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 nod.
“Answer me!”
“Y-yeah. Yes. Yes.”
He sighs and bows his head, burying his face in his hands. I touch his hair. His ears. Bear may be my rock, but Dom is the force that moves me.
He drops his hands to his lap. He doesn’t raise his head. “You said you hated me,” he whispers. “Please don’t hate me. I couldn’t stand it if you did.”
“I don’t. I didn’t mean it.” Out of everything that’s been said, it’s those words I wish I could take back the most. “I can’t hate you. I won’t. You’re my… you’re Dom. How can I hate you when I love you?” And as those words come out of my mouth, the meaning behind them changes into something so completely different than they had ever meant before.
“I don’t need any other home,” he tells me roughly. “I don’t need any other home than you, so you don’t ever forget that, you hear me? You don’t ever forget me. You can’t. You just can’t.”
As if I could. As if I could ever want to. I jump out at him and he drags me from the bathtub and curls me up against his chest where a great heart beats a staccato rhythm. And we sit here, in the waning afternoon, just me and him. For a time, it doesn’t matter what’s happened before. It doesn’t matter what’s coming. All that matters is that Dom is who I need him to be and I pray I can be the same for him.
After a while, he says, “The present.”
“Yeah?” I close my eyes and breathe him in.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever gotten.”
“Yeah?” My chest feels warm again.
“Yes. Thank you, Ty. It’ll help me.”
“With what?”
“When you’re gone.”
“Who’s going to tell you what to wear?” I sniff. “You can’t match clothes to save your life.”
Stacey will help him, it whispers to me, but I shove it away.
“I guess I’ll have to call you every day,” he says with a huff of laughter. It almost sounds like a sob.
“Every day?”
“Every day.”
“I’m going to come back.”
“Sure, Ty.”
“I will,” I insist. I pull away to look at him. He won’t meet my eyes. “Dom. Look at me.”
He does, but there’s doubt there. He can’t hide it from me. “I don’t….” He shakes his head.
“You’ll see. I promise.” I lean back against him. “You’re my best friend too, Dom. You’ll see.”
“I know, Ty.”
“Do you know why?”
“Why?”
“You and me?”
“Yeah?” He holds me tighter.
I hug him back. “We’re inevitable.”
And we sit there for a while longer until the earth no longer shakes. Until we can stand without falling over. Until we can face the world with a decision made, though it is breaking our hearts.
I FIND Bear and Otter outside, away from everyone else. They stop talking as soon as they see me, and I can tell they were talking about me. They both look worried, and I can’t have that. I’m stronger. I will be stronger. I’ll show them. I’ll show everyone.