Finally, Jonas breaks the tension.
“When I was in high school, I was required to take a biology class. We were supposed to dissect
a fetal pig. I was…uncomfortable with the idea. I spoke to the teacher and made some excellent
arguments about why it was completely unnecessary for me to do it. There’s nothing that dissecting
that pig would have taught me that I couldn’t learn from the book. He refused to excuse me.”
He glances at me from the corner of his eye, lips tight. “When I feel something is not right, or
when I’m being pushed to do something that I don’t believe in, there’s very little else that I can think
about. It goes over and over in my mind, and the problem becomes bigger and bigger until I’m
completely overwhelmed. I didn’t discuss it with anybody, but by the night before we were supposed
to dissect the pig, I had a meltdown.”
“What does a meltdown look like for you?”
He shrugs, hands tight on the wheel. “It’s varied over the years, but that night I ended up rocking
on the floor with my hands pressed over my ears. Zach, Nick, and Ransom were there, and they sat
with me until I could calm down. Then, I told them everything. Every worry, every problem. I felt so
much lighter after telling them.”
“And you went to school the next day and dissected that pig like a pro?” I ask, completely able to
picture it. Jonas seems like a man that can do hard things.
He chuckles and glances back at his brother. “No. The next morning, all eight of my brothers
showed up at the school and talked to the science teacher and the principal. They let me write an
essay in the library instead of dissecting.”
“Oh,” I mumble.
“One could argue that they should not have interfered and that I should not have been excused. But
it didn’t matter to my brothers. It was important to me, so it was important to them. So they showed
up.” He looks at me, brows raised, like I’m supposed to get some special meaning from what he just
told me. Zach bites off a curse from the backseat. And I wish I were a real turtle and could just tuck
myself into my shell and avoid everyone.
“Subtle doesn’t seem to work on her, Jonas.”
Jonas makes a low sound and nods. “I see. We are very alike in that way. When I need something,
or when I am facing a problem, I have many people to help me.”
“That’s nice,” I say, smiling.
