“So what’s this one?” I asked, shaking the second envelope and listening for any tell tale signs of its contents shaking around.
“Anthrax,” King deadpanned.
“You’re getting funny in your old age.”
King glanced down at his phone. “I gotta go get the kids. Open that when you get home.” He held out his hand, but instead of bro hugging him like he was expecting, I pulled him in for the real deal. We stood there for a moment, below the steps of the house we bought together the second we could scrape up the cash, with neither one of us in a rush to let the other go.
When we pulled back we didn’t make eye contact, and it was totally because of the pollen in the air that was triggering my allergies making my eyes water. King must have had the exact same allergies, which was the reason why he was sniffling. “Thanks,” I said again, not knowing what else I could say to him. He’d already given me so much. More than he could ever know.
He defended me when no one else would.
He protected me when I couldn’t protect myself.
He became family when I didn’t have one.
King shrugged and cleared his throat. “You would have done the same for me,” he said, casually.
I smiled and finally met my friend’s watery gaze. “No. No, I fucking wouldn’t have.” We both burst out in an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
It was totally our laughter that triggered the allergy induced tears to stream down our faces as we hugged it out again before I finally turned and got in the car without looking back. And it was totally the laughter again that was the reason why I had to pull over on the side of the road less than a block away to spend ten minutes wiping my stupid leaking face so I could see well enough to drive the rest of the way home.
Fucking allergies.
Fucking laughter.
When I finally pulled back onto the road I glanced up into the rearview mirror and watched the house on stilts, the one King and I dreamed about owning as kids, the first real home I’d ever had, grow smaller and smaller behind me. I sniffled and wiped my nose with the back of my hand.
I was still in my car, idling in the driveway at the house I now called home, when I opened the second envelope from King. I pulled out a picture frame. The actual frame wasn’t anything special, but what was inside of it WAS. It was the drawing King and I had drawn together in my notebook on the day we met on the playground as two kids who didn’t know shit about life except that it could be cold and cruel. I ran my fingertips over stick figure King and Preppy, then the Star Wars stilt home. I laughed at the blood spattered on the page from my broken nose and made a mental note that Tyler, the bully responsible for that bloody nose, was long overdue for a house egging. I read over our notes in misspelled block lettering. HOBBIES was in bold letters with King: art shit and Preppy: bitches written underneath. Next to HOBBIES was GOALS. Underneath we’d written: Own the town. Be our own bosses. Kill anyone who gets in our way.
That day changed everything.
It changed ME.
King and I entered that playground as kids with no futures. We left with one we’d created.
Scribbled on the bottom of the frame, in bold black marker, in King’s shitty handwriting, was a single sentence.
We did it all, and more.
“Yes, yes we motherfucking did,” I said out loud, blinking back fresh tears and smiling like a crazed idiot.
Fucking best friends.
THE MOTHERFUCKING END
Also by T.M. FRAZIER
COMING SOON:
THE PERVERSION TRILOGY
PERVERSION (Book 1)
POSSESSION (Book 2)
PERMISSION (Book 3)
NINE (King Series #9)
AVAILABLE NOW:
THE OUTSKIRTS DUET
THE OUTSKIRTS
THE OUTLIERS
KING SERIES
King & Doe’s Story (Duet)
KING
TYRANT
Bear & Thia’s Story (Duet)
LAWLESS
SOULLESS
Preppy & Dre’s Story (Triplet)
PREPPY PART ONE
PREPPY PART TWO
PREPPY PART THREE
Smoke & Frankie’s Story (Standalone)
UP IN SMOKE
NINE (COMING SOON
STANDALONES
Jake & Abby’s Story
THE DARK LIGHT OF DAY, A KING SERIES PREQUEL
Rage & Nolan’s Story
ALL THE RAGE, A KING SERIES SPIN OFF
Visit T.M. Frazier’s AMAZON page for a listing of all her available books.
About the Author
T.M. FRAZIER
T.M. Frazier is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author best known for her KING SERIES.
She was born on Long Island, NY. When she was eight years old she moved with her mom, dad, and older sister to sunny Southwest Florida where she still lives today with her husband and daughter.
When she was in middle school she was in a club called AUTHORS CLUB with a group of other young girls interested in creative writing. Little did she know that years later life would come full circle.
After graduating high school, she attended Florida Gulf Coast University and had every intention of becoming a news reporter when she got sucked into real estate where she worked in sales for over ten years.
Throughout the years T.M. never gave up the dream of writing and with her husband’s encouragement, and a lot of sleepless nights, she realized her dream and released her first novel, The Dark Light of Day, in 2013.
She’s never looked back.
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Preppy, The Life & Death of Samuel Clearwater: A King Series Trilogy Page 59