The toe of Conner’s shoe nails the soft part of my side.

It’s been at least fifteen minutes since school ended. I was dragged out here so Conner & Goons could take out some of their frustration and torture me at the same time.

“Stupid fuckin’ prick,” Conner growls.

“Jason’s a fucking wuss,” Frank states. I’m dragged up from the ground and slammed into the brick wall, sending a shockwave of pain through my back.

“Since he’s not here, you’re our plaything for the afternoon.” Conner smirks, his face so close to mine I can smell the smoke on his breath.

“Look, I have better things to do,” I grumble, prying Conner’s hands off of my hoodie. “You’ve been beating me for at least fifteen minutes. Don’t you have a life? Something better to do?”

“Nope!” Bryce exclaims. I roll my eyes as Conner grabs the collar of my hoodie again.

“Fuck off, man,” I groan, driving my knee into his stomach. Conner staggers back, pressing a hand to the spot I kneed him.

“You hit me!” he whines.

“Give the man a prize,” I say, throwing a hand up and walking away. The trio lets me leave, barking out multiple threats at my back as I leave the parking lot, beginning the walk home in a thunderstorm. Why does it always rain when I’m too injured to walk fast?

I pause. I sneeze. I start walking again.

I cross a street and sneeze the second I hit the sidewalk.

Third sneeze. The fourth and fifth come a few moments later, until I can barely take four steps without sneezing again.

“Oh, this is ridiculous!”

My phone buzzes, and I pull it out of my pocket, thankful that it didn’t break during Conner’s round of abuse.

Discord: @azalea i really enjoyed yesterdays update. can’t wait for the next chap

I sneeze and tap on the notification, pulling up my server.

@conconman Thanks for your continued support; I really appreciate it!

Smiling, I pocket my phone and sneeze again, then stop walking and stomp on the ground.

“Stupid fucking cold!” I shout, swiping a rock from the ground and chucking it at the cement.

“Hey!”

A hand grabs my arm.

“Don’t touch me!”

I rip my arm out of the person’s grasp and turn my entire body, jumping my gaze up to meet Alex’s eyes.

“Sorry I startled you,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s just that I noticed you were injured, and it looked like you have a-”

Alex’s sentence is interrupted by me sneezing. I rub the tip of my nose and smile sheepishly.

“A cold,” Alex finishes. “I was wondering if you wanted a ride home?”

I shake my head, tapping my fingers against the back of my leg.

“I only live a few blocks away; it would be a waste of gas if you were to drive me.”

Alex smiles at me and walks away, getting back in his car and pulling out of the driveway he had parked in.

My phone buzzes again. I pull it out and check the notifications, sneezing as I open my phone.

Discord: @azalea can we have an endgame hint???

@conconman Yeah, she’ll end up with the guy named I’m not telling you.

@conconman oooooof

I laugh, watching as everyone comes up with smart-ass remarks to respond to my own smart-ass remark and then pocket my phone. It’s unfortunate that most readers assume that my main character will end up with a guy, even though I made the main bi. She and her roommate will end up together. It’s  also unfortunate that they forgot the fact that I introduced her roommate as a lesbian.

“Hey!”

A hand grabs my arm and yanks me backwards, pulling me into the back of a car. I sneeze for the umpteenth time.

“Let me go!”

A second hand presses against my lips, and I lick it in protest. Someone makes a sound of disgust, but the hand remains where it is.

Okay, guess we’re going a step further.

I open my mouth and bite on the hand, causing a yelp. Black fabric is slid over my eyes, and I smirk. They seriously think that’s going to do anything?

Y’all might be bullies, but you couldn’t kidnap someone properly if your life depended on it.

I reach a hand up and pull the blindfold off, revealing Conner driving, Frank in the passenger seat and Bryce in the backseat with me.

“Did you think any of this through?” I drawl, leaning back against the window. Conner shrugs, keeping his eyes on the road.

“You don’t get to get away with disrespecting us,” Frank growls, slamming his fist against the window. “You’re going to get taught a lesson.”

“Honestly, you guys are doing me a favor.” I laugh, then yawn, then sneeze. “Wasn’t having much fun walking home in a thunderstorm.”

“Speaking of thunderstorms-”

“I bet Jason’s having a fantastic time right now!” Bryce chuckles, opening his phone. “What with his- his-”

“Childish fear,” Conner supplies, grinning over at Frank. “Stupid pussy, scared of simple thunderstorms.”

I sit up, more interested in the conversation.

“Bet he’s crying his eyes out!” Frank laughs obnoxiously. My attention moves to sentence fragments, putting together the pieces of their conversation topic. A sneeze escapes my mouth as I think.

‘Childish fear of thunderstorms.’

‘Scared of simple thunderstorms.’

‘Having a fantastic time right now.’

‘Crying his eyes out.’

“Astrapophobia,” I murmur. Bryce’s eyes snap to me.

“What’d you say?” he asks, putting his phone down. I glare into his eyes, ignoring the tiny spark of fear in my stomach.

“Jason has astrapophobia, doesn’t he?”

“Sorry, we’re not dorks who look up big words for fun-”

“Yes,” Conner sighs. “Bullshit psychologist said some psycho-babble and claimed my brother had a phobia, when in reality he’s just a fucking child. He’s so pathetic!”

“Conner, Jason isn’t a child, nor does he have something as simple as a childish fear!” I exclaim, grabbing the corner of Conner’s seat, my movement punctuated by a sneeze. “He has astraphobia. Do you know what that means? It means that he gets panic attacks! His astrapophobia could be so bad that it happens multiple times during a storm! It could be so bad that he attempts suicide to get rid of it!”

“Suicide?” Conner scoffs, flicking on the turn signal. “Suicide is for girls who want attention.”

“That’s crossing the line,” I growl. Frank and Bryce roll their eyes at me.

“There was nothing false in that statement!” Frank protests. A growl rises in the back of my throat.

“Listen up you dickbitches, suicide isn’t a cry for attention. Suicide attempts happen when someone is so broken that they can’t take living anymore. Attempts happen because they are so numb to everything that they don’t think there’s any point for them to live!”

“Oh, shut up!” Bryce groans. Conner pulls the car over and unlocks the door, turning around and slamming his fist against his seat.

“Get out of my car,” Conner snarls, his voice remarkably low. I shrug and hop out of the car, flapping my hand goodbye as the car drives away.

Raindrops gather on my phone screen and I sneeze again, groaning.

“I hate rain,” I grumble, holding my phone up to my ear.

“Xael, what’s going-”

“You work for the Roye family, right?” I interrupt. Lukas sighs, his quiet exhale barely coming through my speaker.

“Yeah. Speaking of which, I’m at work right now and only have a few minutes. What’re your questions?”

“Tell me about Jason Roye; I think he was trying to befriend me today.”

“He’s a good kid. Nothing like Conner; asks us to call him by his first name. All of the staff like him. He’s a sweetheart.”

“I overheard Conner and a few of his friends talking earlier, and they mentioned Jason and thunderstorms.”

“Conner’s a dick,” Lukas mumbles. “Cory, you didn’t hear that!”

“You do remember that most of the staff agrees with you, right?”

“Hi, Cory!” I exclaim cheerfully.

“Hey Xael!”

“Anyways,” Lukas interjects, “Jason has- he suffers from astrapophobia, or astraphobia. We’ve got a sound-proof room for him to go to during thunderstorms. He gets a panic attack just after the first or second thundercrack.”

“And these panic attacks are bad?”

“We’ve seen attacks that last about an hour, even though-”

“They usually last ten to thirty minutes.”

“Yeah,” Lukas confirms. “Sorry, Xael, I’ve got to go. Are you working with Sadie at the barn today?”

“No,” I say. “I’m working tomorrow. Bye Lukas.”

“See you tomorrow.”

I end the call and slide my phone into my pocket, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

“An hour? And Conner really makes fun of him?”

Well, that’s kind of how he is. That’s a really shitty thing to do, though; make fun of someone’s phobia, call it stupid and childish.

Did Conner cause Jason’s astrapophobia?