Page 85 of Home: Posy 5

Of course, that made most of us chuckle, but my eyes widened with alarm when he read his question.

"Who is in your family? Oh! I live with my big brother Emerson and his husband Angelo."

Thank the Goddess he didn't say Mama Bubba and Papa Gelo,I linked Spring, who half-smiled.

I know. Emerson and Angelo have been working with him for weeks on how to conduct himself at school.

Well, they did a great job,I told him.

"And then there's Spring. He's my service dog. I know he's so cute and fluffy, but youhaveto ignore him," Thoreau went on. "See his vest? It says 'Ignore me. I'm working.' If you distract him, he can't do his job, which is to protect me."

"What's he protecting you from?" asked a girl on the other side of the room.

"Mommy Daddy were very, very, very,verymean to me, which is why I live with Bubba now. Dr. York says I have PDST."

"PTSD, Reau," I corrected gently.

"Yeah. That. I forget what it stands for, but I get scared and panic sometimes, and Spring helps calm me down when I do."

Wow. He just laid it all out there.

I wasn't ashamed of my past. I hadn't asked to be abused, and I'd tried to escape so many times that I lost count. Still, I wasn't comfortable talking about it or sharing it so bluntly with people Iknew, let alone a room full of strangers.

"It's good you have Spring, then," Mrs. Greenwood said with a kind smile.

"He's my bestie! Him and Wayne and Arch."

"Wayne Black and Archer Barlow?" squealed one girl from the back. "Ooh, come sit with me and my friends at lunch! Bring them, too!"

"No, thank you," Thoreau said politely.

"What? Are you too good for me and my friends?" she sneered.

Sheesh! Her flirty self turned sour quick enough!

"Maybe. I don't know you, so Icouldbe," Thoreau said with a shrug. "But I can't sit with you because Wayne and Arch said to say no if any girls asked me to sit with them. They don't like sharing me. Sorry."

Except for that girl, the rest of the class cracked up, and I giggled into my hand.

"And the last member of my family is Posy, my big sister!" Thoreau gestured to me, keeping up the story we'd invented for the humans. "She is married, so you better leave her alone or her husband will beat you up! I'm not kidding! And I ain't even going to tell you what Bubba will do to you if you bother her!"

"Wait. Your older brother has ahusband, and your sister, this girl right here, ismarried?!" squawked a girl two seats behind me.

I could practically feel her finger pointing at me as well as everyone's eyes landing on me, and I wanted to sink into my seat. I didn't like attention to be on me, but I was the luna of Five Fangs. I wouldnotcower in a room full of humans. Despite my hot face, I straightened my shoulders and lifted my chin as I turned to face her.

"Yes. That is correct." My eyes locked with hers, but she seemed more shocked than mean or sour. "Do you know my husband? His name is Wyatt Black. He graduated from here last spring."

And of course, that set off a whole flurry of questions and comments, the loudest and most aggressive from the girl who got salty when Thoreau refused to sit with her at lunch.

"So you're pregnant and made him marry you, huh?"

"No, I am not pregnant." My eyebrows drew together as I stared at her, wondering why she thought that was her business.

"Then why did you get married?"

"Um, because I love him?" My frown grew heavier.

That's when Mrs. Greenwood decided to intervene and got the class quiet again.

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