Daniel looks shocked and angry at the same time. His dad looks shocked and happy to see Daniel. I remember seeing his dad when we were younger. He was like the guys and my second dad, but then he just up and left. When he left, so did the love we felt for him and that was replaced with anger. We were angry because he left Daniel, Naomi, and their mother. He never gave a reason. Now that he's back, I would love to know why.
"Wow. Look how grown up you are." Richard says.
"Well, if you hadn't left, you would have seen me grow up my whole life." Daniel says.
Richard's face falls a little, but he quickly recovers. If it were somebody else I would feel bad, but it's him, so I don't.
"Listen, son, I've moved back recently. I've bought a house down here and I talked to your mom about some things. When you get home, we can talk about it as a family." He says.
Daniel lets out a little laugh and anger appears on his face.
"As a family? You're not part of our family anymore! Anything you have to say, you say to me now!" Daniel stands up and faces his dad.
Richard looks around and looks at us. "I don't think we should do this in front of your friends right now."
"They're like my family. Whatever you say in front of me, you can say in front of them." He says.
"I talked to your mom. You and Naomi are moving in with me. I told your mom that I was moving back and that I wanted you guys to move in with me. I'm going to help her open her own business and pay off some of these bills. I'm here on business for a while and until I leave, you guys are living with me." Richard says.
Daniel and I both gasp. Abby and Alyssa are confused, but I can tell they're putting the pieces together. I don't know what's going on, but I know Daniel is two seconds away from losing his cool.
"What do you mean, 'Move in with you.'! I'm not moving in with you! I'll live somewhere else before I ever live with you! We don't need you here! We were doing fine without you! I can take care of my mom and Naomi by myself! You weren't there to do it, so someone had to! I don't need you! I never needed you! You can go back to where you fucking came from!" He walks off and Alyssa gets up following behind him. I stand up myself, looking at Daniel's retreating body.
Richard turns to me. "I'm sorry, Jordan. I didn't mean to ruin you and your friend's time out. I figured I might as well see how mad he really is at me when I saw him. I got a lot of things I have to fix in so little time."
I ignore everything he just said and ask a question that I've been dying to know, "Why did you leave?" I ask.
He sighs and looks at Abby. I turn around and look at her. He doesn't want her here.
"Could you give us a few minutes, Midget. Go find Daniel and Alyssa and make sure everything is okay." I say.
She nods her head and gets up, leaving us. I sit back down in my chair and Richard takes the seat across from me. Where Daniel was sitting.
"I left because of my job. It was stupid. I didn't know it at the time because I was young and I was being promoted so fast and was blinded by the money. The promotion I had got caused for me to move, but Elizabeth didn't want to move. She knew Daniel would have a fit if he had to leave you and the guys. I told her if we didn't move, the money that I would use to get us everything we ever wanted would disappear. She didn't care about that, but I did. I wanted to provide for my family. I left when really I should have stayed. I regret it. I didn't know things were getting that bad with Elizabeth. I'm here now and I'm going to try to make things right. I know it won't be easy, but I'm going to try." He says.
"Why did you come back? Why now?" I ask.
"I can't tell you right now, but soon. I need your help with getting to Daniel. You, Troy, and Ryan have always been like his brothers. I knew if I left, you guys would be there for him." He says.
I become angry now. "Yeah, we're his brothers, but that will never make up for the father he didn't have while growing up. How do you think he felt on father's day? I won't help you because you don't deserve my help."
I stand up and push my chair in. I turn to walk away, but he calls my name. I turn back around to hear what he has to say.
"I tried to send money to Elizabeth, but she wouldn't take it. I even tried to fly in a couple of times to come see Daniel and Naomi, but she wouldn't let me. She told me I shouldn't have left in the first place. I really do regret it, Jordan."
I see the sincerity in his eyes, but that doesn't matter. He doesn't deserve my pity.
"She was right. You shouldn't have left." I turn and walk away.
Things seem to either go really good or really bad. I'm tired of the back and forth. Things have never been this complicated until this year. I go outside to my car to find Daniel pacing back and forth on the phone, yelling. Alyssa is trying to calm him down, but he ignores her. Abby doesn't know what to do and she sighs in relief when she sees me.
"What the hell do you mean?! I'm not living with him mom! Because he left us! How can you just forgive him like that! I don't give a shit! He can go to hell!" I hear Daniel say.
He's never disrespected his mom before like that. He usually does anything he can to make things easier for her and to make her happy. I speed walk over to him and grab him by his shirt. I take the phone from him and push him up against the car.
"Hello, Ms. Elizabeth. Yeah, it's Jordan. I have Daniel with me right now. Yeah, I'm going to talk to him. Don't worry about it. He can stay at my house tonight. I'll bring him back in the morning. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Good night. You're welcome and I love you, too." I hang up the phone and hand it back to Daniel.
He looks pissed right now. It probably didn't help that I jacked him up and took his phone from him. I give him a look that says "stay" and walk over to Abby and Alyssa.
"Listen, we're going to go. I have a handful tonight, so I need to go home and defuse the bomb that is Daniel." I say.
"Okay, call me. Let me know if there's anything I can do." Abby says.
"Okay. I love you." I give her a quick kiss.
I turn and look at Alyssa. "Just tell him to text me or call me when he calms down. Just make sure he's okay, Jordan." She says.
I see the tears fill her eyes and I step out of my comfort zone by hugging her. Surprisingly, she hugs me back. The hug doesn't last long though.
"I'll make sure he calls you tonight. Don't worry about him. If I can get Troy to calm down then I know I can get Daniel to calm down." I say.
She laughs a little, "Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."
She waves goodbye to me and gets into her car. Abby hugs and kisses me one last time before getting into the car with her. Once they leave, I get into my own car. Daniel is looking out the window almost as if he's trying to break it by staring at it. I start my car and head for my house. I know I won't be able to convince Daniel to stay with his dad. Hell, I don't even want him to stay with him. But I think staying with his dad will be a good thing for him. I don't know how, but it will. His dad seems like he really wants to fix things with Daniel anyway.
I pull in my driveway and turn off the car. I look over at Daniel who's looking out the window. I start to say something, but he opens the car door and gets out. I get out and follow him.
"Where the hell are you going?" I ask.
"Inside the house. Where the hell else would I be going." He says.
I grab him by the arm, stopping him. He turns around giving me a death glare. I've never seen Daniel this mad before.
"I get that you're mad, but the way you talked to your mom back there was just unbelievable. How do you think she feels right now?"
"How the fuck do you think I feel right now?! I have to move in with my dad! I don't have a choice in this! My life is going to be miserable now and it's all her fault and his." He yells.
"Let her explain it to you. Your dad wants to fix things between you two. He wants to help you, Naomi, and your mom." I say.
He gets in my face, "So you're on his side now?"
"No! I'm on your side. I'm just saying. He doesn't deserve your forgiveness, but he wants to help. You guys have been struggling. You work yourself to death and so does your mom! Let him help. You don't have to have a relationship with him, but you can at least try and get along with each other for the sake of your mom! You think this is easy for her? Asking for help from the man that left her and her kids! If you really want to be a man and help her out, you'll put aside your shitty anger and just do this for her!" I yell.
He pushes me, "Fuck you! You don't know anything!"
I push him back, "Stop being a dick! At least both of your parents are still alive!"
He pushes me back, "Don't try and make me feel guilty. Just because he comes back and says sorry and his eyes fill with a few tears doesn't mean I'm going to forgive him like you did! You're supposed to be my brother! You're supposed to have my back when no one else does!"
I push him and he pushes me. I tackle him to the ground and we start to roll around in the grass.
"Hey! Hey! Stop!" I think I hear my mom say.
I try and look to see if that's her, but Daniel ends up getting the upper hand on me. He punches me in the face, which surprises and angers me even more. I'm about to flip him over and get a few punches in, but Daniel is lifted off of me. My dad has Daniel, trying to pull him inside of the house. I get to my feet and try to advance towards Daniel, but my mom steps in my way.
"No. What in the world is going on? We're in the house watching TV when we hear yelling. You two are like best friends. Why are you guys fighting?" She gives me a serious look.
I can't explain anything to her right now. I don't even want to talk because I'm so mad right now. I turn away from her and walk away from her.
"Jordan! Do not walk away from me! Come back here!" She yells.
I keep walking though. I need to clear my head. I'm losing my mind by the second and I just want to be alone. I continue walking towards the park that Abby and I ran to a couple of weeks ago. My phone rings and I look to see that Troy is calling me. My mom or dad must have called Ryan and Troy. I let it ring and a few seconds later, Ryan calls. I let his call ring too.
I finally get to the open space and I sit down. It's quiet and I instantly start to feel better. I just need silence right now. I've never gotten in a fight with Daniel before. Troy and I have fought plenty of times and Ryan and I have thrown a couple of punches, but no one in our group has ever fought Daniel. We never needed to. He was always the understanding one. My phone continues to vibrate, but I turn it off. I lie down on the grass and look up at the stars. A million thoughts run through my mind and I wish I could just shut my thoughts out. I'm in such a deep thought that I don't even hear Midget come lie down beside me.
She wraps an arm around my torso and rests her head on my chest. I pull her closer to me and inhale her scent. All the anger I felt vanishes. She makes everything better.
"How did you know I was here?" I ask her, looking up at the sky.
"I remember you said you came here sometimes to clear your head. Ryan called and told me that you and Daniel got into a fight and that you just walked off. I kind of knew where you would be." She says.
I think I fall in love with her even more at the fact that she remembered me telling her about this place. We're quiet for a moment before she speaks up again.
"No one is mad at you. Daniel explained everything to your dad and mom. To the guys too. They're all at your house right now." She says.
"I'm just upset right now. I shouldn't have came at him like that because he was pissed, but he shouldn't have talked to his mom like that. She can be taken away from him in a instance and he would regret everything he said to her. I just got mad because I started to think about my mom and dad and..." My voice cracks, cutting me off.
"Hey, shh. It's okay. Everything's okay." She wipes the tears off my face and I bury my face into her shoulder.
She starts to run her hand through my hair and whisper things to into my ear to calm me. I've never had a girl show me affection like that. She holds me for as long as cry. She doesn't rush me or anything. She knows that I'm hurting and that I just need her right now. I just need her to be with me right now.
I stop crying, but I continue to lay my head on her stomach while she runs her hand through my hair. I feel a lot better.
"Thank you." I tell her.
"You don't have to thank me. You would have done it for me." She says.
I look up at her and she's giving me a small smile. I scoot up to her so that we're face to face. Her eyes drift to my lips before going back up to my eyes. I lean down and kiss her. Slowly and passionately.
"I love you." I say against her lips.
"I love you more." She says back.
After a few more minutes of kissing we decide to head back to my house. Thankfully, we won't have to walk the whole way back because Abby drove her car to the park. I get into her car and she holds my hand the whole time on the way to my house. She focuses on the road while she drives, but every now and then she'll look at me.
We get to my house and get out. I see Troy and Ryan's car and know that they're here. I open the front door of my house and go in with Midget following behind me. I go into the living room to find everybody sitting around, waiting on me. Daniel is the first person to look up before everyone else sees me.
"Hey." Is all I say.
"Hey. That's all we get? You've been gone for two hours and a hey is all we get. I was worried sick about you. We all were. Thank God, Abby found you and texted us telling us you were okay." My mother fusses.
Two hours? It didn't feel like I was gone for that long. I guess that's what happen when you're with someone you love. You lose track of time.
"I'm sorry, mom. I just needed time to clear my head. I really didn't mean to make you worry." I go over to her and hug her.
She hugs me tight and I know that I had her really worried. I feel bad now, but I know she understands.
"Jordan." I turn my head to see Daniel standing behind me.
I turn around, but I don't say anything. He walks up to me and hugs me. I hug him back and he pats me on the back.
"I'm sorry, bro. I was being an idiot. You were right." He says.
"No, I wasn't. You have every reason to be mad and I shouldn't have fussed at you like that. I was out of place." I say.
He shakes his head, "I needed to hear that. I'm going to go home and apologize to my mom. I was being stupid and I probably hurt her feelings."
"Okay. You should go apologize." I agree.
Troy and Ryan gets up and walks over to us. They pull us into a group hug and I hear my mom, my dad, and Abby cheer for us. They're so dramatic.
"The next time you guys fight, call me before the fight. I've always wanted to see Daniel go up against one of us." Troy laughs.
I push him which makes him laugh even more.
"Jordan, you're dad told me Daniel was beating the crap out of you." Ryan laughs.
I turn my head towards my dad who starts to walk out of the room. I send death glares at the back of his head before turning back to the guys.
"I had him at first, but then my mom came out and distracted me. If she hadn't came out, I would have beaten the crap out of him." I smirk.
Daniel rolls his eyes, "Whatever. I'm ready when you are."
I smirk, "Let's go then."
We both put our hands up to fight, but my mom steps in between us.
"No more fighting tonight. It's a school night so all of you should be at home getting some rest." She says.
"Yes, ma'am." We all say.
I walk them all to the door and my mom goes upstairs.
"I'll see you all tomorrow." I say.
We all say goodbye and Daniel punches me in the arm while I'm not looking. I start to chase after him, but if my mom comes back down here, she'll really fuss us out. I turn around to see Midget still lingering around.
I smirk, "Did you want a special good night?"
She smiles and blushes, "Maybe."
I walk over to her and kiss her. Her hands go up to my hair, playing in it. I let out a groan in satisfaction, but decide to stop us before I take her up to my room.
"Good night, beautiful." I say.
"No Midget?" She smiles.
I laugh, "Good night, Midget."
I peck her on the lips before letting her go. I close the door behind me and go upstairs to my room. I plop down on my bed and sigh. I didn't realize how tired I was. After about six minutes, I'm drifting off to sleep, dreaming about a blonde headed girl with blue eyes.