Page 134 of Pick Me Up On Tuesdays

“Why not glitter?”

I hung up, tossed the blankets aside, and stood up with more resolve than I’d felt in a while.

Maybe the storm wasn’t over yet.

But maybe—just maybe—it was finally safe to step outside.

So, I stepped outside—no coat, no shield. Just me and the sky, wide and waiting.

Chapter 42: Hedges, Heartbeats, and Heroic Felonies

The bridge looked the same as always—rusty rails, faded graffiti, the kind of place only teenagers and poetic souls romanticized at dawn. Mist clung to the water below like it was trying to remember how to be a cloud again. I waited there, hoodie pulled over my head, the morning chill gnawing gently at my sleeves.

Joy’s Elven Covet screeched to a halt beside the bridge, a flashy blur of enchanted blue that somehow still had glitter on the hood from some mysterious past adventure. The windows rolled down, revealing Joy at the wheel, sunglasses already on despite the lack of real sun, and Shun in the passenger seat—serene as always, holding something that looked suspiciously magical in her palms.

It was the bunny.

Well,the bunny.

Just like the same one that had levitated away after the car crash. Now, it hovered over Shun’s open hand like a balloon enchanted by whimsy and trauma. She cradled it like it was normal to hold floating rabbits before breakfast.

“You’re insane,” Joy said as I slid into the back seat, her tone affectionate and already caffeinated. “What’s the idea?”

I took a breath.

“Sneak into Ethan's mansion. Through the fence.”

There was a beat of silence—brief, thick, then promptly shattered.

Joy turned halfway in her seat, removing her sunglasses purely for dramatic effect. “I’m sorry, who are you and what have you done with our socially anxious, rule-following, brunch-avoiding Clark?”

Shun raised an eyebrow. “You suggested trespassing. Voluntarily.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s a weird morning.”

“You are wearing a hoodie,” Joy muttered. “The universal sign of pre-meditated chaos.”

“I need to see him,” I added. “Ethan. I don’t know what I’m going to say. But I can’t keep running from… whatever this is.”

Joy glanced at Shun, who merely nodded as if she'd known all along this would happen.

“Alright, Romeo,” Joy said, revving the Covet dramatically. “Let’s go make questionable choices in the name of feelings.”

°*°

We stopped just outside the mansion’s hedge wall. Ethan’s place loomed beyond, ethereal and untouchable—like the set of a haunted fairytale. The wrought iron gates were closed, and the security lights were still sleeping. The hedge was tall, thorny, and obnoxiously pristine, as though it was trimmed by fairy butlers with OCD.

I tethered the levitating bunny to my wrist with a string Shun offered—because apparently, she had a string for tethering magical animals. It bobbed next to me like a nervous balloon, blinking occasionally.

Joy rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. “Alright, I got this. Don’t ask how, but I was banned from three boarding schools in middle school for climbing stuff. Watch and learn.”

She scaled the hedge with the grace of a cat burglar and none of the subtlety, landing on the other side with a soft thud and a victorious, whispered “Boom.”

She peeked back over and gestured. “C’mon, nerds.”

Shun boosted me up first, the bunny tether tugging gently as I clambered over. I landed in a crouch that absolutely wasn't elegant. Shun followed a second later, practically floating down beside me like she weighed nothing.

And then… we were in.

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