Morphine

Chapter Twenty Eight

Marceline Anne heard a knock on her door as she brushed her hair in the mirror in her bathroom. She set aside the wig brush and went to see who it was.

It was Marcus. "We need to talk."

She let him in then closed the door after him. "What about?"

He went to her couch and chairs and sat in a chair. "Come sit." He patted the couch.

She came over and sat down. "You're acting like you're going to give me the talk."

"I did not do a good job with that, did I?"

"You mean where you didn't tell us anything and we had to ask Google?" Her brow raised.

He blushed. "Tell me you didn't put that on the Goggle!"

"Daddy, focus."

He blinked. "I wanted to tell you that the sale on the house went through."

A smile bloomed on her face. "Yay!"

He pouted. Stupid house! "Yay..."

"I gotta call Malcolm!"

"You do that, Sweetpea." He stood up.

"When can we have work done on the house?"

"As soon as tomorrow."

"I have to call painters and contractors. This is going to be great!"

He saw her excitement and his heart sank. She couldn't wait to get away from him. "Yes. It'll be great."

M-

"Do you need a ride?" Michael the Fourth knocked on his brother's door.

"No thanks. Marceline Anne's going to start taking me to school." Malcolm grabbed his backpack.

"Ooh! Alone time with the wife?"

"She's still taking Karen to school and she's even offered to go get Chase. We won't be alone."

"That sucks. You need alone time. Did you ever figure out your schedules? Will you have time during the day?"

"After their art club meeting, I'm going with Marceline Anne and Karen to the library for class then we'll go to the hospital (Karen going to her mother's shop) and stay for lunch. Maybe we'll have alone time there? I don't know.

After lunch is the library before going to Pepperidge for the public speaking course that I signed up for so I could be with her. I don't know if Karen signed up, too but there's that. Then we come back to the high school for our classes then sports practice."

"After sports?"

Malcolm shrugged. "I think she has martial arts on Mondays and Wednesdays."

"What about Tuesdays and Thursdays?"

"She has dance class in the morning so she'll be picking us all up early but after school is soccer for her and Karen. She said it was at four thirty so they have nothing to do after-school."

"Doesn't your photography club meet after-school on Tuesdays and Thursdays?"

"Yup. I don't have anything after so I'll be waiting on them. She has newspaper every Friday. And something called flag practice but I don't know what that is."

Michael shrugged. "You need to get as much time in as you can."

"Right after-school on Mondays and Wednesdays, she's free. I could ask her to watch me play basketball."