Two Punks In Love

A Scale Of One To Ten

Trace 3 months later

Lightening crashes against the gray mountain sky.

A thunderstorm at this time of year is rare, but not as rare Kat and I fighting. In fact, we are having our very first married fight. It's been going on for about 2 days. Last night I told her we weren't going to sleep until we resolved the issue.

She solved that by tricking me out of the house and locking the door behind me. Through the door she said "I love you TG, but Im exhausted, and I need sleep way more than I need to resolve this disagreement! Goodnight baby!"

I had to sleep in the barn. Which is fine because it has heat and that awesome swing bed , but still.

I missed my wife. First night we've slept separate since we were married.

It's okay, though. Because as stubborn as my wife can be, she's got nothin'—and I mean absofuckinglutely nothing—on me when it comes to my determination to make sure she's safe, and I will see this disagreement resolved to my satisfaction.

So that's why I've called in reinforcements. Bodie and Marley arrived this morning and Madam about an hour after them.  I get that Kat is eight months pregnant with twins and sorta batshit bonkers right now, but I was banking on the fact that she would reign her crazy in when the crew got here.

Wrong.  They are all locked out of the house with me.

"Good thing the barn is fully stocked,"  Adam jokes, surveying the beer cooler. He lets the glass door fall closed without cracking one open, however. Whether it's solidarity for Mac's pregnancy or just Adam's recently maturing opinion that booze is better left for fun times not tense times, I'm not sure, but I appreciate his restraint. I haven't had more than a beer since the wedding.

It hit me, waking up with Kat, the morning after we were married, to the feel of the babies kicking under the hand I had on her belly. I'm a husband and a father-to-be. This family is on me.

I thought I knew what responsibility was, being the leader of my band. I didn't know shit. That morning I realize we're up in the woods, just the two of us and occasionally Prez, with no one around for about thirty miles. Our vague assumption that Kat was gonna hang with me and my ankle bracelet at the Clink until she went into labor, then mosey on up to the hospital in Chattanooga after Officer Malone got around to processing my emergency release?

Bad plan, man. Damn bad plan.

So I made a new plan. And although we've been talking about the plan ever since the wedding, now that it's time to enact the plan, Kat has gone insane and is acting like she never agreed to the plan.

She most certainly fucking did. Which is why we are fighting. Well mostly, she's fighting by saying "I never actually agreed to your suggestion" and I'm saying shit like "Baby please, be reasonable." And "Now Kitty, you know I only want what's best for you and the boys because I love you," and "Kat, please open the goddamn door, it's freezing and raining and I'm not wearing any shoes!"

She opened the door, dropped my boots and jacket on the mat, and shut it in my face again. I didn't try to push my way in, because despite the fact that we are having a major disagreement, there's not the least bit of hostility.

Just a lot of slowly shutting doors and engagingly quiet clicking locks.

"Hey, check this out!" Bodie cuts a backflip on the trampoline as more thunder claps outside. Marley looks up from her phone and grins at him briefly, but her smile fades as she looks at her phone again.

"What's wrong?" Mac says.

"Darius. He's avoiding us. For months now, since he got his own apartment. I mean, he comes around about once a week and he seems fine, but I'm worried about him. I feel like...he's hiding something from us. Like maybe...a girl? Is he dating somebody he thinks we won't like?"