Chapter One
Lucas Speck lay on the floor of his parents’ living room with the lights off and his eyes shut. Sometimes, it lessened the pain to be still and the nausea didn’t threaten as much when he remained relaxed. Other things didn’t happen either.
Unexplainable. Weird shit.
Lucas was already weird enough without adding to it.
If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was cursed. But he really didn’t have enemies, so there went that theory. And if he thought back on his life then he’d had to say the headaches had begun in high school.
The pain through his head sharpened when he chuckled at himself.
Man, had he needed help in high school. He’d been skinny and had worn big baggy jeans that were a couple of sizes too big to make himself less of a target. He was like that lizard that flared its ruff out and hissed whenever someone bullied him. The larger clothing had been the best he could do to make himself seem bigger. Why had his mother let him leave the house like that?
He shook his head when he thought about that time in his life. His current state wasn’t much better with his superhero T-shirt that had made him look like a twelve-year-old, and his white undies that did nothing to make him feel even one ounce of sexy, not that he felt that anyway with his brain threatening to pound right out of his big ole noggin’.
His phone rang out the same tinny song that was supposed to remind him he was cool like a ninja, but really annoyed him. He seriously needed to change it.
The phone sat on the coffee table a few feet away. Lucas sat up, moaning when the pain pounded through the top of his head. He was reaching for the phone when a white ball of energy left his chest, zinging through the entire room like a bullet until it found his mother’s half-dead plant. Lucas watched as the brown crinkled leaves turned green and purple flowers popped up by the dozens above the green, all happy and proud.
He lay back down and sighed in relief when his headache subsided almost instantly.
God, why? Like seriously. And, also, what the hell came out of him all the time? A baby? A light baby shaped in perfect roundness?
The phone stopped ringing.
Lucas sighed in relief when the last little bits of pain fell from his head like drops of water. His phone started ringing insistently again.
He grabbed it off the table and pressed the talk button. He barely got a hello out before his best friend Shawn spoke. “Hey, you have to come out with me.”
“I have a headache. Again.” Or rather, he’d had a headache. He was not ashamed to use the headache he no longer had to get out of leaving the house. Call him an extreme introvert. Whatever. He didn’t care.It was underwear city in the house, but he’d have to pants up if he left. Yeah, no thanks.
“Come on. You always say that. Or at least let me throw a party at your house.”
“I’m twenty-six, not seventeen. I have responsibilities to my parents and their house while they’re away for the winter, Shawn. That doesn’t include trashing the place.”
“You lecture so well, Lucas. It turns me on.”
Lucas chuckled. “Shut up.”
“Fine. No party. But at least come out with me.”
“Fine. But not that straight bar by the lake. I hate that place. Way too many homophobes.” Lucas’ last experience at that bar had almost gotten his ass kicked. A guy had thought Lucas was hitting on him when all he’d done was look over in the man’s general direction. The guy hadn’t even been Lucas’ type, and when he said that it had pissed the asshole off even more. The dude had been friggin’ huge, which had scared the crap out of Lucas. When the guy had raised his fist, Lucas had nearly shit his pants. Nothing came of it, though. The big guy had stopped as if nothing happened. His fists lowered, and he turned back to his friends.
“Yeah, agree completely. I wanna get laid, not killed.”
“AndI’mdriving. The last time, you hooked up with some random guy and left me at the bar.”
“Whatever, dude. I don’t care who drives. I can’t believe I got you to agree so easily. Are you sick? Is something wrong with you?” Shawn sounded genuinely concerned.
“I’m fine,” he lied.
“You do act like a housebound old man. Dude, you need to live a little. Find some guy and let him fuck you. Get drunk. Something besides go to work and housesit for your parents.”
“I go to college too. Not just work.” And thatsodidn’t make things better.
No, what he really needed was to get his shit together. His life had veered to the left enough to stunt his growth as a human being.
He had four years to go until he was thirty. It might have sucked ass to think about, but he needed some motivation. At the rate he was going, he’d be in college with a below average GPA until he was sixty. He should have been finished three years ago at the very latest.
