Contents ( 42)
- The Art of Breathing
- Part One: How We Became Who We Are
- Prologue: Or, Where the Kid Hears the Word of the Day
- 1. Where Tyson Learns to Breathe
- 2. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
- 3. Where Tyson Graduates and Bear Freaks Out
- 4. Where Tyson Says Good-Bye
- 5. Where Tyson Gets the Mail
- Part Two: Coming Home
- 6. Where Tyson Comes Home
- 7. Where Tyson Gives a History Lesson
- 8. Where Tyson Attends the Most Awkward Party Ever
- 9. Where Tyson Plans Attends a Protest
- 10. Where Tyson Gets Arrested
- 11. Where Tyson Gets His Ass Handed to Him
- 12. Where Tyson Writes Bad Poetry and Gawks at Frat Boys
- 13. Where Tyson Decides to Man the Fuck Up
- 14. Where Tyson Asks Some Questions
- 15. Where Tyson Remembers Theresa Jean Paquinn
- 16. Where Tyson Learns the Benefit of Therapy
- 17. Where Tyson Meets the Man Who Becomes Helena Handbasket
- 18. Where Tyson Gets Screwed at His Own Birthday Party (And Not in a Good Way)
- Part Three: Just Breathe
- 19. Where Tyson Goes to Helena Handbasket’s Sex Dungeon
- 20. Where Tyson Beholds the Awesome Wonder That Is Paul Auster
- 21. Where Tyson Receives Advice from the Six Sages
- 22. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
- 23. Where Tyson Hears the Inevitable
- 24. Where Tyson Meets His Match
- 25. Where Tyson Says Hello, Where Tyson Says Good-bye
- 26. Where Tyson Touches upon the Inevitable
- 27. Where Tyson Faces the Music
- 28. Where Tyson Breathes
- 29. Tyson And Dominic
- 30. The Art Of Breathing
- Epilogue: Or, Bear’s Perspective, As It Were (Yeah, He’s Gonna Freak)
- Author’s Note
- Excerpt
- Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door
- More from TJ Klune
- Readers love the Bear, Otter, and the Kid Chronicles by TJ Klune
- By TJ Klune
I can’t breathe. His voice has gotten louder till he’s snarling. His words have gotten angrier. There are accusations and hurt and sorrow and a million other things crossing his face, but I can’t breathe because he called me Kid. Not once has he done that before. Not ever. I’ve always been Tyson to him. Or Ty. But never Kid.
Get it under control, it snaps at me. You want him to see how weak you are? How much of a kid you are? Grow the fuck up. It’s all in your head. You know this is all in your head. It’s not real.
I hate it, but it’s right. I don’t want him to see me like this. I take in a breath. Hold it. Let it out. The car is shaking and my skin feels like it’s buzzing, but I force that air in. I force it out. It will not win. This will not overtake me. Not here. Not now.
“You’re right,” I say through gritted teeth. “Is that it? Can I go home now?”
He watches me in the mirror. I keep my face schooled. I keep my breathing shallow. My throat whistles once, but it’s quiet, and the rain has started falling harder, ticking along the roof. The clouds have come in faster than I thought they would.
“Why?” Dominic asks. “Just… why?”
Why? Why? Because I was in love with you. I thought one day you’d turn and see me the same way I saw you. You’d look at me and smile, and then there’d be this fire in your eyes. And it would be for me. All of it would be for me. You’d tell me that you never wanted me to leave again, and you were sorry you let me go in the first place. That you never meant for it to happen. You’d promise it would never happen again. You were my first love and as much as I hate to admit it, you’ve been my only. I love Corey and Kori, but nothing like I loved you. I might have been fifteen. I might have been a fool. But I believed. Somehow, some way, I believed. And you broke me, Dominic. You broke me. As much as I should have seen it coming, as much as I should have known it was there, you still broke me because I realized that what I wanted was never meant to be.
But that’s not me. I don’t say those things anymore. I don’t put myself out there because it won’t matter. I won’t be the one standing in the rain on the beach pouring my heart out. I’m not fifteen anymore. I’m not a Kid anymore. I know how things work now.
So instead, I say, “It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”
He starts the car without another word, backs away from the beach, and heads toward town.
HE STOPS the cruiser in front of the Green Monstrosity. The rain has stopped and I’ve gotten my breathing under control. The panic attack I felt coming in the car has been pushed away for now. It might come later, or it might be gone for good. I don’t know. That’s how these things work. I need to go upstairs and go to bed or I’m going to have a killer headache tomorrow. But Bear is probably waiting for me still. Hopefully, Otter’s been able to get him calmed down some. I don’t need him screeching at me as soon as I walk in the door.