Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Legend leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms, his golden eyes hooded. The sun filtered in through the window closest to them and hit the guy just right. He practically glowed.
“You know what’s always bothered me about you, Cas?”
“What?”
“How dry you speak. There’s barely any intonation in your voice. You’ve always been that way. Monotone. Now, I got used to it. I stopped thinkin’ about it ’cause I heard you speak every day. After you moved away and left everybody though, I noticed it when you’d come back. It’s strange, man.”
Caspian scratched his cheek and took another taste of the drink.
“And what am I supposed to do about that, Legend? I talk how I talk, just as you do. I don’t like how you curse every other sentence. I don’t like the way you throw the word bitch and the N word around, either. I still respect you and understand that’s just who you are. You’ve spoken that way since you still had a few baby teeth in your mouth.”
Legend’s eyes narrowed and he cracked his knuckles. “I’ve been readin’ a lot lately about human psychology, man. I’ve been readin’ a lot, period. My wife still wants me to go to therapy. I uh… how can I say this diplomatically?” He looked about the restaurant, a slick smirk on his face. “I took care of my little problem, but like my baby warned me, some of the anger is still around. I thought I’d be less angry. Let me take that back. I am less angry—most days—but I’m still not completely satisfied. A part of me still hates. Deeply.”
“What are you sayin’ to me, Legend?”
“I’m sayin’ I wanna dig up the bones, slap ’em around, set ’em on fire, and do that over, and over, and over again. I want to terrorize everyone who knew what those men were doin’ to me and didn’t do shit to stop them. I want to hunt them down, again and again. That hunt made me happy. It’s a high I can never recreate. I miss it… I’m crazy.” Legend shrugged. “I control my craziness, though. I make sure certain folks don’t see it. I protect them from the ugly side of me. You? How long will folks be protected from the ugly side of Caspian? I’m worried about you.”
“Why?”
“Because I realized something. One of the few things my mama said to me that was right was: ‘You gotta watch the quiet ones.’ ’Tween the three of us, Axel, me, and you, you come across as the good boy in public. Me and Axel were tearin’ the world up while you sat back with cement, pretendin’ to put it back together again. You had your nose in the books but liked to do weird shit, like hang burned-up baby dolls, their heads missin’, from trees. Set fires on porches. You’d do that sometimes to the folks you hated. Most kids were out here toilet papering folks’ houses. Egging their windows.”
“…This cornbread is delicious.”
“If they were really pissed, they’d key a car or two. You?” Legend pointed at him. “You were fourteen years old and out fucking a grown man’s wife when he pissed you off. That old man told you to stop ridin’ yo’ bike on his lawn. The following week, you knocked on the door when you knew he was at work and offered to mow his wife’s grass. Then, you put the moves on her. You didn’t go for the daughter. That ain’t normal for a fourteen-year-old. How you got that grown ass woman to commit a crime by screwing a teenage boy is beyond me. Yo’ shit was on another level. Then you had a baby when you were fifteen, and—”
“Yeah, and I found out the little girl wasn’t mine six years later so where is this all going, Legend? What is your point? Because I’m hungry, and my time is important to me. I don’t want it wasted with your dime store psychology lesson.”
They glared at one another.
“My point? Mrs. Florence saved the best for last, didn’t she, Mr. Emory? You’re a diabolical, immoral, ruthless, sly, disturbed lunatic. You hide behind your fancy college degrees…” Caspian cocked his head to the side and winked. Legend winked back. “You think you’re going to just waltz back in town, say your goodbyes to the lady who raised you, and take yo’ ass back to Georgia like this shit never happened, but that’s where you’re wrong. You’ve been brought back for a reason.”
“Yes. A funeral.”
“Not just your aunt’s funeral—it may be your very own if you don’t get your shit together. See, people could look at me and see what my problem was. It was obvious.” Legend shrugged. “I was high. I was drunk. I was unemployed. I was unmotivated. When Axel found me, I was so far downhill, I saw no way out of it. My ex-girlfriend became a drug addict. That relationship crashed and burned. I had three dogs I loved that I could barely take care of. I had a prison record longer than I-75. No one wanted to fuck with me. I was known for my anger issues, and that caused problems with tryna get local work, so I moved to another neighborhood.