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"Thanks, Angelkins I was about to go down to the corner and get soive you the runs"

He snorted "Like the burritos won’t?" But he pulled a plate out of the cabinet and snagged one of the frozen burritos

"Yeah, well, I got sos, I pulled out a bag of apples "You should eat some fruit after you eat that You’ll feel better"

He didn’t look up as he unwrapped the burrito and stuck the plate into the hter had told me she’d been in an accident" He punched the start button, then turned to hed Sossip mill Yeah, well, you were passed out on the couch when I ht, and I was relieved since I didn’t want to deal with questions about why I was covered in blood I knew you’d either be an asshole or you’d pretend to be concerned and caring--depending on how drunk you were, and I didn’t want to deal with either reaction The times that he was like this--almost normal and real--were so rare that they were damn near precious And I’d learned to never count on them

"I didn’t want to worry you," I said instead "I wasn’t hurt other than a little cut on et in any trouble or anything"

"You still coulda told h there wasn’t much conviction behind it It was as if he kne unpredictable his reactions could be Hell, I was sure he did know, though that her to deal with in a way If he kneone?

"Sorry," Ifood away for a few ht for the two of us"

He gave ht some stuff I can heat up," I aas station chicken, right?"

"That’d be nice, Angel Did you buy ut and pointed to the bag at the end of the counter "Just a six-pack I paid all the bills today, and I was running out of money" That was a lie I had a case in the trunk of s were cool right now If he drank a six-pack it probably wouldn’t ht the case inside, he’d be drunk and vicious by the end of the night

I’d learned how to dole it out to hi hi his alcoholism If anyone wanted to call me out on it, they elcome to spend a ith hi roos away The instructions for the frozen lasagna said it would take thirty minutes to cook, so I stuck that in the oven and set about trying to clear out some of the dirty dishes in the sink The dishwasher hadn’t worked in years, and the usual routine was that one of us would break down and hand wash dishes about the time we ran out of either clean plates or counter space

A soapy glass slipped out of my hand to burst into a million pieces on the kitchen tile

"You okay?"rooer pieces slowly spin to a stop in shallow pools of suds A shudder swept over o I’d been carrying my plate from the kitchen to the table and had dropped it in this exact spot The plate had broken into three perfect pieces, but the food--red beans and rice--had spattered all over the floor

I couldn’t remember what happened next, but I didn’t really want or need to The next piece of the erator and bleeding fro a piece of the broken plate away fro about ers brushed the scar on my tricep After ten years I could barely feel it anyer pieces of glass After du them into the trash bin I found the broolass, then went ahead and swept the whole kitchen Yeah, Mom had been crazy, but at least the house hadn’t been a shithole when she was around

Bending to pull theat the slender triangle of glass sticking out of ht of an inch wide at the base, and about an inch of it was sticking out I sed, then pulled it out, instantly unnerved to see that another half inch of it had been buried inBut it still didn’t hurt Or bleed At least, not blood like I was used to A thick and dark bead sloelled up fro else

Taking a shaking breath, I dropped the glass into the trash can, then presseda pulse

I don’t have one! I began tocoers pressed to my neck as I silently counted One one-thousand Two one-thousand