Rum and Coke

Danielle watched as her daughter retreated up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, Danielle let out a deep sigh and picked up her phone that was on the coffee table. She quickly dialed the familiar number and waited for the recipient to pick up.

“Hello?” Kale Davis answered groggily.

“She keeps asking about her dad. I just…don’t know what to say to her anymore.” Danielle spit out without first saying a greeting.

“Um, ok? Hello to you, too.”

“Kale, I’m serious.”

“As am I. You need to learn manners.”

“It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think?”

Kale clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Well, fine…telling the truth would be a start…and not that made-up story you keep trying to believe is real.” he told her as he thumbed through costume sketches for the next dance concert. He figured he might as well get something done since he was up.

Danielle sighed on the other end. “It’s…hard, Kale. It really is. Watching her grow up these past seventeen years…it was like, watching a clone of his develop. She looks exactly like him…everything but her eyes and womanly parts are his! Even her fucking talent is his, Kale! Why the hell did you give her that damn guitar anyways?”

He shrugged his shoulders even though he knew that she couldn’t see. “She didn’t want to dance anymore, Danni- she never wanted to in the first place. She wanted to sing. She wanted to write songs. She wants to be a rock star. Besides, if I didn’t, then Adam would have. You know that.” Kale told his best friend honestly as he used her original nickname. He was the only one still allowed to call her “Danni,” even though she still complains about it from time to time. When she moved to New York with him from California, she proclaimed a fresh new start and that’s exactly what she got.

“I never pushed her to dance, Kale!”

“Bullshit. She was terrified to ask you if she could quit. She thought that she would let you down.” He spat as he tossed aside the notebook he was looking through and grabbed the next one in the stack.

“I never-”

“Danni, stop being a drama queen. Sure, she has his looks and his natural talent, but her personality is entirely you. She’s stubborn, proud, a little manic, and she rushes into things without thinking about the consequences. Those are your characteristics. She’s smart, too…and extremely creative, and very loyal. Danni, she’s you.”

“But, can she handle it if I were to tell her? I mean, she idolizes him enough! She wears his merchandise and listens to their old albums all the time!”

“Danni, you’re going to have to tell her eventually.” Kale sighed tiredly. They’ve had this conversation before, and it has always ended where it started. He was mentally exhausted. “She needs to know who her father is. Her real father.”

“About that…how come we just can’t say that you’re it and that I’m the one who turned you gay?”

“No, Danni, you can’t do that. I’m still kicking myself over letting you put my name on her birth certificate. That’s illegal, you know?”

“I know that. Well, what about Adam? He treats her like her daughter and she calls him ‘daddy’ all the time…”

“As much as Adam would love for that to happen, it’s not going to work and you know it. You’ve refused the man’s advances too many times-”

“And yet he still tries-” She replied with a small smile on her face.

“Danni, you need to tell her the truth as soon as possible.”

“But, you and Jared and Adam and the rest of the gang are the ones that helped raise her! You guys know all her little quirks and everything! Do I need to remind you how may adopted fathers, aunts, and uncles the girl has?!”

“No, You don’t need to remind me. I was there for all the introductions, remember? Besides, she told me today exactly where I stand with her during dinner yesterday.”

“Oh, Kale, she didn’t mean it. She was just upset and stressed. Give her a break. If you were in her shoes, you would have done the same thing.”

“No I…fuck it, I would.”

“Told ya.” Danielle said teasingly, her smile grew just a little.

“Ha, ha, you’re so smart.”

The line went silent for a while. “Kale, what am I going to do?” she whined.

Kale rolled his eyes and set the sketches aside. “Sleep on it for now. We can talk about this more tomorrow.”

Danielle groaned. “That’s not the answer I was looking for. I don’t love you anymore, Kale.”

Kale rolled his eyes and got into bed next to his life partner, Jared. Smiling in his sleep, Jared rolled over and slung his arm around Kale. Kale grinned at this affectionate gesture before turning his attention back to his best friend on the phone. “You don’t believe in that word, Danni. I’m going to bed now and I suggest you do the same. Good night.” He didn’t even wait for her reply before he silenced his phone and put it on his nightstand. He shut off the light and snuggled into his Life Partner, the argument he was just in vanished from his mind when he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.