Page 17 of Until It Was Real

He sighs. “How sad. You’re abusing your power again.”

“I am not abusing my power. Now, fix my computer. Unlike you, I have work to do.”

His brow wrinkles. “And I don’t?”

“You wouldn’t know what being on time was if it hit you on the ass.”

“What does my refusal to accept the construct of time have to do with anything?”

I thread my hands through my hair and pull on the ends before I fly at my brother. Mom will tan my hide if I hurt her precious baby. Precious baby, my ass.

“Time is not a construct devised by modern society to put the man down,” I grit out.

Kai crosses his arms over his chest. “Why are there clocks everywhere if society isn’t trying to shape me into a time following sheep?”

I’ve had it. I don’t care what Mom does. I’m throwing Kai out the window. We’re on the first floor. He’ll survive. He’ll have a few bruises but bruises are character building.

Zane strolls into my office. “What’s going on?”

Kai points to me. “The old man is having a hissy fit.”

“I’m a grown man. I don’t have hissy fits.”

Zane studies me. “Your face is turning red, your eyes are bulging, and a vein in your neck is pulsing. I believe this is the classic definition of a hissy fit.”

I slam my fist down on the table. “I am not having a hissy fit.”

Zane and Kai look at each other. “Hissy fit,” they say in unison.

“Fix my computer!”

Kai holds up his hands. “I’m not a computer guru.”

I point at my desk. “But you fucked up my computer.”

He shrugs. “I can ask Jaxon to have a look. He can probably read a manual about computers and be able to program a rocket launch within a few hours.”

“But would he want to?” Zane asks. “He is pretty obsessed with the mixology of whisky.”

“I’m not complaining. Our whiskey is the best.”

I scowl. Why are they speaking about whiskey and not fixing my computer?

“Will you please stop speaking in circles and fix my computer?”

Zane steps closer to my desk. “What’s wrong with it? Nothing seems out of sorts.”

“Someone,” I growl, “messed with the autocorrect.”

“Really?” Kai raises an eyebrow. “What does the autocorrect do?”

“You know this. Whenever I type ‘report’, it switches the word to ‘banana’.”

Kai barks out a laugh. “Brilliant.”

“Oh man.” Zane grins. “I wish I could take credit.”

“Miles!” I shout.

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