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Wednesday, October 28

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     Marcus had a rough night sleeping, so he ended up waking around 8am instead of his usual 7. He checked Jessie’s room and saw that it was empty, and after peeking through the rest of the house it seemed that he was all alone. Good, I guess. She should be starting school right about now, he thought, glancing at the clock on the wall. Although I wouldn’t have blamed her if she felt too sick to head in this morning. He headed back to his room and picked up his phone to send her a text. “Hey, I see you made it school this morning, that’s good. Did you sleep well? Are you hungover? Love you b29;” Besides a quick message to see if she felt fine, he figured the best approach would be to just move past what happened last night. 

     Luckily she was only in the first few minutes of class, so she was able to reply right away. “tossed and turned a lot but slept ok, almost missed the bus. idk if im hungover tho, whats it feel like? also love u too 🥰” 

     “Aha!” he blurted out, chuckling at her reply. He couldn’t tell if she was serious or just kidding around. “You would know if you’re hungover lol, guess you’re fine. That’s good! See you when you get home,” he wrote back, lightly giving her a reminder that he wouldn’t be picking her up. 

     She just sent back two “OK” emojis, and he put his phone back down, glad to see she was seemingly back to her regular self.

*    *    *    *    *    *

     It was almost 5:30 when Jessie came home from school. He half-expected her to be in somewhat of an upset mood that he hadn’t picked her up from practice, but as she practically skipped through the front door and headed to the kitchen to find a snack, he could see no signs of a lingering bad mood. Everything that had happened yesterday — her sour attitude after her game, her revelation that she had been sneakily sipping his alcohol (and was drunk), and her uncomfortable proposition that Marcus could ‘spank’ her — there was no evidence that any of it had ever happened.

     After finishing an apple while she was sitting quietly at the table, not looking at her phone like usual and just watching her dad cook dinner, she felt there was something important she had to tell him. “Hey Daddy?” she said, and he turned away from the stove to see what she needed.

     “What’s up?”

     She swallowed her last bite of apple and took in a deep breath. “I just wanted to say sorry about yesterday. For getting… drunk,” she winced, “and stealing some of your wine and stuff.” She looked down and frowned. “I just figured I should like, say something. Cuz I felt bad.” She didn’t even want to mention the part where she asked him to spank her. With a clear, sober head, she was every bit as aware now as her father was last night of how awkward and weird that moment was. The thought of acting like that around her dad again scared her away from alcohol far more than just getting nauseous or vomiting again. Jessie was glad that he hadn’t mentioned it all day either.

     “I’m glad you said that. And you know I completely forgive you. I’m sure it won’t happen again, but just so you know, if you ever get drunk again when you’re at someone else’s house, or high, or God forbid anything worse, it’s important for you to know that you can call me, and I’ll pick you up and take you home, no questions asked. When you’re older and you and your friends start to drive, I don’t want you risking your life because you didn’t feel like you could trust me to come get you.” She nodded solemnly, smiling with reassurance. She really did have such a great dad. “You don’t even need to be in any immediate trouble, if there’s just a guy at some party who’s creeping you out, I’ll still come get you,” he joked, and she laughed, glad that he could lighten the mood. “Come gimme a hug,” he added last, and opened up his arms on top of his stool while she got up and came around to embrace him. “I love you, Jess,” he said, squeezing her tight to let her know that he’d do everything in his power to keep her safe for as long as he lived.

     She squeezed him back, feeling the same protective way about her father because of his shrunken size. “I love you too.”