Chapter 2: Introducing Andrew Woods

" You, you don't mean no harm,
But you're stringin' me along and I don't have the time to spare,
And I, I'm trying hard to breathe,
But you're suffocating me, this time I'm coming up for air."

"Drew, breakfast is ready!"

Veronica's loud obnoxious voice pulls me out of the sleep world. In my urgency to get out of the bed ( I need to pee), I land on the floor with a thud.

After freshening up ( emptying my bladder never felt so good), I pick out my outfit for the day.

I have two meetings today and I'm really not looking forward to them.

I pick out a black suit and a crimson tie. Yeah, it'll do. I'm not into fashion much but I have to look good for the sake of my family's so called reputation.

And that brings me to the introduction of who I am.

I'm the younger son of Rosie and Edward Woods, Ashton being two years older than me. The Woods and Castellan-s jointly run Caswood Corps.

And I'm the COO of the company.

Aiden, the eldest one of the Castellan kids, is the CEO. My brother is the legal advisor of the company. Ezra and Hazel are into modelling.

Lucky them. They get to do what they've always wanted to do.

But me? I'm stuck here playing fucking COO at the age of 25.

I've always wanted to be a musician- a pianist to be exact. When I mentioned this to my parents, they went ballistic and forced me to take up this mammoth of a responsibility.

Honestly, I don't know shit about Business and Finance. Yet I had to major in these subjects from Yale.

Fucking Yale.

I barely passed in the semesters, because I was never interested in studying. Music is my passion and my parents took it away from me.

And that's one of the many reasons why I hate Veronica, my flatmate.

She became a writer, something that she has always dreamt of doing.

But I can't do what I love.

Life is so unfair sometimes.

Ashton and Aiden were always business minded. Hence, they are happy with what they have. Ezra and Hazel are models and they love every bit of what they're doing. I, on the other hand, don't love my job.

I hate being a COO. There's too much weight on my shoulders and I have no way to escape it.

Sometimes I wish my parents would care about me, just a little maybe. I wish they would understand my emotions and not force me into doing things according to their will.

And, that's not all.

They even went to the extent of making me live with that one person whom I hate the most.

Veronica.

I have several reasons for it.

When Veronica was brought into the family, the spotlight fell on her. We were quite young to comprehend what was happening around us. When we were slightly older, we understood everything.

My friends suffered because of Veronica.

Everyone talked about her and cared for her. Aiden, Ezra and Hazel started harboring their hatred towards Veronica because she was getting all the attention and love and they weren't. Since Ashton and I were friends with them, we too started hating on Veronica.

And it didn't help the fact that I always had a crush on Hazel. Seeing Hazel sad made me angry towards Veronica. Very often I would find El crying in her room whilst claiming that her parents didn't love her anymore. As days went by, Aiden and Ezra handled it well. But El? She has never been the one to deal with rejection. She's used to being the centre of attention. When Veronica came, El lost control.

And there's one thing I know, Hazel hates losing control.

Seeing Hazel get hurt made me despise Veronica even more.

Now after so many years, my crush over Hazel has faded but my hatred for Veronica hasn't.

And to top it off, there's unfairness. Our families allowed Veronica to pursue her dream career and not me.

When I was 6 years old, our families thought it would be great if I became the COO of their company in the future. Basically, our entire lives are decided while we are toddlers. As if we totally know what we want to do with our lives when we're just 6.

The worst part? I have to live with Veronica, the psychotic bitch.

She pretends like the world revolves around her, as if there's no one like her. She lures people into her trap with that innocent expression on her face. She loves getting sympathy from others just because she's an orphan.

If I thought Hazel loves attention, boy was I wrong. Veronica loves it even more.

Like the cherry on the icing, I can't even move out of this stupid apartment. I don't have enough money to buy my own place. Because let's face it, buying your own house in New York costs a lot. And Caswood Corps. doesn't pay me that well. I'm not even allowed to fucking enjoy a part of the company's profit.

So really, I can't buy my own apartment and live a Veronica-free life.

Fuck my entire existence.

Sometimes I really wish I could murder that bitch ( for lack of a better curse) in her sleep.

In short, my life is pathetic. No fun, no music and no 'living life to the fullest' shit.

Seriously though, what am I gonna tell my future kids? That their father made tyres for a living?

I literally don't make tyres, but yeah, you get my point.

The final reason in the book 'How Veronica Castellan Ruined My Life' would be:

Because of her, my girlfriend left me.

Amanda.

Amanda was a breath of fresh air in my overly-polluted life. She taught me to be kind when all I wanted was to strangle every other person on this earth. She taught me how to love. She made me enjoy my life, something which I wasn't allowed to do ever since I turned a teenager. With her, I could be myself and not have a single care in the world. With her, I could live life to the fullest.

She made me believe that maybe, good people do exist on this planet. She brought color into my dull grey world (okay, this could totally be a line in Fifty Shades Of Grey).

She made me feel alive.

And it killed me when she walked away from me.

All because of Vero-fucking-nica.

Why?

Amanda thought, there was an affair between the two of us and 'us' living together made her doubts stronger.

She didn't trust me enough to stay. And I didn't have faith in my love for her to make her stay. So I let her go.

Ever since, I've not been myself.

I hate my family.

Most importantly, I hate Veronica.

Congratulations to her for destroying my life.

It's because of her that I, Andrew Woods, don't feel anymore.

-

Song: Air by Shawn Mendes.

quick note:

COO- chief operating officer. its different from CEO.
CEO- chief executive officer.