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
“And you think she has something to do with that.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. So, no. I don’t want to find her. I don’t want to ask her questions myself.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But I think I’m going to. Not for Bear. Not for Dom. For me.”
“You might not get the answers you want,” he tells me. “You’re more likely not to get anything at all. If she’ll even talk to you.”
“I have a sister,” I tell him. “That’s the last thing Bear told me that day. After my mom left, she got pregnant again. She’d be eleven now, I think. Maybe twelve. Her name’s Isabelle.” I sniffle. “Izzie, for short.”
“I’m sorry, honey,” Sandy says, pulling me close again. “I wish I could take away all this hurt from you. You don’t deserve it.”
“I lied to you,” I admit. “Just now.”
“About?”
“Doing it just for me. It would be for Bear too. And for Dom.”
“I know, baby doll. But they love you just the way you are.”
“I know.” And I do. “But in order for me to be who I want to be for them, I’ve got to clear this blockage. In my head.”
“When will you do it?” he asks me quietly. Outside, the sky is beginning to lighten.
“I’ll take Dom home,” I say, making the first firm decision in a long time. “Then I’ll leave again.” It’s best to do it now and get it over with.
“You need to tell him.”
I shake my head. “He’ll just worry.”
Sandy laughs. “If you two are headed where I think you’re headed, he’s going to do that regardless. I think he does it already. Probably has for a very long while.”
“What do you mean?”
He gives me a small smile. “You’ll find out, I’m sure.”
“This is my fight,” I say.
“But you just admitted it was for him too.”
“Shit.”
“Indeed.”
He holds me close.
22. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
HE ANSWERS on the first ring, like he’s been waiting for my call, even though it’s only five in the morning on a Sunday. “Tyson?” His voice is clogged with sleep.
“Hi,” I say, keeping my voice low. I’m in the bathroom off the bedroom, the door shut. Dom was still asleep when I grabbed my phone. I’m on the floor against the door. I almost climbed into the bathtub, but I don’t need it. I don’t. I don’t.
“Everything okay?” He sounds more alert.
“Can we… can we just talk? For a minute?”
“Sure, Kid. About anything in particular?”
“I don’t know.”
But Bear understands. He always does. “I almost burned down the house last night,” he says. “I tried making popcorn and accidentally put it the microwave for thirty minutes. You would have hated it anyway. It was bacon flavored. And, actually, it tasted like ass. Like bacon-flavored ass corn. Oh, and Otter misses you. I caught him staring forlornly into your room.”