Dear Dad

January 1st

January 1st,

            Another year has come and gone.  I’m seventeen now.  Wow, I’m so old.  My five-year-old self would laugh at me and say I’m a grandpa.  When I was little I considered anyone over the age of thirteen to be really old.

            Anabella’s dad was out who knows where so I invited her over to celebrate with us.  She arrived wearing a little pink party dress and thick stockings.  She was also wearing my white hat which matched her stockings, typical.

            She entered and hugged my mom hello.  Mom liked Anabella.  She said she was nice and that she looked like an adorable little doll.  We had a fun night playing card games and socializing until midnight.  We counted down and Anabella and I kissed when the clock struck twelve.  At twelve ten mom got called into work.  A whole party of people with alcohol poisoning had just come in.  Oh New Years!  Mom rushed out the door and told me to bring Anabella home.

            We walked back to her house hand in hand.  When we arrived the place was deserted.  She signed to me, ‘Please stay.  Don’t leave me.’  I kissed her forehead and whispered, “I could never leave you.”

            We made our way up to her bedroom and sat down on her bead.  I put my arm around her and she rested her head on my shoulder.  I looked down at her arms, something wasn’t right.  I picked up her left arm and examined it.  “What happened?”  I asked her.  Her arm was covered in bruises and a few small cuts.  ‘I fell and dropped a glass in the kitchen.  I’m fine, it’ll heal.’  She signed and then went under the covers.  I joined her.  She faced me and got closer.  She wrapped her arms around my neck.  I kissed her.  She kissed me back.  Kissing turned into loving and loving turned into me staying by her side the rest of the night like I promised.

            We slept in to about eleven.  When we woke up we laid in bed for a while just gazing into each other’s eyes and holding hands.  It was sweet and I wish I could’ve stayed there forever.

            Anabella’s dad had yet to return home from wherever he was all night.  It was around two when I left and went home.  My mom hadn’t returned either.  She didn’t come home until six.  She’d never find out that I had been out all night.