The Coach's Daughter

Chapter 31

Sitting in the parking lot, My head was swimming with emotions. A sense of anger, guilt, sadness, loss, and numbness were setting in. Angry at Charlie for breaking up with me. Guilt for not sticking up to my father about my relationship with Charlie. Sadness and loss for losing Charlie. And finally, the sense of being numb, for I couldn't feel anything except this constricting sense in my chest.

I was heartbroken that Charlie broke up with me. I hadn't ever imagined us breaking up. I always thought about marrying him someday, waking up to him next to me, having a child with him, everything. And now its gone.

And then I realized it.

I was in love with Charlie.

And that's when I started sobbing even harder than I had been.

I don't know how long I was sitting in the parking lot crying, but sometime later Delilah came out and I heard her go into my bag and pull something out.

"Who do you want me to call?" She asked me softly.

"Henry," I croaked, my voice clogged from crying.

"Okay." I faintly heard her going through my phone looking for his number.

"Hello, Henry? Yes, this is Delilah. Anna is here crying in the middle of my parking lot and I'm not sure why. She wants you to come get her please... Yes, he was here earlier with her... No, I don't know what happened... No, I don't know where he is either... Okay, let me ask her. Honey, did you drive here?" I shook my head, too tired to speak. "No, she didn't. I'm guessing he picked her up... No, I don't know how long she's been out here... You just might want to bring her a sweatshirt but other than that I don't think she needs anything but some comfort food... Yes, okay, come quickly... Bye." Delilah ended the call. "Honey he's on his way."

I didn't do anything, just kept my hands over my face, hiding my face. I felt a body sit next to mine and then arms came around me, hugging tightly. Delilah and I sat like that until Henry arrived.

I heard Henry get out of his car and kneel in front of me. "Anna, I'm gonna take you to my house. Once we get there I'll call your dad and tell him why your at my house. Do you want to get up and get in the car now?" Henry explained to me. I shook my head, telling him that I didn't want to move. "Anna please?" I shook my head again. I was crying softly still.

Delilah's arms suddenly were unwrapped from me and she got up. Henry then picked me up, cradling me against his chest. I pressed my face against his chest, muffling my cries. "Delilah, can you please open the passenger door?"

"Sure," she said, sounding distant and worried. I heard the car door open and then Henry set me down in the seat. I buckled myself up and then brought my knees up to my face, burying my face in them, and wrapping my arms around my shins.

Henry gently shut the door, and then opened the driver door and got it, setting something, most likely my bag, in the back, and shut his door.

I felt the car start to move and soon enough we were driving towards Henry's house. Henry moved his hand to my back and was rubbing it comfortingly, trying to get me to stop crying. Almost twenty minutes later I felt the car come to a complete stop, and I heard Henry turn the car off. He got out and came to my side and opened the door, and I unbuckled the seatbelt and then slowly sat up. I had just stopped crying mostly.

"Come on, let's get you inside," Henry spoke softly.

I pushed myself out of the seat and stood. Henry wrapped his arm around my shoulders after closing the door. He led me inside his house, where I the smell of food was coming from. He led me up his stairs to his room, where I sat down on his bed.

I looked around his room, taking in the familiar sights; his dresser pushed in the corner behind his door, his bed across from his dresser, his Xbox and other video games splayed on the floor at the foot of his bed, with his somewhat small TV facing his bed, white walls, with a few band posters hanging up, pictures of Alex, Ben, Henry and I taped sporatically on the walls. Henry had gone through a stage where he loved taking pictures, and had us help him tape the pictures up one day last year. I smiled briefly at the memory, remembering how we ended up wrapping each other in tape.

Henry stepped in front of me, snapping me out of my trance. He held up a pair of black sweatpants and a grey t-shirt in front of me. "If you want to change you can put these on. I'm gonna go call Ben and Alex okay?"

I nodded taking the clothes from him. Henry turned towards his door, giving me privacy to change. Just as he was about to close the door, I asked him in a hoarse voice, "What time is it?"

Henry pulled out his phone and glanced at it. "Just about 8," he answered. "When did you tell your dad you would be home?"

"Around 8:30."

"Okay, I'll tell Ben and Alex to hurry."

I nodded, and then Henry left, shutting the door behind him. I changed out of my jeans and shirt, putting on Henry's sweatpants and t-shirt. I pulled the drawstrings, so that the sweatpants were snug against my waist.

I opened Henry's bedroom door and made my way to his bathroom, just across the hall. I pulled out the extra hairbrush Henry kept here for me, and started brushing through my hair. I returned the brush to it's place.

I reentered Henry's bedroom, and found Henry sitting on his bed, with two tubs of ice cream, one chocolate, and one strawberry, along with two spoons, popcorn and two mugs of hot chocolate; he had been waiting for me.

I sat down next to him, and pulled my feet under me, facing Henry.

"You ready to call your dad?" Henry asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"What's the excuse?" Henry wondered.

"You need help on a project," I answered. He nodded and handed me the phone. I dialed my father's number, waiting for him to pick up.

On the third ring he answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Dad, it's me."

"Hi. What's going on?"

"Well after Charlie and I went to Delilah's, Henry texted me telling me that he needed help with a project, so I had Charlie drop me off at Henry's. He said that it might take awhile, so is it okay if I stay at his house for the night?" I asked.

"Sure sweetie, not a problem," my father told me.

"Thanks Dad. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah that's fine. Love you."

"Love you too. Bye," I replied.

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and handed it to Henry.

"Thanks," I told Henry.

"You're welcome," he said.

"When are Alex and Ben getting here?"

"I called them about ten minutes ago, so in about five or ten minutes?"

"Okay," I replied.

I slowly started munching on my favorite snacks. Sure enough, ten minutes later, Alex and Ben walked into Henry's room, both of them holding food similar to mine and Henry's.

The two set their food down on the floor in two piles, and sat down next to them.

"What's going on?" Alex asked curiously.

The three boys looked at me, curiousity and concern showing through their eyes clear as day.

"Um... Well... Charlie um, broke up with me," I shared with them.

"Why?" Ben asked softly.

"Well, his little sister told me something really bad, and I told Charlie and he didn't believe me and blamed me for lying, which led to him thinking I don't want to be with him because I won't tell my dad," I answered.

"I'm sorry Anna," the three all sincerely told me.

"Thanks guys," I replied. "Can we do something that will take my mind off of it?"

"Of course," Alex said, grinning.

"Thanks," I weakly smiled.

The guys started talking about what to do and decided on video games. We started playing Call of Duty, FIFA, and Mario Kart Wii. Once we got bored of that we played board games like Monopoly, Sorry, and Life.

The whole time Charlie was at the back of my mind, and I tried hiding my sadness. Sometimes it showed through and the guys noticed it.

After our last game of Sorry, I looked at the clock and noticed it was almost 11:30pm.

"Can we go to sleep? I'm tired," I asked. Looking around I noticed that everyone one seemed tired.

"Yeah, I'll go grab some extra pillows and blankets for everyone," Henry stated, getting up and leaving. Henry came back a few minutes later, carrying three blankets and five pillows. He dropped them in a pile on the floor next to his bed. He handed out the three blankets to us, one each, and we picked up the pillows, randomly throwing them on the bed.

"You pick first Anna," Henry told me. I nodded and climbed up on the bed, laying down on my back in the middle of the bed, with the blanket laid across me.

Alex followed and laid on my right side. Ben laid on my left. Henry turned the light of and, carefully climbing over Alex, laid over all three of us like he usually does.

We were all close together, feeding off each other's warmth.

"Thank you guys. You're the best friends a girl could ask for," I whispered.

Before any three of the boys could respond, I fell asleep, my last thought of Charlie.



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Merry Christmas you guys!
Christmas update! WooHoo!
(Well kinda. It's a day late, but I finished the chapter yesterday but didn't upload until today.)

Thank you all so much for those who read this story and are constantly voting and sometime commenting.

I honestly love Wattpad so much. I can write whatever I want and when I don't think people will like or read what I write, there's always at least some people who do. I'm so thankful for those people because they are part of the reason I keep writing, besides for my own purposes. Even though I haven't made those "internet friends" everyone speaks of and says that are amazing, I'm still grateful for this website because it helps so many people.

If anybody read that, please comment something. :).

So how did you like this chapter? The story will be ending soon, maybe in like 4-5 chapters probably. Plus an epilogue.

I hope you guys have been enjoying the story.

Comment what you think and how you feel about what's happened in this chapter. :)

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Anybody heard the song The Giving Tree by Plain White T's?? That my readers, is my new obsession. <3