Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Her chest rises and falls. “W-what?”
He turns, eyes widened. “Huh?”
I snigger and take another sip of my drink. Guess he forgot he said that out loud.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” he asks.
“I don’t know … weeks, months? It depends on the size.” She sighs out loud and grabs her chest, pausing for a second. “I’m just happy I can finish a painting at all, at this rate.”
He clears his throat. “I’ll definitely check it out when it’s finished.” And he walks off swiftly.
“Nicely done,” I mutter as he passes me.
“Shut up,” he growls back, sticking up his middle finger.
Elliot grabs a cookie off the table and munches on it while he gazes at the painting. “I don’t know what he saw. Do you?”
“I’m not really into arts and crafts, but whatever makes her happy,” I reply.
“I just think she’s not pulling out her true potential,” he says, observing her paint. “I feel like she can do much better than this. It’s just that she’s not given the same opportunities as us.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“You know …” He takes a bite out of his cookie. “With all the sickness and stuff.”
“Oh…”
“She’s going to join us at Spine Ridge next year, though,” Xavier says, stealing Elliot’s cookie right when he was about to take another bite.
“Hey!”
Xavier shoves the whole thing into his mouth in one go. “Delicious.”
“I was eating that,” Elliot grumbles.
“Do you ever stop stealing people’s food?” Aspen asks Xav, bumping into him with her elbow.
A mischievous grin forms on his face. “Never.”
“Hey, where’s Sunny?” Levi asks as he looks around the room. “Has anyone seen her?”
“No, last time I saw her was more than a week ago,” Max replies. “I thought, after all the fighting that went down, she might’ve taken a secret vacation somewhere on her own.”
“Really?” Levi responds.
“Sounds like heaven to me,” Elliot says.
“She hasn’t responded to any of my messages, though,” Max mutters, checking his phone.
“Okay, the installation is ready!” Aspen’s dad, Dylan, yells from the backyard. “Come outside, everyone!”
Everyone slowly exits the house through the back door, heading toward the gazebo, where the sprawling flower fields, well-kept bushes, and trees make even me want to take a breath of fresh air. I much prefer the forests beyond Spine Ridge for a trip outdoors, but all the bugs and the rugged terrain doesn’t sway the rest of them to have a barbeque there, so this’ll have to do.
“Oh my God, it’s huge!” Aspen squeals, her eyes growing big as she sees her dad’s installed fireworks, just like a kid who just walked into a candystore, and it makes me laugh.
“Is this even safe?” her mom asks.
“Who the fuck gives a shit?” Silas responds.
“We do,” Felix growls at him.
“What if one of them hits Melody?” Alistair asks.
“That won’t happen,” Aspen’s dad replies. “How long have you known me?”
Alistair rolls his eyes. “Too long.”
Half of us laugh, and the other half throws out awkward looks.
“I know what I’m doing,” her dad says with a smug grin.
Levi’s dad raises a brow. “Right …”
“Can y’all just let me do this? Please?” he says. “It cost me ages.”
“Fine, fine, let’s do this,” Nathan mutters.
“Is it going to light the yard on fire?” Xavier says as he grabs a chair and some more cookies. “If so, I’m sitting.”
“You all have way too little trust in my dad,” Aspen says, snatching a cookie from his hand.
“Exactly.” Her dad pulls out a button. “Who wants to do it?”
Aspen’s whole face lights up.
“You wanna light it yourself, don’t you?” I ask, spanking her ass. “Go on then, Freckles.”
“What? But I wanted to do it,” Heath balks.
“You can do it next time,” his dad, Caleb, says, winking at him. “I mean, I assume we’re gonna do this every year from now on.”
“Good idea,” Blaine says, as he strolls out the door with a full wine glass. “I don’t know what exactly, but good idea.”
“You’ve had enough,” Crystal says, pulling the glass from his hand, only to take a sip herself. “Oh! Great flavor.”
“I wanna taste,” Orion says, stealing the glass from his mom’s hand.
“Can we get started or not?” Nathan asks, tapping his foot.
Dylan hands the button to his daughter and says, “Push this.”
She grabs it with both hands and closes her eyes while she presses it. The fireworks all go off at the same time and when her eyes open up the happiness on her face is as spectacular as the fireworks itself.
“Whooo! Oh yeah!” she squeals out loud, like a kid who just lit her very first fire, and it makes me smile from ear to ear.
Goddamn fiery fucking thing of mine.
Levi
We all sit on the grass watching the fireworks above. The installation her dad built is lasting a full ten minutes so far.
“It must’ve cost a fortune to put this all up, not to mention time. You never told me your dad was a fireworks enthusiast,” Grey says. “How does he even do this?”