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
He pulls me out, wraps his arms around me, and lifts me off the ground. “I’ve got you,” he says so only I can hear. “No matter what. I’ve got you.”
And I believe him.
This is my family. We might not always get along. We might hurt each other sometimes. Things might seem unfair because we’ve loved, only to have lost. And there are days when it feels like we’re broken and there’s no way we’ll ever be put back together. Not with these earthquakes. Not with this ocean. Even now, after all that we’ve been through. But they’re mine, I think, and I belong to them.
The three of us fit together. We always have. Bear, Otter, and the Kid. It will probably always be this way, even if I’m not a Kid anymore.
It’s time I start remembering that.
16. Where Tyson Learns the Benefit of Therapy
“YOU KNOW,” Bear says, “it wouldn’t be that hard to find a new therapist. If you really wanted to.”
“I thought you liked Eddie,” I say, dropping my cereal bowl into the sink.
“Bear still hasn’t gotten over their first meeting,” Otter says, flipping through the newspaper. “It scarred him irrevocably, and he’ll never be the same. At least that’s what he says. I think he’s just a bit of a drama queen.”
Kori laughs quietly, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. We’ve only been home a few weeks, yet she’s gone from Corey to Kori and back again more times than I’ve seen in years past. Something has to be bothering her, but I’ve been so wrapped up in my own drama (what else is new) that I haven’t had time to ask her about it. We’ve only got a couple of weeks left until we leave for Tucson, and I need to see to it sooner rather than later.
“Drama queen?” Bear says, the outrage in his voice clear. “He asked me if I wanted to be sodomized with a baseball bat!”
“I don’t think that’s exactly how it went,” Otter says.
“Though that’s probably not too far from the truth if it’s about Eddie,” I remind him. Eddie Egan isn’t exactly what I would call a typical therapist. His ideology tends to be a bit warped. To be honest, I’m surprised his license hasn’t been revoked. But he’s the one who’s known me the longest out of the therapists I’ve been to, and he’s really not all that bad. Most of the time.
“You guys know the weirdest people,” Kori says. “Why would a therapist want to know if you wanted to have baseball-bat sex?”
“I don’t know,” Bear says. “It was just this whole… thing. And it’s not my fault all these kinds of people keep flocking to us. I’m the normal one here.”
We all stare at him.
“What? I am.”
“Normal is not something I’d use to describe you,” I say.
“Definitely not,” Kori agrees.
“And that is said with the utmost amount of love,” Otter says without looking up from the paper. “Well, as much love as can be given while saying you’re abnormal at the same time.”