The Dancer's Daughter (1D)

Chapter Seventeen

I was sitting at the window, waiting for the second van to pull up. Paul had made me beg for nearly an hour before laughing and telling me he would have brought them anyways. I shouldn't have been surprised, really. He was more like my father than my actual father.... though I hoped to change that.

"A watched pot never boils," Dad called from the kitchen. I could hear the laughter in his voice. "Come help me with lunch, Haley. They'll be here soon enough. It's a three hour drive from where they were, remember?"

I sighed and moved to the kitchen. He was working on some kind of intricate pasta, which smelled really good. He gestured to a big bowl with all the ingredients for bread right next to it. I couldn't believe he remembered how much I loved making my own! I smiled at him, and got to work. Twenty minutes later, the dough was rising, and I was helping him cut the last of the vegetables. The doorbell rang.

"Who was coming over today?" Gladys shouted from upstairs. Dad and I rolled our eyes at each other. He'd told me late last night, after she was sleeping, that he'd only married her because she was pregnant and threatening to sue him. He'd never really wanted to leave me and Mom at all... it was shocking to say the least.

"Haley's friends are here to celebrate her birthday!" he shouted back. Then he shut the doors to the stairs and motioned for me to go get the door. The doorbell rang again, and I knew it was Louis being impatient. I beamed and ran for the door. I decided to play with them.

"Who is it?" I called, pretending to be shocked we had company. I could hear Mica trying not to laugh on the other side and I could imagine the looks she was getting.

"Pizza delivery!" Harry called, knocking on the door. I yanked it open.

"You better not have brought pizza. We spent the last two hours making lunch, and you all are going to eat it no matter how much you just ate," I teased.

Zayn immediately pulled me into a hug and whispered, "You better never do that to me again. You really scared me when you just left." I hugged him back tightly and whispered a promise that I wouldn't.

Louis pushed past us and stormed into the house, Liam following him closely, ready to reprimand. I laughed at the look on his face. He looked like a mother with an annoying toddler. Which really... that described them well. Harry patted my shoulder and smiled at me as he passed. Niall was dragging Mica in, and heading straight for the kitchen. I stopped him and called them all into the living room.

"So I know you've heard a lot of shit about my father. Mostly from me, and probably a bit from Mica yesterday... I want to clear all of that up before you meet him. Because none of it was what I thought it was at all. He didn't leave because he loved Gladys more, he left because she was threatening to sue him for knocking her up. She was his secretary, remember. It was a drunken mistake that he has had to deal with for the rest of his life. And he's been writing me letters every week since the day he left. Mom never gave them to me, and he eventually stopped when he didn't get a reply. He saved them all though, because he'd typed most of them. I got to read them, and they explain a lot. Someday I'll let you read them. But for now, he's not the person I made him out to be. So please, give him a real chance. For me?" I begged.

"How can you believe anything he says?" Mica demanded. "He's had years to think of ways to get you back on his side. He could have written those letters last week and you wouldn't know!"

"Mica, please. Don't make this into something bad when it's not," I snapped. I was tired of her trying to make him seem awful when he wasn't.

"I'm just saying. He wants a free babysitter and a personal slave. He'll be asking you to move in here tonight, I'd bet money! He's going to make you choose between us and him, and he's got you so worked up that you'll choose him!" she hissed.