Page 124 of Let's Get Textual

I stare him down, hoping he’ll budge. He doesn’t.

“Well, thank you then.”

“My pleasure.”

When he turns away from the counter and isn’t watching, I stuff a ten in his tip jar.

Take that.

I grab my drink and make my way over to an open pinball machine. I spend the next hour or so putting all my aggression—and about twenty bucks—into that and skee-ball.

It’s amazing to me how therapeutic it is.

As I’m walking out the door, the barista calls out to me. “Make sure to check on our guy, okay?”

God, that hurts.

I nod and swiftly make my way outside, where I have to bend over to catch my breath…again.

A few pedestrians pass by me, staring. I do my best to straighten myself up and climb into my car without any other incidents.

I make my way back over to campus to pick up Zoe. She’s waiting at the edge of the parking lot for me.

“How was your afternoon?” she asks timidly once she’s inside the car.

“It was…” I pause, debating if I should tell her where I ended up. I decide against it, not wanting to explain. “It was great to go out and about for a bit, get off the couch for a while.”

I feel terrible for not telling her where I went, but then again, I don’t. There are some things I need to keep private.

“I’m so happy to hear that.”

I nod and navigate us to our favorite pizza place. All I can think about is the fact that the last time I had pizza was with Zach when we sat in his car eating.

This time I don’t want to cry; I want to smile.

For a second, I think everything will be okay.

Apoundingat the door wakes me from the first decent night’s sleep I’ve had in days.

“Coming!” I yell as I peel myself off the couch.

Zoe and I passed out while watchingPenny Dreadful. Guess it wasn’t such a smart idea to eat half a pizza each after all.

Stumbling to the door, I swing it open without checking the peephole. To say I’m surprised by who I find on the other side would be an understatement.

I rub my eyes to make sure they aren’t deceiving me.

They aren’t.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I ask, “What are you guys doing here?”

“Go ahead, tell her, you ass.”

Shep grumbles something incoherent. Caleb gets right in his face.

“What was that, dick? Want to say it again?”

Shep shoves at him and he shoves back—harder.

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