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Sam

Everything was going fine until I saw the bumblebee It was the third day of my road trip from Houston to Aster Valley, and I’d finally arrived It was as picturesque as any other ski town in Colorado was in late spring, but smaller and with noticeably fewer tourists since there wasn’t any actual skiing here any I’d never heard of Aster Valley before ood-looking, very adoring football player boyfriend, Tiller Raine, had left e in town earlier this year, I wasn’t surprised

But I was surprised when I saw the teen-sized bue patch of wildflowers on the side of the highway by aI wanted was to get involved in soet away fro I couldn’t abide, it was bullying I’d gotten enough of that myself as a kid from my own father

I wrenched my bike over to the side so fast I almost crashed into an old, half-broken-down billboard advertising a ski resort thatin the 1980s

“Let go of him,” I shouted “Leave him the hell alone”

My friends teasedI sounded annoyed at the least and angry at best, but in times like these, it came in handy

The bigger uy in the ridiculous bee costu from the bird feeder “Mind your own damned business, asshole,” the bully said

I glanced at the bee “You okay?”

His eyes ith fear, and his antennae were tre very hard to s was normal “Um, I’m fine”

He was clearly not fine I pulled out my phone and pretended to dial “How about I call the police just in case?”