Wild

Chapter 4

Claire walked down to the dining room at about 8 am. The smell of pancakes hung in the air. She always loved her mom's pancakes. Tom was occupied with his morning ritual, as always: Wake up, morning poop, kiss Helen on the forehead as she brought him his first cup of coffee, shower, sit down at the table with his second cup of coffee and start buzzing through the morning paper. Helen's morning was a new adventure every morning, besides Tom's first cup.

"Morning, honey."

"Morning, dad." Claire brought life to the coffee machine for her first cup. "Slept well?"

"Besides waking up with your mom's knee in my back, always.", Tom said with a wink aimed at Helen. She replied with a scolding look.

"Dad, I could hear your snoring all the way in my room. I think that was deserved."

"Exactly!", Helen exclaimed.

Tom whipped his paper in a way to say "Fuck you both".

Claire sat down at the table with with her fresh coffee and a plate of mom's pancakes. "So, what's the agenda for today?"

"Friendly game of golf with Senator Adam while your mom shops for new bed linens. Politic stuff, basically.", Tom replied. "Yours?"

"Class until 2 and then maybe come home, or chill in the park. I'll ask Meg for a ride."

"Sounds fun. Listen, I have a fundraiser this weekend and me and your mother would love if you could join us. You are not obliged, we just like talking to you."

"I'll be there, dad.", she said with a smile.

It was close to 2 and Claire was in her economic class. She could feel her brain scratch at her scalp as it was bored senselessly. She decided to be a bit rebellious and see what's on Facebook. As she scrolled through the endless idiotic posts of funny cat videos and old high school mates, she came across one of Dylan's posts. She stared at his name for what felt like a eternity. She fought she removed him from all social media, which she lied to herself about. It was just a stupid post of him holding a bass. The caption read, "Great day at the lake. Life couldn't be better!" Her spirit sinked as she read it over and over and over again, mesmerized by the words as if she was stuck in quick sand. Luckily strike of 2 o'clock snapped her out of her trance.

"I will see you all tomorrow." Her lecturer said as Claire scraped up her books and headed for the door. Dylan's post haunted her thoughts as she walked down the hall like a ghost and through the college's big doors. As she looked up, she saw the cherry red classic again. This time with the driver standing against his car, arms crossed, looking at her.

"Wait, is he waiting for me?", she quietly asked herself. A friendly, awkward smile arose.

"What are you doing?", she asked.

"Waiting for that dumb ass lecture to end, so I could see you."

"What the fuck?", she thought to herself. "You were waiting for me?"

"You seemed surprised?"

"More like confused, actually. Why were you waiting for me?"

"Well the other day you said you wanted a beer, so I'm here to take you out on one."

She laughed. "I never said that."

"No, you never said it, but your eyes said something different. Eyes never lie."

"Oh! Is that so?"

"Yeah. Someone can only lie as good as to the extend of their eyes. They're usually a dead give away."