Daniel:Zach and his dad are still talking.
Still? Are you sure everything’s okay?
Daniel:I haven't heard any screaming, so I'm taking that as a good sign.
Why don't you go check on them?
Daniel:Because I told Zach I would give him and his dad some time.
I bet it's boring sitting there all by yourself.
Daniel:Not really. I’ve been snooping around, trying to figure out what Zach was like as a kid.
Find anything fun?
Daniel:No. So far, it looks like he was pretty boring.
That's not a nice thing to say.
Daniel:If you were here, you'd understand.
My heart be faster.
Funny you should say that…
Daniel's response was a single question mark.
I took a picture of the road sign welcoming us to Linwood, sending it without any commentary.
I wasn't surprised when my phone rang. “Hey. That didn’t take you long.”
“What the hell are you doing? I thought you were going home with your brother and Jayden.” Not exactly the response I’d been hoping for.
“Well, hello to you, too,” I teased. “There's been a change of plans. Unless you tell me, it would be a horrible idea, I realized I don't want to be away from you guys this weekend. Maybe it'll be easier by Christmas, but after I started driving Jayden crazy, he turned the car around and said he was delivering me to you guys, so he doesn't have to deal with me.”
“You are such a liar,” Jayden scoffed. I flipped him off.
“What about your parents? Are they going to be upset?”
“No, my mom would be more upset knowing I was there instead of taking care of Zach.” I cringed as soon as the words passed my lips. It sounded like I didn’t trust Daniel to help Zach through whatever happened, which was far from the truth. Daniel was amazing, but I wanted to be there, too.
“I'm not so sure he is going to need to be taken care of,” Daniel responded. “Things feel oddly calm around here.”
“Does that mean I shouldn’t come? I don’t want to rock the boat.” I clenched my eyes shut and swallowed hard. I swore I wasn't going to be clingy, but apparently that was a bad habit I still needed to work on.
“Of course, we want you here,” Daniel scoffed. “But I don’t think it’s worth having your parents pissed off, either. Seriously, things are going better than expected. I know you said your mom would want you here for Zach, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t be disappointed if you’re not there with her.”
Neither of us said anything for a while. I worried that whatever I said would come across as whiny and weak, and Jayden was right; they were looking to me to be strong. I closed my eyes while I thought about the best way to approach the situation. I didn’t want my brother and Jayden upset for having wasted a good chunk of the day when they could have dropped me off and gone to do their own thing.
The car rolled to a stop and I opened my eyes. My heart broke as I took in the sight of a house that wasn’t any better maintained than Zach’s relationship with his dad. The front porch slanted to one side, looking like a stiff wind could rip it apart. The lawn, covered in a dusting of snow from earlier, was overgrown, and what might have been flower beds at one point, was nothing but dead weeds sticking out of the ground.
“You’re here, aren’t you?” Daniel asked. I startled, nearly dropping the phone. I’d been so distracted by the reality of Zach’s less-than-fairytale home life that I’d forgotten Daniel was trying to convince me I didn’t need to change my plans.
“Yeah, we just pulled up outside.” I saw the curtains in an upstairs window flutter, and then Daniel pulled them to the side. I waved to him, curling in on myself with sudden embarrassment about how I’d overreacted. “If this is going to cause problems for Zach, let me know now. I'm sure Jayden and Chase will forgive me for wasting half their day. Eventually.”
“No, you're already here. Might as well see for yourself that he's not falling apart.” The silence across line dragged on long enough, I thought Daniel might have hung up. But he was still standing in the window, phone held to his ear. “I’m sorry about how I reacted when you said you were coming. I really do miss you already. This is just a weird situation. I don't want any of our families pissed off for the holidays.”
“I think that's one thing we can all agree on. But maybe we can talk about it face-to-face instead?” I suggested. Watching one another as we talked on the phone was creepy. It felt like he was locked away and I had snuck over to see him. “Why don’t you come downstairs to let me in?”
