let's light up the sky ☆

Chapter 17

I had the first good morning in a while to sleep in as late as I wanted. Maggie came into my room in the middle of the night when I was already totally out of it. I woke up long enough a couple hours ago to realize there was a 50-pound hunk of fluff curled up next to me. 

"You finally came to your senses, huh old girl?" I mumbled before drifting back off to sleep. She'd pretty much camped out in Armen's room since he came home.

At around 11 am, we heard a car pulling up in the driveway. Of course, like whenever she's convinced there's an intruder, Maggie hopped off my bed and bellow-howled at the window. "Calm down, Mags, it's probably my parents." I peeked through the sheer pink window curtains to see Dad unloading their bags from the trunk. Mom spotted me standing at the window and waved.

Guess that's my cue to finally wake up.

I washed my face to at least try to clean myself up and not feel so groggy. The front door cracked open and the beeping of the security alarm rang through the house. "Kids?" Mom called out.

"Coming!" I answered over the second floor balcony. Maggie had already beaten me to them, based on the sounds of Dad baby-talking her and her excited grunting.

I hugged Mom as soon as I came off the stairs. "Did you two have a great time while we were gone?" Mom asked while she still hugged me. "The house still looks intact."

It's funny now that she mentions it, but for once Armen and I didn't spend the whole week and a half trying to kill each other. It was nice to have some regular time and chill with him. I wouldn't dare mention to them, though, about our conversion last week. I was actually only freaking out thinking that I would never be able to make it on my own. I know they would never want me to feel that way. I kept quiet because I didn't want them getting the wrong idea.

"Yeah, Armen was actually nice to me for once."

Dad snickered. "Girl? You bully him more than he does to you."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Perks of being a human chihuahua, I guess. But when did you two leave this morning? Isn't San Fran like a 6 hour drive from here?"

Mom grabbed a breakfast yogurt and poured in her favorite toppings. "Blame your dad's insomnia."

"That's how we do it on tour. You remember how it was, back in your groupie days–"

"Dad, I literally woke up five minutes ago." I like Dad's old band stories, but I would rather not listen to those.

Armen sauntered down the hall, looking far worse for the wear after his night of sleep. "Oh, you're back early," he muttered with a yawn.

"When did you think we'd come back?" Mom laughed.

Armen tried thinking of an answer but turned glassy-eyed and dazed out. "Whenever you felt like it?"

Dad walked over to him with arms wide open for a hug. "Well maybe we just missed our own kiddos." He helped Armen get comfortable on the couch and invited me and Mom over. Now that Armen was awake, it was time to dig into the details of their trip.

"How's baby D?" I asked. "First of all, what does the D stand for?"

Mom pulled out her phone and scrolled through her gallery. "He's good! They named him Daniel James Warren."

"What a basic name," I chuckled.

Mom pinched me. "Hey, don't be rude. Not everyone can get lucky with their name like you." She gave me her phone to show me the best picture of him she could find. "Anahit let me take one, but she asked us not to share them around anywhere. She said she doesn't want him to have a digital trail of him at his lowest point."