He’d been burning through cash like there was no tomorrow—and his parents had finally had enough. Their brilliant solution? Ship him off to some random town in the middle of nowhere.

Now, completely out of his element, Ethan was stuck crashing at his uncle’s weird, creaky old house. Great.

“Ugh, seriously? What were they even thinking?” he grumbled as he got bumped around by the crowd, dragging his suitcase through a place that felt like a different planet.

With his hands buried in his pockets, he was heading to a club—any club—just to get as far away as possible from his uncle’s cursed house. The suffocating summer heat, the endless crowds, and the weight of being broke were driving him mad, and he could barely hold back the constant urge to swear under his breath.

As Aiden approached the bar, a bird suddenly crapped on his T-shirt. “Oh, for fuck’s sake…” he muttered, knowing he'd now have to visit the dry cleaner too. Once inside, he joined the line, but without hesitation, he cut in front of a girl—clearly skipping the queue, and not even pretending to care.