Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

XIV

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Hello again

My plane landed in Minneapolis, and I had to take the Uber my dad ordered the rest of the way north. This bothered me. He couldn't be bothered to pick me up himself, and I was now in a car with a strange man. I knew if he tried anything, I could just put him to sleep, but it's the principle of the matter.

"Alright, here you are." The Uber driver put the car in park and turned to look at me. "Got all your stuff?"

"Yes." I fished change out of my pocket. "I know you drove a really long way, but that's all I have."

"Nah, you're just a kid." He took the money, of course. "You all by yourself?"

"My dad is waiting for me."

"Ah. Split custody?"

I opened the door. "Not exactly." I climbed out of the car and closed it, offering an awkward wave to Mr. Uber Man. He zoomed off, clearly eager to get back home, and I stared at the restaurant my dad asked to meet me at.

I felt really awkward going in, because I had a big backpack full of clothes and hygiene products for the week. I knew my dad probably had some of my old stuff waiting for me, but you never know. He could have cleared my old room for his studies. But I saw him sitting at a table in the corner, sipping black coffee desperately as he focused on the local paper. We were in a small town on the edge of Lake Superior, so their local paper was very important to them.

He didn't noticed me until I tapped my fingers on the edge of the table. "Hi."

He blinked in shock when he saw me. "Suki?" He stood up, towering over me. "My gods, you've grown a lot."

We didn't hug each other. "I suppose I'm at that age." I sat across from him and shoved my bag against the wall. "Merry Christmas Eve."

He snorted. "Merry Christmas Eve. Your flight was okay?"

"There was a screaming baby, but it wasn't that bad," I said softly. A waitress came to grab my order, so I just ordered orange juice and a blueberry muffin.

"Orange juice and a muffin?" My dad asked. "That's a lot of sugar so early in the morning."

I squeezed my nails into my palm. "Felix makes us a lot of fresh pancakes with syrup and fruit in the morning."

"Who's Felix?"

"Lisa's husband," I replied.

"She got married?" My dad asked. "What happened to Quentin, Sebastian's dad?"

I frowned. "Quentin died years ago." I fixed the disorganized sugar packets in the little metal tin. "He got in a car accident just a little bit after trying to kidnap Sebastian and take him to the Mexican border."

"Oh, that's a shame." I didn't think so. Lisa and Sebastian didn't like Quentin one bit. It's a shame Lisa procreated with him, but at least Sebastian was the product. "You gettin' along with everyone?"

"Mostly," I said. "Everyone in the house." My face felt flushed. "And I made two friends."

"Who?"