Chapter75:

I feel like I trust him more than I did at school. I quickly wipe down the table and straighten the chairs, taking a moment to self-calm and breathe. It’s been a long week, and for some weird reason, tonight, all the chaos and anxiety that’s been spiraling in me for a long time seems to ease. The quiet stillness of the room, with the echoes of Dane in the kitchen and our parents moving around upstairs, instills a sense of contentment that I haven’t felt in a long time.  A sense of hope that maybe things can finally change at home, and we might start living together a little better. Maybe the worst is finally behind us. I wander back through, half lost in thought, in time to see him stacking the last of the dishes into our machine. Not that there were many, as Monique always leaves a clean kitchen after she cooks. We only had to deal with what we used. “They will leave in an hour probably… Then it's just us…I don’t know if you want to…” I trail off, not expecting Dane’s time just becaus