Chapter 6
Faith ran her manicured fingers through the shaggy hair on my old teddy bear. Orange Cheeto dust clung to the fibers with each stroke. My dad bought me that for my tenth birthday. He spent all the quarters at the arcade, and when he couldn’t win enough tickets, he paid off the pimple-faced boy working the register. That bear meant everything to me. I couldn’t hide the irritated scowl that spread across my face, but she was oblivious, her eyes locked on the piece of cardboard staged in the middle of our small circle. Ashley popped the blue bubble gum she’d been chewing all evening, leaving a translucent film of cotton candy-flavored goo on her chin. She was utterly unbothered by the turn of events. I’d expected nothing less from her, though.
The trailer surrounding the safety of my cluttered den was quiet. Except for the slow, tired hum of my ceiling fan, there was nothing. And it was loud all the same. Randy swallowed another burp as he straightened the board in front of us. He didn’t approve of the slight wrinkle in the worn, rose-colored carpet. Again and again, he adjusted it, checking to make sure the planchette wouldn’t shift by accident. Finally, fed up with the tedious ritual, I grabbed a stack of magazines from under my bed. Then I moved the board to fashion a makeshift table to steady the board game. I’d been calling it that in my head—a board game. It softened the idea, made it more palatable.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Breanna Leslie to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.