sound of hushed voices.
He was not in his bed.
He felt the familiar sag of the couch underneath him as he turned on his side, burying his face into the plush pillow in an attempt to block out all noise and light. His head was absolutely splitting—his mouth like sandpaper. All he wished for in this moment was to return to the still and silent comfort of the unconscious.
“Samantha, please,” his wife’s urgent whisper inundated his ears from the hallway.
“No, I’m sorry mom, but I’m not going to apologize to your pathetic excuse for a husband!” she bit back, not even attempting to keep her voice down.
Dave winced against the harsh tone.
“He is not pathetic. He’s loving and caring. He cares about you, Sam, more than you know.” Georgie was pleading for her daughter to understand.
“He doesn’t even know me! Or Alex! He only hates him because he’s everything Dave isn’t—exciting with a spine. Suddenly he decides to grow a backbone and play dad? Who I date is none of his business.”
“He will get over it,” Georgie spoke on his behalf as Sam scoffed with disbelief. Georgie continued, “He will. He comes from a very different background than ours, he’s been very accepting of our lifestyle, but you have to give him a little time.”
“Fuck! We’ve given him five long years. There’s no coming back from his type of repression.”
Dave opened an eye. His type of repression? He didn’t have to wait too long to figure out what that meant as Georgie voiced his thoughts for him.
“What does that even mean, Samantha?” she asked with a hint of impatience to her tone.
“His freak-show parents did a number on him. How could anyone who grows up under religious nuts like that turn out normal?”
“I don’t love Dave because he is normal.”
“Well that much is obvious, I’m just not sure why you love him at all.”
Georgie sucked in a breath as if she’d been slapped.
“Maybe you don’t recall what your father was like, Samantha. Maybe you can’t remember the black eyes and violent alcohol-soaked fights,” her voice was trembling.
“I didn’t mean—“
But Georgette was on a roll, “Your father nearly killed me. If I stayed any longer who knows what would have happened...Dave is the opposite of that man. He has never hit me, never spoken down to me, never told me what to do. He eased my pain, helped me put myself back together again...How can you treat someone who means so much to me so poorly? Don’t you care about me at all?”
Sam was silent, Georgie near tears. Dave remained tucked into the couch, his heart beating fast as he stayed hidden.
Finally Sam spoke. “Of course I care about you, Mom. I’m sorry.”
Dave listened for his wife’s small sniffles. They were hugging, he could tell. He heard Georgette kiss her daughter’s forehead.
“So,” she began, sounding more like her normal self, “What do you have going on today?”
“Driver’s Ed after school, but don’t worry I’ve got a ride home.”
“Alex?”
Dave listened as their voices moved away from him, down the hall and towards the front of the house. There was no chance of him getting another minute of rest after overhearing that conversation.
Normally Dave felt his mornings were incomplete if he didn’t interact with his wife on some level, but right now all he wanted to do was stay completely alone.
He waited until he was positive that he was the only one still in the house before pulling his aching, sweaty body to its feet.
How the hell had he gotten home last night? He was pretty sure J didn’t have a car. Perhaps Ruth?
He let the hot steam of the shower roll off his taunt muscles as flashes of the previous evening danced tantalizing around in his mind, just out of reach. He remembered being at The Devil’s Eye and unloading his pent-up issues on his new friend. But Dave couldn’t pinpoint the actual moments before his memory left him. It was causing him grief. He’d been irresponsible, stupid. And stupid was dangerous. He inadvertently made himself a hostage of the unknown.