Sanguine Mountain by Jennifer Foxcroft

Author:Jennifer Foxcroft [Foxcroft, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

Monday, I ditch school. I feel fine but when I winced at the kitchen island—remembering I have sport today—Kelly insisted I return to bed. She wrapped me up in two blankets before leaving the phone by my bed to call her if I feel, well, if I feel “any odd feeling at all” according to her.

All weekend, my Parents V2.0 wouldn’t leave my side for a second. I’m a lab experiment they’re monitoring for signs of foam at the mouth or fear of water. Mini was not left alone with me all weekend, which suited me fine since I felt rotten.

My eyebrow has a nice solid scab beneath the stitches so I’m bandage free. I’m waiting in my car for Rocks. Since the attack, he’s visited me late each night, and between visits I know there are aeronaught-friendly Camazotz babysitting me from the trees. His schedule is so busy at the colony that he can’t get away enough and absolutely insists that I can’t go find Josie alone.

I text Tiff to let her know I’m fine even though I’m not coming today. I don’t want my bestie to panic. Rocks jumps in next to me, smiling. I’m a little disappointed his arms are covered up but he still manages to mesmerize me anyway. I shake my head to clear the spell his animal magnetism puts on me.

Half an hour later, I’m quizzing Rocks on road rules when my phone chimes in the center console. His eyes light up. Even though Rocks is a very proud phone owner, he isn’t a smart phone owner.

“Go on.”

He grabs the phone and reads the text from Tiff. As predicted, my absence sent her into a tailspin of worry. Rabies isn’t a laughing matter but I can’t explain to her how I know I don’t have it. She’s glad I’m resting up.

“Text her back.” I had anticipated a happy grin but get shot with pure ecstasy instead. “Don’t deviate from what I dictate, Mister!” He receives my own version of the evil eye.

Rocks bows his head over the screen and types away. It takes way longer than if I had done it, but I know the punctuation will be perfect and no horrid text spellings will be used.

He carefully places the phone back in the console and grins. When I glance over, both his eyebrows wiggle for a second.

“What?”

He looks out the window, smiling.

Josie Hendersen’s house is on an extra wide block of land surrounded by trees. I pull up outside her place and just stare. Mom V1.0 cannot call this place home. The white paint is peeling off the wooden boards. The two-story house could use an urgent dose of TLC. A bucket load of money wouldn’t even come close to turning it into the home I’d dreamed about. House-proud, baking Josie can’t live here. Being confronted with reality I wonder why my mind had painted the perfect picture. This is a woman who gave away her baby. This is not a fairy tale with a happy ending.

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