Marli pov
Ryleigh took me back home and dad was the only one home.
I went to where he was. He was in the guest room. I knocked on the door and he said,"come in."
Dad was laying in bed , with a fan blowing at him. He looked so drained and sick.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"At your grandma's. Your mom wanted to stay with her people and Keiks and Kai went along."
"You ok?"
"I'm alright." He replied.
"You been drinking?" I asked.
"3rd day sober."
"That's good."
"Do you need anything? Did you eat?" I asked.
"I'll take some water." He said.
I went into the kitchen to get water and seen broken glass on the floor. What the hell done happened here.
After grabbing a cup of water, I went back to him, handed the water, and asked,"Why is there broken glass on the floor."
"I was still drinking and your mom threw a glass cup at me. She was trying to take the cup away from me , jumping all on me, and when she grabbed the cup, I pushed her off me, making her fall to the ground and that's when she threw the cup at me." He said.
"I deeply regret it." He added as his voice cracked. I knew he was refraining from crying.
It hurt to hear that happened.
"I promise I won't touch a bottle of liquor ever again. I promise to my family, that I love. I won't do it again. No matter what I'm going through I won't do it again." He said.
"I believe you dad and I love you ." I said as he buried his head in his hands.
"I love you too Mars."
"That's why mama left?" I Asked.
"Yea, she hasn't been answering my calls either."
"Oh dang, try calling again." I replied
Dad grabbed his phone and called Mama. It rung a few times and she answered."What is it baby? You keep calling me." Mama said in an irritated tone.
"I keep calling cause you not answering.I miss you baby, I love you. Please come back. This my third day being sober. I need you here with me."
"I'll come back later. How bout you get up and come over here and show your face. You got Mama worried." Mama replied.
Dad rubbed his face and sighed. "Ok, we'll be there shortly. Mars is with me."
"Ok, love you , bye." She replied before hanging up.
Dad got up and ready, then we left.
The car ride , I had questions to ask.
"Why all of sudden you're using alcohol as a scapegoat? You weren't drinking when we was young."
"That's a good question." Dad replied.
"Like I don't know if you were drinking when yall said mama lost a baby, but you weren't drinking when yall got a divorce either. So why now?"he continued.
He thought for a moment and said "I don't know, it all started with drinking beer, and drinking it daily, when I was stressing about everything I held in and was dealing with. Then one day it didn't feel like enough so I went on to the next big thing. But I guess when yal were young I knew you all needed me. I couldn't be drunk and take care of yal on my own. And with the lost of our son, I had to be strong for your mother.So now I just felt no one was depending on me and I had no responsibility for anything."
"You had better luck doing it when we were young. Because now we're old enough to be stuck with the memory of our father being a drunk." I Said
"I'm not a drunk."
"What are you then?" I asked.
He had no answer.
"I honestly just think it's selfish." I Continued
I could see dad trying to refrain from getting mad at me.
"It's life."he replied.
"It's a choice." I retorted.
"Marli, please be mindful who you're talking to. I'm your father. You tend to forget your place." Dad said.
"I didn't say nothing wrong. You just don't wanna hear the truth."
"Yall making this a big deal. Yea I was drinking, but there's people who literally become abusive when drunk. Only thing yall deal with is me looking drunk. I could be a lot worse."
"You were drunk and you broke mama phone when we was in New York, you being drunk caused you to get kicked out the house, for whatever reason, and now you pushing mama. Regardless if you wasn't being abusive you still have caused trauma for us."
"So I'm the bad guy now, got it. Make me out to be the drunk. So yal can have a sob story. I do too much for yal. I deal with too much. But all yall can take out of this is me being a drunk. Like I just been drinking all along."
In this very moment, I realized my dad wasn't a superhero or super perfect man , he was just a regular man.
The rest of the ride was quiet.
Once we got to the house, grandma greeted us. "Hey yal." She said as she gave me a hug.
She pulled dad into a hug and said "They driving my son in law crazy in that house?"
"You doing alright son?" She asked.
"Yea, I'm fine."
"I'm glad you doing better. " she replied.
"Thank you." Dad said before walking to where mama was. She was lounging on the couch. He laid next to her, resting his head on her lap. She caressed his face then kissed him.
I went in the den, where Keiks and Kai was.
"Dad and I talked. He feels we're making this more than it is. He's not a drunk, he could be worse, but he isn't." I said.
"Well it comes in phases. If we gonna call daddy a drunk we gotta call mama one too and call her a stoner. She said herself after their divorce, she was drinking wine every night. And going out and getting drunk. And recently she was smoking like for a period of time when we thought they were going through it again." Keiko said.
"You right. I guess it's a big deal because with mama she kept it under wraps. She'd wait til we was sleep. It never impacted us." I replied.
"I guess."she replied.
"It doesn't bother me, I just don't like when he gets aggressive " Kairo said.
"Yea." We agreed.
Grandma's screech interrupted our train of thought.
We rushed to where she was to see what happened. She was at the front door with the police. Mama came to her to see what was going on."Micah is gone."Grandma said.
"What do you mean?" Mama said.
"Ma'am he didn't survive a car crash." The police said.
Mama and Grandma held each other and cried. Grandpa was just walking into the house, trying to figure out what was going on.
He went on and spoke with the police while Mama and grandma cried in the living room. Daddy held onto mama as she cried into his shoulder.
Keiko, Kai, and I were crying too. We couldn't believe this happened. He was supposed to be on his way over here too.
