And her.

"So, where's Rourke at on this fan-fucking-tab-ulous night?" Reebo asked, taking a swig from his beer bottle.

"Where'd you think?" Mase chuckled. "Balls deep in his sister's pussy."

"Stepsister," I chuckled, exhaling slowly. "The step part is kind of important, dude."

12 Daryl

It was a little after one in the morning when I eventually made my way home, hoping to god that they were in bed. I didn’t need a confrontation tonight, but that's exactly what I got the moment I turned my key in the door.

"The fuck kind of time do you call this?" Wren demanded from the kitchen doorway when I stepped into the house.

Of course, he would be up.

Asshole never wasted an opportunity to rag on my ass.

High as Everest, and with no comedown in sight, I blinked away the haze that was blurring my vision and clumsily removed my key from the door.

Stinking of beer and weed, I yanked off my jacket and draped it over the banister before moving for the staircase.

"I’m talking to you, son."

"I ain't your son," I slurred, making a conscious effort to put one foot in front of the other and not fall the fuck over.

"Thank the lord for small mercies," came his snide response. "Nah, you ain't my son, but I still gotta put a damn roof over your head, don't I?"

"Don’t worry," I bit out, leaning heavily against the bannister as I climbed the steps. "It won't be for much longer."

"Damn straight it won't," he snarled, close on my heels. "The second that cap and gown touches your body next May, you'll be out of this house, boy."

"Thank fucking god for that."

"What did you say to me?" Wholly enraged now, my stepfather pushed past me on the steps and blocked my path. "Ungrateful little bastard." Towering on the landing above me, Wren glowered down at me like I was a piece of shit on his shoes. And to him, I was. "You ain't worth the condom your daddy broke trying to prevent your existence, boy."

Gritting my teeth, I stood on the staircase a few steps below the man I hated most in the world, and waited for him to finish chewing me out and degrading me.

Nothing that came out of his mouth was new to me. I'd heard it all a million times over. Didn’t even hurt anymore. Not really.

As a little kid, I'd been scared shitless of my stepfather and his overbearing nature. He was a big man and had been hella bigger than me back then – stronger too. Now, I felt nothing but contempt for the prick my mother put before me. The prick whose word she believed over her own son.

In my mother's eyes, I represented the man who'd walked out the door and left her with a baby to raise on her own. I was a constant reminder of the biggest mistake of her life. Didn’t matter much anymore since I'd be out of this house in a few short months, but damn it still stung.