Page 6 of Shield and Savior

I need to regain control. “First of all, I spent all day moving boxes, packing, and unpacking. It sucks. I’m not in the mood to get myself off. Second, I don’t have a dildo, thank you very much.”

My Rabbit does me just fine, thank you. But some things are better left unsaid. I glare at my brother.

With a smug grin, Donnie says, “Shit, that’s the first thing I do whenever I go anywhere. Gotta mark my claim on the room.”

Gross!

But the words come out of Lance’s mouth first. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Get the hell off my couch,” I say while grabbing the box out of Lance’s hand. I need to leave this room.

I push on my bedroom door with my foot and dump the box on my bed. My room is a total mess. No sheets on the bed, boxes haphazardly thrown around, and my clothes look like an explosion from when I got distracted unpacking earlier. I stack the boxes in some sort of logical order. Sure, neaten it up a little, and this guy won’t think I’m a huge mess. Just a smallish one.

ChapterThree

Izzy

Drew and I leave our rooms at the same time. He motions to the living room, “Who are you?”

“He’s one of Uncle Joey’s friends.” I say.

Drew crosses his arms and squints his eyes, the same way he does whenever he’s trying to assess a situation. I hate that he’s got so many walls already up, and he can’t just enjoy life.

Lance pokes his head into the hallway as if he has kid radar then matches Drew’s stance. “I have two very important questions you need to answer.” His tone is painfully serious. “What is your Pokémon type starter?”

Drew blinks a few times, his nose squished up. “Fire.”

Lance nods. “Good choice. Me too.”

At the same time my cousin and I say. “Water.” Squirtle squad forever. At least no one answered grass type. My faith in humanity is restored.

My dumbass brother shouts from his perch on the couch, “I normally cheat until I can get Pikachu.” Of course he does.

“Second question. Favorite dinosaur?” Lance says.

This one, Drew answers instantly. “Stegosaurus.”

Lance nods and pauses, tilting his head. “Aren’t you going to ask me about mine?”

“But you’re a grownup.”

Lance leans into my son’s space. “If someone doesn’t have a favorite dinosaur, drop them. You don’t need that kind of negative energy in your life.”

My heart warms. It’s like a coffee poured ten minutes ago. Inviting and sweet.

Drew squints and takes the bait. “What’s yours?”

“T. rex, he has tiny arms. Huge body, but can’t scratch his stomach.”

“I like the flying ones,” Donnie says. “No matter how badass of a predator you are, a giant flying dino can still take a shit on your head and mess up your whole day.”

Drew laughs in the way only Donnie can make him. My son looks over at my cousin, expecting an answer because he wants to keep Uncle Joey in his life.

My cousin pretends not to care by opening another box. “Whatever the hell Littlefoot was. He was cool. Not that racist triceratops. She was a bitch.”

“What?” Lance says.

“You know, the movie about the baby dinosaurs going across the world to find, I don’t know, their herd or something? Nonna had a VHS copy. I used to watch it every day after school.”

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