The Sound of Him

03 | thanksgiving

Chapter Three: Thanksgiving

The best part about the holidays was knowing your family was going to be gone before you even had a chance to drive back home.

We're not originally from Arlington. My mom actually lives in Fairfax.

So before I could catch a ride from Julie's family back to Fairfax, I called my family to ask them if they were still in town.

"Nope! Jesse, Liam, Lucy, and I took a spontaneous trip to Iceland! It's supposed to be beautiful, Daisy, really," was my response from my very own mother. "My flight is about to leave! Gotta go!"

To say that my mother was an uncaring one was an understatement.

However, she was one of the only people who truly understood me. As much as I hated relying on her, I knew I had to. She only cared when it was convenient for her, and most of the time, I never called home. If I could just speak to her for ever two minutes once a month, it would satisfy her.

At the time, I had no idea what to do. I wasn't going to stay here for a week and a half by myself. It didn't feel right to spend the holidays on my own. That's when an angel in disguise, Warner, walked up to me while I was sitting down on a bench in the quad by myself.

I was sitting down, doodling because I had nothing else to do for the week, or at least it felt that way. The worst part was that I wasn't even close to turning sixteen, which meant I had no means of transportation anyway.

"What's got you down, Track Queen?" he asked, taking a seat next to me on the bench. He looked over to what I was drawing. "Those are really good. Do you want to be an architect someday?"

"You ask a lot of questions," I replied, closing my book and looking up at him. "I'm just upset because it's all the same every year."

"What the hell does that mean?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, something that I couldn't do that I was actually extremely jealous of. "You can talk to me, you know."

I know I told him that I just wanted to be friends and that I really needed a friend right now, but oh my goodness, it was so hard for me to open up to people because I've always been used to keeping my guard up for forever.

"Let's just say that I don't have a family to come home to because they ditched me for Iceland," I said. "This is the second time it's happened, and I somehow saw it coming."

"You want to, maybe, come spend the holidays with me and Dallas and my family? Dallas's family is out of town, too," he said. "I completely understand if you don't want to-"

"No," I said, "I'll go. I don't have anything better to do. Spending Thanksgiving with the guy who put my dad in jail is much better than spending Thanksgiving by myself."

With that, Warner smiled, extending his hand out for me to take. I grabbed it, reluctantly, and my fingers intertwined with his as he led me to a parked car in the student parking lot.

It wasn't uncommon for students to bring their cars to boarding school. After all, the older students usually had dual credit classes at American University across town, so they needed to get there somehow.

The car was a shiny, black Audi. As I approached it, I realized that this was actually Dallas's car. "Hey," I said, getting into the backseat while Warner put my suitcase in the trunk. "I'm spending Thanksgiving with you guys. I hope you don't mind."