As Dakota Akihara crashes, Rhea Walton falters.
While one is drug away from a life in the 1%, the other finds it increasingly-unbearable to put up with the crushingly-expected and dependable monotony of slow business, bills to pay, and mou...
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The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the smell of bacon.
Juicy, greasy, sizzling bacon. Man, what I would give to taste that right now. It'd been a while since I'd had bacon. And a while being two weeks. One of Mom's friends inducted her into the cult of healthy eating a few months ago. From then on, it had been kale, smoothies, and salads. So how had I gotten my bacon? I went out to breakfast at IHOP.
A lot.
"Barbara, that smells amazing. Are those pancakes?" I shut my eyes, pretending to still be asleep as I heard my grandfather's footsteps grow nearer. I wanted to prolong the lack of communication for as long as possible.
"Aren't they always?" I heard my grandmother say. "If I made waffles you wouldn't touch them."
I heard grandad's low, raspy laugh. He sort of sounded like a smoker. Dad smoked, but I hated it. It smelled awful and the rank seeped deep into all of his clothes and whatever furniture was near. Not to mention the wonders I knew smoking did for his lungs.
"What can I say? I'm a pancake man."
Wow, we actually have something in common. Go figure.
"Is the kid up yet?"
"No. Did you see the size of the bags under his eyes last night? He looked exhausted, I didn't want to wake him."
I didn't look that bad–did I?
"Well someone needs to."
I heard the opening of cabinets and the clinking of plates. "What do you think actually happened?"
I heard my grandfather grunt. "What do you mean? Don't you think our self-centered daughter missed her dear family?"
I heard grandma sigh as more things were set down on the table. "I'm serious, Dalton. This is Melissa we're talking about. Think about it. What and how bad could something be, to make her drop everything and come back here. And what could be bad enough to make her take her children with her?" Then she said in a hushed tone, "I think it may have something to do with their father."
