Shift Happens (Providence Family Ties 2)

“I can’t promise that because you scared me. Next time, don’t sneak up like a creepy lecher on a woman.”

Narrowing my eyes at her, I breathed in deeply through my nose. “I didn’t do that. You held the door open, and I didn’t know it was you. Then you stopped at your door, so I said hi, and you punched me in the nuts.”

Waving me into the apartment, she closed the door behind me and the fugly cat. “I was there, and you’ve just proven what I said.”

How she’d gotten that from the recount, I didn’t know, but I was too focused on getting to her couch to argue the matter with her.

“Anyway, what can I do for you?”

Sinking down onto the cushion, I almost screamed when my sweats pressed against the abused area between my legs.

“Your dads were worried because of what happened at your old college, so Mom sent me to check in on you.”

Holding the hand that’d punched me in the air and wiggling the fingers of it—like I needed the reminder—she smiled brightly at me.

“Well, now you can tell them I’m doing great. And you can also tell them how much I’ve learned from my self-defense classes.”

Itching my forehead with my middle finger, I watched as the beast strolled in and jerked its tail at me. Knowing I had nothing else to say, I got up gingerly from the couch.

“Okay, I’ll pass that on.”

I’d been about to say bye, but it was cut off with a squawking noise as the hairy bastard jumped and landed with his claws embedded in my thigh, way too close to where his owner had just abused. Like that wasn’t bad enough, he began to climb higher up my body, plunging his nails in until I swear they almost reached my intestines.

“Milkshake,” Sasha snapped. “You don’t know where he’s been. Get off there.”

My head snapped up to glare at her, not missing the insult. “You don’t know where I’ve been? Your fucking cat shits in a tray, woman.”

Her spine straightened as she glared at me. “Woman? Woman? If your balls weren’t already deflated, I’d punch you in them again.”

Grinding my teeth at her, I pointed at her pet. “Get your fucking ugly demon-spawn and his shitty nails off me.”

Growling, she stomped forward and tugged him away, and I’m almost fairly certain she did it on purpose so he’d rip my flesh open as she did it.

“Poor precious boy. What a bad man.”

And the twitch in my eye came back.

In a smile that most likely looked as fake as it was, I waved my hand through the air and walked back to her door.

“Good to see you again, Sasha. Let’s leave it forty years between this time and the next, though.” At her snort, I added, “And get a magnet to uncross the little furry bastard's eyes.”

Was it immature to grin smugly at her offended gasp as I slammed the door behind me? Yeah. But when I glanced down to check between my legs and also saw the blood on my white t-shirt, I was okay with that.

Chapter Two

Sasha

I probably would have been stewing over the audacity of the mean shithead yesterday if I wasn’t dying.

Holding the thermometer in my ear, I waited for it to beep. Instead, I got the fever alert, meaning, as I weakly pulled it out of my ear and lowered it so I could see the screen, I knew I had bad news coming.

I didn’t have time to be sick. I was already behind where my classmates were, thanks to all of the bullshit I’d had to wade through, and now I had Ebola. Well, maybe not Ebola, but it felt like I was dying, so what did I know?

The screen confirmed it. 102.1.

“Fuck.” Even saying a word with only four letters felt like I was gargling shards of glass.

Slowly pushing myself up and maneuvering my legs until they were hanging off the edge of the bed, I sat slumped over as I summoned the strength to get up and go to the bathroom to get some Tylenol. What sucked was that I was going to have to go to the pharmacy to get some ibuprofen and Nyquil because I knew acetaminophen wasn’t going to cut it.

Maybe I needed something else—like someone in a hazmat suit, with the cure to the alien virus that was killing me?

With a whimper, I managed to get to my feet and stumbled, using everything I could to steady my legs as I passed through the room.

Bedside table that came to my knee? That did the job. Drawer unit as high as my belly button? Awesome. Wall? I made a mental note to add something like the stuff they put on skateboards to stop you skidding off them when I slipped down it slightly.