Synopsis

This is a story about manipulation.

Jayden Crew was a 16 year old boy who resided in St. Louis, Missouri. He wielded sarcasm like a sword as a defense mechanism to his true feelings, an action that would probably get him killed one day if used against the wrong person.

It was all Jayden had to protect himself.

Due to divorce, his parents estranged themselves from their only child; his mother immersed herself in work and projects that required travel while his father flat out relocated across the country with no note or meaning of goodbye.

Through years of living at the hands of a babysitter named Nathan, it became too much to try and wield that sword anymore.

Jayden gradually learned to accept that Nathan was all he had.

Nathan had manipulated Jayden in more ways than anyone could imagine. Lines between the societal norm and Jayden's reality blurred and crossed; it left him confused, frustrated as to what was supposed to be considered normal.

To top it off, Aaron Damari, Jayden's life long best friend wedged himself right in the middle of it all to add not only more confusion and frustration to Jayden's plate, but to Damari, hopefully clarity.

Trigger warnings: physical and sexual abuse

*shameless plug: read my other stories while you're here :)*