15

Daphne's eyes roll open as the sunlight breaks through the curtains and shines on her face. She becomes aware of her aching legs and rubs the sleep out of her eyes, realizing she's alone in the bed. Trying not to feel too disheartened, she sits up and pulls the bed sheets to cover her breasts.

Her eyes wander around the bedroom. The light blue-grey walls are bare, all his posters are in his apartment. The bedroom smells of fresh paint and the wardrobe in the corner of the room looks new, it matches the bedside cabinet.

She needs to get dressed. She reaches for her bag but hears footsteps outside treading up the stairs and outside the door. The doorknob turns and a bright-eyed Fred steps into the bedroom holding a mug. He's already dressed and looks refreshed. His smile is radiant, awakening a familiar feeling in her belly.

'Good morning.' He smiles as he sits on the bed and passes the mug to her. She takes a sip of the black coffee he's made, it's perfect. 'Thanks. How long have you been awake?' She asks. 'Not long, about ten minutes. I thought you might want a coffee.' He speaks softly, combing his fingers through her hair. Daphne smiles, 'Is your mom awake?'

'Yeah, are you hungry? She's making pancakes.' He gently elbows her and winks, Daphne laughs, he looks gorgeous and his eyes are sparkling. 'Sure, let me get dressed and I'll come down.' As she says this, it seems Fred realizes she's still naked under the sheets and his cheeks quickly turn red. 'Uh…yeah…sure.' He climbs off the bed and quickly steps toward the door, 'Uh Daph.' They stare at each other across the room, 'Yes?' She asks.

Fred clears his throat, he shuffles awkwardly, 'You might wanna put something uh-' He taps a spot on the left side of his neck. She realizes what he's pointing to and covers her neck with her hand, Fred quickly leaves the room.

Daphne finishes the coffee and puts the mug on the bedside cabinet. She pulls back the bedsheets and climbs out of the bed. Her body feels tender and it's making her feel tired.

She pulls on her clothes and grabs her bag. She takes out her toiletry bag and goes to the bathroom. She freezes when she sees herself in the mirror, immediately spotting the hickey on her neck. Her fingertips brush against it, the skin is tender, 'Jesus Christ Fred.' She mumbles trying to disguise it with her hair.

She quickly brushes her teeth and returns to the bedroom. She brushes her hair and tries to find something inside her bag to cover her neck, instead, she moves her hair over her it, hoping to cover it. She quickly checks her phone, but still nothing from Judy or Larissa. She grabs the empty mug and heads downstairs where she can smell the sweet scent of pancakes.

Fred is sitting at the kitchen table and Maggie is standing at the stove making breakfast. Fred smiles when he sees her and gets up to take the mug from her, 'Do you want another coffee?' He asks. Maggie turns around to face her. She's wearing an apron that reads "kiss the chef", 'Good morning dear, how did you sleep?'

'Morning, I slept well.' Daphne replies. 'Comfy bed isn't it, I might just swap it with mine.' Maggie giggles, 'Are you hungry?'

'Starving.' Daphne emphasises and smiles. 'Won't be long.' Maggie smiles. Fred smiles sweetly at Daphne, she feels her cheeks getting warm. Fred turns the coffee maker on and Daphne takes a seat at the table. Fred takes two mugs from the cupboard and waits for the coffee maker to finish.

Maggie plates up the pancakes and puts them on the table. She looks at Daphne and her eyes squint, 'What's that dear?' She asks and Daphne knows she's looking directly at the mark on her neck. Fred spins around to see his mother staring at him sternly, 'Uh, iron deficiency, right Daph?' He says quickly and Maggie whips him with her tea towel, 'Do you think I'm an idiot, Fred Jones?' Fred laughs, 'Ow, no Mom of course not.'

'Forget I asked.' Maggie looks between the two of them, she's trying not to laugh and busies herself with the pancakes.

There is a brief silence between the three during breakfast, no awkwardness just quiet. After breakfast, they helped clean up the kitchen.

Daphne gathers her stuff from the bedroom and it's almost noon when they leave Fred's mother's house. Maggie waves goodbye to them on the doorstep as the car drives out of Amsterdam Street.

Aside from the radio playing, the car ride home is silent. Unlike the breakfast table, there's a sense of awkwardness between them. Fred holds the steering wheel tightly as he weaves through the traffic. Thoughts of last night are on his mind. He wants to talk about it but doesn't want her recoiling from him. That seems to happen after their intimate times together, he tries to talk about it and what's going on between them. Each time she tells him they shouldn't have done it and she doesn't want to talk about it.

Daphne watches Fred in her peripheral vision, daring not to look at him. The tension between them is thick. She knows he'll want to talk about last night but she doesn't know if she's ready for it. She's shut him down whenever he tries to talk about it in the past. She's terrified of losing him, but she hopes the conversation she had with herself yesterday can clear her vision and make her see things more clearly.

Absent-mindedly, she turns to him. Her eyes trail from his veiny hands firmly on the steering wheel, to his strong arms, his biceps that are barely covered by his T-shirt, and his chiselled jaw. He knows she's staring at him, he looks at her and she quickly looks away just in time as her phone rings. She fumbles for it in her pocket and is surprised to see who the caller is.

'Larissa?' She answers. 'Hi Daphne, sorry I haven't called.' Larissa says. 'No, don't be.' Daphne replies, 'Are you ok?'

'I'm ok. That detective came over the other day, Judy I think her name was. She explained how different things will be for us and maybe we should consider going away for a couple of weeks.' Daphne rolls her eyes, Judy has no idea.

'But my grandparents said no, we should try to be as normal as we can.' Larissa explains.

'What do you think?' Daphne asks. 'I think they're right. I don't want to go into hiding and why should we just because of something our mom did.' Larissa replies. Daphne admires her willingness to move forward from this, 'How are the kids?' Daphne asks.

'Mickey and Posie are coping better than Lily, I think she understands it more than them, Mickey hasn't asked any questions since they saw the news last week.' Larissa explains, her voice thick as explains how she has to console Lily most nights. 'We haven't been to school yet.' Larissa adds, 'I don't think Lily wants to go and I can't blame her.'

Daphne and her sister faced torment at school when word of their mother's addiction spread. Daphne was in middle school alone as Thalia had moved onto high school. Each morning, they begged their father not to send them to school, but he still forced them to go.

The worst of it settled down after Daphne moved into high school and the new gossip was a senior Samantha Averly pregnant by Vance Butler in the year below. She can't tell Larissa that things will be ok because it won't. Even now when Daphne is home, there is still a comment from members of the community about her mother's addiction. She never told Fred how bad things were.

'When are you going to school?' She asks. 'I don't know, I'd rather not go back, but the principal at the kids' school arranging a meeting with my grandparents.

'Ok.' Daphne says. 'There was another thing.' Larissa adds, 'The detective called yesterday, my grandma spoke to her. She wouldn't tell me what it was about but was upset when she came off the phone. Do you think you can find out what it was they talked about?'

Daphne sighs and Fred glances at her, 'Are you sure you want to know?' She asks. 'Yes, I do. I'm tired of people hiding things from me. I want to be treated like an adult.' Larissa says.

'Alright, I can try, but don't get your hopes up.' She says. 'Thank you.' Larissa says. 'I'll keep you posted.' Daphne replies and ends the call.

'How is she?' Fred asks. 'She seems ok, she said her grandmother spoke to Judy the other day but she wouldn't say what it's about.'

'You told her you'd look into it?' He asks. 'Yes, but I don't think Judy will give much away.' Daphne replies.

'How are the kids?' Fred asks. 'Lily not doing too well but she said the others seem ok.' Daphne replies. Fred hums, 'It's going to be difficult for them.'

'It sure is.'

It's not long before Fred pulls into the parking lot at Daphne's apartment, he pulls into an available space, 'You coming in?' She asks. 'Sure.' Fred replies.

Daphne removes her bag from the back seat and she and Fred enter the building.

They climb the six floors to Daphne's apartment. Nobody has moved into the empty apartment where Mr Jacobs used to live, she's glad for the peace before a noisy neighbor could potentially move in.

Daphne unlocks her door and they enter her apartment. She drops her bag on the floor and turns on the coffee maker. She removes two mugs from the cupboard. Fred sits at the kitchen island.

'I had a thought last night,' Daphne begins, Fred looks at her wondering where the conversation is heading. 'What your mom said yesterday about Ricky Harris' parents living near her. It got me thinking about what he was doing when he was supposedly living in Indiana.' Daphne explains.

'I haven't given it much thought.' Fred admits, 'But I did wonder about the number of women he's potentially screwed over. How many lives he's ruined.'

He doesn't seem interested in this conversation. His eyes meet hers, his beautiful twinkling blue eyes stare into hers. She knows he wants to talk about last night, but is she brave enough to face it? After twelve years of friendship, Fred has never let her down, he's been her rock and more than what she can call a best friend. She could never imagine life without him.

The coffee is ready but Daphne doesn't break her gaze from him. 'Can we talk about last night?' Fred asks. Her hand gently touches the hickey, her skin tender under her fingers and she can't find her words. 'Are we just gonna forget it happened and carry on like we normally do?' Fred asks. She wants to say something but she doesn't want to get hurt. Equally, she doesn't want Fred to think she's using him for her sexual pleasure.

'Daphne?' He stands up from his seat and steps closer to her. She doesn't back away from him, she focuses on his eyes. Fred sighs, 'You know how I feel about you and you know I'll do anything for you, but I can't keep doing this, Daph. I can't keep pretending it never happens.' His voice is sharp and she doesn't like it. The disappointment in his eyes breaks and she feels her eyes welling up.

She doesn't like the look in his eyes as he slowly takes a step back from her. She realizes she needs to say it now and grabs his wrist, stopping him and his eyes lock with hers.

'Don't leave! I can't be without you, Fred, I love you.' It almost comes out as a scream, heart is racing. Fred stares wide-eyed and speechless. Daphne closes the gap between them. He quickly reciprocates, combing his fingers through her soft hair and holding his warm hand to her cheek. She can hear his "I love you" playing over her head from last night. She feels stupid for holding this feeling back for so long, it feels so good to finally say it.

Fred's passionate kissing stops. His cheeks are pink, his lips plump, and his blue eyes look as if he's about to cry, he looks gorgeous. He rests his forehead against hers and holds her tightly against him, 'I love you.' He whispers, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead.

'Where do we go from here?' She asks. 'We could get married?' Fred says. Daphne rolls her eyes but can't help laughing, 'Don't start that again, Freddy.'

'You're the only woman I want. I want what we had at college.' Fred says, twirling a strand of red hair around his finger. 'I should never have let you go.' Daphne admits, 'It's the stupidest thing I've ever done.'

'Daphne I-' Her ringtone interrupts him as her phone vibrates loudly on the kitchen island and they both see the caller ID.

'Answer it.' Fred says. Daphne quickly accepts the call. 'Judy?' She asks, 'It's been a while since I heard from you?'

'Blake, Tony Harrison has admitted to aiding Sabrina in the killing, you were right.' Daphne glances at Fred, he recognizes her familiar "I was right" grin, and smiles.

'We confronted Sabrina Shelby about it, she denied it. When she returned t'her cell, she attempted suicide.' Judy explains. This must have been the news that Judy was giving to Larissa's grandmother, she can't tell Larissa that her mother tried to kill herself after she admitted to killing her father.

Daphne removes herself from Fred's arms, 'What? Is she ok?'

'Yes, the patrol guard was alerted by the guard in the TV room monitoring the cells. They stopped her before she could even pull the blanket around her neck.' Judy's voice is heavy.

'She knows she's guilty that's why.' Daphne replies. Judy hums her agreement, 'Uh-hu, she doesn't care that she's leaving her kids behind, she's just looking for the easy way out. Tony is willing to testify against her, on the condition that he can see his daughter.' Judy says.

'Seriously? Surely you can't be on board with that?' Daphne asks. 'I can allow it, but it's Posie's grandparents who are caring for her now, whether they allow it or not is up to them.'

Daphne sighs, 'Alright, thanks for calling.' She hangs up the phone. Fred looks at her waiting for an answer and she explains the phone call to him.