shit about him.

It’s always been that way. His old man was always challenging.

I went to his house once because I brought Carter home after he got drunk at a frat party.

At that point, I didn’t know what his family was like, let alone how he lived and that his Dad beat him, which I didn’t realize until I saw Carter at college the next day.

Since then, I’m the only one who knew about his Dad being the way he was, and he didn’t know about his Mom.

‘Weston,’ I heard my name being yelled from a distance.

‘Someone is trying to get your front door open right now, and they’re ringing the doorbell.’

Who would be trying to get in here at this hour?

Luna.

Carter and I took another drag on the joint until the remains ended up in the fire bowl, and we ran back to the patio.

‘Don’t worry, that’s one of my stepmom’s two guests. Let her stay outside for a bit,’ I explained what was happening at the front door.

‘Does she look hot, at least?’ asked Trevor, who took the already cold spring rolls and ate them.

Yes.