I’d kissed a beautiful, dark-haired artist and my world hadn’t ended.
With a sigh, I leaned back against the door. It was chilly inside, but the cold was welcome. It was the only thing keeping the rest of my body from catching on fire.
I needed to report this incident to the chat.
“Aunt June?”
I frowned, listening.
“Aunt June? Where are you? Something happened.”
Laura’s voice didn’t sound right. I immediately grabbed onto the latch and pulled the door open. “I’m over here. What’s up?” I headed down the hall to the back room where Laura was situated in a beanbag with a bundle of ribbons, her headphones around her neck, and red dripping down her hand.
Oh no. Quiet tears rolled down her cheeks as blood dropped onto her shirt.
The one thing about being her aunt was that I got to react the way I wished my mom would have reacted to me growing up. Instead of acting like it was the end of the world or blaming her or calling her stupid or doing literally all of the awful things I’d heard growing up—I grabbed a few paper towels and rushed over to her, steeling myself to handle this.
“That looks like it hurts,” I said calmly. “Did you cut yourself?”
“Yeah,” she sniffled. “The scissors slipped. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“I know that. It’s okay.” I wrapped the towels around her hand and gently squeezed. “Let’s get you to the bathroom and take a look.”
“My shirt is ruined. Clothes are expensive and?—”
“Laura, the shirt doesn’t matter. Only you do,” I said. “We’ll get you a new shirt.”
“What if we have to go to the hospital? It’s so expensive?—”
“Honey, you don’t need to worry about any of that. Money isn’t your problem.”
Her tears killed me. I held her hand as she stood up and we made our way back down the hall to the small bathroom, crowding around the sink together. I pulled out my phone for a brief second and shot Evie and Avery a text.
Me
Can either of you come over to help? Laura is hurt
Avery
yep be right there
Evie
omw
I tucked it away and turned on the faucet. Laura let out a soft sob, trembling as I slowly unwrapped her hand.
“It’s okay,” I said gently. “I promise it’ll be okay.”
“It was an accident.”
“I know that.” An accident that probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken a few minutes in the cooler.
Laura looked up at me with teary, pleading eyes. “Please don’t stop letting me help at the shop. You already do everything.”
I sucked in a short breath, my eyes burning. Her words were a searing reminder that I could never fully shift the burden she carried on her shoulders. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t need to be worrying about a single thing.
All I could do was hope she never felt alone and that I was a good enough aunt to remind her of that.
