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Chapter Three Reading a new email from one such try-hard who claimed he made her life worth living knowing there was at least one other person in the world who felt the same way as she did, Justin snorted, “stupid fucking prick,” and pressed Delete. Occasionally he came across a true friend. There were a few people out there in the great world wide web who truly understood what he was going through. But as soon as Justin found one of these people he quickly lost them again. Because he didn’t want to share his torture. He just wanted to joke about it in angry, sometimes psychotic fashion on his blog. It was safer that way. Logging out of Blogger, Justin opened his blog and read over the new entry. There were already fifty-two comments on the previous day’s post. He’d been particularly angry then, ranting about a bully in school who thought she was better than everyone; but Justin knew the truth. Her mother was a drunk and her father an ex-rapist – if one could ever be such a thing. Justin hinted that perhaps her daddy was up to his old tricks again, as everyone did behind the girl’s back in school – even her friends. Justin hated her because she had called his sister a slut when she’d got pregnant at sixteen. He read over some of the comments now, scanning down the page with expertise. Most of the comments were the same day in and day out. People saying they knew people just like the person in question and how much they hated him or her. Useless, boring comments that meant nothing to him. One or two caught his eye and he checked their links. Nothing really grabbed his attention so he went to the school’s website. Clicking open the football team profiles, he found Rhydian’s name and pressed it. Rhydian’s smiling, uncomfortable face filled the screen. His arms folded across his chest, his eyes looking slightly away from the camera lens, making him look even more nervous. He did not like being in front of the camera – Justin could relate to that. He checked on the message board and found a dozen new comments from girls who had seen Rhydian play and liked the look of him. Justin cursed all of their names, his brow furrowed, his heart racing with jealousy. |
The door knocked and he looked up, still angry. Who was disturbing him when they knew better than to do such a thing? A pretty face emerged around the door, smiling but tired, dark hair falling like drapes around her pale cheeks.
Jasmine. Justin looked back at the laptop screen. Rhydian’s new girlfriend. Jasmine. Justin’s sister. Jasmine. He closed the laptop and nodded his head, granting Jasmine access to his sacred room.
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