Page 80 of Rock Chick Bonus Tracks

Lee walked partly up the steps to get out of his way before Darius stopped in the small landing at the foot of the stairs at the door to the rec room. Eddie came into the space, crowding him and closing the door behind him.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Just…” Lee’s voice sounded choked. “Come upstairs,” he finished, like he was forcing out the words.

Nope.

Darius didn’t like this shit at all.

They got up the stairs and into the kitchen, and he liked this less.

He noticed it all, all at once.

He did this knowing, even if he lived to be a hundred, he’d never forget it.

Not any of it.

Hank was shoulders against the back wall, arms crossed on his chest, ankles crossed, head bent so deep, Darius couldn’t see his face.

Tom was sitting at the table.

His eyes came right to Darius.

His face was ravaged.

Malcolm was standing, holding Kitty Sue.

Kitty Sue was silently crying.

Malcolm looked wrecked.

Darius’s insides seized.

“What’s up?” he repeated, but this time his voice was small.

Because he knew.

His mom.

One of his sisters.

Maybe an accident.

It was something like that.

Something bad.

Kitty Sue stepped out of Malcolm’s hold and called, “Honey, come here.”

He didn’t go there.

He backed up and ran into a wall that was made of Lee and Eddie.

One of them grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt.

The other wrapped his hand around the back of Darius’s neck.

Fuck, he knew.

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