Heaven Help Us

Promise

I couldn’t stay over or visit for very long with Jepha and Rain for a while, but as soon as an opportunity opened up, I took it.

So there I was, sitting with Jeph at bedtime again, getting ready to begin another part of the story.

“I forgot to ask, how did the game of…knights and princes and stuff go? It looked pretty fun.”

He smiled, with a slight blush on his cheeks. “Uncle Raven and Uncle Asher filmed it and took pictures.” He frowned a little at this, and then smirked. “Prince Bronx and Princess Arthur got married and they had to kiss.”

“Oh?”

He nodded.

“What about Prince Jeph?”

“Prince Jeph also got married.”

“To?” I smirked.

His face reddened even further. “Princess Alice.”

“Ooooh!” I teased, ruffling his hair. “Does Jepha have a girlfriend?”

“No! Did you know she’s going to have a little brother or sister?”

“Yeah, I did know that.” I smiled. Jinxx was over the moon happy about it, too.

“Back to the story now,” He demanded.

“Okay, okay,” I laughed.

“Did they kiss, Daddy?” Jeph asked as he fell back onto his bed, taking Batman with him and pulling the covers up to his chin.

“Well, you see, the thing was that the girl paused. Andrew, trying to get rid of the want that rested inside of him, smirked and asked her what she was doing. She told him that she was rethinking her pancake decision. His heart sank into his stomach with disappointment. Once again, he offered her some pancakes, but yet again, she declined. She said that she didn’t feel so well. Andrew got worried, of course. She had taken to wishing them luck before the shows, and it seemed to make them do better. He wanted her there. She was like his good luck charm, even if he wouldn’t admit it to himself. She went back to her room for a little while after that, with the promise to hang out with him again around two. He listened to her sing for a while, but if he’d known what she was doing in there…God, I…Andrew felt so guilty when he found out. He felt like that if he’d made her stay with him, he could have prevented it. But he couldn’t always keep an eye on her to make sure she was safe…” I caught myself before slipping up completely.

“What was she doing, Daddy?” Jeph asked, his eyebrows furrowing together as he frowned.

I swallowed, pushing down the heart-ache that I felt remembering the things that Rain used to do. I wondered if he even knew about self-harm. “She was…hurting herself.”

“Like cutting and stuff?”

My eyes widened a little in surprise. “What?”

“Like when someone is really sad and upset and angry, some people cut themselves. Mommy used to do it. Uncle Raven used to, too. I asked Dante, and he explained it to me. He and Mommy and Uncle Raven said that it isn’t something that I should ever do no matter how bad I might feel. I agree with them. Dante also said that your songs Saviour and Knives and Pens deal with people hurting themselves. Is that true?”

“Yeah, yeah that’s true. And yes, Jepharee, your mom and Dante and Raven are right. If you feel that bad about something, don’t ever hurt yourself. Come talk to me or Mommy or Dante or someone, okay? Promise me?”

“I promise, Daddy. Was the girl okay?”

“They met up again at two, like they said they would. Andrew noticed the signs, but didn’t think much of it. Perhaps she was just now feeling homesick. He wished that he’d have noticed though. He felt horrible about not paying attention to the signs. Juliet hadn’t been texting him back, either, to add onto all of this. He knew that he shouldn’t have been doubting their relationship, but he couldn’t help it. He was falling for the girl faster than he was able to catch himself. This concerned him for a couple of reasons. The first being Juliet, his girlfriend who he had planned to propose to. The second being that she was only sixteen at the time and Andrew was twenty, meaning that it was really not legal to date her. Anyways, Andrew and the girl went to the park so that she could take pictures. She’s a wonderful photographer. The first picture that they took together, Andrew kissed the girl’s cheek and she put her arms around his neck and when Andrew saw it…it stirred up every feeling that he was trying to push down. Because in that picture, he was looking at her and she was looking back at him. Juliet rarely took pictures with him where she was looking at him, too. He loved how happy taking pictures made her, and he never wanted it to end. He never wanted to have to see that beautiful smile fade. As they sat down on a park  bench, Andrew asked to borrow her camera. The girl had her eyes closed, relaxing with her head on his shoulder. Andrew, now in possession of the camera, leaned his head on the girls and took a picture of them. He examined the picture for a minute, looking at the way that the girl looked so content resting there with him. Shortly after, they had to go back to the hotel. Andrew kept the picture that he had taken. Before the show, he sat on the couch in the back room, looking at the picture. The girl came up and sat beside him for a moment, taking notice of the picture. She warned him not to let Juliet see it, because apparently Juliet thought that he was cheating on her with the girl. And how did she know this? Because Juliet had been texting the band mate who had been acting shady. But she didn’t have time to text her own boyfriend?”