Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 30148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
On top of that, part of me wondered if Dad just wanted some time with Mom without me. If so, I couldn’t be mad about that. I would do the same, so it wasn’t hard to convince me to leave with Satan.
I’d do anything for my parents.
The doctor had said Mom had maybe a few months left. Now that Dad was back, it was time—giving time and spending it until the end.
My chest ached. I wouldn’t be selfish. I’d had time with her, and I knew no miracle would come from Heaven. As did she. I just wanted her every moment to be special—not for me, but for her. She deserved it.
I took a deep breath then jerked my head to the right. “Say what?”
“You mauled me with your mouth.” Hazel crossed her arms and unexpectedly pointed out the kiss that I did not daydream about several times while packing up the Jeep. “And participated.”
“Yes. I made out with Bigfoot. I’ll be sure to put that on my tombstone after you kill me,” I ground out. “It will be right up there with getting a root canal and walking barefoot in the snow while being chased by a bear.”
“I might,” she muttered.
“What?”
“Kill you.” Damn, harsh. I almost laughed.
“Cool, sounds good. I mean, at this rate, we both might die on this camping trip. Do you even know what a tent is?” She didn’t. I would die on that hill. She probably thought it was this thin little thing you poked into the ground that protected you at all costs, not realizing you needed food, water, blankets, and any other survival gear she probably couldn’t even spell because, again, silver-spoon-fed princess. I liked her, she was pretty, she’d been nice for a while, and I’d felt bad for her. But now? Now, she just seemed stuck up and oblivious to how the world worked around her.
She swallowed like she was suddenly nervous and adjusted her blond ponytail before tapping her right pointer finger against her lips. I hated that I fixated on those lips. I blamed it on the fact that mine had been on hers during some weird shift in the universe. It didn’t matter. All we had to do was survive this. “A tent provides protection from the elements.”
“Protection, my ass. Even a condom isn’t one hundred percent,” I muttered and started the engine to my black Jeep. “Let’s just make the parents happy so they don’t murder us and then pretend everything is fine and that you don’t hate me so we can go back home, and I can take care of—“
I stopped talking.
Because my only purpose was my mom.
Hazel’s only purpose was to succeed at all costs and become something—something I would never be. Because when someone in your life was sick—your family, someone you loved—you only saw a haze. You didn’t see yourself. It was just this glimpse of fog that you hoped you would make it through but knew you probably wouldn’t. And then you got terrified that when or if you did, you’d have nothing left but emptiness. No purpose.
"Just go,” Dad had said. “I need to take care of Mom… I want—” He hesitated. I hated when he did that, like he was weighing his next words and trying to protect me from something—just like that stupid tent. “I want time and selfishly get all of that if you go end this little war-bet thing with the girl you refuse to admit you like.”
“I don’t like her,” I said, way too hard and fast. Anyone could see through it. I’d loved our kiss. She was pretty—violent, yes, but just something I wanted for myself after sacrificing everything for others. Someone to make me feel alive because I’d been watching what I loved die for years, seeing it slowly fading in front of me, only to one day disappear.
Dad smirked. “Yeah, okay. So whoever gets back and gives up this little prank war this summer and concedes wins. I don’t care if it’s you or her. What I care about is…” He looked back at my mom sleeping on the couch. “I care about her, and I know I’ve been gone a lot, but I really want to spend some time with her without you. I don’t mean that in a hurtful way, it’s just…life is sometimes spent so often with family and kids, and everyone wants to be together, but there comes a point in time where you want to go back to the past. Where it was just you and the person you fell for. Where you can lie to yourself and say everything’s going to be the same if you just have that other person by your side. I know she’s sick. I know we don’t have a lot of time. But with the time we have left, it would be”—tears streamed down his cheeks—“a gift, I think, to just be with her in love while you go battle in war. Is that okay?”