Troian Bellisario: Just Me & My Girl

Tunnel of Terror

Troian's Pov

"Dad." I say, now shaking vigorously "If Aspen isn't here, then I don't know where she is. Y-you have to help me, I don't know where she could be." I swear I brought her here, but if I didn't, then I have no clue where she is.

"It's okay Troian, calm down. Did you bring her to your moms?" My dad asks. I think about it for a second, trying to remember if I did.

"No," I shake my head "No I haven't been to moms today. I brought her here dad." I stare sternly at him, trying not to cry. I just want to know where my daughter is.

"Alright," My dad sighs "Come on out, Aspen. I think we got her good." A closet door opens, and out walks my beautiful daughter.

"W-what?" I stutter. My dad chuckles.

"We wanted to prank you! Did it work?" My dad laughs. I just stare at him in disbelief.

"That's not even funny dad! Do you know how much you scared me?!" I yell. He just laughs.

"Stop it! That wasn't funny at all!" I say angrily "I was so scared! And I-I really wanna swear right now but I can't because Aspen's here!" My dad just laughs, somehow finding this hilarious.

"I'm sorry Troian, we just wanted to play an innocent joke on you." My dad tries to contain his smile as he speaks.

"That wasn't innocent!" I say "If you wanted to play an innocent joke you could've jumped out from behind a door and scared me. Pretending that my daughter is gone is far from innocent dad!"

My dad sighs "Fine, fine." He says "I'll admit we went a little too far. But I'll also admit that it was all Aspen's idea." Aspen's eyes widen, and she turns sharply toward her grandpa.

"No it wasn't!" Aspen's says, sounding offended "Mommy it wasn't my idea I promise! It was grandpa's." Aspen runs over to me, her eyes begging. I can't help but chuckle.

"I know sweetie," I say "Grandpa's just joking." She looks relieved.

"She went along with the plan, though." My dad laughs "She's not entirely innocent." I can tell my dad is joking, but Aspen looks shocked.

"Mommy I-" Aspen pleads before I cut her off.

"It's okay Aspen, he's just trying to be funny." I reassure her "Although it seems that his ideas of funny are never actually very funny." I look at my dad for the last part. He just smiles goofily.

"Alright Asp, we should get going." I say "It's getting late." Aspen sighs heavily, but goes and hugs her grandpa goodbye nonetheless.

"Bye dad." I say, hugging him after Aspen does.

"Come back soon!" He calls after us as Aspen and I walk toward my car. I give him a thumbs up as I help buckle Aspen into her car seat.

As we drive through town, I decide to stop at the car wash. The sun is already down, so there's only one other person. This particular car wash is the type where you drive through and it washes your car for you, so you don't even have to get out. As we begin to pull into the car wash entrance, Aspen lets out a cry behind me.

"No mommy!" She yells "No!" I sigh, knowing that Aspen hates going through car washes. I don't really know why she's scared of it, but she's always screamed and cried the entire way through. I thought that Aspen would get used to them the more we went in them, but she never seems to be any less scared.

"Aspen, it's just a car wash." I tell her "You'll be fine. You always are, right?" She just bursts into tears.

"It's okay honey," I try and calm her down. But by the sound of her small screams, I can tell it doesn't work. As water sprays the car from all around us, Aspen cries even harder.

"M-mommy!" She wails "I wanna go home!" I look back at her as she wriggles around in her car seat, crying loudly.

"I know you do Aspen," I say "We will just as soon as we're done in the car wash. I promise." I don't know why she's so terrified of car washes, nothing traumatizing ever happened in one. Aspen doesn't have a reason to associate them with something bad, but for some reason, she freaks out everytime she goes through one.

The rainbow colored soap is dispensed all over the car, and Aspen lets out a scream as she sees it. She covers her eyes and squirms around in her seat, trying to get out.

"Aspen you're okay," I tell her, talking over the sound of her crying. It still confuses me why she's so scared of car washes, considering how much of an adrenaline-junkie she is with most scary things. Sometimes, It's hard to believe that Aspen is only four, and that she was the tender age of three less than two months ago. She's still so little, and I guess that sometimes it shows.

Pressurized water shoots in all directions onto my car, rinsing off the coloured bubbles. Next, the driers blow air on my car, drying it off almost completely.

I pull out of the car wash and into a parking spot just outside. Aspen now sobs softly in the back seat, hiccuping every few moments.

"Come here, Aspen." I say motioning for her to come sit on my lap. She shakily undoes the top part of her seatbelt, and I reach back and undo the bottom. Aspen climbs into the front seat and onto my lap. Once she gets comfortable, I stroke her hair gently, waiting for her to calm down

"Aspen, can you tell me why you're so scared of car washes?" I ask softly. She wipes her eyes before answering.

"I don't like them." She answers quietly.

"I know, but why don't you like them?" I ask.

"Because they're scary." She replies.

"But what makes them so scary?" I look into her eyes, only now remembering my suspicion. But the only light is coming from the half moon and a faraway dim streetlight, so I can hardly see their colour, let alone which shade of blue they are.

"I don't know." Aspen answers sadly. I rub her back and kiss the top of her head, feeling bad for taking her through the car wash. I just thought that maybe if she does it enough times, she won't be scared anymore.

"Do you want to go home now, baby?" I ask her. She nods, then goes back to her car seat.

After Aspen is buckled up, I start the car and begin the drive back home.

When we arrive at home, I get anxious to look at Aspen's eye colour. Of course I want to see if hers match Keegan's, but at the same time, I want to just pretend I never noticed how alike they are.

"Hey Aspen," I say "Can you come here for a minute?" I walk into the bathroom, where the lighting is bright enough that I'll be able to see Aspen's eye colour clearly.

She walks into the bathroom, looking up at me expectantly. I pick her up and sit her down on the counter so she's eye level with me. Before I look into her eyes I remind myself of one thing: Just because her eye colour may be very similar to Keegan's, it doesn't mean he's her dad. It may not mean anything.

I look into my daughters eyes, into the beautiful blue that I love so much. Almost like the sky on a summer day, or maybe the ocean water somewhere tropical. I don't know exactly what the name of the colour of Aspen's eyes would be, but whatever it is, Keegan's is the same.