Nights Out (Parrish&Darius #1)

Night 8

Parrish hates singing.

That much I've gathered since I met him but there's a few occasions, such as this one, where he seems to enjoy it a bit.

It was his turn to cook and he was humming something in spanish that I recognized as nursery song but I didn't know which one it was. He was even bobbing his head to the rhythm playing in his mind. I don't think he knew I was listening because when Parrish has an audience all his notes are pitch perfect. Now he was just mumbling words and missing the imaginary beat, but it sounded nicer than his usual performances.

I even saw a crook of a smile on his lips. I thought that he must really like that song so I wanted to ask about it. I stood up from the couch and sat on the kitchen island. He stopped as soon as he saw me come in.

"What were you singing?" I asked.

He glanced at me for a second before saying, "Nothing."

"It sounded pretty," I said and he mumbled a small thanks in response.

Parrish hates singing and he doesn't like when he catches himself enjoying it.

"Food's almost ready, can you set the table?" He changed the subject, a clear sign of him saying 'don't ask' in a polite way. I knew the food wasn't really ready but I got up anyway and started getting our plates.

Parrish and I rarely eat lunch together, today was a strange occurrence where his erratic schedule at the hospital granted him a day off at the same time that my professor decided to cancel today's class. A buzz on the table distracted me from my task.

"Parrish, your phone is ringing."

"Who is it?" he asked without looking back at me.

"I don't know," I said, frowning at the screen of his phone because, "It says 'fucking ice witch.'"

"Decline it," he said, bringing the food to the table. I did as he said but his phone rang again almost immediately. He declined it again and we sat down to eat.

The phone kept on ringing while we ate.

"Maybe you should see what she wants," I suggested when the noise started to drill a hole in my ears.

"Yeah, no, I know what she wants. Just ignore it."

"But-"

"Ignore it, she'll get tired eventually," he said and just a few seconds later the ringing stopped. "See?" Parrish smiled.

We kept eating like nothing happened. Then we sat on the couch to watch tv, Parrish sat next to me and he was skittish, biting his nails and checking his phone every few seconds. He's been like that since what I said about his dad not wanting him to smoke, he hasn't even smoked a joint since then. I think the lack of nicotine was taking a toll on him. He got up for the seventh time to go to the kitchen, open the fringe and come back with nothing.

Maybe we should practice some of our service dog techniques.

I scooted closer to him, making him look at me. "Do you want something?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"You seem stressed, are you okay? Do you want, do you want a hug?" I offered, not really sure of how he would react. I saw him frown and I could almost hear him calling me an idiot in his head, but the words that came out I'd his mouth next weren't insults.

"Actually, I am a bit stressed, can you do something for me? Help a brother out?" he smiled, scooting closer. Now our shoulders were touching.

"Yeah, sure, what do you need?" I nodded. If only I knew at that moment what he was going to ask me to do, I could've at least prepared myself.