• Rose In The Dark • (GxG)

Chapter Ten

Noah

This morning I woke up happy.

It was early, just before the sun had begun to rise, and since I couldn't sleep I figured I'd get some work done just to save myself future stress. Somehow being a judge requires just as much, if not more, desk work than being an attorney. Although I didn't exactly mind it.

However, my dear brother has always known how to kill a damn mood. And now, instead of the relaxing morning I was having just twenty minutes ago, I could definitely feel a headache coming on.

"I don't understand what the hell your problem is Tink, you're being selfish-"

Blinking long and hard as I sat up within my office chair, I pointed to my chest with my phone to my ear. "I'm being selfish??"

"Yes."

"How??"

"Because our father is dying and you still have the nerve to be mad at him about whatever it is you're mad about," he explained, soundly completely sure of himself. Huffing quietly through my nose, my jaw clenched. "I mean really, I know you've always been stubborn but this is ridiculous, aren't you over it by now?"

"Darryl-" I pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes to keep myself calm. "Don't speak so freely on things you know nothing about-"

"Whatever it is shouldn't matter though, Tink. That's what I'm saying, he's still your Pops and he needs you, he needs both of us. Just be the bigger person-"

"I don't give a shit about what he needs, Darryl-" I snapped a bit, my tone low. Then I sighed with regret. "Listen, I understand what you're getting at, I do. But just because he's dying shouldn't give him a pass for all the shitty things he's done. Forgiveness doesn't work that way."

"Come on Tink, he said he was sorry," my brother bargained. "What's your deal with him still anyway?"

Biting down on my lip, my leg began to bounce as I sat back, folding my arms. "What do you care, it's not like you aren't just going to take his side."

"Noah I'm a psychology professor, whatever it is I'm sure I can subtract bias-"

"Oh please," my eyes rolled. "When it comes to emotion, your years of study are thrown out of the window and you know it. And I refused to be villainized by you over that man. Not anymore."

"It's not my fault you chose to give him a hard time once he came home-"

"Oh but it was okay to drink his ass off and hit on Mama??" my voice raised a bit before I caught myself and bit my lip. "He gets to check out on us and we just excuse it because he was in the service? He refused to get help, Darryl. He criticized me for every little thing, nothing I ever did was good enough for him. Meanwhile you get a trophy for just making your damn bed in the morning."

Silence fell for a moment before he spoke softly. "It was never like that Noah, I got in trouble too-"

"Like hell it wasn't, and not nearly as often as I did and for much less, you know that Darryl- Don't play in my damn face." Despite my efforts, I was starting to get upset. Sometimes I wonder how it is that I'm younger than him. "He babied you and threw me to the curb, then had the nerve to lash out on me when I called him on his bullshit. And you've always been too damn far in la la land to give a shit about any of it, let alone say anything."

My brother paused again, for there was no point in arguing that I was right.

"Look that was all a long time ago Noah-"