Page 58 of Merry Mayhem
Ugh times two. And yuck.
Of course, it’s just me thinking of ‘borrowing him’ in dirty ways, I’m sure.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I say. “Josh is kind of the type of guy you wanna keep to yourself.”
I hear him clear his throat behind me.
“Thea and I do work well together,” he says. “This might just ruin Merry Mayhem for me in the future. This might be my first and last year.”
“Oh, no!” Amanda reaches out and grabs his arm. “Violet loves this. She’ll never want to give this up. She’ll be so lucky to have such a great partner.”
And just like someone dumped cold water over the top of me, I am reminded that not only is my sister missing out on one of her favorite parts of the year, but she’s not here because she’s hurt, in thefucking hospital. And everyone in this town thinks that I am here being an amazing sister to her, along with her amazing boyfriend, Josh.
We’re doing this for her. Supposedly.
And thatishow it started.
We’ve just…veered off course.
And next year, if Josh is here for Christmas, will it be with me? And if so, how will the town feel about us both then?
I wonder if they’re serving spiked hot chocolate this early in the morning.
CHAPTER 12
JOSH
“Oh God, that’s eggnog, right?”I ask.
“Yup,” Thea confirms.
“Do we have to drink it?” I ask.
We’re standing at the otter statue. The otter’s name is Julia. But I know nothing else about it…her…the statue. I don’t know why she’s named Julia, and I don’t know what she did to be deemed important enough to have a statue, commemorating her life in Rebel, Louisiana.
And now is not the time to ask. We are fifteen minutes away from the start of the relay race. The first big official event of Merry Mayhem.
And there are cartons of eggnog sitting on the table at the starting line.
“Honestly, it could go either way,” Thea says. “Merry Mayhem is never the same year to year. There’s usually a relay race, but the stations are different.”
“So what can you tell me?”
I’m going in blind here. We have not been allowed to go check out the other stations and can really only see this first table, and I’ve never even been here as a spectator.
Thea shakes her head. “Even the number of stations varies year to year. The rule is simply that we have to alternate. You do one, and then I do the next. The instructions will be at the station when you get there. You have to complete the task, but also do it quickly. So whoever reaches the finish line first, but has also completed all the taskscorrectly,wins. If you miss a station or don’t do the task right, you get deducted points.”
I’m bouncing on the balls of my feet and feel like I should do a few jumping jacks. “Give me an example of a couple of tasks,” I tell her.
“Okay, last year there was a station where we had to eat Christmas cookies, drink a glass of milk, and write a quick note to Santa.”
I blew out a breath and roll my neck. “So physical and creative tasks.”
Thea laughs. “Sure. I guess so.”
I rub my hands together. My work is kind of the same. Yes, it’s a lot of physical stuff. Still, sometimes you have to be creative in how you calm patients down, how you get their cooperation, how you fit yourself and equipment into tight spaces, how you make something work ‘just for now’ to stabilize them just long enough to get back to the ambulance or to the hospital.
“I’m definitely used to thinking on my feet,” I tell Thea. “We want to be quick, but also careful. That’s what I do every day.”
