Page 61 of What I Should Have Known

“Second to the left. Near the sink beneath the big window,” our mom directed in a frenzy to leave.

Raiden’s eyes widened as she sprinted toward the door. “Prom,” he mouthed silently, nodding toward her.

“When’s prom?” I asked, out loud and Raiden groaned, plopping his head back against the couch, clearly not happy with my approach.

“This Saturday,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“Mom, can Raiden go to prom?” I glanced back at her.

She jumped on one foot, tugging a shoe on. “Not the time to ask, Bernie.”

“Come on, it’s his first prom, and he’s got his girlfriend. Plus, Raiden has straight A’s and is a hard worker. The total opposite of me,” I continued.

She slammed her hand around the doorknob, ripping it open. “You know what, he can go if you agree to chaperone.”

My jaw fell open as, without another word, she whisked out of the house. The pictures on the walls rattled as the door shut with a clang.

“You’re chaperoning,” Raiden stated, raising a brow at me as I braced against the counter.

“You don’t get to demand another thing from me.” I tugged open the golden handle and scanned the assortment of cereal boxes.

“Then you should’ve asked at a different time, and in a better way. You’re going. And you better fix this pissed-off attitude you’ve had since you came home yesterday.” He narrowed his eyes on me.

“I had shit to do. Got myself a project and was chatting with Griff about some of it.”

“Griffin?” Raiden grinned and rolled around on the couch to face me while kneeling on the cushions. “How is he? Why hasn’t he and Jane come and visited since we live so close now? Better yet, why hasn’t Ford shown up like he always does when y’all are on leave?”

I shrugged my shoulders, selecting my favorite marshmallow cereal. “Ford said he was going to visit some old military buddies on the coast for a bit, and Griff has like four fucking kids. Probably pretty hard to pack all of them little shits up.”

“True…” Raiden sighed and plopped back down on the couch. “I’m waiting for Charlotte, by the way, to answer your other question. So, think of the fact you’ll be letting not just me, but her down if you don’t agree to chaperone.”

I chuckled to myself, and plodded back to the island, snagging a clean bowl from the dish drying rack beside the stainless-steel sink. “Fine, fine.”

“Thank you!” Raiden exclaimed and turned to Matrix, grabbing his ears. “You hear that buddy?” he said to the dog in a baby voice. “I’m going to prom.”

“You’ve already asked Charlotte, haven’t you,” I inserted, as a statement instead of a question, and Raiden huffed.

“And? You aren’t gonna tell mom I did that before getting permission to go, are you?” he replied as the cerealtinkedinto the ceramic white bowl.

“Nah, just once in a while, you do shit that I would, and that’s one of them,” I replied with a grin, twisting the cap off of the milk.

“Oh, ha ha. Despite how hard I try, somehow I can’t shake being related to you entirely,” Raiden quipped quickly back as I dribbled some delicious milk into the bowl.

As I turned to replace the milk in the fridge, a light pounding rattled the front door. Without a second’s pause, Raiden shot up from the couch and darted across the carpet. He smoothed down some of his hair and adjusted the simple navy T-shirt he wore.

I leaned back against the counter beside the fridge and raised the bowl, the cold piercing my skin as I dug into the cereal with my spoon. The teenager double checked there wasn’t a piece of lint or a strand of hair out of place, then paused before opening the door.

He tossed a sharp glare right at me. “You could’ve at least put a shirt on,” he hissed and wrapped his hand around the doorknob.

The hinges groaned as I shoveled some cereal in my mouth, and the figure that filled the open frame froze me mid-chew. A sense of peacewrapped my soul, the burden of grief lessening just a little as my gaze locked with my best friend’s. Not because the grief was less, but because it was at least shared now.

Raiden shrieked, losing the mature insecurity of a teenager and literally launching himself at the massive frame. He wrapped his legs around Ford’s waist as the man dropped his two duffels and caught the kid.

“What’s up, buddy?” Ford grunted, wrapping his arms around Raiden’s back.

“Where have you been? I’ve had to deal with Bernie by myself for over a month now!” Raiden cried out as I set my bowl down beside me and shoved off the counter.

“I’m not that bad, jeez,” I grumbled.

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