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Well, you didn’t have to order three hundred books, I want to scream at her.
“Are you going to be okay to drive home?” Jada asks as she glances out the window. “It’s coming down hard out there.”
“Oh yeah,” I say with a dismissive wave. “It’s just a little bit of rain.”
It’s not just a little bit of rain. It’s angry, fierce, vicious, apocalyptic rain. It’s coming down like the planet owes it money.
When I’m an hour into my two-hour drive, my knuckles are burning from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. I don’t think I’ve blinked in the past twenty minutes.
My windshield wipers are flying back and forth at top speed, but they’re barely able to push away the buckets of water slamming into my car every second.
This is horribly stressful.
It’s fitting in a way.
A rotten cherry on top of my disastrous day.
Today has already been so bad. It can’t possibly get worse.
Right?
two
. . .
Oliver
“We can stop if you want,” Tara says as she gives me a weary look.
“I’m fine,” I lie. “Who’s turn is it?”
“Mine,” Leo says as he puts down some yellow trains.
We lost power from the rain, so I’m playing Ticket To Ride with my two brothers, Leo and Michael, and Leo’s mate, Tara.
I’m getting my ass kicked, but it’s not my fault. I’m barely able to focus with the way my inner grizzly bear is freaking out.
He’s always been spooked by thunder and lightning. He’s always hated it.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tara asks with a worried look on her face. “Your hands are shaking.”
I quickly hide them under the table.
It’s just a knee-jerk reaction. I don’t have to hide anything. My brothers know all about my grizzly bear’s irrational fear. They’ve seen it in action over the years.
“How bad is it?” Leo asks.
I shrug. “It’s fine.”
It’s not fine. He’s getting worse as we get older. I’m twenty-seven now, and I don’t want to find out what he’s going to be like when we’re fifty.
He’s pacing around angrily inside, snarling violently as the fierce rain slams into the windows. The trees are shaking outside. The wind is howling.
My grizzly is both terrified and furious at the same time.
And I’m paying the price. I always pay the price.
“At least there’s no thunder and lightning,” Michael says as he picks up a card.
