Page 43 of Sunflower

Wiping my hands down my cheeks hard enough to smoosh my lips together, I blinked hard while my memories rearranged themselves for the second time in twenty-four hours. “Good God, Dad. Why did you guys never say anything?”

Dad shrugged but was sympathetic to my dismay. “Some things you need to learn the hard way, son. Otherwise, you’ll never learn the lesson properly.” He uncrossed his arms to rest his palms on the edge of the counter, tapping his index fingers on the underside as he thought about what to say next. “Think of it like this: now you know everyone wears a mask in one form or another, especially when they first meet you. Some wear masks to keep you safe and protected, while others wear them to trick or trap you. The hard part is figuring out which is which.”

Resigned to what he was saying, I let my hands drop from my face and leaned back against the counter opposite him. “That was a painful lesson to learn.”

“Sadly, the best lessons always are.”

Chapter Fifteen

Joey

“I’vebeenthinkingofchanging majors.”

At the sound of my voice, Erin looked up from her phone and raised her eyebrows in question. We were standing in line at the crowded pharmacy waiting to get a new EpiPen and neither of us had been talking, so I could see why my sudden announcement might throw her off balance.

“You’re not enjoying it anymore?” she asked, stepping to the side to let another customer through before stepping back into line next to me. She still held her phone up in her hand, but she wasn’t focused on it.

I shrugged. “I don’t think I ever wanted to do it in the first place, but Amelia wanted to, so…”

“So, you thought doing the same major as her was better than not doing one at all?”

“Yeah, when you say it like that, it makes me sound like an idiot,” I said, grumbling at her well-made point.

Thankfully, she laughed and finally dumped her phone in the handbag she held with a death-grip so it wouldn’t be wrenched off her in the throng of people. “Nah. At least your foot is in the door. Is there something else that’s caught your interest? Something that you can transfer your credits to?”

Frowning, I shrugged again. It frustrated me that I couldn’t really answer that. “I don’t know. This is my third semester, so I shouldn’t have too much trouble transferring my credits, but I have no clue on what major to change to.”

Erin chewed her bottom lip in thought. “Well, you still need to get through this semester’s exams, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, that gives you a bit of time to sit down and really think about what you’d like to do.” She eyed me carefully. “Or would you prefer to drop out and find a job, or go to trade school instead?”

God, I appreciated her. She wasn’t upset at all about me not having a clue, but she was offering me alternatives with no judgment whatsoever. I knew not everybody had that, and it made my heart happy that I was one of the lucky few who did. “I’m honestly not sure. All I know is that I don’t want to do this one anymore.” I shuffled in place and dumped my hands in my pockets, anxious enough that I could feel my shoulders up around my ears. “Does that make me a bad person?”

“Oh, honey, no,” she said, bumping her shoulder against mine. “If business management isn’t exciting you, find something else that does.” Wrapping her hand gently around my elbow, she drew closer. “Remember, whatever you’re studying now is designed to help get you into a career. Hopefully, you enjoy it enough to work in that industry for the rest of your working life, but sometimes it’s okay to bounce from one career to another. And to tell the truth? Hardly anyone gets it right their first time through. The important thing is to keep trying and not give up.”

Nodding, we took a couple of steps forward when the line moved.

“You should talk to Callum about this,” Erin said once the line settled. “He had a similar study crisis in his first year. He should be able to give you some tips on what to do.”

I had to swallow the grin that threatened to break free, as I knew exactly what he would say. If George was right, and all current evidence pointed to the fact that he was, then I’d be working with Callum soon enough. Obviously, I needed to find out a lot more about what George and his team did, but I couldn’t deny that the idea of working for an alphabet agency intrigued me.

Working alongside Callum intrigued me even more.

Helping that guy in the restaurant the other night had my adrenaline running more than anything else I’d done in years, and to know that we were the ones who had solely saved his life? Was there a non-chemical high that could even compare to that feeling? The memory of it made me giddy every time I thought about it. If I worked with Callum, that could be what I did almost every day.

Maybe that’s where my answer lay. Even if the job prospect with Callum and George fizzled into nothing, maybe I should look into working in the emergency services field. Working in a team environment, helping those in need, being the person who saved another person’s life… All of that sounded wonderfully brilliant, and right now, I was the perfect age to explore it more and decide if that was something I could do.

Erin was right. I had time to think about what I wanted. For the next few short weeks, my focus needed to be on my upcoming end of semester exams but researching different emergency service jobs and how to get into them could be a great distraction when I needed to get away from my books for a few minutes.

With my plan tentatively in place, I refocused on Erin, who was still holding onto my elbow, waiting patiently for the line to move.

She was much calmer today than she had been yesterday at lunch. Callum had talked with her for about an hour, and when they’d emerged from our parent’s bedroom, they were quietly laughing with each other.

We’d all lounged in front of the TV before we ate leftovers for dinner, and then we’d watched a movie together; Erin and Dad snuggled against each other on one sofa, Callum and I huddled together on the other. Erin and Dad both seemed delighted to see us like this and had quietly withdrawn about halfway through the movie to leave us be.

Which, of course, had led to us making out on the sofa while the movie played forgotten in the background. Neither of us were comfortable in getting up to anything more than that with our parents so close by.

---