Fixing Us by Honesty Price

Author:Honesty Price [Price, Honesty]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

“Mikie, come down here for a minute, please.” Ike and I both took turns exercising nervous tics. He raked through his locs and I pulled on, then smoothed down my clothes. I had no idea how this conversation would go.

“Ma, do we have— oh hey Dr. Ike.” She greeted him with a smile, which was a good sign, then moved around the kitchen unaware of our terror.

Ike looked like he was about to throw up and I didn’t need him fainting while I tried to walk her through this.

“Hey, I’ll call you later.” I whispered to him. While Mikie looked in the fridge, he bent on instinct to kiss my cheek, but I jerked back, looking at him like he was crazy.

“Oooh my bad,” he whispered, grabbing the bag of shampoo and hair oil I had for him from the table.

I rolled my eyes at his absentmindedness and took a seat at the table as he turned the bottom lock and let it close behind him.

“Mikie, come sit, please.”

“I’m gonna pull my math grade up. I already did the assignments I was missing.” She called herself staving off a lecture, but the joke was on her. I had no idea she missed assignments. And while we would talk about that later, now we had other business.

“It’s not about that. Sit down.” She snatched her earphones out and reluctantly took a seat.

“Does this have something to do with daddy?”

“No,” I sighed, feeling hot.

“Therapy?”

“What’s got you thinking about therapy?”

“I’m not. You just look serious, and when you look like this, it’s school, daddy, or therapy.”

“Oh, well… it’s none of those. I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Ike.”

“Oh.” She sat back relieved, and pulled some grapes out of the bowl on the table.

“He and I… well, we were thinking about… A couple days ago we—” I kept my eyes low as I fumbled through what I didn’t want to say.

“He’s your boyfriend?” Hearing the words startled me.

“Uh no… well yes… I— we were thinking about it. Would you… how would you feel about that?”

“Um, I don’t know. I mean, he’s nice, I guess, but… what about dad?”

I bit my top lip and squirmed in my seat. “What feelings do you have about me and your dad?”

“Y’all are my parents. And then he had to move and then… everything happened. I thought it would just be me, you, and Aunt Allison. Is he moving in here? Like are y’all getting married?”

“We care about each other a lot but haven’t talked about the future of our relationship. But if you’re worried about him being here all the time, he won’t be. This is your house too, and I don’t want you to feel crowded out.”

“Why was he here today?” Her tone was non-threatening and curious, but there was sadness in it.

“I had some hair products for him.” Mikie looked toward the door to the salon and nodded. “I know this is soon,” I started, ready to promise her anything she needed, no matter what it cost me.

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