76

~Darlina's POV~

After our shower, which he was actually very sweet for during the remainder of, I pulled on a pair of underwear and began to look for something to wear. I rather quickly decided on a simple pair of baby blue drawstring shorts and a cropped, white button-up top with long sleeves and blue flowers on it. On my feet I simply wore a pair of fluffy white socks.

I looked up at Atlas as I finished getting dressed, tucking a strand of damp hair behind my ear. "Are you hungry?" He asked me, reaching out to wrap an arm around my waist and pull me into his chest. A second passed as I contemplated it, tilting my head to the side in thought. "Yes, actually." I decided with a nod, wrapping my arms around his neck. "Should we just order breakfast in? I don't know if we should use any of your mom's groceries and stuff without asking first, and you said she sleeps in late so it's not like we can just ask her." I said.

His lips twitched at my fretting. "Don't worry, Lina. We'll just order in, like you said. There's some pretty good places around here, believe it or not." He stated, causing me to perk up. This particular town wasn't the nicest place in Montana so I had assumed it was likely they didn't have very many options, but evidently I was wrong.

"Since you know all the good places around here, maybe you should order for me." I suggested, running my fingers through his dark hair, making it a bit messy.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you sure you want me to do that?" He asked with uncertainty, but I just smiled up at him and nodded my head. "Yes. I trust that you'll pick something good." I said simply, only drawing a low grunt from his lips as he pulled away to dig into the pocket of his sweatpants for his phone. "Fine." He muttered. "Guess I'll find someplace you'll like, then."

About ten minutes passed before he had found a place and ordered food from them over the phone, some place called Spitfire Fry, which I thought was kind of an odd name for a restaurant. However, if Atlas said it was a good place then I'd take his word for it.

"What kind of food is it?" I asked curiously as I plopped onto the edge of the unmade bed, crossing one leg over the other. He hummed and began to rummage through the dresser that was against the wall, the muscles in his back flexing with the movement. "There's a bunch of stuff. Burgers, chicken, pancakes, tacos, burritos, soups, omelettes, I don't even know everything they've got on their menu. Ma took me there once when I was a kid and I remember I loved it." He explained, grabbing a white t-shirt from the dresser.

A little smile pulled at my lips as he turned towards me and quickly tugged the shirt over his head, pulling it down over his bare torso. "It must've been really good if you still remember it, after all these years." I stated softly, watching as he ran a hand through his slightly damp hair, the strands quickly falling back into place.

"Yeah, it was pretty good." He murmured as he sat beside me, throwing an arm over my shoulder. I leaned into him when he pulled me into his side, wanting me closer. "But I think I mostly remember it 'cause we didn't go out to eat at places very much. Didn't have enough money most of the time for shit like that, so I remember it really well." He added, causing a small frown to tug my lips down at the corners. "Well, I look forward to trying it." I hummed, glancing up at him.

**

As it turned out, Spitfire Fry was even better than I had expected. I happily hummed as I took another bite of the chocolate chip pancakes that he had ordered me, which were light and fluffy with the perfect amount of sweetness. He had also ordered me a side of scrambled eggs with cheese and corn in them, which I had never had, believe it or not. The second I tasted them, though, I decided I love them.

"Good, isn't it?" Atlas asked as he heard my noises of approval, causing my eyes to flick up at him. He was sitting with me in the living room while we ate on the couch together, his deep blue eyes trained on me. I nodded my head eagerly, taking another bite of my chocolate chip pancakes. "It's really good." I said honestly, continuing to eat some more. While he had ordered me my corn cheese scrambled eggs and chocolate chip pancakes, Atlas had gotten himself some kind of omelette that smelled a little bit spicy from whatever peppers were mixed in it and a side of sausage links.

He had already finished off most of his food and quickly was able to devour the rest that he had while I was eating mine, his large frame wandering out of the living room to toss his trash away. I stayed put, looking up in surprise when Gracelyn came walking into the living room.

I paused, my eyes meeting hers as she stood there, watching me eat with her eyebrows raised. Quickly swallowing the bite full of food that I had in my mouth, I awkwardly cleared my throat and set down my fork. "Good morning." I greeted her, wiping my mouth with the thought that I might've had a bit of food on my face somewhere.

Gracelyn smiled and glanced down at my food before making eye contact once again. "Good morning, Darlina." She reciprocated, her voice quiet. I figured she must've just recently gotten out of the shower because her hair looked a little bit wet. "Is my son still asleep?" She asked, and I shook my head.

"In the kitchen." I responded, expecting her to go in there with him once I said that but instead she sat in that old looking rocking chair. "Did you guys order breakfast? I would've made food for you two but I wasn't aware that you guys wake up so early. Atlas never used to be up by this time of the morning." She stated with a slight furrow of her brows, the heavy footsteps of Atlas making the floors creak beneath his feet when he entered the living room. "Yeah, I had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn when I was in prison. Haven't gotten out of the habit yet." He said, making it obvious he'd heard her.

Their eyes met and she smiled slightly at the sight of him standing there. "I-I see." She stammered, whispering. "You never used to be up this early either." Atlas responded, joining me on the couch again. I began to eat once more, glancing up at him when he threw an arm over my shoulders. "Oh, um," Gracelyn rubbed the back of her neck. "I haven't been able to sleep so well...since then." She admitted quietly, staring down at her hands as she fiddled with her fingers. "Just stress, I guess."

Atlas paused, surveying her face carefully. "I'm sorry...for causing you that stress, I mean." He murmured, but she quickly shook her head. "No, no." She brushed his apology off. "I don't want you to be sorry. You're my son...even when I was angry at you at the time, I still worried about you. Thinking that you were locked up by yourself, I worried a lot, practically all the time, really." She confessed.

The surprise seemed to radiate off of Atlas as he sat beside me. "Are you still angry with me for what I did?" He asked, though after a moment of hesitation, as if unsure if he wanted the answer.

She shook her head and glanced up at him, neither of them seeming to mind my presence here whatsoever. "No, not anymore. I don't think I have been truly angry for a long time, but I wanted to be, I guess. I felt like I had failed you, like it was my fault that you were forced into doing that in the first place. I thought, you know, if I had just not let him trick me and treat me in the way that he did, maybe that never would've happened. I blamed myself, so I treated you like I hated you and told you I wanted nothing to do with you ever again." She said quietly, looking away from him. Still, the guilt was clear in her eyes.

"Then why did you want me to apologize to him, ma? You called me. You said that." He frowned, clearly very confused about her behavior, about what she was thinking. I stopped eating for a second to rub my hand comfortingly over his thigh, hoping it would help him not get more upset.

Now Gracelyn looked even more guilty. "Because I really didn't want that at all...I just wanted a reason to call you. I'm a coward, honey. I wanted to hear your voice but I didn't know how to apologize, to ask to see you or speak to you. It felt like it was too late to do so, and so I just said that. Even if you were mad at me, I still wanted to hear you speaking to me for a little while." She explained, staring down at the floor in shame. "It wasn't fair the way that I treated you, I know that now." She said as she looked at him again, tucking a strand of short hair back behind her ear, keeping it out of her face.

"I just thought I might end up allowing another man to treat me like I allowed Doug to, and I was scared you'd be put in another position like that because of me. So I figured keeping you away was the best way I could make sure that would never happen again." She whispered.

Both of them just looked at one another for a moment, allowing the words to hang in the air. "You don't need to blame yourself anymore, ma. I never thought you were the one who caused this. I never thought you were the one to blame. Nobody forced me into doing what I did. It was my choice, because it was the only one in front of me, and I'm fine with that." He told her with a shake of his head. "I made that decision and it's not one I regret, nor is it one I put on anyone else."

Her eyes searched his for a moment, sadness in the depths of hers, before she sniffled and rose from her chair. "I-I'm going to go make myself some breakfast, okay?" She suddenly said to the two of us, glancing back and forth between Atlas and I. I nodded and we watched her leave the living room, only Atlas and I remaining on the couch once she was gone.

My eyes found his almost immediately, checking to see if he was okay. Despite the conversation they'd just had, he looked comfortable and at ease, as if that had made him feel better to hear. I smiled, reaching a hand up to brush my fingers through his hair. "You look content." I noted quietly, and he nodded, hugging me closer to his chest. "I am." He muttered. "It feels a little weird, almost, to talk about this with her. I've imagined it for years, what it would be like." He said, the corner of his mouth twitching up a little. "Somehow this is going miles better than what I had in mind."

A soft chuckle left me and I nudged my knee against his. "I'm happy for you." I whispered, sliding my hand into his and placing a kiss on the back of his hand. I looked down at the leftover food I had, my stomach feeling more than full. "Do you want the rest of this? I can't finish it. I'm full already." I said, a little disappointed about that.

He took the container of food in response, beginning to eat the rest of my pancakes.