Safety

Chapter 13.

{enjoy. xx ~Taylor}

Songs for this chapter are-

You Found Me ~ The Fray

Kiss me ~ Ed Sheeran

By the way, Clara's name is pronounced "Cl-arr-uh" not "Cl-air-uh". Just wanted to clear that up. Enjoy. xx

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The drive to his house was silent. A comfortable silence. This silence made me calmer, considering I could just stop and listen to his breaths as they flowed out of his chest. The radio was on, gently playing Skinny Love. None of us had to say that we both loved the song, because we both just knew. I could tell by the way he mouthed the words and tapped his fingertips on the steering wheel, fingers itching to turn up the volume of the radio but not knowing if I would like that or not. When I turned the volume up myself, he also reached out to turn up the volume and when I touched the knob, Harry's warm hand rested on top of mine. I glanced at him to see him grinning, pulling his hand back as I turned up the volume myself. The music filled the car, and I found myself connecting the lyrics with my dad.

"Skinny Love, will you last the year?"

He didn't seem to last the year. I shook my head and tried to think of happier memories.

Soon Harry turned the van down a road that led to a neighborhood called Angel Way. I thought the name was rather angelic, pardon the pun. I wondered why they would name a patch of land that had houses scattered across it such a beautiful name.

Harry seemed to have spoken my mind.

"They named my neighborhood Angel Way because when the place was just having its first few houses built, the owner of the land's daughter died. She had a blood clot in her head, and it eventually shut her brain down. They had her buried just outside the neighborhood, a few miles down to the right of here. You'd be amazed to know what her name is." He smiled at me softly as he drove down rows of different houses. My mind was racing at the tragic thoughts of the neighborhood's history. The poor girl. How did the father even finish building the houses? He must have been strong.

"What was her name?" I asked curiously, my arm rested on the door of the car and my cheek rested against my palm.

"Clara." He responded.

My mind filled with dread and I felt very bittersweet. Isn't that ironic. I sadly smiled at the image of a girl, running around and asking her father what each house would look like when they were finished being built. I imagined her bouncing through the houses, causing havoc but her father not minding a bit. I flinched at the pain the father must have felt.

It was the opposite way around with my story. Suddenly I knew exactly how he felt and probably still feels. I was silent so Harry continued.

"They named the place Angel Way in memory of her, because they say she was as sweet as an angel. That's all I know. I thought you were curious by the way you looked at the sign that said Angel Way." He smiled sadly and I nodded.

"How..tragic." Was all the words that came to my mind when I tried to respond to him. He nodded, probably not being able to find the right words to say either.

Rows of houses passed by us and Skinny Love faded away on the radio, various ads for cars or certain weekend events following the song. I didn't like commercial breaks on the radio, they immensely annoyed me. You can only listen to two songs and then the ads play. You could fit four good songs into the time that they play the ads on the radio. It was a pet peeve of mine to hate the radio break. Even my friends--Adison, Hannah, and Sarah-- knew about it. They would always turn off the radio when the break came on when we were all in one of their neon-colored cars together.