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“You mean because of all your mom issues? I told you before, you should be over that stuff.” Erin shrugged.
“You don’t ‘get over’ your mother trying to stab you to death,” Katie snapped. “Jesus, Erin. Leave Celia alone.”
“Come on, that was forever ago, and the woman is dead. Problem solved.”
Celia’s skin tingled. “It wasn’t my mother’s fault. She was diagnosed with—”
“Bullshit,” Erin interrupted, and Celia’s mouth snapped shut.
“Seriously, Erin, you need to stop.” Katie struggled to sit up, wincing.
Celia hurried over, bracing her cousin’s back with a pillow. “You shouldn’t move like that.” Her hand hovered over Katie’s stomach, feeling heat even through her shirt. “I’ll get you an ice pack.”
While she opened the freezer, she could hear voices murmuring from the living room. It must have been mostly Katie, because Erin’s words would have been clear even through the wall. She grabbed the ice pack, and headed back in.
While she was placing it across her cousin’s stomach, Erin fiddled with her ponytail. “I’m sorry, chick. I didn’t mean to say anything that would upset you.”
“You didn’t upset me.” Celia moved back to her chair when Katie waved her off.
Erin groaned. “Come on, you’re too nice! No one’s really like that.”
“Trent is,” Katie said, waving her hand at Celia. “They’re perfect for each other, aren’t they?”
The words brought the same twist to Celia’s stomach that she’d been feeling ever since the night she’d blown up at Trenton for no reason. Some of the customers that had been there had given her the side-eye when she came back to work. “I’m not nice.”
“Yeah, you are,” both girls said together.
Erin shuddered. “Creepily so.”
“I’m not,” Celia said, her lips pressing together as the twist in her stomach grew into a pain.
“You are,” Katie said.
“No.” Celia shook her head to emphasize the word.
Erin waved the denial away. “Face it, chick, you are.”
“No, I’m not!” Celia shouted, closing her eyes when both of theirs widened. The breath in her lungs felt full and tight. “I’m as crazy as my mother!” Admitting it felt like it released the pressure within. Her head began to feel fuzzy.
When she opened her eyes, Katie was looking away, but Erin had leaned forward, staring at her intently. “How so?”
“Erin,” Katie groaned.
Her friend waved her away. “For her to say it, there must be something behind it.”
Celia shifted, her fingers numb as she met the woman’s gaze. “My mother was crazy. It’s in the genes.”
“Bullshit,” Erin said again, batting that away. “You must have done something to say that. What have you done that’s been crazy?”
Celia stared back, her mind churning. “I blew up at Trenton in the middle of The Last Shot.”
“Why?” Erin asked.
Celia blinked. “What?”
“Did you have a reason? Something he said, maybe?” Erin shrugged. “That guy’s nice, but he is a guy.”
“He was saying how he had been terrified since I told him about my craziness. That he wanted to run away.” Celia frowned, bowing her head. “Or that’s what I thought he’d said. And he’d been acting strange ever since I’d told him.”
