My Sister's Boyfriend

Chapter twenty-three

I woke up and the sun was shining through my window. I sat up and through my curtains I saw the snow on the tree branches glistening. I loved these kinds of days, not the sad mushy winter days, the warm feeling, the sunny, crystal snow days. I got up out of my bed and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. The door was closed so I knicked and Kaley immediately opened it. Kaley had her toothbrush in her mouth and her hair was wrapped up in a towel. She was wearing a pink knitted sweater with frayed ends of her sleeve. I sort of jumped as she opened the door as I was about to walk in. I wondered if she was awake when I came in her room last night. Although she would've yelled at me to get out right away so I highly doubt it. She gives me her judgy look and she says,
    "What?" she shakes her head in her sassy way as she says it.
    "Nothing..." I say with a frazzled look on my face. She raises an eyebrow and continues brushing,
    "You're weird," she says with her mouth full of toothpaste. I chuckle and she walks back towards the sink and spits into it. She comes back out and gives me a half smile and then drops it,
    "Bathroom's all yours," she says. I walk in and close the door behind me. I rub my hands over my face and sigh, then I take my shower. When I shower I usually take up about an hour of my day. I've always been like that, it's my time to reflect I guess. After my shower I put some mascara on and I put on one of my old softball tournament crewnecks and some leggings. I headed downstairs and Carol, Danny, and Julianne were downstairs in the kitchen. Danny looked upset and I heard Carol talking to Danny like he was a little kid.
    "He's your father it's still important to go," she says to him. I walk into the kitchen and I look at my mom with a nosy way. My mom makes a cumborous face, like something bad was happening.
    "Is everything okay?" I ask. Danny quickly jolts his head to lookk at me.
    "Danny's father is getting married this weekend," Carol says with an un appeasing way. My mouth drops open I never thought that I'd hear about him again, I don't even really remember why they hated him so much.
    "Mr. Lorene?" I ask surprised. Carol nods,
    "I told him that he needs to go because he's still his son, and he wants him there, I don't want to keep him out of his sons life, I'm not that kind of woman," she says while staring at him. His head is low and he looks like he could punch in a wall.
    "I don't understand, why you want me to go see him, after everything? I mean come on!" he yells. I have never seen him talk to his mom like that. Kaley sips her water and then says,
    "I'm gonna go do some homework," then she leaves and bolts up the stairs. I flip my head towards them again.
    "Can we please not discuss this right now Daniel?" Carol's eyes were sort of red, she looked like she was going to cry.
    "Maybe take Jule, it's her father too," she says, "and you'll have company too," she smiles. Danny scoffs and looks to the side,
    'I'm not bringing my baby sister to him," he says. Carol looks at Julianne and signs I love you.
    "Fine, but take somebody, I want to make sure you're on your best behavior," she says. Danny cuffs his hands over his eyes and then scoots out of his chair he makes eye contact with me and his face softens a little bit. He gulps and then softly he says,
    "I'm going to go run a few errands, I'll be back soon." I make a worried face towards him and he just stares at me. What was so bad about his father? And how come no one has ever fully told me what happened? Danny bolts out of the door and I'm still standing shocked. Carol still looks like she's about to cry, when my mom looks at me,
    "Get out of here for a minute Kara," my mom scolds me. I nod and go back up to my room. Was the divorce really that bad? I think to myself as I'm laying on my bed staring up at the ceiling. Kaley walks in my room and I pop up with a startle. She closes my door and then looks at herself in my mirror again.
    "Gosh why don't you just get your own mirror?" I ask. She fluffs up her hair and nods while putting on her bottom lip,
    "Hm, I don't even know why I didn't think of that," she says. I roll my eyes and lay back down.
    "Hey Kaley?" I ask nervously. She's still looking in the mirror,
    "Hm?" she responds. I shift over to my side to get a better look at her.
    "What happened with Danny's dad?" I ask. She stops and looks at me through the mirror then screws off the top of her lip gloss.
    "I don't really know, Danny never really opened up about him, mom has never even really told me about it. I think that's something Danny will never share, no matter how much he does love you," she explains. I nod with understanding.
    "You think he'll take anyone to the wedding?" I ask. She turs towards me and sighs,
    "I don't even think he'll show," she says. I shrug,
    "He's Danny, he never likes to upset someone, no matter who they are," I say. She nods with agreement
    "Well, we are gonna see aren't we?" she says. She quickly glances at my dirty room and then scoffs,
    "And kara, if I have to tell you to clean your room one more time, I might die, it looks like a tornado flew through it, clean!" she throws a pillow that was on my floor at me before exiting my room. I wondered if Danny would ever trust me enough to talk to me about his dad. It had been about 7 hours later, it was about 7:53, p.m. I heard Danny's truck pull into his driveway and I ran to see if it was him. I look outside my window and saw that he was getting out of his truck. I opened my window and the cold air hit my face like a shockwave. I stick my head through and watch him as he get's closer to his door. He stops and stares at my window and locks eyes with me. I think about moving but I don't this time. I smile and wave at him and he waves back. He goes in his house and I immediately get a text from him.
Danny: Can I meet you?
Me: Yes, where?
Danny: The park.
Me: Okay see you soon.
There was a park 3 minutes walking time away from my house. We lived basically at the start of a block so there was a park in plain view. I put my green coat on and some gloves and then I head downstairs. My mom was sitting on the couch reading and she stops and looks at me.
    'Where are you going?" she asks with her eyebrows furrowed. I look outside and then back at her.
    "Just going to go get some air, take in this snow, it'll be gone for the week," I say. She nods suspiciously.
    "Okay well don't be out too long, it's getting cold," she says putting her nose back into her book.
    "K...see you soon," I say and then I leave. I run as fast as I can to the park and he's not there yet, Iook all around me. Another thing about Danny and I were that we both did love the cold, the way it felt on our skin. I went over to the swing set and started to swing while waiting for him. I got off because the swing had now soaked my pants. I look up at the sky there was no snow falling it was just clear, there were even some stars out. I hear a low voice behind me,
    "Hey." I jump and then turn around to see Danny. He looked awkward and like he was tired.
    "Danny are you okay?" I ask with full concern, it was so rare to see him hurt. He stares at me and sighs,
    "I know this might be short notice and awkward for you, but I desperately do not want to go alone, he is my father and I can't block him out, I could, I want to but my mom would never allow it," he says quietly.  His eyes are low and the steam is coming out of his mouth and he breaths slowly.
    "Kara would you go with me, I understand if you can't but I can't do this alone," he asks with full hopelessness. This was the one thing I'd have always dreamt about, him asking me to do something important with him.
"Would you rather kaley go with you? I know that yu guys were closer and-" he cuts me off by saying,
"No, I want you...to go...i-if that's what you want," he says, his eye brows turned in.
I smile, my heart struck, I felt this big woosh of feeling hit my heart like a bulldozer. Yes Danny of course, a million times yes I'll go with you.
    "Of course I will, of course Danny," I say stepping closer to him. He breathes and smiles with relief,
    "Thank you, really thank you," he says while pulling me in for the tightest hug we've ever had. I look up at him, my eyes glistening, his face had this look of full content, he looked like he had a whole weight lifted off his chest. I stand beside him and then plop myself down in the snow, he looks down at me with a confused smile.    
    "What on earth are yo doing?" he asks. I lay back fully and I feel the snow cave in around me. He shrugs and does the same thing. He lays down next to me and then looks at me. I smile seeing him from my peripheral vision. We both look up at the stars and I say,
"I want you to know that you can tell me about him, your Dad, you don't have to be afriad around me," I say. I look at him and then I look back up. He was quiet, but I feel his hand on mine. I grip his hand and we just continue to stare at the sky, no words, just being in each other's presents. I wish I could've told him how much I loved him that night, even if it was one night of us being together, I mean together together. Even if it was one night, one night to be in his touch, holding hands for eternity, feeling his lips on mine, endless nights of laughter with him, I wanted to be his, I could only want. Wanting and dreaming was all that I could do.