AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, don’t ignore that shit. You never fight with your brother. Answer it.”
Standing up, he pointed at the jar again. Before he could say quarter, she threw a paper clip at him.
Taking a deep breath, he answered.
“Hey, Mase.”
“Thank God, you answered. I need help, Jaxson.”
He stopped walking, not liking the worry in his brother’s voice.
“What’s wrong?”
Mase sighed. “I got arrested. I need you to bail me out.”
* * *
Mia fiddled with her phone,still debating with herself whether she should text Jaxson or not. Nothing important or anything. A little ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ ‘I miss you.’ ‘Pizza sounds good for tonight.’ ‘I love you.’
Ugh! It shouldn’t be this difficult. She shouldn’t worry about what he might say.
Everything was probably going well.
Of course, he’d say he missed her, too.
Pizza was always good…except, were they hanging out tonight? Nothing was said when she left his apartment this morning. Very late in the morning where she had to rush home to shower and get her butt to work before she clocked in late. Which she didn’t do.
And those three little words were stuck in her throat. She had no idea why—because she did love him—or how long it’d take for her to repeat them.
This was dumb. She was acting dumb. A little text wasn’t going to hurt their relationship. Oh no, her fear and anxiety would do that perfectly on its own.
“Hey, Mia, can you come take a look at the fabric that came in? Deloris hates orange, and the current design we have is…” Mark shrugged because she knew what the current design was. Orange. “It could work. It looks a little like burnt orange. Kind of red.”
Mia couldn’t hold in a chuckle. Wishing the color to be something other than orange wouldn’t make it so.
Her chuckle died, although she forced herself to hold a smile. Wishing things would stay perfect between her and Jaxson wouldn’t make it so either. But she knew they wouldn’t. Well, not when she kept assuming it would go wrong soon.
But nope. She would not let her thoughts enter into bad territory anymore today. She had enough of that. Enough of having pity parties 24/7 like that would make her feel better.
“Well, she needs to resign herself to the fact that particular costume is orange. It has to be orange. I know she’s not happy it clashes with her red hair, but that’s part of her character.”
Mark cocked a brow. “I’ll let you tell her that.”
Mia barely suppressed an eye roll. Of course, he’d leave that to her. The one person who hated confrontation. She didn’t argue with people. She didn’t raise her voice.Thanks, Dad, for showing me why I shouldn’t.She didn’t usually lose an argument either, if one wanted to call it that. Which was why people normally had her do the dirty work. Odd, considering she didn’t do the first two things. Maybe people knew it wasn’t worth arguing with her.
She was no meek flower or pushover. Oh no, her dad had cured that of her as well. Squeezing that trigger—while it gutted and haunted her every day—also saved her life. Both figuratively and literally. It showed her that she had the power to stand up for herself. That, when push came to shove, she could do what was necessary.
Not that she liked knowing she shot her father and killed him. In all honesty, she wished he wasn’t dead. Sure, some days she wished it when the memories were particularly terrible. But most of the time, she wished he was here, suffering and regretting every little hurt he ever doled out on her and her mother.
While she was no pushover, she didn’t meet confrontation head-on. She preferred to avoid it at all costs. So, whenever someone—like Mark—wanted her to handle a situation, she did. When the situation didn’t go well, she kept a smile on her face until the other person usually caved and did what they didn’t want to do. Most of the time, anyway. Deloris could be the most finicky of all actresses she’d ever worked with.
Maybe it was her smile that threw people off, while complaining about this and that. Maybe they didn’t quite know what the smile meant. What Mia really thought and intended to do.
Who knew a smile could be so effective?
It didn’t mean she didn’t find a quiet corner where no one was around and start shaking from the nerves running rampant through her body after the ordeal. Sure, in the moment, she could portray all was well. But after the fact, all those terrifying emotions poured out of her. Sometimes her entire body shivering. Sometimes tears. Sometimes maniacal laughter that if anyone ever heard her they’d be concerned about her well-being.
Ugh. This was not something she wanted to deal with today. Because she was trying to keep bad thoughts out, and all she’d been doing the last few minutes was letting all the bad thoughts in. So infuriating.
