Odds of Love: Past Wounds

Episode 20

Everyone hated him. But that was ok. He had his music.

Theodore Rochester raised up his violin and rested  it comfortably on his collar bone , supported by his shoulder and left hand. He closed his pensive blue eyes behind his glasses and with his bow proceeded to release a haunting love song that seemed to echo throughout the Norland -Lane home.

Luci googled hormone treatments and bottom surgery on her phone. Then the music started ,  and almost against her will she began to cry. She thought about the strange boy across the hall whose mother had sent him across the country for whatever reason. She thought about Sol who wasn't returning her texts or calls today. She thought about her family who were so quiet during dinner that night.

Spencer reached over in the bed and wrapped his arms around his husband. DuBuis was silent and just leaned against him , his eyes closed and his lips moving as though in prayer. Spencer's lips brushed against the back of DuBuis's head.

Andrew fell asleep to the music of his grandson while holding onto his wife Glory.

Next door Sol curled up on his bed , reading Luci's missed texts over and over again. He wanted to text her back but didn't know what to say. His mother, LuLu , wandered into his bedroom in a pair of tattered blue denim shorts and a American flag halter top, her blonde hair with it's dark roots pulled back in a loose ponytail, her long plain face caked over with heavy makeup. She leaned against the wall, smoking a cigarette and flicking ashes occasionally on his floor. She coughed raspily before saying," Come give your mama a damn foot massage, boy. My dogs are barking tonight. "

Yeah, he thought. What could he tell her ? She had Bougie Academy and her new friends. He had..... this here. It was all he would ever have.

Theodore finished the song with a flourish and to the empty bedroom he stood in he took a deep and dramatic bow. Then he heard clapping.

He turned and saw her. His housemate, cousin , whatever the hell she was supposed to be to him. Luci stood there with a tear stained face, clapping.

" I'm not a joke," he said before going over to the doorway and closing the door on her.

He lowered his small slim body down to the floor and almost cradled his only friend, his violin, in his arms. " I'm not a joke," he whispered.