Becoming Miss Visible

Tragedy

Chapter 5

The rest of the day went on as normal. School ended and I went to pick Bailey up and that's when I saw him again. It kinda felt like he was stalking me.

"Hey Callie! What are you doing here?" Dalton called from the room my sister was in.

"Just here to pick my sister up from day care. I could ask the same thing about you."

"I'm here to pick up my little brother." He said with a smile. Bailey was talking with some boy I'd never seen before. It was probably Dalton's little brother.

I walked over to Bailey and tapped on her shoulder. She turned around and jumped straight into my arms. I loved that. She smiled a up at me and then turned to the boy.

"Sissy Peter. Peter, sissy." She was too adorable. Peter looked up at me and smiled.

"Hi sissy" he said. I burst out laughing and he looked confused.

"Hun, my name is Callie. She calls me sissy because I'm her sister." His lower lip started to quiver and he looked like he was about to cry.

"But you can call me sissy too if you want little man." I said with a smile. He jumped in my arms and I was now holding two squirming toddlers. I set them down and Peter looked behind him and grinned.

"Brubby! Sissy and Bailey." He led Dalton by the hand over to us. Bailey smiled and ram over to him.

"Brubby!" She said throwing herself into his arms. He looked a little stunned but smiled anyway.

"Hey kiddo, you can call me that if you want but my real name is Dalton." She snuggled into his chest and smiled.

"Daddy" she smiled. Dalton looked shocked at that.

"No no no kiddo, I'm defiantly not your daddy." He said handing Bailey to me, his eyes full of question. I leaned in and whispered into his ear.

"You and my dad wear the same cologne. We're not around our father a lot and that's pretty much what she always remembers about him." I explained quickly. He looked relieved by that and I decided it was time to leave.

"Okay Bailey say bye bye to Peter and Dalton." I said putting her down. She ran over to Peter and threw her arms around him and then did the same with Dalton.

"Bye Brubby!" She said in her sweet little kid way.

"Bye little one. Bye Callie." Dalton looked amused as we walked off.

Bailey wad blabbering about her day. She had stopped making coherent words about ten minutes ago. From what I could understand she and Peter were now "badderast" which I assumed to mean best friends. I hoped that's what that meant. The rest of what she said was completely undistinguishable and I just smiled and listen to her babble. It was adorable.

We got home and to my surprise my mom was also home. She looked sad and mad at the same time. I got out, unbuckled Bailey and walked slowly over to her.

"Hey mom you're home early." I said casually trying to make her feel at ease. It seemed to have the opposite effect.

"Can you put Bailey in the play room? We need to talk." This scared me a little bit. We never talk, and for her to pull me over and tell me we needed to talk... Something big has to happen. I put Bailey in the room and went downstairs to talk to my mom.

My mom was sitting in the living room looking apprehensive.

"What's up mom?" I tried to ask casually, but she was making me nervous.

"Okay we have to issues to deal with. Both affect your life greatly, but you really can't do anything about either of them. First my boyfriend is moving in tomorrow-" I cut her off.

"No! I don't want him living here! I don't care what you say. I will treat him like the lowlife he is-"

"This isn't the only problem. You dad-" I cut her off again.

"But-" my mom cut me off this time.

"Let me finish! I'm so sorry to tell you this. Your dad died today in a car accident." She says quietly.

"What?" I whispered. This isn't happening. She has got to be kidding me.

"I'm so sorry." My mom looked like she was getting ready to cry. My thoughts left me and before I realized it I was out the door and running. My dad was one of the two people who made me feel real. He was my rock, even though he wasn't home a lot. I ran and ran until I couldn't run anymore. I feel to the ground and sobbed. I couldn't feel anything. I was sobbing and I couldn't breathe.

Suddenly I felt myself being picked up and carried. I really didn't even care if someone was stealing me or going to rape me in the night. It didn't matter to me.  

I was carried for about ten minutes. I felt cool air all of a sudden and knew I was inside.

"Hey mom can you come here?" A boy asked. His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"Hey sweetheart what's up? Dalton who is that?" Dalton? Where had I heard that name before, but I couldn't place it.

"She goes to school with me and she let me sit with her at lunch today. She's kind of a loner and I'm worried about her. I found her collapsed and sobbing while I was on my run. I couldn't just leave her. She needed help and there was no one. I was thinking maybe we could get her some water and make her some soup and figure out why she was running away. Is that okay?"

"Of course honey. I'll go make the soup."

I felt myself being laid down and I finally opened my eyes. I found myself looking into the eyes on the boy that I sat with in lunch.

"Hey there Callie. Are you okay?" He looked intently into my eyes and I felt tears roll down my cheeks. He wiped them away as he crouched in front of me.

"Whatever it is Callie, I'll take care of you." And for once, I believed him.