Park bench (DISCONTINUED)

Some Home Truths

Chapter 13

FABIAN

AS Dalia falls asleep, I rub small circles on the back of her hand. We have about an hour and a half to go until we reach Wales.

To be honest, I wish this journey could be prolonged a little bit longer.

I'm scared is the truth.

Scared of seeing my fathers lifeless body.

When we moved to Wales, nothing changed. He went off the wagon. He fell into depression again then he got ill. Nothing had changed and it was then when I questioned our situation.

Why did we have to move in the first place if there was no change?

He had promised me that when we moved, he would sort himself out. Get help and try and better himself. But instead, he did the complete opposite. He ended up losing his job and I went down a wrong path to get money for us.

"How are you feeling?" I look into the rear view mirror and see Natalia looking directly at me.

"Fine" I send her a brave smile and focus back on driving. She sighs.

"You don't need to hide your feelings from me you know" my hand automatically clutches hard on the steering wheel. My knuckles go white as the leather material tighten under my hold.

"Who said I'm hiding my feelings?" I joke and chuckle under my breath. She gives me a pointed look and I disconnect our eyes.

"Fabian Serena King, don't lie to me" she tells me in a stern voice. I internally cringe when I hear my middle name. Yes, Serena is my mother's name and she decided that I have her name as my middle name. See, my mother found it hard to be pregnant, so when a miracle happened, she had me. She knew she wouldn't be able to have anymore so she gave me the honour to carry on her name. And I hope that one day, I'll have a daughter and name her after my mother's name. She deserves that much after all she's done for me.

"Look, fine. I'm scared. Part of me doesn't want to see him and the other does. I don't know what I'm feeling and I can't... I don't know how or what to feel right now." I tell her feeling defeated. I look at Dalia and see her shivering. I grab my coat, all the while trying to control the wheel, and drape it over her. She snuggles in deeper and inhales sharply. She sighs and smiles. I smile too and focus back on the road.

"Does she know?" I shake my head.

"If she did, would she be here right now?" I ask her and she scoffs.

"If she did, she would understand. Just like I did"

"You're different"

"How so?" I sigh again but this time in frustration.

"Because Dalia is my best friend" I grit out.

"And I get that. But if she truly cared for you and was really your best friend, don't you think she would support you and... still love you the way she did?" I hear her mumble the last it.

"Look, I know she claimed to be in love with me, but that was when we were just kids."

"And how are you so sure she doesn't love you now?" She counters back and I groan.

"Have you always been this annoying?" I ask her, lightly chucking towards the end. She smirks playfully.

"Yes, but you were too in love to even notice it" she says back smartly. Our eyes connect and I don't know why, but for a split second, instead of seeing brown eyes, I see bright hazel ones. I shake my head and see those light brown ones from the beginning. I frown at myself and avert my eyes. "Fabian?"