Heaven Help Us

Jealous Yet?

Dante came outside and met us where the driver was waiting.

“Hey, Jepha!” He said at first, then noticed Andy and raised an eyebrow at me.

I moved over and let Jepha climb into the car, where he began chatting happily with the driver, flailing about and showing him his Batman.

I hugged Dante. He looked a little bit more relaxed after that, but still eyed Andy and I warily, waiting for an explanation.

I took a deep breath, but Andy beat me to it.

“Hi, Dante,” He smiled nervously. “So...Jeph's my son.”

“No, really?” Dante said sarcastically. I could tell he was upset, so I intervened.

“We'll talk about this later. Dante, Andy, let's go get breakfast.”

Dante still looked kind of pissed off, but smiled a little at me and then got in the car, switching to ignoring Andy and talking to Jeph, who would quite often try to bring Andy into the conversation.

I was relieved when we got to the IHOP. The tension in the car was building and I could tell Dante had things he wanted to say to Andy, but was holding off because Jeph was in the car.

Jeph hopped around excitedly while we waited for Dante to tell the driver that he'd text him when it was time to pick us up.

Andy picked Jeph up and set him on his shoulders.

“Be careful!” I warned them.

Dante got out of the car and stood beside me, watching them for a minute.

“So,” He began, with bitter curiosity lining his voice.

“Not now, Dante. I told you, we'll all talk about this later.” I said with finality.

“Fine.” He put an arm around my shoulders and I leaned on him a little. “So this is where you'd go as a teenager for fun?”

“Fuck no. I think the IHOP is new here.”

“I see. This town's pretty...” He trailed off, looking for a suitable word.

“Small and shitty?”

“Um...I wasn't going to go with THAT, but...yes.”

“I'm so glad you understand.” I said sarcastically.

“You love me, though,” He smiled down at me and I couldn't help but smile back. Dante was truly a wonderful best friend.

“Come on, boys,” I called over to Jeph and Andy, who were running in circles with Jeph still on Andy's shoulders.