Page 99 of Ruined Vows

“How’d you end up down there?”

“I just fell off the bed. You were getting a little… intense in your dream, then you suddenly woke up.”

My guts fall out my ass. “Did I push you off the bed?”

I stumble off the opposite side of the bed from her, then drag my hands down my face. “Fuck!”

“You didn’t push me! I was just surprised and sort of toppled off!”

“I never should’ve slept in the same bed as you. Fucking selfish and stupid.” I snatch my pillow off the bed and stomp over to the couch by the window.

“Isaak,” Kira cries, getting up on her knees on the bed. “What are you doing?”

“What I shoulda been doin’ the whole time.” I punch the pillow and lie down on the couch. “It was fuckingstupidto risk you like that.”

“Get back in this bed,” she demands.

“Nothing’s getting me back in that bed, Princess. Especially you.”

“I’m not a fuckingprincess. I told you I fell off the bed. You didn’t knock me off.”

“Good. Then try to stay on this time.” I punch my pillow again and turn on my side, back to her. The couch isn’t long enough for my entire body, so on my side is the only way to fit. I curl my legs up and breathe out.

Not that I especially want to go back to sleep any fucking time soon.

“Isaak—”

“I said I’m fine,” I snap. “Now leave it alone and go back to sleep.”

“Fine!”

I glance back just long enough to see her yank the covers back over herself while muttering something likeugh, men!to herself.

Then I curl into myself again on the couch and squeeze my eyes shut.

I always said the sandbox could kiss my ass forever the day I left it behind. I had no fucking clue it would just keep haunting me long after I climbed on the C-17 that flew me out of that goddamned place.

Soon enough, Kira’s gentle snores quietly fill the room again. It relaxes me. Some.

But mostly, I just lie there, paralyzed in a cold sweat, alone with my ghosts.

THIRTY-EIGHT

KIRA

I skimthrough the first paragraph of the next paper I’m grading while I sit at my crowded office desk.

Isaak’s sleeping on a wooden chair in the corner, and I’m trying, and mostly failing, to focus on work. Students were allowed to turn them in electronically or in my office dropbox, a choice more students took because they inadvertently got nine more hours if they took the physical paper route.

Jungian psychology, while influential and widely respected in some circles, faces several major critiques. These critiques center around its scientific rigor, accessibility, and applicability. Here are some of the most common criticisms: lack of empirical evidence, overemphasis on mysticism and spirituality?—

I sigh. Another paper written by ChatGPT.

They really all start to have a familiar rhythm after a while. Wordy intro, then a list of numbered points that some kids forget to remove. I mean, at least show alittleeffort to hide the copy and paste.

I bite my bottom lip, distracted again by Isaak. He’s got the wooden chair he’s sitting on tipped backward, one leg crossed over the other, and his head against the wall. Snoring away. How he can sleep like that is beyond me.

But it’s not like he’s getting much sleep at night.

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