Page 129 of Regal Feather
This is the best day ever
Erika
I swear I’m going to end up leaving this group
This was much easier when we kept the group founders-only
Sergio
You love us, Ma’am
(please don’t leave)
Ev
Anyway, I guess I’ll see most of you Friday
I’m going for a run with Santos now because he hates me
Sergio
Eww
Good luck
Erika
BOY!
Sergio
What?
Abel
Little bird, you do remember she has blanket permission to punish you, right?
Sergio
Yes, Daddy
FORTY-ONE
ev
“We’re really doing it this time.”
It wasn’t a question. Santos was beside me, and he looked confident and solid and not at all like it had been last time, when he might as well have been preparing for his execution. I still dug my fingers into the leather where I held on to the sides of my seat. We couldn’t find parking by the club this time, so we were slightly farther, but there were no people around us and, apparently, my body was in no rush to leave the safety of the car.
“You’re going to do great,” he promised.
As if that was the reason keeping me frozen to my seat. There was a bit of that; I was human, and when was the last time I’d spoken in front of more than a dozen people? Without completely fumbling and making a fool out of myself?
Had that even happened at any point in time?
But this was…them. My found family. Some took the meaning of that more literally than others, the ones who really had no biological family or contact with them, but the words still resonated with me, even when my mother had been reaching out more lately, and Santos kept insisting that she was trying, and Ishould give her a proper chance. They were the people I knew I could lean on. The people I knew were going to be there for me, and they weren’t going to laugh or mock or hold it against me if I stammered or forgot my words or made a mess of the notes I’d taken. Even if Sergio ended up bringing a fucking banner full of glitter, it wasn’t because he was making fun of me or because he didn’t realize how hard it was for me.
Now that I thought about it, he might bring it precisely because of that. In his head, he would be taking the heat off me.
