Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
A CHRISTMAS ACCIDENT
CHAPTER 1
Gonna ask my mom if that offer to slap me into next year is still available.
-Marlow’s secret thoughts
MARLOW
“Come on, Marlow. It’s just a little fun.”
I looked at my best friend and gave her my signature ‘you’re kidding me, right’ look.
She tried to hide it, but I amused her.
“Please,” she repeated herself.
“We are grown ass adults, Ellenie,” I pointed out. “And you don’t even like kids.”
And she didn’t.
In fact, if there was one thing in this world that she hated, it was kids. She didn’t like how loud they were, couldn’t stand how messy they were, and really didn’t like how much money they cost.
Needless to say, I didn’t see her as ever having kids.
At least not willingly.
“I know, but it’s Christmas, and my brother’s kids are in town. I’m entrusted with watching them for the night, and I need something to do with them that’s not bringing them to my house and allowing them to destroy all my stuff.”
I felt my eyelid twitch.
“Ellenie…” I paused, trying to come up with a suitable reason as to why this was a bad idea. I mean, ideally, she knew this was a terrible idea. That was why she’d invited me—the responsible one. But…telling her and her truly understanding and caring were two very different things. “This isn’t going to be something that you…”
Ellenie waved me away. “It’s the only way that my parents will see.”
I didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but I had a feeling it had a lot to do with what her parents were paying for.
When I met her, I’d never quite understood what ‘spoiled’ meant. Then we’d been introduced, and I understood what privileged was, and what privileged was.
If you looked up ‘who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth’ on Google, Ellenie Emara Espinoza was featured on the first search page.
Though Ellenie was the sweetest person I’d ever met, she didn’t know what it meant to struggle.
She didn’t know what it meant to wonder whether or not she’d be able to eat the last three days before she got paid. She’d never know what it felt like to question whether she should pay her electric bill or put gas in her car.
To say that she was rich—or her parents were for that matter—was an understatement.
One day, Ellenie would think ‘oh, I should get a new pair of shoes’ and instead of shopping for the best price, she’d text her stylist and tell her what she wanted, and the woman would search for the newest and best pair, find it, purchase it or trade for it if needed, and bring it to Ellenie all within an hour.
When she got those shoes, she’d toss her old ones out that were more than a normal person’s car payment and never once think about the fact that the eight-to-twelve hundred dollars could’ve fed and taken care of a person for three entire months.
At least, I could stretch it for three months, anyway.
I mean, I did it already.
The only saving grace for me right then was that Ellenie let me live in her apartment for free, was never home, and didn’t care that I’d set up my temporary office in the middle of the living room.
“What makes you even think a circus is open at this time of year?” I asked.
She looked at me like I was high and said, “TikTok, duh!”
This girl and her TikTok.
Sometimes, I felt like maybe she was super obsessed with it and needed a psychiatrist to help her figure out that there were other things to life than social media.
“Where is this circus located?” I asked.
I could do ten minutes in a car. I could probably do thirty. What I couldn’t do was anything more than that.
Not that I didn’t love kids. I did. But I couldn’t handle loud sounds without first being prepared for it.
I didn’t know why.
I also didn’t care to find out.
I just prepared myself for it, then did what I needed to do to get myself through situations that I knew were going to trigger me.
And a circus was for sure going to trigger me…
What happened when I was triggered?
I fled.
Like, one second I was there, and the next I was hiding under a damn barn in the middle of a field in Kansas.
And yes, I’d done that before.
Me and surprises? Not a good thing.
Ellenie said that it was a trauma response from my childhood.
I didn’t know and would never delve into that part of my life to find out if it was true.
But whatever it was, I knew what to do to make sure that I didn’t get surprised.
If I went, I’d have to take my freakin’ noise canceling headphones.
Dammit man.
I was going to look like a complete loser.
But when Ellenie poked her bottom lip out at me, I couldn’t stop myself from saying yes.