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“No. It’s not a fucking toy. It’s for my anxiety. Give it back, James.”
“James... give it back to her,” Jo warned.
“Anxiety? Why do you have anxiety?” James asked, frowning down at me while keeping the kalimba out of reach.
“Because I do,” I told him.
“Why?”
“Because I do,” I repeated.
“Come on, Evie, talk to me,” he said, sounding serious but still keeping out of my grasp.
“Give me the fucking thing back,” I seethed, feeling myself about to explode. I tried to take a few deep breaths, and I reached for it again.
“Not until you tell me what’s wrong. I’m your cousin. Talk to me,” he said, lifting it up. “Since when do you have issues with anxiety?”
“Since I was fourteen. Now. Give. It. Back,” I said, exasperation starting to set in. James walked away to the other side of the room. I could barely see him with the sun setting behind him, but I could tell he was still scowling.
“Why? We were in school. Life was good. What made you so anxious, and why didn’t you ever tell us?”
“That’s none of your business,” I said.
“James give her the thing back,” Jo growled. “She doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“It is my business, Evie. I love you. We all do. Why couldn’t you talk to us? We would have helped with whatever was going on with you,” he said.
“No, you couldn’t have,” I said
“Of course, we could.”
“No,” I said.
“Evie, all you had to do was tell us. Cory would hav—” He just kept pushing and pushing, and finally, I exploded.
“THAT. THAT WAS THE PROBLEM!” I screamed.
“What do you mean?” Jo asked from the side.
“Everything was always Cory will do this. Cory will fix it. Cory is the future Alpha. The twins will fix it. We did nothing. We rode through life at their expense. Didn’t you ever wish you could do something for yourself? Do something on your own at least once. Even being smart wasn’t enough for anyone. They always thought my grades were due to the twins. Do you know what they said about me? That the only reason I was pulled up a grade was that the twins were my friends. That their parents were pack leaders and made them pull me up so they could protect me. I was just the dork that didn’t deserve to be near them. You want to know why I have anxiety? It’s because even now, I’m nothing more than Cory’s friend, no matter how hard I try to make my own mark on the world. Even you said I got the job because I’m his friend. Let’s not remember the fact that I had a graduate degree by the time I was twenty-two.” I rushed through everything. It was cathartic, in a way, to put it all out in the open.
"So that’s why you stopped hanging out with all of us. Because of me?” I heard Cory’s voice behind me. I whipped around to find him at the door of the conference room. Tozi whimpered at the hurt look on his face. “I always wondered why. What happened to make you pull away from us? Guess now I have my answer. I’m sorry a friendship with me has caused you so much trouble.” Cory then turned around and left.
I turned to look at Jo and James; they both looked so hurt and confused.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that... it’s just... I was the only one that got bullied and... I need to... please...”
“Stop and take a breath, Evie. Go talk to Cory,” Jo said. I nodded gratefully, took a full breath in, then ran out of the conference room. I checked his office, but he wasn’t there. I followed his scent to the stairs. He must have gone up to his room. I tried to reach out to him, but he had the mind-link blocked, so I went up the elevator, walked to his door and knocked.
I could hear him moving about inside, but he didn’t answer, so I knocked again, thinking maybe he didn’t hear me. When I got no response, I knocked a third time.
“I don’t want to talk, Jo.” His voice sounded hard.
I started walking away, but I didn’t take more than a few steps before I turned around and went back to his door. I tried the handle and found it wasn’t locked, so I pushed it open. Cory was sitting at his desk, wearing nothing but his boxers. He had his face in his hands, his elbows resting on his desk. When he heard me come in, he looked up. More hurt flashed through his face.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
“I think you said enough,” he said. “But sure, go ahead. What do you want to talk about, Evie? How hard it was being my friend? How being around the alpha’s kids caused you so much anxiety? I heard it all, so you can skip it. I’m sorry it was so painful for you to grow up with us. I didn’t know. I’ll stop bothering you.” My heart clenched when I heard his voice tremble at the end. I could see how much I’d hurt him, and I desperately wanted to make it right, but I didn’t know how.
