Chapter 1- Cherton
Starry-eyed.
Optimistic.
Joyous abandon.
All words that did not describe Ryan Cross in his life.
Ryan caught his dark blue eyes glancing back at him in the cocked rearview mirror and found that he looked tired and not just from lack of sleep. Dark circles were starting to wreck the flesh under his eyes, he appeared paler than usual, and frankly, he looked like fucking shit.
To be fair he had been on the road for three days, only stopping long enough to nap fitfully in pull-offs and sketchy truckstops, or the occasional pocket of woods if he was lucky before forging ahead on his journey to change his life for the better.
Hopefully.
Needless to say, Ryan looked how he felt: just a little bitter, a little jaded, and weary of having to make these kinds of life-altering choices with nothing but a wish and a prayer to back him.
For being all of nineteen, life had already smacked him around a lot more than most and Ryan was more than ready to skip his little ass away from his past and embrace a whole new future.
His only real hope now was that maybe he’d find his own niche out here in California, make his own path, and maybe, just maybe, find his own success somewhere in the city looming ahead.
It was about the only optimism he had left to give.
This place was his last shot and never had that been made clearer to him than the past year had proven, especially now while he sat in traffic watching the reality of the city of Cherton light up like an eighties disco ball under the encroaching cloak of night.
Truly, the city was glorious while captured in the twilight reflection of gold, magenta, and purpling ocean it rested beside. Its beautiful skyline was set to a backdrop of the endless Pacific, right off Highway 101, located just south of Monterey Bay.
It was a hot metropolis booming with casinos, nearly mythical nightlife, and new “must-visit” attractions across the whole scene. Cherton was world-renowned for its fine dining establishments, the art district was supposed to be elegant, stunningly maintained, and full to bursting with exotic and rare cultural items from around the world. The stunning interactive aquarium, the famous Pierside attractions, and the year-round tourist traps of beachside paradise drew visitors to its cove in droves upon droves.
Celebrities had been snapping up homes in the High Districts and along the pristine, white-sanded beaches, and all in all, Ryan had heard a lot of hype.
Over a million people from various descents, backgrounds, species, and locales called Cherton home for a million reasons. However, perhaps the biggest draw for hopeful youth across the nation was the fact that Cherton harbored one of the country’s top five elite colleges: Cherton-Howell University or CHU if you were inspired to whimsy.
People from all over fought tooth and nail to get accepted through its prestigious doors; doors that Ryan had been allowed access to on a partial scholarship, and he had taken the offer letter and ran with it.
For some poor kid from Ohio, Ryan was making a big leap of faith. Big enough that that letter was the only reason he was making this plunge.
The moment couldn’t have come at a better time.
His parents were all but throwing him out the doors and Ryan had been a second from staring down the barrel of living in his car while he bartended any hours he could get back home, so that acceptance letter?
That moment when he had opened that envelope with shaking fingers to read what the hands of fate had dealt him?
Ryan had sat down in the shower of his childhood home and cried for an hour over it.
At the time, he had had no clue how he’d make it out here, and honestly, he still didn’t, but God damn it, he was going to give it one hell of a shot.
Ryan thought that with fingers white-knuckled on the steering wheel of his beat-ass Corolla right before he hit the first indicator of backed-up traffic heading into the city center.
He cursed and had to slam on his brakes when some asshat in a Chevy whipped out into his lane not a foot from his bumper.
He screeched up behind the other vehicle in a clatter of screaming rotors and brake pads while the freeway ground to an abrupt halt and suddenly, Ryan had all kinds of time to contemplate his life choices.
So much time, in fact, Ryan got the chance to watch the sun make its final graceful glide over the rippling waters of the harbor he was now parked beside. Honestly, he was a little awed by the beauty of it all before it descended behind the city line and cast the high-rises into stunning amber-gold repose and sinister black shadows.
Somewhere in that mix was a tiny one-bedroom apartment with his name on the lease, and somewhere else was a job he’d have to find swiftly and with all haste before his savings rapidly vanished.
Somewhere in that city was his new life, and if he could just make it through this crush of damn traffic before he hit E, that would’ve been real swell too.
It was a real concern at this stage in the game.
It took about fifteen minutes before he morphed into a city driver blasting his horn with impatience riding him. He scowled when the driver ahead just flipped him off before he made himself cultivate a sliver of patience and settle back in for the long haul.
Typical.
Ryan knew one thing though and that thing was that life was rarely sunshine and daisies.
He was going to have to put in the time and focus on his future because God knew no one else was going to hold his hand while he forged this path for himself. No one cared, and that was a hard-learned truism he had come to expect. That being said, it had been a long, long time now since he had trusted a damn idiot to take that hand as it was.
It was now his only job to not let the predators in this city drag him into some mire and to maintain his scholarship to the highest degree he was capable of committing to. Anything else wasn't worth his effort, his fraying patience, or worth risking his lofty dreams and ambitions.
He promised himself that it was now the Ryan Cross show, sent the last prayer he had to spare to whatever deity felt helpful enough to listen, and then cranked his sad boy rock music up to drown out the cacophony of car engines and the raging drivers around him.
Let the games begin.
