Perfectly Abnormal Sophomore Year

008

Due to the fact that Daniel was holding me; protecting me from the outside world, I finally calmed down after I finished wetting his white sweatshirt with my tears, leaving behind mascara marks. I normally never break down, but Daniel has learned from the few times that I have cried, that I truly just need to be held because if not, I will curl up in a ball on the cold ground.

After a while I calmed down a bit, I told Daniel about every little bombshell that was thrown at me in the past few hours. We both, in the end, agreed that we needed to inform an adult, preferably my father.

As we walked out if the hospital towards my jeep, I looked towards a stunned Daniel when he realized I was tossing him the keys to my car. I never let anyone drive it.

"I can't drive right now, there are way too many things on my mind," I explained quite defensively.

He hung his head in agreement walking to the passenger side, opening the door to allow me to get in. He then left to head to the driver's side.

When I closed the door, I was left in a haze of frustration and concern for Liam. How could he do something like that? He would never do anything to hurt anyone, right? But the more I think about it, I have not even seen Liam since the second week of classes, and we are about 2 months in now. Could something really be wrong?

My thoughts were broken when Daniel turned over the engine of my Jeep, and then proceeded to grab my hand and rest our intertwined hands on my thigh.

"Daniel?" I asked.

He simply hummed in response to state that he indeed heard me and was paying attention

"Do you think something is wrong?" I continued

"Veronica, I'm sure everything is going to be okay. We just need to go back to campus and get to your house so we can talk to your dad in private" he replied with a slight squeeze of my hand to provide some comfort.

I sighed deeply, this could be really bad if the news of my brother possibly being responsible for this fire incident got out. Even if my father is the superintendent of Palm Springs; I'm part of the committee that keeps the campus life and academic life afloat.

When we arrived back at Palm Springs, I opened my door and looked at Daniel when he handed me my car keys. He then took my hand and we were off to my dad's office.

Daniel and I did not want anyone who had stuck around even though Palm Springs was a mess of rubble to think something else was up. So we would stop and talk every now and then with fellow classmates and teachers, answering pondering questions when we could in a very minimal manner.

When we reached my house that was on the far east side of campus overlooking the ocean, I grabbed my key and unlocked the front door knowing very well where my father would be; in his study sending out email after email in the hopes of calming worried families and members of administration.

When we walked down the long hallway to my father study I let go of Daniels' hand and paused in front of the closed heavy wooden doors. The only thing I could think of was what my mother must be thinking of from up above, and how she would be handling this whole uncomfortable situation. Oh, how I missed her.