All About Cherry

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

     D a x t o n   H o l l o w a y  woke up to his phone ringing like it was the end of the world.

     He groaned and rolled over in bed, debating on ignoring it completely, he did not have the patience to deal with people so early in the morning. The ringing died down for a moment and Dax sighed in relief, closing his eyes again. The peace was short-lived, as his phone threw yet another tantrum and Dax sat up in bed, wincing at the way his muscles ached.

     Daxton cleared his throat and took a generous gulp of water that had been on his bedside table before picking up the phone, mentally preparing himself to have to deal with Marcus, the assistant he'd forgotten to fire.

     He was pleasantly surprised to see a different name on his screen, dialing at six in the morning. He answered the call without any hesitation. "Adele, why are you calling me at the ass crack of dawn?" Dax grumbled.

     "Bonjour à toi aussi, frère. Ever so cheerful, I see." She retorted and I could hear the smirk she was undoubtedly wearing on her face with pride.

     "English, sister, it's too early for this." He retorted, despite being completely fluent in French, he had little to no willpower to speak it so early in the morning. "Everything okay?" Daxton cleared his throat.

     "Yeah, everything's good, just checking in on you, making sure you wake up and get ready." She mused.

     Daxton took a minute processing her words before he responded. "Uh, ready for what?"

     Adele went silent on the other end of the speaker. "Dax, please don't tell me that you forgot what day it was again. It's Monday morning, you idiot, you're supposed to go to Yale today, motivation week and all." Her tone was incredulous as ever.

     Dax cursed under his breath and took another sip of his water, he had completely forgotten about the Yale arrangement, despite making it just a few days ago. To think he prided himself for being a responsible adult at times, his younger sister just saved his ass. 

     Adele sighed. "Oh, brother dearest, what would you do without me?" Her voice defeated and soft, Daxton imagined shaking her head in that knowing motherly way she did. 

     "Thanks for the reminder, Dels. What's new at home? How's Margot and mom doing?" Daxton sighed into the speaker, catching up with his sister a little. The last time he had a conversation with Adele was Saturday morning, but it was abrupt and short-lived, he was still recovering from the night before. 

     "Mom is good... I guess, she recently met a guy and is totally obsessed with him, but you knew that already. As for Margot? Christ, where do I even begin." Adele paused, collecting her thoughts before continuing. "I had to scold her the other day for her grades slipping, she's going through her teenage phase you know? Rebellion and all that jazz, it's kind of infuriating to deal with especially with midterms coming up, you should talk to her, it's been a couple of weeks Dax." 

     Guilt riddled Daxton's body at his sister's words, to put it bluntly, Dax had been neglecting to talk to his family, despite them being the closest people in his life. He was going through a lot, a second concussion, potentially career-ending, was a lot to deal with for Daxton. He didn't handle stressful situations as well as he would say he did, he'd build thick walls around him and keep everyone out until he felt strong enough to face the others, perhaps he should've been an architecture major after all.