somewhere in the abyss

"What are you doing?" Derrick didn't think Asa would be home. It was cloudy out and he'd finally found his way home. He'd barely been there for Amanda's funeral. But he needed to wash clothes and maybe have some time to himself. Josie could only do so much.

"I could ask you the same thing." Asa glared at him. He had some papers out on the dining table that he was looking through, but he was typing something on his laptop too.

"Don't you have a job or something?" Derrick was his genuine bitter self. He's avoided his Dad at all cost.

"That I do." Asa nodded as he went back to scratching some notes down and then looking on his laptop. "Look, I'm sorry..if..." He sighed then. "How have you been?"

"What does it matter?" He went past Asa with his bag of laundry and started the washing machine, then. "I'm fine."

"Really?" Asa wanted to know.

"What do you think? This is all your fault. If you hadn't been so..." Derrick's jaw clinched. He didn't want to think about what happened. It happened right here, in their house. It was so cold now. Just shadows. "He was your friend! And he killed MY SISTER!"

He listened to his words. So loud. So true. It was the truth. And there was nothing he could do about it now.

Asa just nodded.

"Your Dad's back. You, you two should talk." Asa told him.

"I'm not talking to that bastard." Derrick cracked up. It anyone was at fault, it was his Dad. It was too late. Derrick would have nothing to do with that old man.

"I just thought-" Asa winced as he sat there at the dining table. "You might need your Dad."

"For what?" Derrick squinted hard then as he reached for crystallized softener to put in with his clothes. This stuff made his clothes smell a certain comfort, as if he could at least think he were home. Yet, it felt like the smell was covering up how the world really was. It was hard to fake it anymore. His true colors were slipping and it felt like black that was truly blue.