The more her hate stirs.
“How?” she asks. “I watch you get handcuffed, all because of her.”
“It was her way of protecting you and saying fuck you to me. That’s it, Dais. She loves you, you know that.” I pause. “And you love her.”
Daisy stares at her cellphone with a watery gaze. I hug her close and kiss her head. Our mother problems have always been similar; mine are just a few more years down the road from hers. I took a wrong turn, and I don’t want her to follow me this time.
I tilt her chin up, and she says, “I’ll think about what you said.”
“Okay,” I nod. My voice lowers even more. “Are you going to talk to your sisters about your sleeping issues?”
Her face falls. “After this?” This past week, she’s been more open to the idea of sharing all the details of what happened in the past, even the most painful one.
“Yeah.” I give her a look, to make sure she knows what I mean.
Her shoulders slacken a little and she nods. “Okay, after this.”
Lo opens his mouth to speak again, but Connor interrupts, “We’re offering a solution. It’s nothing to be upset about.”
Lo presses his hands to his chest. “I’m not going to live with you. You’ve been a great roommate for these past two years, but you’re having a baby, man.” He shakes his head. “You don’t need to be dealing with our shit on top of that.”
“You’re not ready,” Rose butts in like she did before. “You relapsed only a few months ago—”
“I’m never going to be ready, Rose!” Lo yells. “If you’re waiting for me to be cured, then you might as well give up now. This is going to last forever. Not a month. Not a few years. I’m an addict. I could very well stay sober for ten years and relapse again. You gotta accept that.”
Her lips draw into a thin line. “And what about Lily?”
“I can take of her like I always have,” Lo snaps.
“Oh, you mean when you spent years letting her have sex with different men every night,” Rose refutes. For fuck’s sake—she has less of a filter now that she’s pregnant. She just says whatever’s on her fucking mind.
Lo scowls, so coldly that I’m surprised Rose doesn’t shrivel back. I’m ready for him to tear her apart with something completely nasty. But then he says, “That’s your pregnancy pass for the fucking night. Whoever is growing in your belly is a demon. Straight up making you evil.”
Rose narrows her eyes, ignoring the slight to get back to the topic at hand. “I don’t care about the baby. I want Lily to live with us, and if she wants to, then you shouldn’t be fighting me on it.”
“She doesn’t.”
“Have you asked her?”
“Yes!”
I look to the couch beside Lo, where Lily used to sit. But she went to the bathroom…
I turn my attention to Connor.
He’s checking his watch. The same thought must be crossing his mind. “How long has she been gone?” My voice cuts Lo and Rose’s fight, silencing them.
Lo rotates and notices the bare cushion to his left. “Shit,” he curses and stands up, his eyes wide with worry.
“Twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen,” Connor says, following my movement as I rise to my feet.
Lo doesn’t even hesitate.
He just runs.
< 63 >
RYKE MEADOWS
“Kitchen bathroom!” Rose calls out before Lo sprints up the staircase.
I’m right behind him, my hand on his back as he rushes through the house. Connor follows close behind, and I just think…please fucking God be okay. Please let everyone be overreacting. It wouldn’t be the first time someone barged in on Lily taking an extra-long piss, reading her magazines. She lost Lo’s trust a long time ago. I think when he realized her recovery is a lot fucking bumpier than smooth.
The shower pipes groan through the walls.
Fuck.
Lo picks up his speed, and when he reaches the door, he slams his fist against the wood, trying the locked knob.
“LILY!” he screams, his voice full of unadulterated fear. He told me yesterday that he tried to kiss her, and she turned away. For Lily, rejecting a kiss isn’t a small thing. Her reasoning was that she didn’t feel good, and he let her go back to sleep.
She’s been doing that a lot too—sleeping.
Lo keeps jiggling the knob. “LILY!”
“Move,” I tell him.
He does, and I slam my shoulder into the wood. It takes two hard rams before it swings open. I run ahead of Lo, and I whip the shower curtain aside.