6 Man ✫ H.S.

54| Energy Sparks

He approached me, quickly jutting his hand out to mess up my newly done blonde curls. I jerked my head back, jutting my knee upwards to strike his crotch but he stopped me by putting a hand to my knee with a glare. Since he was distracted, I reached out to ruffle his newly done hair, messing up his short, chocolate locks, making him yell out in protest, smacking my hands away. He then grabbed them and pulled me out of my seat near the bar counter. I was wildly tugged towards the dance floor that was situated in front of the stage where a live jazz band played. There was now a slow jazz song playing, one that invited all couples to the dance floor.

   "So, how's your new mancandy doing?" Atticus asked with a sly grin, making me frown at him. He wrapped his arms loosely around my waist as mine circled around his shoulders, both of us moving to the beat.

   "Marcus? He's not my mancandy, Atticus," I said with a roll of my eyes, making Atticus scoff.

   "Well I'm surprised you haven't fucked him yet," he retorted with a snort, making my jaw drop.

   "Atticus! He's just a friend, you idiot," I retaliated with a shake of my head. "You know I'm not ready for that."

   "Ready for hooking up? Bitch you've already done it," Atticus said with a frown, making me shoot him a glare.

   "I meant a relationship," I muttered under my breath. Atticus shot me a sympathetic look. "I don't want to get into anything like that. I just want to focus on Cleo right now."

   "Okayyyyy," Atticus dragged, nodding in understanding. "But you need some dick to unwind 'cause you're uptight as fuck!"

   "Atticus, shut the fuck up!"

  It was around 10 or so when I decided to go home with Atticus. As we drove over to Mason's house, my mind reminisced the time Marcus and I met. It was at Cleo's preschool about half a year ago. Her bestfriend was Marcus' son, Joshua. Them together reminded me of my friendship with Atticus. When I met Joshua's father, I was quite surprised to find out he was a voodooist. He was a single father who had moved to New Orleans with his son, into the French Quarter and into the compound Frida and Sephy had quite recently set up for the voodoo community.

  After Harry had left, my relationship with my aunts was strained but they made up for it by being there for me for the duration of my pregnancy and a few months after. However, Frida and Sephy decided to move out of the mansion when I didn't need them as much anymore. They managed to buy a new compound in the French Quarter and open it up for voodooists who came from around the world. This included Marcus and his family. Aunt Sephy told me about how his wife had died due to a hex planted on her as a result of pure jealousy by one of Marcus' ex girlfriends. It was sad to hear such an unfortunate thing, but he was certainly doing a good job at raising his son and being a wonderful father.

  We pulled up by the compound where Frida, Sephy and all the voodooists were currently residing in. Whenever I had errands to run and I needed someone to take care of Cleo while I was gone, Marcus was always available. The compound he lived in had a lot of people whom I trusted and were familiar with so whenever I left Cleo with him, it was safe there and I knew I could trust him to take care of her. It was the same whenever he needed me to babysit his son.

  Cleo loved hanging out at Marcus' place, with Josh. I partially felt sadness when I saw her bonding with Marcus in the way where she looked up to him as a father figure. Atticus was practically her uncle and she knew that, but Marcus, she looked up to him in a different way than to Atticus. Sometimes I felt sadness whenever I saw this happen, because it reminded me of how Marcus wasn't her father, and that her father was alive but not here with us.