Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Okay!” Heather is back in a flash, holding the wretched beast under her arm. It seriously looks like it’s already contemplating murder, and I know they say that’s a thing with cats, but it’s seriously a thing with this cat. This cat, as Heather said before, is extra. “Okay, teams!” She swings the cat gently in her arms, rocking it like a baby, and it lets out a furious howl but doesn’t scratch her to shreds. “We haven’t even given this guy a name yet because I’m not sure if he is a he or a she. No one has been able to get close enough for validation on that one.”
I take a peek at the back end from under Heather’s arm. The cat makes a sound like it knows I’m doing something I shouldn’t be doing, and it doesn’t like it, and it’s about to use its devil cat ninja skills to kick my ass, so I quickly back up. “I don’t see any furry nads.”
“He could be neutered, you know. He could have been someone’s pet at one point.”
“That’s true.”
“Anyway, we’ll give him or her a name one day. For now, we’ll just call it B&E Cat. Spelled with an actual sign. I think that’s fitting.” That settled, Heather points at my mom and Hans. “Hans gets the prettiest girl in the room. That’s you, mom.” Our mom laughs like a young girl again at that, and it’s so, so, SO nice to see her truly happy. When I left the house, we were all exhausted and wrung out from working so many jobs, being worried about Heather, and being worried about a future when we could never get out from under the weight of the past. “B&E Cat and I will be on a team because I’m the only one whose ass it won’t kick. Darius and Ev, that leaves you guys, but you’re not last and least and all that. You should be on a team because you’re married, and you need to work on your bonding.”
“Gee, thanks, Heather.” She clearly enjoys my undisguised dry-ass tone.
She shakes her head and accepts what looks like an actual kiss from the cat of hot death. “It’s alright. I’ve seen you checking him out, and you’re clearly into him, so why not dance with him?”
If it’s possible for my sister to kill me by blatantly pointing out the truth with zero tact, then it’s going to happen. “I think I’ll take the first statement over that one,” I mumble, sauntering away a few feet while my mom and Hans pair up.
“I’ll be the DJ,” Heather says, picking up the remote. She has to juggle the cat in her arms, but it hooks its paws over her shoulder and watches us all with a yellow-eyed stare of doom while she gets the TV set up. She clicks on some app and opens it, and a few minutes later, she’s got the song lined up.
“That looks like…” my mom trails off, because no, it can’t be.
Heather clicks play and points at my mom and Hans. “Go!”
Yup, it is. It’s country. My mom is frozen in place for a minute in the big living room, but Hans takes up the gauntlet enthusiastically enough. He starts doing the line dance to end all line dances, and my god, it actually looks like he knows what he’s doing.
“Word,” I say, even though Darius doesn’t have social media and doesn’t text like that. He probably has no idea what that means. I edge in a little bit closer while I watch Hans grab my mom’s hands and pull her into the line dance, helping her as he goes. He’s just making up stuff, or is he? Either way, they soon get the hang of it, and my mom is laughing like she hasn’t laughed in years. “I’m deleting my social media crap,” I tell Darius when I get close enough. “I have like eight friends, and I was always too busy for it, so don’t feel bad.”
“Oh, I don’t feel bad. Never cared. Never wanted it. Never needed it.”
“Well, if you’re already rich and living the good life, you don’t actually need it because it’s mostly for people to pretend they’re doing those things.”
He stares at me blankly. “I see. I’m glad I never signed up.”
“There are a few good perks. Like animal videos, but you can watch those anywhere.” I grab my phone out of my back pocket. “Like this one. We can watch it over and over again. I’m pretty sure Heather is going to go next.”
Sure enough, she does. After my mom and Hans step aside, breathing heavily with huge grins on their faces, Heather puts on a ridiculous disco song and takes the floor. My sister would look incredible in a sack, and with her tight jeans and pink hair, she looks like a disco punk queen. She’s so beautiful, and I’m so relieved that she seems happy. I know she’s not exactly healthy, but she’s getting there, and she did assure me that she had more energy than before, which she didn’t expect, and that she truly is feeling better. She’s not just saying it so that we all stop worrying.