Solid: 2 1/2 (Twin Duo Book 3) Read Free Page B

pleated pants, the same dark color as Rowan and Ophelia. Cute was an understatement. They were a-freaking-dorable. They ate their pancakes, busily talking about the first day of school.
    I’m not exactly sure what started it. One second I was in front of the sink, cold water running down the drain while I stared through it, and the next, I was somewhere else. Somewhere I didn’t want to be.
    “Jesus, babe. What the hell?”
    I hadn’t even heard him walk up behind me. My thumb covered a tiny scar on my index finger while a vision of someone holding my hand under the cold water filled my mind. I don’t know why I jumped or why I covered my face with my arm, but I did. Paxton interrupted the image when he tried to kiss my neck from behind. That’s when I jumped clean out of my skin, heart pounding in my chest. The only thing I saw was someone holding my hand below the cold water and blood. Lots of blood, mixing with the water in a swirl. It was so strange. I felt adrenaline rush my body, my hands were suddenly clammy, and the nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach came out of nowhere.
    I tried like hell to recover from the silent, awkward moment. The one where I stood there dumbfounded, looking at Paxton like he’d just slapped me. It wasn’t until he reached around me and turned off the water that I snapped out of it. Still in an unfamiliar daze.
    “What, Gabriella?”
    I shook my head back and forth, and sidestepped him, turning the water back on to rinse a cup that didn’t need to be rinsed. “Come on guys. First few days are going to be crazy. Eat up.”
    “My teacher has a guitar,” Rowan said with a smarty-pants chant.
    Of course, that fired Ophelia right up. “Well, my teacher is Miss Christmas. Your teacher has a dumb name.”
    “No, he doesn’t. He has a hard name. That’s why we have to call him Mr. J. Because the d is silent, but some people get confused.”
    “Cause it’s stupid,” Phi said, head and shoulders swaying with five-year-old attitude.
    I tried to ignore the somber look on Paxton’s face, using the kids for a bait and switch. Focus off of me and on to them. “Stop, you two. You fight over the dumbest stuff. Vander wipe the milk off your lip, bud. You look like uncle Paxton with a white mustache.” I said with a smile over my shoulder, trying to bounce back from, I wasn’t sure what. Something.
    Paxton wasn’t amused. “Come here.”
    Gah , I didn’t want to come here. I didn’t want to face any of this. I wanted it to go away, keep moving in a forward direction, not backwards. Nonetheless, I followed him to the living room while Rowan and Phi continued with their debate on whose teacher had the coolest name.
    “What, Paxton? I have to keep them moving. The first day of school is a nightmare.”
    “What was that, Gabriella? Why did you block your face like that?”
    My shoulders dropped and I shook my head back and forth. “Why do you always have to make something out of nothing?”
    “You just freaked the fuck out on me. What the fuck?”
    “I didn’t freak out. You scared me.”
    “You jerked away from me and covered your face. Why?”
    “Oh, my God, Pax. I don’t know. It was a quick image, that’s it.”
    “Of me hitting you?”
    “No, of someone holding my hand under cold water with blood running down the drain. I didn’t see you.”
    “Are you remembering that, Gabriella? That happened. You cut your finger, slicing carrots.”
    I felt the scar with my thumb again while I tried to read him and his tone. He was serious, and the tone was off, or maybe I was just being paranoid for no reason. “I only saw blood running down the drain.”
    “You tried like hell to get out of going to the hospital, but I wouldn’t let you. That war wound cost you four stitches,” Paxton explained, but I wasn’t sure whether or not he held a serious smile, or a smirk. I was sure it wasn’t as simple as that, but that was it. That’s all I had to go on, and I didn’t want