Page 22 of My Anti-Hero

Brett: Can I see you tomorrow?

The flutters tripled.

Me: Yes.

Brett: Great. I’ll call you tomorrow.

Me: Night.

Brett: Night. (smile emoji)

I stared at that smile emoji for five full minutes before I put my phone away.

I went to sleep smiling.

8

BILLIE

I need to be smaller.

I need to be quiet.

Thump.

My heart is so loud.

Thump.

Mom, where are you?

Ben?

I want to cry, but Mom would tell me not to cry.

I can’t cry.

If I do, I’ll die.

Another bloodcurdling scream rose from the living room.

I can’t make a sound. Not a sound.

I jerked awake, a scream already building in my throat.

I wasn’t there, hiding at my friend’s house. I was in my own place, at Vicky and Howard’s farm. I closed my eyes, counting things I knew to be true in the now.

I was in a bed. Not Jojo’s hiding space.

I was thirty-two. Not twelve.

I reached for my phone. I had a cell phone. I hadn’t had a phone then.

I was in my house, in my own bed. I rarely had a bed then.

Chickens.

I could hear the chickens. Cluck, cluck, cluuuuck. That would be Marsha P. Johnson.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com