THE GIRL

CHAPTER 19

Even though Connor is still injured he still goes to the practices. From what I've seen most of the kids support him, except one. Liam. If you don't remember Liam was the kid who Connor suspected might have spiked his drink. My dad wants to forget about it and focus on Connor healing, but my mom doesn't. She insists that we should take legal action, even though there is no proof. But since she flew back to LA we don't have to worry about that. I think Connor just wants to forget about it too, and I believe that as long as Liam doesn't cause any more harm, then we should just forget it.

My dad and I go to pick Connor up from practice, and we end up arriving early so we sit and watch the other boys practice while Connor sits on the bench. I don't understand why he can't just leave now because he's not even doing anything, but whatever it's an excuse to watch Daniel play basketball. He's not the best on the team, but certainly not the worst. It seems to me that Liam is one of the best. Daniel saw me watching him, and he looked over to wave hi to me. Man his smile is beautiful. I smile back. A second later he gets hit in the head by a basketball.

"Bro, pay attention," one of the guys on the basketball team says to Daniel.

"Sorry," Daniel says red.

"Sorry," I mouth to Daniel.

5 minutes later after practice, Daniel walks up to me.

"Hey," he says as he pulls me into a hug.

"Hi," I say, "Sorry about before."

"No, it's fine," Daniel says while we're still in a hug.

Connor walks up and says to Daniel, "You were pretty good out there."

"Thanks, bro," Daniel replies.

"Well we better get going," my dad says gesturing towards us.

We say our goodbyes and head out.

"So Liam's on the team," I say in the car.

"Yeah," Connor responds.

"You're going to be okay on the team?" My dad asks.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. After the accident he hasn't done anything to me." Connor says, "Oh I forgot to mention, Quinn and his family are coming to Rhode Island over during winter break."

"Really?" My dad asks.

"Yeah, and I was wondering if he can come over and hang with me for a few days over break. I can show him around and he can even meet my friends."

"Sounds good!" my dad says.

"He's going to be freezing," I comment.

"True, he's used to LA winter."

It's not going to be awkward between Quinn and me. He knows I have a boyfriend, and during Connor's accident, he was friendly. I have no feelings for him. I like Daniel. 

Christmas comes and we celebrate with a bunch of my dads' relatives who I've never met because we lived on the other side of the country. It was kinda awkward because Connor and I  don't know anyone. Before meeting them my dad explains the complicated family dynamic to us, I didn't remember any of it. But basically some people don't like other people, one of them's an alcoholic, another one uses drugs, and some are crazy. No wonder mom never wanted us to meet them. My dad was one of the few normal ones.

For Christmas, my main gift was a new computer because the one I had before sucked. I also got a lot of gift certificates at some clothing stores, pretty basic. Connor got some type of $200 shoes and new video game stuff. We got my dad a new coffee maker because he basically lives on coffee. 

Daniel and I are going on a date, ice skating, which may I say I hate. I already warned him that I will be on the railing the whole time. He laughed like I was joking, but I wasn't. Not to mention I also have to get him a gift. I don't know if I should get like a meaningful "girlfriend type gift" or something that he actually wants. I ultimately decide to do both. For the first gift, I print out a picture of us and frame it so he can put it on his bedside table. And for the second gift, I get him this videogame that he's been telling me he really wants. Oddly I already have his mom's number so I just text her to make sure that she didn't buy it already, and lucky for me she didn't.