Jake got home from the ranch feeling tired, sore, and out of sorts, but it had been an honest day’s work. He liked the work on the ranch. Compared to going to school, it was simple and straightforward, and it was nothing to be ashamed of. He didn’t know why Andie was so dead-set on him going off to college. Learning to manage a ranch was a valuable skill, he was good at it, and he didn’t need college to do it. Nobody looked down their nose at him on the ranch, and it kept him close enough to home to help Amy out with the boys and keep an eye on his mom. He’d be able to support everyone just fine on what he could make once he got a couple of promotions.

As far as Jake was concerned, it didn’t make sense going into debt to get some degree in computer science or land management or whatever. He could teach himself what he needed to know about the former online and about the latter at work. He was good at his job, he was strong, he worked hard, and climbing the ladder wouldn’t take long. Andie just needed to trust him.

Jake pulled off his muddy boots, left them just outside the side door of the single-wide trailer, and went in. He’d been staying at his mom’s for the past few months because she’d been in a rough patch. She’d just started a new job, and he was trying to keep her on track… and because he was tired of Amy haranguing him about college in chorus with Andie. As he entered, he immediately noticed the smell of something burning. He ducked into the kitchenette, and sure enough, there was a pot of what looked like it had been Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sitting on the burner and turning into charcoal as smoke filled the tiny kitchen. It was an ominous sign.

Heart pounding, Jake turned the burner off, yanked the pan off the stove, and took it to the sink to fill it with water where it hissed angrily and belched out a column of smoke. He opened the small window over the sink and fanned his hands to push some of the smoke out. Then he went looking for his mother. It didn’t take long to find her. She was passed out on the couch next to her latest boyfriend. Jake surveyed the scene. A plate, a drinking glass, a straw… He reached down and picked up the plate to take a closer look. Yeah, there was a little powdery residue left behind. He checked the bottom of the cup and saw residue there, too. Oxy. They’d crushed up the pills with the cup and snorted a bunch of Oxy. He’d thought those days were behind them.

As alarmed as he was angry, Jake reached down and shook his mother’s shoulder. “Mom! Mama? Wake up!” Nothing. Shit. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears. Was she overdosing? He checked her nail beds. Pink. That was good. “MOM!” he bellowed, shaking her harder. Her eyelids fluttered and she moaned, she was coming around.

Finally, she opened one eye and glared at Jake. “Jesus, Jake. What’s your fuckin’ problem?”

Relief crashed through Jake’s system at her response, but it rapidly burned away, leaving only anger and adrenaline behind. “What’s my problem? What’s MY problem? My problem is that my mother is high on the couch next to whoever the fuck this guy is. MY problem is that you promised me this wouldn’t happen again, and yet here we are. I thought you OD’d, Mom. Again. You almost set the damned place on fire! You promised.”

Bethany Bice sat up, offended and indignant. “Don’t you fucking talk to me like that, Jake. My own child is not going to talk to me like that. What I do is none of your business.”

“You promised me.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Jake. It was one time. Just a little party. You’re like an old man.”

“It’s never one time, Mom. Never. Where’d you even get this shit? Where’d you get the money for it? Lemme guess. This guy? This fucking prizewinner right here?” Jake roared, gesturing at the oblivious specimen on the couch who was sleeping through the verbal detonations. “Why do you do this? Can’t you be on your own for five goddamned minutes? Are you that desperate that you’ll take anyone with a couple of pills on them? Look at this piece of shit. Don’t come crying to me when he comes down from this, gets cranky, and knocks one of your teeth out. Just like the last one.”

Beth stood, weaving, one shaky finger aimed at Jake’s face. “You know what, Jake? Shut the fuck up. You think you’re so goddamned smart? You think you’re so special? You think you’re better than me? Got yourself a pretty little boyfriend who’s going to college on a scholarship? Gonna be a teacher someday? You think he’s gonna take you with him when he leaves Meridian? Let me tell you something. I may not be worth a damn, but that means you ain’t shit, either, and he knows it. He’s already made other plans while you’re out there slaving on that ranch. I watched him hugging up on my boss’s son for half an hour outside the store yesterday. That big Alpha kid? Clay or whatever? Now that family? They’ve got money. That kid’s got a future.”

“Andie was not ‘hugging up’ on anybody.”

“Look at my face, Jake. Yes, he fucking was. You’re lucky I warned you about it before he made an even bigger fool out of you. Fated mate. Pfft. Guess it’s not just Alphas who screw around.”

“They are just friends,” said Jake, white-faced. “They’ve been friends for a long time.”

“Oh, Alpha friends put their faces in Omega friends’ necks and scent them now? Wow. Guess I’m the idiot.”

“Andie wouldn’t let him do that.”

“Oh, he let him do exactly that, Jake, and half the store saw it. So get off your fuckin’ high horse. I told you that boy was going to trade you in when he graduated. I told you and told you. He didn’t even wait for that.”

Jake rounded on his mother, fists clenched at his side. “If you are lying to me right now, Mom, we are through, you and me. I’m not sticking around to watch you burn your life down again.”

“You’re nineteen years old, Jake. Grow up. Go on and go, then. I’m tired of you. You’ve been ruining my life for long enough. I can take care of myself just fine. Go ahead and fucking leave. You’re just like your father. He thought he was better than me, too. Better than you, too.”

Jake reeled from that one. Even for her, even when she was high, that was a cheap shot. “Well, I wouldn’t want to ruin your wonderful fucking life,” he roared. “Wouldn’t want that!” He went to his room, threw whatever clothes he could find into a trash bag, ripped down his Dallas Cowboys poster, and reached into the small cubby he’d cut into the plastic trailer wall behind the poster. This was where he’d hidden the jar containing his savings. Where his mother couldn’t find it and put it up her nose. He was done with her. He was done with the trailer. He was done with the boyfriends. He was done with being let down, shit on, and told what to do by her and everyone else.

Most of Jake’s money went towards the rent on the land where the trailer sat or to pay his mom’s other bills, but Jake had been trying to save up enough for a more reliable truck. He needed one so he wouldn’t miss work when his POS truck finally crapped out completely, and so he could visit Andie over in Austin. Thanks to one household expense or another, he’d only managed to save a few hundred bucks so far. He pulled the jar’s contents out, shoved the money into his pocket, grabbed the trash bag, and went barefoot out the back door. Stalking around the outside of the trailer to the side door, he stuck his feet into his boots on the way to the truck. Jake tossed the trash bag onto the seat next to him, and stuck the key in the ignition. Miraculously, the engine turned over on the first try. He threw the truck in reverse, kicking up dust and gravel as he backed out of the driveway at speed. He blindly drove down the road a mile until he got to a gas station and then pulled over.

Andie and Clay? No way. He wasn’t going to take his mom’s word for it. She lied like she breathed, especially when she was using. He grabbed his Tracfone out of his pocket and pulled up the number of the one person who would definitely know if Andie had been screwing around in full view of the local grocery store. “Sarah Ann. It’s Jake Rivera. Listen…”

“You calling about what happened yesterday at work?”

Jake’s heart sank. Not this. Not Andie. Please God, take anything from me but this. “Depends. What happened?”

“I don’t know if it’s my place to tell you,” said Sarah Ann, sounding like she was dying to make it her place.

“Just tell me,” said Jake curtly.

“Well, you can ask Ricky and Valeria what they think. They saw it too. But yesterday, at about four-thirty, Andie came by the store looking for Clay. Clay followed him outside, and then they sat together on the bench, talking for a while. Then things got craaaazy. It looked like Clay and Andie were kind of hooking up? You know Clay is always hanging around Andie, waiting by his locker and stuff. And he supposedly tutors him after school in math, and that gives them a lot of alone time, too. I’m real sorry to have to tell you about it, Jake.” Sarah Ann said in a syrupy voice that did not sound especially sorry. “It did look kinda bad, though. For real. Andie had his arms around him, and Clay’s face was all up in Andie’s neck… If you want to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

“Yeah, uh, thanks. Gotta go.” Jake ended the call. Sarah Ann hated Andie. Everyone knew that. She was probably full of shit, too. Ricky. He’d see what Ricky had to say about it. He called Ricky. Ricky’s story was pretty much the same but without all the fake sweetness. Ricky pointed out that if Clay wasn’t the store manager’s son, Jake could probably have asked to see what happened on the store’s security tape for himself. Jake decided to try and get a look at it anyway. He drove to the store, completely numb. He wasn’t going to believe it unless he saw it. Not Andie. Not Andie, too. Something in this world had to go the way it was supposed to. Not everything could be fucked up and dirty and disappointing and ruined.

When Jake got to the customer service desk of the grocery store an hour before closing, it was, luckily enough, staffed by a bored woman of about twenty-five whom Jake didn’t recognize. He gave her his best smile and set to work, spinning her a tale about losing his wallet outside the store the previous day at around four-thirty. Had anyone turned it in? She checked lost and found for the imaginary wallet and came back empty-handed.

“Oh, man,” Jake sighed. He really needed that wallet, he told her. He didn’t care about the money. It was just that it had his only surviving picture of his Grandpa in it. Could they maybe check the tape and see if they saw any trace of it? Since the store was empty, her boss was out, and Jake was good-looking, the cashier didn’t see why not.

She got on the old desktop computer, pulled up the feed, and ran it back to about four-twenty the previous afternoon. They watched as Jake’s life disintegrated in fifteen grainy, sped-up minutes. Jake didn’t see the imaginary wallet. He saw Andie arrive at the store. He saw him come back out, pulling Clay behind him by the hand. He saw them sit on the bench and talk for a while. He saw Andie’s arms go around Clay. He saw Clay’s head on Andie’s shoulder. He saw the face pressed up against Andie’s neck. He thanked the cashier, excused himself as best he could, and drove straight to Andie’s.