Free Need Us by Amanda Heath Page A

She grabs him on the back of the neck until he stands up. They walk into the living room and it’s my turn to glare at my father.
    “Thanks Dad. Way to ruin the mood,” I mutter, crossing my arms over my chest.
    “Nonsense. Someone needed to tell her or that little prick will show up at the wedding and I’ll be shoving my foot up his ass,” my dad states like he’s talking about the weather.
    “Dad, your grandson is sitting at the table,” I say, my eyes wide. Why are they all acting so weird? I’m the one who needs to be punished, not Donovan. Well maybe he does, but not like that. We were drunk; we didn’t know what we were doing. “My entire family has been taken over by pod people.”
    “Nonsense. You’re ours, honey. We protect what is ours. And that little fucking prick is going to get what’s coming to him.” This comes from my mother and I have to slap a hand over my face just to make sure I’m awake. I’ve never really heard my mom curse, let alone use words like prick.
    “Besides Rach, Asher has heard worse come out of your mouth.” Royal winks at me and chuckles after I smack him on the back of the head.
    “It’s true Momma. You say bad words all the time. I just pretend to not hear them, because Daddy said he’d spank my butt if I said them.” Then he goes back to eating his pancakes.
    “Y’all need to leave Donovan alone. This is my mistake, not his.” And you can feel the temperature drop after those words leave my mouth.
    I don’t think anyone is going to say anything else until Lily starts yelling in the living room. “Someone should go calm her down, she’s going to scare Asher,” I whisper. Everyone is still looking at me like I grew a new head and I don’t know why. “Why is everyone pissed off I said that? It’s the truth.”
    “One of these days I’m going to knock some sense into you. When you wake up from this bizarre place you are in your head, you’ll be super pissed off you said that in the first place.” Royal then stands up and walks into the living room.
    My entire family has lost their minds.

 
    Three
     
    Royal
     
    “Are you nervous?” Channing asks me while I stare out the window. My head is far away from my wedding. It might sound horrible but marrying Wesley is going to be a breeze. In my head, I always knew we were going to be together forever. This piece of paper is for the legal shit. Besides, the wedding is for Wesley, not for me. All I have to do is show up at the end of the aisle, repeat some words and kiss her. There’s no need for me to be nervous.
    “Nope,” I say, my mind on Donovan Pierce. Pierce told his mother what happened and I thought she was going to go right then and kill her middle child. I’ve never seen that woman so mad.
    Channing paces behind me but I ignore him. He’s got to see Paisley today. At least he got a preview of it yesterday when she showed up at the house to pick up BeeBee. She even made an appearance at my parent’s house. She earned some brownie points trying to convince Rachel that she was assaulted, not drunk. I guess we can blame our father for that. He’s stubborn himself and that’s where she gets it. “Will you sit down? She’s not going to go out of her way to ruin today.”
    “I know. It’s just been a year since this shit happened to me. It brings back a lot of bad memories.” He looks over at me about the time I turn around to watch him. “She’s all I think about anyway. Then she’s standing in front of me and trying to spurt some bullshit at me about how it’ll always be her and me. How can she even think that?”
    “Because she loves you, no matter what she did. You didn’t even read that letter. You burned it, therefore you didn’t get to read it.. You won’t talk to her about it either, so I don’t know what you want me to say.” And I don’t. Yeah I’m seriously pissed off at Paisley but in light of recent situations, Channing and Paisley seem trivial. So she left him at the