Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“Here you go,” Riley said as he pointed to an open cabinet near the sink. I took the box of tea bags out and set them on the counter as he went to sit at the kitchen table, Puddles still in his arms. There were several textbooks scattered around him.
I didn’t want tea. All I really wanted was to go hide in my room like the coward I was, but since Riley had already gotten a pot of water going on the stove for me in addition to placing a mug on the counter, I forced myself to focus on making the tea. I could always say I was going to take it to my room so I could lie down for a bit since I wasn’t feeling well.
That last part would at least be true.
I wanted a giant hole to open up beneath my feet and swallow me whole.
I wanted my razor blade.
I wanted to watch blood flow from my skin and feel that wave of control wash over me once again.
I stared at the pot of water even though I wasn’t really seeing it.
I want Lincoln back.
It was my voice saying the words, not the ugly, cruel ones that had ruled my life for so long.
My real voice.
“The water’s boiling.”
I registered that someone was talking but I didn’t hear the words because they weren’t coming from Lincoln.
“Theo, the water’s boiling,” I heard someone call out. Riley’s voice pulled me from my thoughts long enough to see that the water was boiling so hard that it had to have been like that for a while. God, how long had I been lost in myself again?
“Oh, yeah, thanks,” I said lamely. I prepared the tea and started to walk past the kitchen table, prepared to tell him I wasn’t feeling well and that I’d be upstairs, but stopped when my eyes caught on all the equations on the page in front of him as well as in an open workbook and two different math textbooks.
I couldn’t keep myself from picking out the multiple errors in the equation Riley was working on. He had one number wrong, which led to the entire stack of equations in the problem having wrong numbers.
“I thought I was the only one who did math for fun over summer vacation,” I said.
Riley gave me an are-you-kidding-me look before saying, “I’m in this online summer school thing. I missed a lot of my freshman year last year.”
Something about the way he said the last sentence caught my attention.
“Did something happen?” I asked as I pulled out the chair next to him and sat down.
He nodded but kept his head hung the whole time. He used his pencil to scrape back and forth over the same spot on the page. “Cam thinks I’m smart enough to catch up but I’m not so sure. I do okay in English and history and stuff, but I don’t get this junk,” he said in frustration as he dropped the pencil to the table and cuddled Puddles against his chest.
“Do you want a hand?” I asked. “I used to do okay in math, and I think I remember a decent amount of it.”
Riley’s quick nod and sigh of relief had me smiling as I reached for his pencil and began with the first equation. The kid was a quick study and as soon as he recognized the first couple of errors, he was able to work his way through the entire equation until he had his final answer. He eagerly went to the workbook and looked at the last few pages that had all the answers to the questions in the workbook.
“It’s right,” he said in disbelief.
“It’s right, but the real question is… does what you just did make sense?” I asked.
Riley hesitated. “I think so. Lemme try another one.”
He handed me Puddles and then focused on working through the equation himself. I didn’t say a word even when he asked me if something was right. He’d just sigh in response to my non-answer and keep going. I felt my heart pounding with excitement as I waited for Riley to find the answer to the question in the back of the workbook.
“I got it,” he whispered. “I got it!” he repeated and then his slim arms were going around me and Puddles.
I was so happy for the teenager that I didn’t even notice Puddles’ growls until Riley released me. Puddles began barking like a maniac and trying to get out of my arms. I was about to put her down when my eyes caught a hint of black just outside the entrance to the kitchen. Before I could even react, a strange man stepped into the room and pointed a gun at us.
“Shut that thing up,” the man snapped. He was dressed like he was about to walk into a boardroom or something, but his eyes…