Rebecca Pov

  So we were at Patsy's house while Leo was at work, (not because Donte, Donavon and I were irresponsible, but it helped Leo feel a bit better), Donte and Donavon went back to sleep, (most teenagers need like a stupid amount of sleep), I obviously didn't, Patsy was making something in the kitchen, so naturally I investigated as I was curious.

  "What'cha making?"

  "Sodabread, I'd have thought that you'd go back to bed?"

  "Nah, I don't sleep all that well, never have, who taught you how to make Sodabread?"

  "My Aunt Mary, she had no daughters to pass it down to, so when I asked, she took the chance"

  "Can you teach me?"

  "Alright, there's no measurements really, just eyeballing and texture"

  "Ok, I can deal with that"

  It was nice to actually be taught a family thing, as Rita didn't really teach me anything about her traditional Italian food and Jack probably knew jack shit about cooking in any capacity, (the double name drop thing was totally accidental, I promise), I like learning about cooking/making different kinds of food, (eating it however is an entirely different thing altogether).

  "You need to knead it more"

  "Won't that take out all the air?"

  "Probably, but that works for this bread, think of someone you really want to beat up while kneading the bread"

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  That was all I needed before I started kneading the shit of the dough, I probably needed therapy but that wasn't something that was widely available to me in 90's, so kneading Sodabread while imagining punching Rita was the closest thing I was gonna get to therapy, (though the thought of having to deal with her in court was not helping me or my drinking out), honestly it's quite cathartic for me, (it did take a few more times for me to actually get the ratios right, but kneading I got down the first time).

  "Feel better?"

  "I do actually"

  "Good, your Da mentioned that you were worried about Rita in court"

  "Yeah, there's not much that anyone can do about that until it's done though"

  "Well then we'll make this a weekly thing, you clearly need the outlet"

  "You seem to know a lot about feelings and how to deal with them"

  "Yeah well between your Aunt Aofie (Ea fa), your Aunt Niamh (Ne eve) and your Da, they gave me plenty of practice with feelings"

  Nobody had referred to Leo as my Dad before, but it felt right, so I didn't say anything to Patsy about it being wrong as it wasn't, so I continued the conversation another way, as I was a teenager and I didn't want to dwell on things too much, (plus I was kind of nosey, so this was an opportunity to get to be more nosey).

  "What made even made you want to learn how to make Sodabread?"

  "Honestly, I didn't like the bread in London-"

  "You were in London?, is that where Leo's accent's from?"

  "Why did you think that I knew that Jack had the drug business there?"

  "The news?"

  "(Snorts), The news didn't know Jack shit about that business in the 60's and 70's"

  "Fair"

  "Anyway, I didn't like the bread in London and I was a single man, as I hadn't meet my wife Peggy yet, I knew my Aunt Mary was also living in London, so I asked her to teach me, because my mother never taught me, the rest is history"

  Patsy actually living in London before Manchester made a lot of things clearer as to why he knew things, but then it created a ton more questions about why him and Leo moved up to Manchester in the first place, (and I didn't think that I could ask that question yet, as that felt invasive as fuck).

  "How are things between you and Levi?"

  "Fine, why do I get the feeling that you're actually asking about whether or not we're dating?"

  "I suppose that is what I'm asking"

  "No, we're not dating"

  "He just picks you up for school-"

  "I'm really shit at directions"

  "And Levi with his coke bottle glasses is better at directions than you?"

  "Yes, it seems unlikely I know, but he's sort of become my keeper of sorts"

  "And that's not dating territory?, I must be behind on the dating scene"

  Patsy would hate trying to navigate dating apps and dating culture in general nowadays, (though I've got to admit that if I wasn't already married, then I would stay single in this current dating world), at the time I genuinely couldn't see why Patsy thought Levi and I were dating, looking back on it, I can see why he thought that, but it was weird at the time to me because Levi was one of my best friends in the whole world.