Forever and Always

Chapter 52 - First Day Back

School was brutal, especially after the conversation I had had earlier with Levi. The only reason I could even make it to my math class in third period was because I had Christa there to make sure I would be okay. I sat in silence, not focused in the slightest on the math lecture, resisting the urge to text Levi. I felt so bad for snapping the way that I had, but I figured it would have to wait until lunch hour to give me a chance to compose myself. Staring at my hands I contemplated the choices I had made that had led me to where I was. I knew I needed to apologize. I had no idea why I had snapped at him the way that I had. Perhaps I had anticipated the shitstorm I would experience at school. My peers had not taken my absence well, taking any chance they got to try and single me out or hit me. Sometimes I wished that I could go back to being the linebacker, everybody's friend, instead of nobody's. I missed Levi, and was stressing out about Poppy. I was afraid I would fail as a father before I even got to adopt her.

My mother had taken her, being on call for the day, which was essentially a day off. The hospital never called her in while she was on call. Leaving Poppy with her was the obvious choice, though I felt a certain kind of guilt, pushing my child off onto my mother. I was snapped from my daydreams by Christa swatting my arm.

"Is that your mom?" She whispered tucking her recently dyed hair behind her ear, pointing at the figure catching the entire class's attention as she emerged from the creaky classroom door.

"Uh, yeah," I muttered, eyeing my friend's electric blue hair.

"Hey, Eren. I need you to take Poppy for a while. They called me in for a surgery. These ones usually take several hours." The entire class stared at me as she led the tiny three year old towards me. I lifted her onto my lap and planted a kiss onto her cheek, eyeing my mother with an offended confusion swirling around in my mind like whiskey in the bottom of a glass. Poppy squeezed tightly to Mr. Wiggles while she settled onto my lap.

"What about Kas?" I suggested.

"She's at work. Petra's in the opposite direction in class, and Sasha's at work, too. I promise I wouldn't be here if it wasn't last resort."

"Uh, yeah. I'll take her."

"I got it cleared by your principal as long as she behaves herself. Now I gotta go. This kid is literally bleeding out," my mother patted my shoulder and walked briskly out of the classroom. Almost as soon as the door was closed, there was a collective "Aww," erupting from all of my female classmates.

"Is this your sister?" One asked, spinning around in her chair and waving at Poppy who only glared at all of my classmates and folded her arms exactly like her father. The idea to lie and say yes crossed my mind, to avoid any kind of embarrassment, but it hit me that I would never be ashamed of her, or of Levi.

"Actually, she's my daughter," I said softly as Poppy situated herself on my lap.

"Oh," she said, and I could hear the judgement in her voice. "Cute. She doesn't look like you."

"Thank God," I snorted, not letting on any more. "I'd be pretty concerned if she looked like me," I added, winking at Christa, who knew of Poppy's existence, but had never met her. Christa rolled her eyes, cocking an eyebrow and waving at my daughter, who grinned and waved back.

"Daddy, I like the mermaid girl," Poppy said quietly, pointing at Christa. "She's really pretty."

"Don't point, Sweetie. It's rude. But she's really nice. You'll meet her in just a minute."

Almost on cue, our math teacher called order to the class and continued with his lecture. I wanted nothing more than to take a nap, but I pushed through it, not wanting to set a bad example for Poppy's future school days. After what felt like several hours of me sitting in class, shushing my daughter whenever she tried to speak up, the lunch bell finally rang. I sprang out of my seat, lifting Poppy onto my hip and slinging my backpack over my other shoulder as I was mobbed by every girl in the class, as well as a couple of boys. I kept dodging questions and pushing past them with Christa, holding her hand so I didn't lose her in the sudden crowd, the baby obviously drawing a lot of attention. We could only breathe once we were out of the building and on our way to In-N-Out.

"Jeez," Christa giggled, catching up to me while we walked towards the little fast food joint.

"Baby, we're gonna go get some hamburgers. Do you want a hamburger?"

She nodded quickly. "Mr. Wiggles wants one too. Are we calling Daddy?" I nodded. "Yaay!" She squealed bouncing up and down in my arms. "Who's the mermaid lady?"

"This is Christa, Baby. She's one of Daddy's best friends," I replied with a smile while Christa smiled and waved at my daughter.

"Hi, Poppy," she beamed.

"Hi, Christa," she said, the rhotacism associated with her age preventing her from being able to fully enunciate the 'r' sound. "You're really pretty!" she grinned, her little dimples imprinting themselves into her cheeks.

"Thank you! You're really pretty too, Poppy."

"I know. My daddy's tell me," she smiled smugly.

"Poppy," I reprimanded gently. "What do you say when somebody says something nice to you?"

"Thank you," she said slowly, annoyed that I would presume to correct her highness. I kissed her cheek and had Christa go order while I took Poppy to our usual spot in the restaurant, and pulling out my phone. While it had been on silent, I had gotten three missed calls from Levi. Normally he wouldn't call because he would be in class, so I instantly knew something was up. I called him, not putting the phone on speaker in case it was sensitive content.

"Eren?" he replied gently.

"You called? Is everything okay?" I asked. "I'm sorry about this morning. I just miss you."

"It's fine. I'm not mad. Everything's fine, depending on how you look at it. Yeah, lemme step outside," he replied, stress straining his voice as he stepped outside, a gentle breeze disrupting his microphone. "So, I need to talk to you about something."

"What?" I asked, feeling a creeping dread start to take my senses over. "What is it? Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I'm okay. Unless you decide to murder me, which I would not fight you on."

"Uh oh. What did you do?"

"I haven't done anything. I'm in a situation that you may feel the urge to murder me for putting myself in."

"Just spit it out."

"Okay. Yeah. So, the flight to Germany from JFK was cancelled because of bad weather. The next flight in the area is out of Boston. Long story short, Farlan's in town, waiting for me in the coffee shop I just stepped out of."