ALL OF MY PEACHES ARE RUINED || nate & cassie | euphoria abo

c h a p t e r f o u r

chapter four: A FEW DEGREES HIGHER

DAD CAME BACK HOME THE NIGHT from Saturday to Sunday. Lexi and I went to sleep in my room together with baby Nia, well past midnight again, but Mom stayed in the living to wait for Dad, saying she would not be able to fall asleep while he was gone. She was pale with worry, and we completely understood that. We heard the door open and their muffled voices at about five in the morning. Lexi and I went to sneak on the stairs just like we did when we were children, and Dad would come home very late, and Mom would stay up waiting for him. It's just that Lexi and I were not children anymore. They still kept things from us.

"What happened?" Mom asked Dad, standing up as soon as he came to hug her. He looked exhausted.

Dad said to her something very quietly, so Lexi nor I could hear anything. Mom looked horrified, from what we could tell in the dim lamplight.

They sat down on the sofa and talked a little more, but that conversation was not very informational. When they both decided to go to sleep and started getting up the stairs and Lexi, and I ran to my bedroom like scared girls, it was still unclear what Nathaniel Jacobs wanted with my dad.

It was Lexi's last night at our home, at her childhood home, but both she and I could not fall asleep.

"It's a lot scarier not to know what's going on than to know at least a tiny little detail," I said.

Lexi let out a shaky breath and grabbed my hand in the dark.

"Promise me you'll be careful," she told me.

I turned my head to look at her, even though I could barely see her features.

"Why me? It's Dad who should be careful, tell him that."

Short silence.

"Just promise me, okay?" Lexi squeezed my hand tighter.

"Okay," I promised finally. "I'll try to be careful as long as it's in my power."

Dad woke up later than usual in the morning, so Mom made us breakfast, pancakes with chocolate chips, while Lexi fed Nia. It seemed Mom wanted to comfort us with food, but she couldn't have known we'd been listening to them talk. All three of us sat down to eat at the kitchen table while Nia played with her toys and giggled on the carpet right next to us. But then we heard Dad coming from the master bedroom, and we all went silent instantly. Dad looked better than he did just a few hours before, but he was still slightly disheveled even though he dressed up and combed his hair.

"What are you lot up to?" he asked carelessly as we watched him put some pancakes on his plate and pour coffee into his favorite mug.

Lexi crossed her arms.

"What do you think?" she asked with slight annoyance in her voice.

Dad shrugged, completely oblivious.