Grey

Chapter Seven

 Before I knew it, it was Rowan's twentieth birthday. It was an eerie Saturday morning, the gloominess was in the air. When I padded downstairs, neither of my parents were up and it was ten in the morning. This meant Dad was out driving around avoiding it. And Mom was going to be up in bed for the rest of the week.

Grey had called three nights after the fight. I didn't answer. He called again last night, too. I finally gave in. “What do you want?” I had asked.

“Vi,” he whimpered. I sat up in bed and turned the lamp on beside my bed. He sounded hurt or upset. I threw the covers off of myself in case I needed to flee to his apartment.

I chewed on my lower lip. “Grey, what's wrong? Talk to me,” I demanded. Grey shuffled around on the other end and finally spoke, his voice broken.

“His birthday is tomorrow.” Sudden pain slapped me in the face. He'd been thinking about it all night. “Violet, his birthday is tomorrow and he's not here.”

Pulling the covers back over top of me, I sat back against the pillows. “I know, Grey. He'd be twenty.” The only way to make him better was to talk about it, whether he believed me or not. His way was drinking until he couldn't feel. Thankfully, he didn't sound wasted.

“It's because of me,” he whispered. A tear slipped down my cheek at the sound of his voice.

I shook my head even though he couldn't see me. “Grey, stop. It's okay. It's okay. These things happen all of the time and all we can do is deal with them. Do you understand me?”

We continued talking until he fell asleep on the line, his light snores making my heart warm just a tad. He'd probably show up later tonight. Grey couldn't handle anything on his own, no matter how tough he wanted to seem.

~

 “Hey, Dad,” I greeted him when he came in through the front door. He gave a small wave and I got up to follow him into the kitchen.

He took a beer out of the fridge. “Vi, honey, sit down for a minute. I want to talk to you.” I did as I was told. “As you know that today is...Rowan's birthday.” The words struggled to come out of him.

“I know. I thought about it a lot last night,” I replied, staring at my hands. He took a swig.

“Vi, I know we haven't been the best parents in the world since your brother passed. I know we've been very distant and very tense, but it's just because it was so sudden. It was such a shock. I'm sorry if you've ever felt abandoned or ignored, honey. We never intended it to be this way. None of us did,” he said, looking me in the eyes.

I teared up but blinked them back. “I think it'd be better to deal with if we talked about it, you know? If we kept his door open and just remembered that he was here. We keep acting like he never existed.” My dad nodded. He knew it was the truth. We were shutting out everything that had happened.

He cleared his throat. “We will, Vi. In time. When your mother's ready.”

Chewing on my lower lip, I looked up at my father. “I miss him, dad. I miss him a lot.”

My father began to tear up, but blinked them back just as I had a few moments ago. “We all do, sweetie. We all do.”

~

My prediction was right. Grey showed up an hour before midnight, shaking and on the edge of a mental breakdown. I held him as he calmed down. “It's okay,” I whispered into his ear as I smoothed his hair back. “It's okay, Grey.”

He looked at me. “How are...how are your parents?” Grey asked timidly, taking off his jacket.

“They're actually pretty well. I mean, my dad is. My mom just sort of stayed in bed all day,” I replied truthfully. He nodded as if he understood, like he had laid in bed all day and thought about himself and Rowan. “I have something to show you.”