Page 32 of Rage’s Rose

“Yes, please.”

“Mase, buddy.” I say as I turn on the counter stool, “You can talk to me. I know this isn’t a situation you want to be in and I know you miss your mama, but I’m here for you buddy. I never want you to think that you are not in a space where you can’t talk to me. I want you to know that you are safe. I know what it is like to be in this situation that you are in. Trust me. I might have been a little younger than you are, but I understand.”

He gets up on the stool next to me and looks at his hands.

“I miss my mom so much.”

I put my hand on his back, “I know you do buddy. I’m so sorry that you are going through all this. I would never wish this on you or anyone.” I think for a moment before I continue. “Do you want me to give that therapist a call that your social worker gave me? We can schedule something, maybe even go together?”

I have never been to a therapist in my life and honestly, I kind of think maybe my dad should’ve put me in one after everything. Instead he thought that the acting out and the anger was something that needed to be dealt with in a violent physical way so he threw me into mma and boxing.

“I’d like to go, maybe by myself first.”

I nod my head, “I can do that bud. Now, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Can we get pancakes? Also can we do something today? Maybe go to a park or something?”

“I’ll have to call my president and let him know I can’t come in today. Do you maybe want to meet one of my friends? He’s got a little boy your age.”

He perks up at that, “Really? Yeah! I’d love that.”

“Alright, why don’t you head upstairs and get ready. I’ll make a couple of calls and then we can head out and get some pancakes. My cooking is horrible anyway.”

“I didn’t want to say anything, but yeah.”

I watch him walk upstairs and I take a deep breath before I pick up my phone to make a couple of calls.

“Hello?” a woman I don’t know answers.

I look down at the screen and see that I did in fact call Terror.

I clear my throat before I answer, “Um yeah, is Terror around?”

“Yeah he is, let me go grab him. He’s in the shower.”

“Alright thanks.”

Mystery woman answering Terror’s phone. Interesting. I’m going to make sure that I bug him about that later. He never lets anyone he’s with answer his phone. I have heard that he has been seeing Ruby, a woman on staff at Daisy’s Ink, but he’s never confirmed anything.

“Thanks, baby.” I hear and then I hear a kiss from the other end of the line. “What’s up Rage?”

“Wow, you have a woman answering your phone now?”

“Shut the fuck up. Everyone knows I’m with Ruby or maybe they don’t I don’t give a fuck.”

“Okay, I guess I was out of the loop. I thought you were just feeling around. Didn’t know your divorce was final. I thought that was your hold up.”

“That happened a while ago, brother. Thank fuck. That bitch finally let me go and gave up her rights to the kids.”

“Well, shit. Where have I been while all this was happening?”

“Gonna be real honest with you here Rage, you’ve been a little all over the place. We’ve been a little worried. Now you’ve barely been around the clubhouse or even your house the last few weeks. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you’ve been off since the beginning of the year when mama died.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry. I’m trying to get my act together.” I peer over my shoulder and see that Mason is still not around.

“Well that’s good because I think Devil has been close to wanting to kill you.”

I chuckle, “Yeah it definitely has been close there. Still got some issues there, but that’s not something we need to worry about. I just wanted to call and let you know I’m taking a sick day. I’ve got some shit that has come up and wanted to take care of it so I'm gonna be a little unreachable today.”