Page 27 of The Marriage Narrative
Her favorite white pantsuit was ruined. She scrubbed at the smeared black, green, and blue stains with a hand towel, soap, and water. They refused to even lighten enough to give her hope that they’d come out later.
Who in the hell acted like that? It was nothing short of a miracle that shock took over and she didn’t start swinging on reflex.
She’d been bullied in middle school—the vicious kind that involved fights in the bathroom between classes and after school behind the gym where teachers wouldn’t see. Her dad had signed her up for boxing classes the same day he’d found out about it.
Hard lessons like that never truly faded with age. They lay in wait for a trigger.
But Zinnia didn’t want to hitanyone. She didn’t even yell to make them stop laughing at her.
Jordan didn’t laugh. She thought of him as she opened the bathroom door, hoping he’d be there.
Regret kicked her in the gut instead. He didn’t laugh, but he didn’t take her to the bathroom either. The camera pod was still waiting, as promised.
Fuck this.
Before she could think twice, she ran for the sliding glass door and bolted outside. Her best bet was to retrace the general direction she’d come from while in the house until she spotted the bungalow.
Zinnia stomped through the grass and past landscaped shrubbery until Wylie suddenly appeared in her periphery through a window. She gasped, dropped, and hit the ground.
Great. Frostingandgrass stains. Wonderful.
Carefully, she raised onto her knees and peeked over the windowsill. Jordan,that traitor, and his beastly family were walking back into the living room.
She narrowed her eyes as thoughts of petty revenge flowed through her. The hurt was still there, somewhere, way deep down, but right then all she wanted was to get them back by disappearing.
Feeling confident with her cowardly choice, she ducked down and crab walked past the window. Her left knee creaked, the right one cracked, and dear god she was getting old because her lower back was hollering too. She stood once she passed it and immediately heard snickering behind her.
The camera pod following her was standing directly in front of the damn window! They filmed her entire crab walk of shame.
“Oh, come on!” she said, fully exasperated.
They smiled at her in response. Positivelydelightedto be there.
“Will you at leastmovebefore they see you?” But no one inside did. That sadistic family was used to tuning them out.
“You first,” Septum Piercing whispered. “You move, we move.”
“Oh. If that’s how it’s gonna be, then good luck.” She took off like a track star, running faster than she ever had in her life straight for the bungalow.
Jordan
Almost every camera in the room had Jordan in frame, waiting for him to explode. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Twenty. Still no Zinnia.
Lulie plopped in the middle of the couch. Wylie stood behind her—behindthe couch and close to the door. Purposefully out of reach. Theonlything saving them right now were the cameras. He didn’t want to make things any harder for Zinnia with his family than they already were.
“What’s taking her so long?” Lulie asked. “What the hell is she doing in there? Drugs?”
Jordan’s eye twitched. His dad must have sensed he was about tofinallygo off and stepped in front of him.
“When she comes back, the first thing you two are gonna do is apologize.” His dad’s glare was legendary. He was the easygoing, cool parent…until he wasn’t. “A real one. None of that fake half-hearted shit.”
Lulie crossed her arms. “It wasn’t even that serious.”
“Oh, you must’ve lost your damn mind. You met her ten minutes ago! You don’t know her! Keep putting your hands on strangers if you want to and see what happens. You’re not too rich to get your ass beat by the right one on the wrong day, I knowthat.”
Doubt crept across her face for the first time.
Jordan knew there’d be a twin prank of some kind. Something both cute and heart attack–inducing, like one of those boxes that popped open with a loud bang to release a flurry of paper butterflies. His sister loved those.
