Breaking Ice

Chapter 42

Hayden's POV:

I walked into my homeroom and felt off. The group of 'popular' girls all had their eyes on me. I had checked my outfit fourteen times before I walked out of the house, then eleven before I walked into class. There was nothing spilled or out of place. Why were they staring at me? I sat down at the back of the class and they still stared at me.

   My only friend Ella thankfully came within a few minutes. She could tell I was freaking out.

"Here take these" she said handing me two small pills.

"What is it?" I asked

"It'll help you calm down, my brother takes them for anxiety" she shrugged

"Alright" I said taking the pills

   I told Ella what I was freaked out about and she had a weird look on her face.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that too?" I asked

"It's meet the father career day..." She said looking down

"What the fuck is that?"

"It's where the dads come in and talk about what they do, like normal career day but just dads "

"Why do they always do stuff about dads not everybody has a dad. That's so stupid. They don't do anything for moms" I said getting angry

"Call Luke he'll come in" Ella suggested

"But he's not my dad"

"Who cares, my oldest brother is coming in since my dad is away again. It's better than nobody"

   She was right. I called Luke but he didn't pick up and neither did Steve. Of course I'll be the lonely kid with a dead dad, again. I hate Him.

   I started to feel drowsy and laid my head down. My head felt foggy as I fell asleep.

"Hey sweetheart" a man with squinty eyes and a crooked nose said

"Wh-who are you?" I asked confused

  Everything around me was white and silent.

"It's me, your dad" he said his smile falling

"No you aren't. My dads dead. I'm not dead" I said getting scared

  He looked familiar, but he couldn't be dad.

"Hayden Josie Dun, February 26th, 2024" he said

"Get away from me!" I yelled, tears began forming in my eyes.

"I'm sorry" he said hanging his head down, I had upset him.

"What did I do? Why didn't you want me?" I yelled at him as he walked away

"Hayden, it's not your fault. It never was. I wanted to meet you, I wanted to be there for you but I had already failed your mom and brother and I couldn't fail you too" He said walking back to me

"You could have gotten help like Isaac does. You didn't have to leave us" I yelled whipping the tears from my eyes

"I'm sorry" he said before fading away

Somebody was shaking me. I tried to open my eyes but they were heavy.

"Hades it's Isaac wake up" I heard

Finally my eyes opened and realized I was in the nurses office. Wow I'm even more of an idiot than I thought.

"How'd I get here?" I asked

"You walked here, you told your teacher you didn't feel well" The nurse said rolling over to me "you've got yourself a fever your brother here is going to take you home alright sweetie"

    Isaac helped me off the cot and walked me to the car. Doesn't he have school?

"Wait why aren't you at school" I asked confused

"Half day, what the hell happened"

"I got really anxious and Ella gave me her brothers anti-anxiety pills and I fell asleep. I don't remember ever walking to the nurse" I explained

"You're so lucky mom wasn't home. Why'd you take someone else's pills? That is so dangerous"

"I was really anxious, it was Meet the Father day which is the dumbest thing ever, all the girls were staring at me" I sighed

"I'm sorry Hayden" Isaac said with A frown

"Have you ever had dreams about dad?" I asked

"All the time, it scares me sometimes"

"I had one today in the nurse, I've never had one before"

"They've gotten less frequent since I started going to therapy. What was yours about?"

"I don't want to talk about it" I said shaking my head, I feel horrible.

   I was so rude to him. Sure it was a dream but, would I have done the same thing if he were to be alive?

  We made it home and I ran up to my room. Tears started forming in my eyes. I'm so horrible. After a little while I went into Isaacs room. Being alone is going to make things worse.

"Remember when I was seven and we went to the mall and threw a coin in the fountain" I asked

"We did that all the time" Isaac said pushing his eyebrows together

"The time you took my coin and yelled at me for taking too long"

"Oh yeah, what does that have to do with anything"

"I wished for dad to be alive, what if you didn't take it. Do you think dad would be alive?"

"Hayden dad isn't going to come back to life because of a stupid fountain wish"

"I know but what did you wish for?"

"The same thing" he said putting his head down

    There was an awkward silence in the room.

     Isaac has been through so much in his life, our whole family has. I miss having a big family. I miss Aunt Sky, Uncle Jordan, Grandpa Hogan, Uncle Ronnie, Uncle Anthony, everybody. We get together once a year that's it. Even then nobody fully gets along. Jordan, Sky and Ronnie yell at each other most of the time. Anthony and Mom yell at each other. It's a whole lot of yelling and not a lot of family time. I hate it. I wasn't alive for it but I miss Everyone being together.

"Hayden have you ever been to the old ice skating rink? I'll take you after I go see Steve" Isaac asked

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A/N

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Here's a bonus chapter for all of you for being so kind and answering those questions. I've taken them all in consideration and I'm very happy at your responses! Thank you!

I'm officially on spring break and I'm so happy. No more school, no more worries, ahg. So much sleep. I'm ready.

Q: Favorite Disney movie?

-Izzy