Out of the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 26

Andrea P.O.V

"Simon? What happened between you and your father?" My voice rings out in the quite library.

I sit, meticulously watching Simon, as he sets his gaze on me. His hand is quick to push back his hair,running his long fingers into each lock, uncurling them.

His hair is getting long. I love it.

Simon decided to join me for lunch in the school's library, since I really didn't want to go in the cafeteria. I'd have to either eat alone with my inattentive posse, or be forced to converse with Jake.

Lately he's been trying to talk to me every which way. He won't go away.

Simon hasn't been in the lunchroom to keep me company because extra practice he says. Only on rare occasions has he swooped in to save me from talking to Jake, who always found a way to my table, and never cared that my sister was glaring from afar.

And oh does she glare daggers that girl. It's March already, and still, Mandy isn't over Jake.

She really needs to find someone quick, because I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night with those ice blue eyes always in my mind.

"It's a pretty extensive plot, my dad and I's drama. I guess you could say it started at birth." He laughs at his dark joke, giving me a bunch of leads on what could make him hate his dad so much.

I have time if that's whats keeping him.

"I want to hear it. All of it, please."

"Well first off, he's always been an asshole....."

"Simon don't-"

He shouldn't start off bashing on him like that. There's no way they can patch things if Simon calls him such names.

Progress is slow. That I've learned from personal experience.

"You don't know him like I do Andrea. That word is the only way to describe the prick." He huffs, scooting the chair closer to the table, resting his elbow on the top. His knee touches mine, making my fine hairs stand on end. I physically flinch, but he doesn't seem to notice.

He's right, I really don't know his dad. However, there are some things that are pretty obvious in their relationship; it's a wreck.

Yet I can't say that without being called a hypocrite. My father and I's ordeal is kind of similar to Simon's, so I have no privilege to deny my situation from being a complete shipwreck as well.

Daddy issues are not fun.

I stay quite, taking in the truth behind Simon's words. He continues speaking.

"Well, we've always been on a rather rocky path, him and I." Simon states as he traces the grooves in the table.

I look around the library making sure there's no one within eavesdropping reach. People barely visit this place, let alone know it's here. There's only the curator at the front desk, on his phone, lounging back in a chair with his feet propped.

All clear then.

My eyes fall back on Simon, waiting for his story to carry on.

"Why? If I my ask?" I stare at his hands, his pointer finger is still running with the curves of the wood.

"He wasn't there often when I was a kid, but it really started when my mother got sick." Simon's face is dull, his mask is not breaking in anger or sadness, he's focusing on his outlines.

I want those green eyes to look at me.

"Oh.."

"Yeah, he started distancing himself from us, filling his days with extra work and nights at this bar that closed years go."