Until I Found You

eighteen

~ ABBY ~

There's a light, but consistent knocking at the door. It's what I wake up to after what must have been hours of me trying and failing to fall asleep.

It happens to me more often than it probably should. I'll be laying there, nestled deep into my sheets, infuriatingly unable to get the noise in my brain to turn off. I guess that's just life with anxiety for you.

I roll out of bed, not awake enough to do anything but zombie-walk over to the door and swing it open just enough to see whoever had the audacity to wake me up at the crack of dawn.

"Sorry," A deep but quiet voice fills the silence. I blink a few times, eyes focusing in on who my sleep-deprived brain eventually identifies as my soulmate. "It's noon? Were you still sleeping?"

"Yeah, sort of. I think." I rub at my eyes, struggling to keep them open for longer than a second at a time.

"Did you sleep okay?" He whispers, eyebrows scrunched with concern. "I mean the room was okay and everything?"

"Yeah it was, thanks." I reply, hiding a smile. He seemed nervous, really nervous. He was sort of cute when he was nervous. Wait- what? Time to wake the hell up brain. Wake up, wake up, wake up.

"Good. Good." He murmurs so softly, I think I might have imagined it. "That's good."

He leans forward slightly, resting his weight on the door frame as he smiles at me, apprehensively. I lean forward too, matching his movements.

"Why are you whispering." I lower my voice into a quiet whisper, matching his volume.

"Oh I uh-" He clears his throat, eyes widening in realization as he apparently struggles to get his voice back to normal. "There's someone here to see you. If you're up for a visitor."

"Who?" I stand up a little straighter, confused. After the events of last night, I know Steve wouldn't be acting this way if it was Jonah who was here to visit me.

I watch as Steve shuffles away from the door pulling it all the way open, revealing a slightly shorter but extremely familiar looking man behind him.

"Dad!"

I race forward, running through the door frame, past Steve and quickly into my father's waiting arms.

"Hi Shortcake." He says, resting his head on the top of mine.

I know I'm much too old for this. I know I'm supposed to be able to handle these kinds of things by myself, but I'd spent the past weeks struggling to carry the weight of the unfortunate incidents that had turned my life upside down. Seeing my Dad smiling back at me, feeling his arms hold me as he calls me shortcake... it's the first time I finally feel like everything is going to eventually work itself out.

"Pretty eventful past few days you've had here." He states with a small chuckle that I can't help but follow with one of my own.

"You could say that." My reply sounds slightly muffled against my dad's jacket but I can tell he gets the gist of it because his arms wrap a little tighter around me.

After a moment, he pulls away to look down at me.

"I'm feeling a little out of the loop." He says, ruffling my hair. "Care to fill me in?"