The Girl He Noticed

New Encounters

"WHAT?"

I feel a huge lump in my throat when I listen to my mother finish telling me how my father arrived back in town. I start to feel dizzy just thinking about him, so I sit down on our living room couch.
My biological dad was a no show at my birth and my mom hasn't heard a word from him since. I mean, not until now.

"Mom, why now?" I cry. I just can't wrap my head around it because it's been seventeen long years without him.

"I don't know, honey. I'm just as surprised as you are. You really don't have to go see him or anything if you don't want to. It's his fault that he left."

"No, I deserve to know the reason he left. I mean there has to be a reason, right?"

"Kara, I know you would like to think that your father had a reason to go when he did but I'm just not so sure. He never needed a reason for anything he did, he just did what he wanted."

"I know, mom but I should at least have the right to ask because I've always wondered where he went and why he went."

"Okay. Just know I'll support you in anything you decide to do. I just want you to be happy, sweetheart!"

"I know and I will be.... Hopefully."

She leans in for a hug and I give in knowing that I need it right now.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
2 weeks later

I wake up with a gut feeling that today isn't going to be like I've hoped. I've decided to visit my dad after school today. And I know, I shouldn't be and I don't want to, but I have to. I need to know what's been keeping him away and why he decided to come back now.
Out of all the times, this couldn't be the best time to try to be in my life. I will graduate in 2 years and then I'll be off to college, so maybe it's just a little too late.
As I drive to school, I think about all the things I want to do with my life and I just don't see my dad in any of that. He wasn't there for me at all. And I don't think he even deserves to be. So that's what I'm going to tell myself the whole time I'm there, just so I don't get my hopes up.
As I pull up in the parking lot, I see Cynthia, my Bestfriend, get out of her car so I roll down my window and scream her name.

"CYNTHIAAA!"

She jumps and looks around then finally spots me.

"Jeez, Kar! You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry, but I have something so incredibly important to tell you!"

She then walks over to my car window and starts freaking out.

"Omg! Kar, your okay right? No tell me that it's not your mom!"
She kept on ranting for about 5 minutes before I was able to calm her down.

"No... Cyn... It's my dad. He's in town."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"So... Is he back... For good?"

I shrug. "I have no clue, but I need to speak to him to at least try to understand why he left...."

"Yea, I understand, but Kar......"

"What?"

"Just don't get your hopes up."

"Trust me... I've already handled that."

We walk the rest of the way to class in silence. I can tell she's trying not to pry and I respect that because she knows how I hate that.
She's one of my only friends at Brooke High. Not because I can't get any friends, it's just because I really don't need them. So yea, I'd rather have a few true friends than a bunch of fake ones, but there definitely isn't anything wrong with that!

We get all the way to homeroom when someone bumps into me way too hard for my liking, making my books fall out of my hands. Im about to tell them how much of a jerk they are, when another pair of hands start helping me pick my books up. I look up to see their face and it turns out i kinda like the view. Okay, "kinda" was a total understatement.

The guy that was in front of me was tall, dark and handsome with the clearest blue eyes I've ever seen. I blush as he looks me in the eye.
"Thanks..."

"No problem. Im sorry I bumped into you like that. Are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine."

"Well, you should let me make it up to you one day."

"What do you mean by that? Are you hitting on me?"
I know I'm flirting with him but he's just so cute. I just can't help it.

"It depends, do you want me to hit on you?"
He sounds so confident of himself. It's really a turn off. So that's why I turn him down.

"No, you see your confidence doesn't really appeal to me, sorry."

I really wasn't THAT sorry.

"Oh, rejected. Really? Didn't expect that from you."
he grins at me which kinda makes me wanna vomit.

"okay..... Bye...."
I'm about to just head to homeroom, when he stops me.

"Hold on, I.... I didnt get your name.
The names Laken."
he extends his hand but I don't return the gesture.

"Kara. But i gotta get to class. Sorry, bye."
I start to head the opposite way than where my class really was.

"Hey Kara...... Weren't you going the other way?"

I look at him and then blush once again, embarrassed.

"Yea..."

That short encounter starts and ends with that conversation. I didn't see him anywhere else the whole day and I was thankful.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Standing outside my fathers door at 6:30 at night was not what i had in mind when i decided to see him. It's freezing cold and my little thin jacket was not helping me warm up on this January day in my smalltown. Im so nervous, that i feel like i could pee in my pants any minute. Btw, I tend to have a very small bladder when I'm nervous.
It took me about a two solid weeks for me to even gather up my courage and face this door. This door is the only thing standing in between me and my dad and that's the scary part.

I'm contemplating whether i should knock or not when the porch light turns on and the door opens.
A man, who looks a lot like me, opens the door with a little girl in his right arm. Once upon a time, I wished that that little girl could've been me in her daddy's arms but that hope had dissipated a long time ago.

"Hi... Im-"

The man cuts me off then and says,"I know who you are. Come in, Kara."

I hesitated a little but my consciousness won the battle against my heart when I stepped forward into the large doorway.