A lonely boy with a painful past and a brother with a grudge, caught in a web of lies. Will they ever be free?
“I’ll try not to go on a killing rampage and slice your throat, then.”
Those were 16-year-old Clay Rainey's last words to his (understandably) ex girlfriend. They were also the words that got him passed off like a hand-me-down to the brother he'd spent the past ten years avoiding--with good reason: lying to someone's back is easier than lying to his face.
No one but Clay knows his mom's car 'accident' was actually a suicide--and that she'd planned for him to join her in the afterlife. But truth-telling is an option that will bring nothing but accusations (dear old dad) and pain (big brother Jason)--as Clay's self-inflicted burn scars can attest.
Now he's got his chance to start over with a new school, a new job, and possibly even a new girlfriend--one who isn't likely to scream in terror at the sight of him. But none of that matters when Jason treats him like an eater-of-babies. To win back his brother, Clay must come to terms with the one thing that scares him the most: the truth.