Page 35 of How to Prevent a Fumble

If you want to, that is. I have to talk to you about something. Actually, you should Facetime me. Someone wants to talk to you.

Curious now, I Facetime her. It only takes a couple of seconds for her to answer, and I watch as she walks through the dimly lit hallway, her hair in braids, her face covered in green goop.

“What the hell is on your face?” I ask with a laugh.

She glowers at me before getting to her room, closing the door. “Elara and I were doing facemasks.”

“You look like an alien.”

“I think you and I have different ideas of what an alien looks like.”

I nod. “Apparently.”

She sighs, sitting on her bed. “I have something to confess.”

She looks nervous as her free hand plays with her braid, her eyes darting in the direction of the door as a loud noise echoes through the hall.

“What the hell was that?”

“Mom!” Elara calls from outside the door.

“Yes?”

“Let me tell him!”

Her head falls back as she closes her eyes, and I’d be lying if I said that not a single dirty thought crossed my mind.

This is Briar. We don’t have thoughts like that about Briar, Leo.

“Come in, Bub.”

I hear the door open, and immediately hear a weird tapping sound. The camera shakes as Briar hands the phone to Elara, who holds the phone so close to her face I can really only see up her nostrils.

“I think there’s a booger up there,” I tell her, and she immediately pulls back, her brows furrowing as she scrunches her nose.

“I’m a lady Leo, we don’t have boogers,” she informs me matter-of-factly before reaching up to pick her nose.

“Elara! Tissue,” I hear her mom say from behind the camera. Elara rolls her eyes before turning her attention back to me.

“I have something to confess,” she tells me with an exasperated sigh.

This can’t be good.

“Did you break something?” I ask. If she did, it can be replaced. No big deal.

She shakes her head, her lips pressed together.

“I begged mom to take me to the shelter we sometimes go to to help out, and well,” she taps the screen, but nothing happens.

“Mom, how do I turn the phone?”

“Press the little button in the bottom corner, Bub,” Briar says.

A second later, the camera turns, and I’m looking at… what am I looking at?

Something hairy?

“What is that?” I ask, peering at the screen.

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