Read Almost Broken for Free Online Page B

by 18 points.
    Do you see my bags at the door and the one I’m holding? Do you not get it?!
    I immediately sit up and look behind me. No one’s there. I look over at Lisa, who’s lying down on the opposite couch.
    “What?” I ask. She looks over at me confused.
    “What?” she asks.
    “Didn’t you just say something?” She shakes her head
    Okay I know she said something.
    Someone did.
    Maybe I didn’t hear anything.
    I settle back down in my seat, keeping my eye on her. Lisa has a lot of talents, but ventriloquism isn’t one of them. I need to get some more sleep.
    I’m leaving, Cal. Fuck you and your texts!
    What the hell was that?! I look back over at Lisa whose attention’s on her phone. I look behind me, and no one’s there. Now I know it wasn’t her, and I know whose voice it was.
    It’s Laurens’.
    “Dude, you okay?” Aidan asks me with a raised eyebrow.
    “You didn’t hear that?” I hesitate.
    “Hear what?” Aidan asks, sitting up. He didn’t hear it. Which means only I heard it. How is that possible? It was as if it was right in front of me. I get up from the couch, make my way to the hall and up the stairs, and a moment later, everything blurs around me. I’m somewhere else, and I see me.
    I’m holding Lauren. She’s fighting me as I carry her up a set of stairs. As fast as I see it, it’s gone, or did I even see it at all?
    Of course I saw it. It was happening to me!
    “Are you okay, son?” My mom is at the top of the steps, looking at me suspiciously.
    “Yeah, I thought I heard Lauren call me,” I mutter. It’s the closest thing to the truth I could come up with. She comes down and pats my shoulder.
    “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.” She chuckles before making her way past me. I laugh nervously. Not a ghost, but it seems like someone’s definitely trying to scare me.
    It’s easy to scare a pussy.
     

Chapter 3
Lauren
     
     
     
    T he smell of pasta wakes me up from my sleep. I inhale the scent of the pillow I curled up with. It smells like fabric softener and a hint of something else. Whatever it is smells fantastic. Chris’s bed has the perfect balance of firmness and softness. I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep but my stomach’s growling. I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep in someone else’s house, but that theory turned out to be very wrong.
    I sit up in bed, the sun’s no longer lighting the room. I pull out my phone. It’s 5:15. I head to the bathroom Chris showed me earlier. My ponytail is a mess now. I take the holder off, run my hand through my hair, and splash some water in my face, trying to get rid of the just woke up look.
    I head to the stairs and hear Bubble Guppies , one of Caylen’s favorite shows on the Scotts’ surround system. She’s already toddler-ized the Scott’s house.
    Caylen’s sitting in the middle of the floor on a big pink blanket eating graham crackers. Mr. Scott is asleep on a brown couch that matches the comfy brown chair I sat in earlier, and across from him is the girl that was in the picture earlier, but her long locks have been replaced by an asymmetrical bob. She sits up from her previously stretched out position when she sees me.
    “Hi!” she says cheerfully, sitting.
    “Hi.” I kneel down next to Caylen and kiss her on the cheek.
    “You must be Lauren.” I stand to shake her hand, but she pulls me into a hug instead.
    “Lisa, right?” I say as she releases me.
    “Yeah. I hope my reputation doesn’t proceed me!” she says with a nudge.
    “Uhm. I was looking at pictures in Chris’s room and you were in some. Nothing bad!” I assure her with a laugh.
    “Good.” She folds her arms across her chest. I see her taking me in. After all, I’m the woman who married her best friend’s alter ego...or something like that.
    “Your daughter is so adorable,” she says, looking at Caylen.
    “Thank you.”
    We stand around awkwardly for a few seconds.
    “Chris and Aidan went to grab something from