Lassitude •3rd Book

Husband and Father

Lassitude ~41

Peter Mendes' pov

I sat in the kitchen while my mom is making breakfast. She is making crepes and cutting up fresh fruits. She places the plates, silverware, and cups on the table. I get up and hop on my one foot to help place each of them on the table. I put each silverware on each plate and move the cups beside each plate.

My mom continues to get breakfast ready when her phone goes off. She turns around and reaches for her phone. Before turning back to the stove. She answers her phone and I take a seat where I usually like to sit.

"Cam... you can't just call me and tell me to wake your wife up. She has been up since three this morning. She doesn't need your negativity right now." There's silence as I look at my mom. I can't see her expression. "Cameron, I love you for backing me up yesterday, but you've hurt your wife. I don't understand why you can upset her the way you did."

There's more pausing as my mom walks over to me with the pan and places my crepe onto my plate before returning back to the stove.

"Cameron. Your wife needed you and you let her down. She doesn't even want to see you at the moment. Cameron.. right now you are done trying to fix things because of what you've done yesterday."

There's more of a pause this time. I wonder what Uncle Cam could be saying at the moment. Is he still mad at aunt Riley or even my mom? What exactly is he asking?

"You bruised Ri's Tailbone! You could have broken it!" My mom continues to put crepes on the other plates and turns off the oven before going over to the fridge to grab juices and chocolate milk. "You better have a really good way of her to forgive you, because at the moment she wants nothing to do with you... Bye."

She walks over with beverages and places them in the center of the table as I hear footsteps coming from the hall. I turn slightly to see Ryan and Grace, who I met for a brief time yesterday.

"Good morning Claire," Ryan smiles tiredly.

"Hi Peter," Grace waves to me. Both my mom and I both say good morning to them. It's like my mom never had that conversation a moment ago.

"I'm sitting next to Peter," Ryan calls out and takes the seat next to me.

"I call sitting on his other side," Grace beams and I begin to relax a little and forgetting at the moment of the problems. Grace walks to my other side and takes a seat on my right side.

"Breakfast is ready," my mom says and places the last of the crepes on an extra plate if we wanted more after. "I'm going to check up on your mom." My mom excuses herself and makes her way out of the kitchen.

"How did you guys sleep?" I ask curiously.

"Good," Grace smiles. "We're just... confused." She frowns slightly.

"I guess mom and dad are arguing or something," Ryan sighs. "It must be bad." I looked between the two to see them sad about it.

"I'm sure they will make up and be happy again," I try to cheer them up.

"I don't know Peter," Ryan says uneasily. "Whenever my parents argue, it's usually something is little or they make up before they go to bed. This is really different."

I think back to my dad yesterday. It was only yesterday he knew I existed. Then he left.

Riley Dallas' pov

"Ri?" There's a knock to the door and the door opens slightly. I see Claire poking her head before the door widens.

"Hey Claire," I say tiredly. I know I should have been resting. I feel awful to be honest. It was so nice for Claire to offer to let the kids and I to stay here for a little bit. I know she and my brother are in their own crisis right now, but Claire still wanted to help me.