“Honey, it’s dinnertime.”
I glance at the clock and discover four hours have passed. I smile when I realize that in those hours, I felt peaceful. My mind was clear for once in my life.
With that uplifting feeling, I make my way down to dinner.
✽✽✽
Keaton
“What’s your problem?”
I jerk around to find Finley standing in the door of my home gym. I’ve been using the punching bag to release the aggression I’ve felt since this morning.
“Nothing. Go away.” I turn back to the bag and continue to punch, relishing in the sting in my hands with each connection.
“Are you sure this has nothing to do with a certain dancer who recently showed up?”
I swing around to glare at him. “Why would I care if that bitch is back?”
He chuckles. “Dude, you should see the look on your face. You’re clearly affected.”
“Careful, Fin. I would hate to bruise that pretty face of yours,” I taunt.
He puts up his fists as he shadowboxes around me. “You’d have to catch me first, son.”
I don’t buy into his bait. He’s fast but not as fast as I can be. He knows that too, which is why he drops his hands and changes the subject.
“Let’s get food. Baby Yates is complaining of starving pains upstairs.”
I unwrap my hands before grabbing a towel to wipe off my face.
“Where are we going?”
“Momma’s House, where else?”
Ever since Sage started working there last year, it’s become our place to eat. Even though she’s cut back on her hours and is helping manage instead of serving, we eat there faithfully. We’re a loyal bunch.
“I’ll hop in the shower and meet you up there.”
“Bro, she might eat my hand.” He gives me a concerned look.
“Feed her a snack, Fin. Damn, is this your first day on the job?”
We all know that Tinsley can turn into a gremlin if we don’t feed her, but I also smell like a dog’s ass right now.
Within twenty minutes, we’re on the road to Momma’s House. Tinsley’s prattling on about her day at school, and Finley comments every once in a while, so she knows at least one of us is listening. I love my sister to death and would take a million bullets for her, but she never stops talking.
It’s only gotten worse since she met Sage. Sage gave her confidence that she never had before. She’s become a mother figure to Tins even though she’s not that much older than we are. If I’m being honest, I kind of look to her for that same guidance. Instead of partying every single night like I used to, I’ve calmed down a bit. Now I spend more time with Tinsley and less time with girls.
It was like Sage filled this puzzle piece we knew was missing but couldn’t find.
Tinsley’s voice pulls me from my thoughts as a name leaves her lips.
“Morgan was at lunch today. I told her she could hang out with us.”
You can hear a pin drop in that moment. It’s almost as if the music also chooses that particular moment to pause slightly before switching to the next song.
The silence lingers until Tinsley speaks again. “Keat, did you hear me?”
My knuckles tighten slightly on the steering wheel, but I’m careful to leave the tension from my voice. “Yeah, I heard you. So what?”
“So, you don’t care if Morgan hangs out with us?”
I glance back and see the worried look on her face. “No. If you want to be friends with her, that’s fine. Just remember what she did to the last friend she had here,” I grumble.
I thought I left the anger behind, but seeing her again reopened that wound.
I remember the day she left. I texted her all day, but she never responded. Then I called her and got voice mail. It wasn’t until I showed up at her house the next day, worried about her well-being, that I found out the truth.
Mr. Wright opened the door and told me she had left. She wanted to go check out her new dorms at Hamilton Dance Academy—HDA. She hadn’t even told me she had been accepted. He said she would be back in a week.
I waited a week. Then two. The hurt grew when I finally realized she wasn’t coming back. Then I moved on. If she wanted to disappear, then I would forget she existed.
“Don’t you even want to ask her why? She had to have a reason to just up and leave. You guys were inseparable.”
I scoff, “No reason or excuse will make leaving without a trace forgivable, Tin Tin. Leave it alone.”
She sits back in her seat and huffs. “Well, I want to know, and I’m going to ask.”
I put the car in park before turning to her. “You can’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She’s not the same Morgan we grew up with. She made a decision that altered who she was and her place in this group. If you want her to hang around, then that’s on you, but make no mistake. She will never be a part of this group again. We have no loyalty to her, nor will we protect her. She’s on her own. The day she left us was the day she became dead to me.”
Without another word, I get out of the car and head inside. Finley and Tinsley stay in the car for a couple minutes, but I don’t wait. I go inside to get a table. I smile at Rita, one of the new servers, as she comes by to take my drink order.
“Rita, my beautiful Rita, how are you doing this evening?”
Rita blushes, but answers me. Rita’s in her thirties, but she still has a banging body. I know I can never go there, not with her working with Sage, but I love making her blush and stumble over her
