Sneak Peek Pretend-It's-Still-Sunday-Because-Monday-Doesn't Rhyme
Thank you for tagging me @stumbling-away! I've been working on "twin flame bruise", getting there in bits and pieces. I just wish I could focus on one chapter at a time, I keep pulling myself in several different directions because my concentration is shot 😫. In any case, here's a sneak peek from Chapter 5, and Joel's in some trouble. Also, the "monster" they're referring to is a big, purple hernia, I don't know what else you thought I might've been talking about, stop giggling in the back row there.
He can’t believe this is fucking happening. Four days ago all he had was a nagging, tugging sensation in his belly. It was nothing. And now the doctor’s telling him to get ready for surgery, making it clear that he does this, or he dies. To call it from zero-to-a-hundred doesn’t even begin to do it justice.
“What were you thinking, Joel?” Maria suddenly admonishes, breaking Joel out of his spiral. “I’ve heard all about your high pain threshold, but don’t tell me you were expecting to just walk something like this off.”
The feelings of panic and unreality fade and Joel almost welcomes the renewed rush of irritation.
“For Christ’s sake, I keep tellin’ you all, I haven’t been walkin’ around with this monster under my shirt for the last few days, it just felt like a muscle cramp. I had no idea my fuckin’ guts were about to slip out.”
“Maybe so, but that’s not my point,” Maria counters coolly, staring reprovingly at him in a way that lets Joel knows he’s not winning this argument. Hell, he already knew he was going to lose every argument from the moment he woke up and discovered this horror show under his shirt. “You’re not a young man anymore, and you’ve got Ellie to think of. You can’t afford to ignore what your body’s telling you. If something doesn’t feel right, you let people know. You wouldn’t have been inconveniencing anybody.”
“Maria, I swear, it was nothing,” Joel insists through gritted teeth. “Okay? It barely hurt, it was so fuckin’ insignificant, I thought I’d only embarrass myself if I brought it up. I thought it would be as if I was actin’ like my leg got cut off when I’d only stubbed a toe. And we had bigger fuckin’ problems at the time. You make it sound like it’s not that big of a deal. Well, how would that have looked a couple of nights ago, huh? Ellie goin’ into surgery, terrified out of her mind, and suddenly I’m there tryin’ to make it all about me instead? Over a fuckin’ twinge in my stomach?”
“Yes, I know. I understand that,” Maria says with a heavy sigh. “But there would’ve been time afterwards, once Ellie was in the clear. You had all day yesterday, you could’ve slipped out at any time and borrowed one of the doctors for five minutes. And yeah, I agree, it’s shit timing, you can’t help your body deciding to act up now when it’s the last thing you needed, but nobody was going to think you were trying to… to steal Ellie’s thunder, for God’s sake. Is that what you think of us?”
“You’re both goin’ around in circles,” Tommy cuts in suddenly. “It’s done now, we can’t change it. Only thing we can do now is get ready for what's comin'. And how we're gonna break it to Ellie."
Thank you for reading! I'm making "twin flame" my summer project and hopefully I'm going to knock out a couple more chapters for you before September, when I go on my holidays. Until then, thanks for sticking with me 🥰
No-pressure tags: @consultingzoologist, @barlowstreet, @marceltheshellwithflipflopson, @lauronk, @paigegonerogue
