Page 73 of Driftwood Daffodil 3

Son of a bitch.

What was wrong with him? “Why aren’t you grossed out by this?”

“I have two sisters.”

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Damnit. Oh well, I guess I would have to rely on a nap to lift my mood. Anyone who said they wished there were more hours in the day, or that they didn’t nap, were crazy. There was nothing like a glorious spout of laziness to make me feel better.

My mind once again wandered back to my brother. Kato wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. When he was pissed he’d yell, or hit something. When he was happy he would laugh, and when he was worried, he would pace back and forth while muttering to himself. I caused a lot of pacing. So much so that there was a visible trail in the carpet of our apartment. Was he pacing right now? Was he wandering around his cell looking for something to punch? Did he hate me?

“Alright,” Atlee said while pulling the truck to a stop. “We’re here.”

Finally, my bed was calling my name. Hopefully I’d wake up and find out this whole day was a nightmare. That seemed to be the theme of my life lately. The nightmare that wouldn’t end.

Reaching out, I grabbed the door handle, then stopped.

Wait a minute…

“This is Gio’s house.” Although according to our ‘deal’ technically one could say it was my weekend house.

I could practically hear the mocking tone coming from the Mancini mansion as I stared out the window. On the upside, I no longer found those two stairwells framing the path up to the front door scary. Right now, they just pissed me off.

Who’s genius idea was it to build two staircases to the same balcony? What kind of waste of space was that? Someone needed to knock one of those down. Preferably the left one. Not that there was anything different about that set of steps, I just didn’t like the way the sun bounced off it.

“I know what Gio’s house looks like. I’ve spent more time here than you have.”

That wasn’t my point. “This isn’t my house.”

Which was where we should be.

“Wait…” Atlee’s brows knit. “You call that thing you live in a house?”

“Yes,” I glared back at him. “It’s my house.”

And future yard gnome graveyard. I had little tombstones made up for each one. Knox would start walking soon, and those things would be the first to succumb to his toddler wrath. He may have a little direction from his aunt, especially when it came to the one with the yellow hat. That beady eyed bastard smiled at me every morning.

“I don’t know.” Atlee tsked. “If you had said tin can or trailer…”

“Oh my God shut up.” I snarled. “Why are we at Gio’s?”

“Oh, you have a dinner date.”

Suspicion narrowed my gaze. “No I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.” Did he hit his head this morning, or was he just dumb?

Wow, I was in a bad mood. Snapping at Atlee and hating on inanimate objects. Stupid left staircase. Looking all shiny and happy.

“Oh, but you do.” Atlee sang with a smug nod.

“Alright, seeing as I’m pretty sure the only place you’ve ever taken a girl is the first unoccupied room you could find, I understand why you would be confused about the parameters of a date. Allow me to clarify.” Sitting up straighter, I turned his way. “A date entails one person who likes another person asking them if they would accompany them to a place—usually a restaurant or movie. Since I neither like said person, nor was I asked anything, this does not constitute a date.”

It was a simple explanation that should’ve been easy to understand. Atlee of course, only took one thing from what I said.

“Why does the room have to be unoccupied?” A coy smirk spread across his face. “I do like an audience.”

Eww. “Who would want to watch that?”

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