DRASTIC (Book 4 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 49: Smart Girls Don't Give Up

Marley

I'm making pancakes.

I understand why people in a live-in relationship sometimes gain weight.

Pancakes? Cookies? Brownies?

Sugar is like a magical absorber of anger.

It's impossible to be angry eating sugary goodness.

But I'm not eating yet. Right now I'm just whisking.

Whipping up a little batter and lot of emotion.

Darius sidles into the kitchen. He opens the refrigerator quietly, but the whole time he's watching me. "Pancakes and bacon? On a weekday?"

"Yes. My apology for...yesterday morning. I'm sorry I didn't get up and see you off to school properly."

"It's okay. I'm not a little kid. I can get myself ready."

"I know that, Darius. I'm very proud of how capable you are. But I still like being there at the start your day."

He watches me. I focus on the batter. He goes to the garage and opens the door.

He comes back, sipping his orange juice, a little more relaxed.

"So he did come home last night? I mean, that's his new car? The Tesla?"

"Yes, he did. I would assume so."

"Ok. So..." His brows are furrowing, his eyes narrowing. He looks like his father. Calculating. "You don't think it was some rock star party spiral thing?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Well, where was he all evening?"

"I don't know, Darius." I whisk harder.

"You aren't gonna ask him?"

I throw the whisk into the sink and spoon batter onto the hot griddle. I turn the sizzling bacon.

"No, I'm not going to ask him. He has an unconventional career, and I'm not his keeper anymore. He told me yesterday morning he had business. I was aware he had some stuff to do. It's really none of my concern exactly where he was. If I were still working at my old job, I would be out in the evenings sometimes too, holding group sessions, seeing patients who need after-hours appointments. I wouldn't like the idea that I needed to report my specific whereabouts for every appointment or group session to him. Relationships are about trust."

"I thought they were about good communication," he says quietly.

Sometimes Darius really annoys me. He's too damn smart for a thirteen year old kid. "Boundaries, Darius. You and Bodie and I are one thing. We are learning to be a family unit. But me and Bodie figuring out our thing? That's something different."

"Well I don't see it like that. He didn't come home to us, last night. He missed dinner, he missed my practice. I was just worried that he was...gone or something. That he wouldn't—"

"That I wouldn't come home?" Bodie says from the kitchen stairs. He walks right up to Darius. He cups the back of Darius' head and bends down the few inches it takes to meet Darius' eyes. "There's no wouldn't to the question of me ever comin' home to you and your mama. There is only...couldn't, okay? I was in a business thing that ran longer than I would have liked. I couldn't cut out on that. It's all good, Dawg." He moves to the coffee pot, giving me a quick kiss on the temple on the way.

Darius crosses his arms. "What kind of business thing? Were you downtown? Some kind of studio session or something?"

"Or something," Bodie says tolerantly, snagging a piece of hot bacon from the pan, dropping it quickly on a paper towel, blotting and shoving it his mouth.