PROLOGUE
410 Words
PROLOGUE
I was seven years old, fully decked out in metal braces that glinted in the sunlight much to my chagrin and those wide-rimmed glasses that made my face look rounder than it already was, when the Washingtons moved across the street into the fanciest townhouse in Everwood Cove. The movers had arrived the day before, and judging by the six massive moving vans clogging the narrow street, it was clear that whoever was moving in had to be loaded. The kind of loaded my mom always whispered about with raised eyebrows and a tilt of her head, as if to suggest it was a bit obscene. She had peeked through the window much like every other neighbor on this street, muttering a few judgmental nonsensical. Typical mum.
The next day, right around noon, the family of three rolled into town in their sleek, jet-black BMW with windows so tinted you couldn’t tell if someone was inside unless the door swung open. And when it did, they stepped out like something out of a movie.
That was the first time I saw him—Mark Washington. He was nine, with caramel skin and a crooked smile that didn’t look so much like a flaw as it did a secret he hadn’t yet shared. His dark hair was neatly cut, and he had this confidence about him, even as he stood there in his perfectly ironed polo shirt and cargo shorts, like the whole world was a stage and he’d been cast as the lead.
I was sitting on the porch, swinging my legs idly over the edge and trying to keep the splinters on our worn-out wooden steps from catching on my socks. A half-melted popsicle was clutched in one hand, dripping steadily onto the faded planks beneath me. Beside me, Diane, my childhood best friend was busy sucking on a lollypop, way to immersed into the sweetness to care about my new neighbors.
When his eyes met mine, it was like the air shifted, the kind of moment you don’t realize is significant until years later. At the time, I was too busy trying not to stare. He appeared too clean, too expensive if you will. Mark waved, a quick, casual motion like we’d known each other forever. And just like that, something shifted in me. I didn’t know it then, but this boy—Mark Washington—was going to change everything. That he would be my damnation.
- Writer
