Jo didn't even bother to get up from the sofa. She could hear the heavy bass thump of Mikey's system out in the street. They lived in a three story row house in a slightly seedy section of the city where the projects bumped up against the business district and "historic" downtown. A few blocks one way offices buildings and city hall, a few blocks another way the mansions of old money, and a few blocks another way prostitution and drugs. He would probably hop out and exchange fist bumps and backslaps with his crew of buddies, the ones that didn't go to college and stayed in the streets of their neighborhood, before coming inside.
So instead Jo sat there, watching an MTV special on Nicki Minaj, and tried to formulate a plan. The sound of the front door came quicker than she expected and, after the sound of Mikey's duffel bag hitting the landing by the steps and the heavy tread of Mikey's footsteps down the hall, her brother ambled into the room, looking cocky as usual in his baggy jeans and wife-beater. "Hey, Jo-jo, I'm home."
"I heard," Jo mumbled, not looking away from the TV. She didn't see Mikey frown and wouldn't have cared if she did. The mutual disinterest and monosyllabic interchanges was pretty much their relationship now.
"Where Mom and Damon at?" Mikey said after a bit, flopping down on the other end of the couch.
"Mom's at her doctor appointment," Jo said, briefly reflecting that their mother's recent pregnancy would result in a new person that did not exist in the old timeline from before Mikey's wishes, "Damon's out doing who knows what."
"You should call him Dad," Mikey shot back.
"You the one what wanted him fo' a dad," Jo said sullenly, her speech getting more 'hood as it did these days when she got angry, "I call him Damon."
"Fine," Mikey pulled out his phone and checked his messages. Jo gave the TV even more of her attention, feigning even greater interest in Nicki showing off her wardrobe, though if she were honest some of the outfits were pretty tight looking.
"So where Karyn?" Jo offered after a bit. She couldn't afford to slip back into the old patterns of the last few years. She needed to engage Mikey somehow if she was going to get him to even talk about the stone.
"Eh, she wanted to stay at her folks place for a bit," Mikey shrugged.
Jo's eyebrows went up a bit at this. That was news. Karyn pretty much lived at their place when she and Mikey weren't at college on account of her parents all but disowning her for going out with a thug like Mike.
