Chapter 2
I woke up to the sun shining through my window and into my face. Sitting up proved to be difficult as Dalton was lying across my stomach with his arms wrapped around my waist. I tried to wiggle myself out from under him, but it was proving to be rather difficult and disturbing enough to Dalton that it woke him up. He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times with an expression that was somewhere in between confused and slightly dazed. "Why is it that even though I have a bigger bed now you still end up on top of me?" I asked.
"What are doing?" Dalton asked me, completely ignoring my question. He usually gives a smart-ass reply to my rhetorical questions, which made me realize that even though his eyes were wide and bright he was in no way coherent yet. So I just told him to get off of me, and then made my way into the bathroom to shower and do my hair and make-up.
When I walked out twenty minutes later, Dalton had changed positions and fallen back into a state of unconsciousness. Deciding to let him sleep I walked down the stairs and into our kitchen. It was kind of small, but I liked it that way. The kitchen had always been my mom's favourite room in the house and it didn't escape my notice when my dad picked a house with a kitchen that looked almost identical to our old one. It's kind of weird though, because he took so much trouble to get away from all of the things that reminded him of her. He doesn't even come into the kitchen unless he absolutely has to either. He wanted to get away from her so he moved into a house that has a room identical to her favourite room in our old home and then he won't even go in it. I brought it up to Dalton once and he seemed to get it. I think I understand too, it just kind of seems like he's torturing himself. Like when something is so close that you can almost feel it but it's just out of your grasp.
While I thought about all of this I walked over to the pantry and was not surprised to see that my dad failed to go grocery shopping in my absence. The cabinets were completely bare, however my dad had left money for groceries in a coffee can like normal. I amended my previous decision to let Dalton continue sleeping, and trudged back up the stairs to wake him up. I crept quietly into my room, over to my bed, and then proceeded to climb onto Dalton. He didn't seem to be at all affected by this though, so I started shaking him lightly and whispering his name. This made him stir a little bit, but didn't wake him up, so I decided to try a new tactic. I reached over to my nightstand and grabbed my phone off of it. I went through and found my alarm, then turned the volume all of the way up. Loud blaring sounded right next to his ear, making him sit up immediately and look around the room with a panicked expression on his face as he tried to get his bearings. Once he realized what was going on he pushed me off of him and let out my name in the form of a loud groan as he grabbed a pillow and thrust it on top of his head and laid back down. "Why are you blaring your obnoxious alarm in my ear?" he questioned, his words still coming out as more of a groan.
"Because you wouldn't wake up," I stated matter-of-factly. He lifted the pillow covering his head a little bit and glared at me in response.
"So? Why couldn't you just let me sleep?" He continued glaring, but it was a little bit more playful now. "What time is it anyway?"
"It's eleven o'clock in the a.m. and I woke you up because I'm hungry."
"And what exactly do you want me to do about that?" Dalton's response practically dripped sarcasm. I just gave him a look. He knew I wanted him to get up so that we could go get breakfast, and that I couldn't go by myself because I didn't have my license yet since my dad never had the time to go and drive with me so that I could get the required hours for it. "Why can't you just get food from the kitchen?" he whined, obviously not fond of the idea of getting out of bed.
"Because there's nothing there, my dad didn't go grocery shopping." Dalton gave me an incredulous look.
"You've been gone a month and your dad hasn't gone shopping? There was barely anything in the cabinets when you left, how did he not die of starvation?!" I just kind of shrugged my shoulders in response. I had no idea how my dad had survived in my absence. Seriously, I do pretty much everything for him as far as the house is concerned. I go out and buy the food, I do all of the cleaning and up keep (with help from Dalton depending on what it is), I do all of the laundry, and just everything really. I think Dalton decided to take pity on me because he started to climb out of the bed and grumbled a 'fine'.
"Your eyeliner is smudged," I laughed at him. He just glared at me again and continued into the shower mumbling something about me not wanting to make him regret his decision or something. When Dalton got out we both got changed and then he made me go downstairs to make sure that my dad hadn't come home yet, while he stole some of my eyeliner. Once I had triple checked that my dad wasn't home, Dalton and I walked out to his truck and headed off to the diner on Main Street.
Dalton glanced over at me, "What are you thinking about?"
"Next time you stay over you probably shouldn't leave your truck in the drive way," I said, not with a tone like I was scolding him or anything, it was more thoughtful. "You don't usually bring your truck," I continued, "but if my dad sees your truck in our driveway at three in the morning he's gonna flip out." I finished. Dalton got a worried look on his face, seeming to realize what could happen. My dad already wasn't overly fond of Dalton, and if he found out that Dalton stayed over all of the time, even though we really were just sleeping, he would never let me see Dalton again. I turned my head to look over at Dalton, and saw that he had an almost amused expression on his face. "What?" I asked, not exactly sure what it was that he found so funny.
"Aren't parents supposed to like the best friend and hate the boyfriend?" Dalton laughed. About a year ago I had dated a guy named Jake, and my dad absolutely loved him. Actually the more time he spent with Jake the more he seemed to dislike Dalton, which was the exact opposite of me. For me, the more time I spent with Jake the less I seemed to like him and the more I seemed to like Dalton. All of the memories of my dad's exchanges with Jake and his exchanges with Dalton made me start giggling. Dalton joined in and pretty soon we were both full on laughing. My dad had been upset when he found out that I had broken things off with Jake, and he had been furious when he found out why. Jake didn't like my friendship with Dalton at all. Dalton wasn't overly fond of Jake either, but he had kept a smile on his face throughout our whole relationship for my sake. Jake was a good guy I guess, but eventually he tried to make me choose between him and Dalton. I picked Dalton obviously. Of course my dad wasn't mad because Jake had tried to make me choose between him and my best friend. No, my dad was upset because I chose Dalton over Jake. I'm pretty sure he has officially hated Dalton ever since.
Dalton and I were still laughing about all of this when we pulled into the diner. As usual, Dalton came around and opened my door for me. He really was the perfect gentleman. Jake had never done any of the things that just seem to be second nature to Dalton. We walked into the diner and were seated right away. Marie, the waitress took our orders and then walked away to get our drinks. Dalton and I have been coming to this diner ever since our parents would let us out of the house alone. We would always save our allowance so that we could get chocolate milkshakes and French fries. Dalton started to say something but was cut off by Marie coming back with our orders.
"Here ya go," she said with a genuine smile on her face.
"Thanks Marie," Dalton and I said in unison, as we smiled back at her. She walked away and we dug into our milkshakes and French fries just like always. Dalton stared at me thoughtfully for a second. "What?" I asked, letting out a small giggle. Dalton smiled too.
"Nothing, you look pretty today is all."
