1 Grim Tidings Read Online Free Page B

heart well up, even though I was fighting the sudden onslaught of emotion that was washing over me.
    “Your dad feels guilt,” Jerry plowed on. “Your dad thinks that he should have died instead of your mother. Does he handle things well? No. Does he treat you the way he should? No. But you should know he always regrets it when he lashes out at you. He just doesn’t know how to say it.”
    I pressed my face into Jerry’s side in an effort to hide the tears threatening to spill over. He patted my back.
    “Just try to cut him some slack, Bug,” he said.
    “I do,” I said, fighting back a sniffle.
    “Try to get your brothers to cut him some slack, too,” Jerry suggested.
    “I’m not a miracle worker.”
    “Just try to get them to chill.”
    “They can’t help themselves,” I said. “They’re loyal and I’m the only girl, so they’re protective. Don’t you remember when Dean Cooper dumped me on prom night and Tommy Wilkinson saw him making out with that girl under the bleachers and I came home crying?”
    “I remember he looked like he’d been in a cage fight on graduation day,” Jerry said. “It wasn’t a girl, though. He was making out with Carson Franklin.”
    Holy crap. “No way.”
    “Yes, Carson told me the next day when we were at yoga.”
    “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
    “Because I couldn’t decide if it made things worse that he was making out with a guy,” Jerry admitted.
    I thought about it a second. “I don’t know either,” I said finally. “Now, I would have understood. Then? I probably would have freaked out more.”
    “That’s what I thought.”
    “I think it would have made a difference to my brothers, though.”
    Jerry shrugged. “Ah, well, Dean was a douche. He had it coming for all those wedgies he doled out for the four years he thought he ran the school.”
    “Yeah, but now it just seems mean.”
    “Your brothers are mean.”
    “They’re not mean,” I protested.
    “Not to you, no. They love you.”
    “They love you, too.”
    “They didn’t always love me,” Jerry reminded me. “They used to laugh when you put makeup on me and then tried to force me into a dress.”
    “They did that to Aidan, too.”
    Jerry frowned at the memory. “You know, come to think of it, your brothers were douches in high school too.”
    I wanted to argue, but he wasn’t wrong. Instead, I rested my head on his shoulder and lost myself in some Dorothy-induced sarcasm until my eyelids were too heavy to stay open.
    Tomorrow was another day. It could only get better. I was practically sure of it.

Four
    “Wake up, Buttercup.”
    “Get off me, you freak.” I tried to shift Aidan’s weight from my midriff, but he was surprisingly solid – and determined when he set his mind to it. I was still rolled up and trapped beneath the blankets on my bed.
    “It’s almost eight. We’re going to be late.” Aidan always was a morning person. It’s annoying. I didn’t see how anyone could be so chipper after the day we had survived yesterday.
    “You’re a poet, and you didn’t know it,” I grumbled. I definitely need some coffee.
    “No more rhymes now, I mean it.” Aidan wasn’t giving up – and a good movie quote never dies.
    “Anybody want a peanut?” I pulled the blanket away and met Aidan’s wide smile with a scowl to match. “Get off me.”
    “Are you going to get up?”
    “Do I have a choice?”
    Aidan’s frivolity melted away as he met my sleepy gaze. “Are you okay?”
    I knew what he was referring to, but I pretended otherwise. “You mean am I fine after being jolted awake by my annoying twin? Yes. Now get off me.”
    “That’s not what I meant.” Aidan looked determined.
    “Yes it is,” I countered.
    “No it’s not.”
    “Yes it is.”
    “No it’s not.”
    “Yes … .”
    “Leave her alone,” Jerry ordered. He was standing in the open bedroom doorway watching the two of us. Like me, he’s not a morning person. It’s another reason we get along