Page 96 of Finding the Forward: Part Two
Picking up another, I threw it at Dare. “You knew and didn’t tell me. Hale, you’re not supposed to street race anymore. While I can get another car, we can’t get another you.”
I threw another bulb at Hale for his stupidity. Bulbs he and Dare cheerfully dug up from several of the gardens on the Marquess and Briar campuses, carefully labeled and boxed, andbrought on the train instead of in my car.
“Verity, it’s okay, whatever it is,” Mercy said, coming outside with a tray of coffee cups from the shop at the campus center.
“No, it’s not,” Jonas said from where he mixed potting soil for me.
We worked at the outdoor tables next to my greenhouse–soil, pots, equipment, and plant bulbseverywhere.The greenhouse manager had brought in heat lamps, which helped with the chill.
“Hewrecked my car street racing,” I shrieked, throwing another bulb. “Then, took the insurance money, bought a motorcycle, and wrecked it. All this happenedbefore Christmas,and hedidn’t tell me.”
I threw several others in rapid succession, taking care to make sure they were all from the same box, so the strains didn’t get mixed up. How did he even get the insurance money? It wasmycar. What was I still even paying insurance on?
“You promised not to wreck it. You promised.” I threw another. “Street racing! Last time you did that, you nearly died.”
I did one nice thing for Hale, and this was what I got?
Mercy gave him a hard stare that was a dead ringer for Mom’s angry look, her plum scent spicy with anger. “You’re shitting my dick. You did what now?”
“Ow. You throw hard,” he pouted. “Why are you so mad? You just said you could get another car.”
“Yeah, not what she said,” Jonas replied. “What is your plan to replace it?”
Hale looked like a trapped animal. “Do you know how much a car like that costs? Given the university shut down my side business, I can barely pay my rent, even with my jobs. There’s no way I can buy you a car. I bought the motorcycle so I could get to work. I didn’t crash it while racing.”
“No, just jumping cars,” Dare tattled, sorting through the plants my sister had sent from her backyard.
“Dare.” Hale looked hurt. He didn’t mean to be as reckless as a kappa, but he was. Our little brother Pax was proof the chaos gene didn’t come from Mom, butDad.
Dare’s dirty hands went up. “I don’t want Ver pissed at me.”
“You sure as shit don’t. She does a fuckton for all of us, and this is what you do?” Mercy put the coffee down on the table where the box of pastries sat.
“Your side business? You aren’t supposed to do that anymore. Hale, you could get arrested for that.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“What’s his side business?” Jonas gave him a look.
Dare shrugged. “He’s an organic chemist. What do you think it is?”
He’d manufactured a drug that tested like a legal recreational substance but acted like something stronger. Mom had been so proud of the formula that she’d looked the other way with the understanding that if the university–or police–caught him, she wouldn’t protect him.
Though after Mom had gone to jail the other parents had asked him to stop–and he’d agreed.
So I’d thought.
Hale rolled his blue eyes. “Technically, it’s not illegal because it’s too new. But yeah, the university was butthurt.”
Mercy punched Hale in the arm. “You ding-dong. I should drink your coffee.”
Dare scurried over and got his and took a gulp. “Thank you for getting us coffee, Mercy.”
“Verity paid for it.” She scowled. “I was going to learn to drive on that car, Hale.”
“It’s okay.” Jonas held me tight. “Mercy, we got you some fish-shaped waffles. They’re in the bag on the table. They don’t get any.”
“I… I didn’t mean to. Being an adult is a shit show. I didn’t realize how much everyone else did for me until I was alone, and no one was there to do all the things.” Hale’s voice broke.
“Same,” Dare sighed. “There are things I now have to do that I didn’t even know needed to be done.”
