In a lifetime

Chapter 33: Eli Bennet

Upon waking up I can feel how sore my body feels which is probably due to the stress I had yesterday with the social worker but now I have one less thing to worry about.

Veronica also messaged me yesterday about Joseph being gone and that was two days ago and now she's starting to get worried. I tried telling her that mourning is different for everyone and that helped her calm down a bit. 

She asked me to check in on Daniel today since she won't be able to because she's still trying to control her newfound emotional combustion ability, which is what I like to call it.

Anyway, it's not like I got anything better to do.

I get ready and head to the kitchen to eat some breakfast where everyone was already up. My siblings are going to the library with my dads to get them ready for the next school year.

I am so glad I graduated. We all head out of the house and go our separate ways.

The entire walk to Joseph's, I start to think about what I'm going to say because Daniel and I haven't really talked one on one all that much.

Once I get there I knock on the front door and patiently wait for Daniel to open up.

He looks confused when he opens the door but he greets me with a warm smile and gestures me in.

There is a bit of silence before he says "soooo what brings you here?"

He hands me a drink as we sit on the couch and I respond "you look like hell, I can clearly see that you've been under a lot of stress trying to be helpful and we all know it but you need to take a break and that's why I'm here"

He sighs cause he knows I'm right but I can tell he's a bit worried that I called him out but it's a good thing to realize before it's too late.

I suppose this is my chance to get to know him more. "So your parents go around hunting myths, right? How'd that start?"

I ask to get a conversation going and he responds "it was my dad who started it, he's an archeologist but more intrigued with Greek mythology, and yeah one thing lead to another and here I am"

Now I'm getting it. "So how'd you meet Joseph?" I ask cause I'm a little interested in how they met. He gives a small chuckle before saying "when we got here we went to the diner, roses, and I saw him and he looked a little upset so I-"

he pauses and laughs before continuing, "I followed him to the cemetery and well met his grandmother, after that my mom was trying to get us in school for a while and they suggested that Joseph's family were the best people to get the best suggestions of this place, also cause Joseph was placed as a model student, but dinner didn't go well and then we met again at school and I asked him out and yeah, there it is"

Wow, I didn't expect that, it's kinda sweet that they became a thing even with how they met.

I take a deep breath and say "So what do you want to do today, stress-free" he looks up at me and smiles before saying "hmm there's a bowling alley nearby, we can go there?" I nod as I get up and signal that we need to go.

As we're walking to the bowling alley Daniel says "should we let the others if they want to join us?" I look at him jokingly and say "oh you don't want to be alone with me, I see" all he does is look at me confused and laugh and I do too while saying "yeah I'll let them know"

Everyone responded that they'll meet us there and once we get there we get one of the lanes and wait a while for the others.

Soon Nessa and Veronica show up getting their shoes and head toward us.

"We got everyone here so shall we get started," I say and Daniel goes first followed by me then Veronica, and then Nessa.

We play for a while and I can see that everyone is happy, especially Daniel he needed this the most.

I catch Veronica and say jokingly, "thought you were too busy today?" We laugh and she responds "I had enough practice for one day" we both look up to see that the game ended and we all decided that we should get some dinner before heading home.

"There's a taco truck just around the corner, what do you guys think?" I ask and everyone nods and we go there.

After we order they almost quickly get our food to us and we sit at one of the tables they have set out.

We relax a little more and laugh all together. After we finish we all walk home, stopping at the center park we head our different ways. I've never felt this relaxed in a long time.