Days In (Parrish&Darius #2)

Day 18

I didn't think twice before jumping after Parrish. I never felt that much panic as in the moment he went under the boat.

At least we didn't freeze like when Kody decided to take a dive.

My quick reaction really surprised me if I'm being honest. But he's fine and that's all that matters. He wouldn't stop shaking though.

"Parrish, is not that cold. You're a shepherd, you should-"

"I'm not a shepherd mix!" he shouted, "I lied, okay?" Parrish curled into himself more and I just blinked at him.

"But your dad is-"

"Yes, my dad is this majestic Tatra shepherd. I have some of his genes but my mom was a chihuahua and from her I got the inability to stand two degrees below twenty celsius." His scent became a mix of copper and rotten berries as he brought his knees to his chest.

"Why would you lie about that?" And why keep the lie going for long?

"Because I hated everything about my mother and people always said something like 'oh, you poor thing, how do you deal with this weather?' Like, I put on three different layers of clothing Karen, that's how."

Him being a chihuahua mix explained some things, why he got so cold so easily for example. I also wanted to say that it might explain why he was so combative all the time about everything but I'm sure that was mostly because of his troubled childhood.

I stared at him, not saying anything. I couldn't relate to not wanting people knowing what breed I was, mainly because I never really knew what I was until I met my dad. Not that I ever gave two craps about it after knowing either.

Parrish seems to care a lot about it and he's still shaking.

"Come here," I opened my arms.

He hesitated but sat between my legs and I closed my arms around him, wrapping in my blanket like a burrito. The rotten berries in his scent disappeared but the copper was still very present.

Do you think he's mad at us?

It'd be weird if he wasn't.

"Is that better?" I asked, rubbing the sides of his arms over his blanket.

He nodded, mumbling a 'yes' or something like that. Parrish was sitting very still and I couldn't help but nose around the back of his neck.

"I hate you."

He said in the same tone he used when we were roughhousing and I ended up on top of him. It was always a playful 'I hate you' that really meant 'I love you but I refuse to admit you won', I knew that was it meant back then, but did it mean the same now?

"Sorry, I'll stop."

"No, don't. I like it." Parrish sighed and tilted his head back, giving me access to his neck.

Again, in normal circumstances I would've taken that as an invitation, but we weren't really there yet, were we? I simply wrapped my arms tighter around him and hid my face on his neck.

"When did things start to go wrong?" I asked.

"I don't know," he sighed again, "after the incident with Sam, maybe? That really fucked me up."

I didn't bother correcting his language, "but were we okay before that?"

"What do you mean?"

"It was brought to my attention that maybe," I cleared my throat before continuing, "that our acquisition of Kody wasn't really- I know we were both on board with having kids but I should've asked you if you wanted to take him in."