Prologue

PROLOGUE

“Isaac, look!” Mason called. Isaac stopped his search for rocks to see what his friend wanted.

“Huh? Maso–” The boy stopped mid-sentence when he spotted the squirming snake in Mason’s hand. He screamed. He took off running, and Mason was hot on his heels. Mason was so much faster than Isaac. His mama told him it was because Mason was older and that Isaac would catch up to him in no time.

The only person doing any type of catching up was Mason, who was closing the distance with that vicious creature in his grip. Isaac looked over his shoulder, horrified to find Mason a lot closer than he had thought.

Isaac shrieked when his foot caught a tree root, sending him toppling to the ground. He tried to catch himself, but ended up with a face full of dirt anyway. He heard Mason curse behind him, even though Auntie said he wasn’t old enough for that. Isaac turned around, trying to scoot backward and away from Mason.

“It’s gone, Isaac,” he said, raising his then-empty hands above his head. “Don’t tell me you were that scared,” he scoffed.

Isaac bit his bottom lip as tears threatened to roll down his face. Boys shouldn’t cry, yet crying was something Isaac always found himself doing. He took after Mama. They both had big hearts that they tended to wear on their sleeves. Mason and Auntie were the exact opposites. Mama said that was why they were such good friends.

Mason sighed and knelt down in front of him, examining the fresh cut on his knee.

“Come on, crybaby. Your mama will kill me if that gets infected.” Mason extended his hand out to Isaac. He sniffled and took his hand, letting himself be pulled up to his feet.

Mason had taken him back up the trail, then over to Mama’s house. The woman fretted over Isaac as usual, but soon enough, Isaac and Mason were happily watching hero movies in the living room, Isaac’s pit bull snoring between them.

That was how most of their days were spent. The two boys spent all their time together. They were inseparable. Mason’s parents owned a ton of land out in Stoneybrook, North Carolina. They had a farm and a lovely farmhouse. After Isaac’s father walked out, Mason’s family offered to let them move in. Years later, they had their own house on the land, but the families remained close. In fact, Mason called Isaac’s mom Auntie, and Isaac did the same with Mason’s. The two boys spent every hour of every day playing in the creek and the woods until they started school. Even then, they were inseparable. They spent all their evenings together, watching fireflies light up the woods.

Seven Years Later

They had their first fight in high school. It was their freshman year, and the topic of their future came up. The teacher asked every student what they wanted to do with their life. Mason said he wanted to be a farmer. Isaac was nervous when his name was called. He knew Mason wouldn’t approve of his idea, but he told his class he wanted to be a journalist anyway.

Isaac felt daggers being glared into his head for the rest of the class.

The walk home was tense. Once they were far enough away from others, Mason grabbed his arm.

“Seriously? A journalist? That’s stupid,” he scoffed. “What is there to journal about here? We practically live in a ghost town!”

“I don't want to write about here,” Isaac mumbled.

“What?” The tension between them was thick. It was suffocating. Isaac had never seen that anger in Mason’s eyes directed at him before.

“I don’t want to stay here,” he forced out. He stared down at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing. They both had stopped walking at that point.

“You don’t want to stay here?” Mason echoed. He chuckled bitterly, and it sent a shiver down Isaac’s spine. “And where are you gonna go, Isaac?”

“I want to move to Atlanta,” he spoke quietly, shrinking in on himself.

“Georgia?”

“Georgia.” The clarification felt like a death sentence.

“So what? You’re too good for this life? You want to go be a city boy?”

“What?” Isaac looked at him in shock. He never said he was too good for that life!

“Hell, ever since you started hanging around that Olivia chick, you’ve been acting like a priss,” Mason shot at him.

Isaac did nothing but gawk at him. Where was any of that coming from?

“I’m acting like a priss for wanting out of this hellhole?” he finally snapped. Mason looked as if Isaac had personally offended him.

“Hellhole? Hellhole?” his voice rose as he repeated the words. The fire in his eyes looked deadly. Mason paced, his fists clenched at his sides. “My parents gave y’all this land. You wouldn’t have shit if it weren’t for my family!”

“I wasn’t talking about your family,” his voice had risen and matched Mason’s, wanting to be heard. “Mason—Stoneybrook will always, always be my home, but I don’t want to stay here. There’s so much more out there!” he tried to reason, and gestured with his arm.

“I have everything I need right here!” Mason emphasized each word by pointing at the ground between them. Isaac wasn’t sure if he looked too far into it, but he could have sworn he heard a hint of desperation in Mason’s tone.

“I don’t!” Suddenly, the argument felt a lot deeper than just job choices. “There is so much more than this town out there. There are cities and beaches and so many things to see. In Atlanta, there is a massive aquarium–”

“We have fish here! The lakes are better than those shitty beaches. You won’t like it!” Mason seemed like he was pleading with him more than yelling at him.

“Why are you trying so hard to get me to stay?” Isaac suddenly asked, tilting his head quizzically at the boy. Sure, they had been close as kids and were still relatively close, but Mason had never seemed like he cared all that much about Isaac’s future.

Mason paused, his mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. After a very tense silence, Mason resumed walking.

“C’mon,” he grumbled. “The old man needs our help with Big Enough. She needs to be brushed, and she hates the bastard.”

“Mase–” the old nickname left his lips without him thinking.

“Drop it, Isaac!” he snapped over his shoulder.

Isaac didn’t see Mason after he got home. The fight was fresh in his mind. He wasn’t even sure why it had happened. Mason had a temper on him, but it had never been directed at Isaac like that before. He wasn’t sure why Mason was so pissed about him wanting to leave. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t ever visit or anything. He just knew the world had more to offer than Stoneybrook. Was it a crime to want to see it? He wasn’t even planning on going very far. He’d be able to visit on breaks.

His mind was racing. He didn’t like being on bad terms with Mason. What if he never wanted to be his friend again?

Isaac grabbed his journal and headed out the front door. He needed to clear his head. He couldn’t breathe in there. Once the house was so far that he could only see the lights, he plopped down in the grass with a sigh. He planned to vent his thoughts in his journal, but the stars caught his attention. He dropped down onto his back, staring up at the shining lights. Wasn’t it crazy how they were billions of miles away?

Isaac’s attention was drawn to the full moon. He subconsciously started humming the moon song his grandfather had sung to him as a kid. The song brought him a sense of comfort. No matter where Isaac was, he and his grandfather were always under the same moon. There was something beautiful about that.

One of the stray cats came up to him. Isaac hadn’t noticed he was there until the animal bumped his temple. Isaac turned his head, smiling softly when he spotted Bushhog. He and Mason had found the kitten years ago sleeping under their bush hog, hence the name.

The cat hopped on his chest, curling up and releasing a soothing purr. Isaac sighed shakily, running a hand through the soft fur. Time seemed like it had ceased to exist. It was just Isaac, Bushhog, and the sound of nature around them. Nothing else mattered. He felt like he could fully breathe for the first time since the argument.

He sat up a little when he thought he heard yelling. Holding his breath, he waited a second, but no other sound was made. He was likely hearing things. The mind tended to play tricks on people, especially in the dark.

“Isaac!”

Was that Mason? Isaac sat upright, causing Bushhog to dart off. He looked around, spotting a figure running down the hill. Isaac turned his phone flashlight on, even though the figure was still too far away.

“Mason?” Isaac called wearily. He was ninety-nine percent sure that was Mason running toward him. Who else could it have been? Still, he stood up, watching the figure intently.

“Isaac!” It was definitely Mason, but why did he sound so worried? Was something wrong? Was there something there? Isaac looked behind him, scanning the tree line for any signs of a threat.

He heard the footsteps get closer. He turned around, watching as Mason came to a stop in front of him, panting as if he had run a marathon.

“Mason, what–” He was cut off when he was pulled into a bone-crushing hug. His face was pressed against Mason’s chest. His arms hung limply at his side, frozen in confusion. Mason wasn’t a fan of touch. He had never been. Isaac was lucky if the boy let their shoulders brush if they sat together.

“What are you doing out here?” Mason pulled back to grab him by the shoulders, trying to check him for any injuries, even in the dark. “We couldn’t find you! Auntie said she thought you were in your room, but you weren’t. You didn’t answer your phone, and we thought something happened to you!”

Shit. In his haste to clear his head, he completely forgot to tell Mama that he was going out. To be fair, he hadn’t gone out; he was still on their property, but he was definitely farther from the houses than usual.

“I–I’m sorry. I needed to clear my head. I wasn’t thinking when I?—”

“Damn right, you weren’t thinking.” Mason seemed to have remembered his anger, letting his hands drop from Isaac’s shoulders. He pulled Isaac by his wrist back to the house. Isaac walked in his front door with his head down. Mason’s parents were in his living room as well.

“Isaac Lane, I’m at a loss for words!” Isaac’s head snapped up when his middle name was used. He was fucked. Mama never called him by his middle name unless he was in deep shit. Despite being at a loss for words, Mama proceeded to lay into him for the next hour, Mason’s parents chipping in every so often. Mason had the audacity to lean against the wall with a smirk. Even though his parents were upset with him, at least he knew things were okay with Mason.