CATASTROPHE CAREN (Completed) ✔

13: To Call or Not to Call

Caren was finally back in Los Angeles, California after spending a week of her vacation at Halle's grandmother's house in Nevada.

None of her friends knew she was back in town. She felt like she needed some time to digest everything that had happened to her during her trip and to get a well deserved rest.

2 days after the New Year's celebration, Caren placed a phone call to Jill who was very surprised to hear that she's been around all this time. They ended the conversation after deciding on a place to meet up for lunch.

During their time together, Caren took her time and filled Jill in on everything that had happened to her during the week of Christmas. It was a long and funny conversation where a lot of questions were asked, a lot of answers were given and a lot of laughter was shared.

Now that the series of unfortunate events were behind her, she felt comfortable enough to make light of the situation and turn it into a comedy show.

After spending a couple of hours with Jill, Caren returned home. While alone in her space, Dylan suddenly crossed her mind. For a second there, she actually forgot about him. And all of a sudden, he was back in her memory. She started remembering the connection they had the night they met at the party.

She recalled that he gave her his business card and thought about calling him, but after everything that had happened from Miles breaking up with her because of the video and Calvin giving her a surprise kiss, she wasn't sure if it was the right time to start getting comfortable with the opposite sex again or just stay behind closed doors.

"Maybe I should just call him. It would be extremely rude of me to project my fears of the unknown onto someone I barely know. Everyone deserves a chance because no one is the same." She murmured. "Besides, after everything that has happened, it will be nice to talk to someone who isn't a part of all the drama in my life for once." She got up and searched for his business card and called the first number on it.

She dialed it and it rang but no one picked.

"Oh well! Not today then!" She threw her phone on the bed.

As soon as it landed, her phone began ringing. It was Dylan.

"Hey..."

"Hey you... I thought you'd never call."

"Huh? Who do you think this is?" She giggled.

"The lady that has kept me by the phone all week. Caren!"

"Wow! How did you know I was the one calling?"

"Because my heart said it's definitely you this time." He chuckled.

"Real smooth Dylan." She laughed.

"I'm really glad you called me. I thought you threw my card in the trash the second you left my sight."

"Not at all, I was out of the state for a week so that's why I didn't call."

"Aw, that's okay. Was it for work or vacation?"

"Vacation." She replied.

"Oh, that means you had a whole lot of fun then."

"I wish!" She rolled her eyes.

"Oh no! What happened?"

"Oh Dylan, if I start now, I may not be done with the story in the next one hour."

"Well that settles it then. Dinner by 7pm tonight? Cause I'd like to hear all about it."

"What? I don't know."

"Come on! It's just dinner. Plus you'll have a friend to talk to and get some things out of your mind. Please?"

"Hm! Okay then."

"Great! Text me the address of wherever you are so I'll be there to pick you up."

"Thank you."

"See you later!" He hung up.

***********

That evening, Dylan arrived on time to pick Caren up. He took her to a very nice restaurant for dinner and after that, he took her to a beach resort. The air was nice and cool so they decided to go for a walk along the beach.

During the walk, Caren asked him a lot of questions about himself, to which he provided answers to. He talked about how his parents passed away when he was at a very young age and how his uncle took him and his sister in.

"Aw, thank God you had a nice uncle. Not everyone would take on that responsibility just like that." Caren shook her head.

"You're right! But if my story did not have a happy ending, I would have preferred he left us on the streets. It would have been so much better than living with him."

"Oh! Why do you say that?" She asked with empathy in her eyes.

If I'm gonna tell you about it, you might want to sit down. Cone on, let's go to the bar over there and I'll tell you over some drinks." He smiled and put his arm out, to which she held on to as they walked to the place.

When they settled in and each had their drink in their hand, he continued the story.

"Okay, so even though I was only 6 years old then, I was well aware of everything that was happening around me. My sister who was only 10 at the time, practically assumed the role of a mother towards me. The first few months of living with my uncle wasn't so bad. He was barely around during the day so it would just be me and my sister all day at home.

One day, my sister asked him why we didn't continue going to school like we did when our parents were alive. He said the reason why he was barely at home was because, he was working as much as he can to make more money so he could afford to take care of the whole family. He promised us that as soon as he saved just the right amount of money, he would put us in a very good school.

At first we believed him. But we were eager to learn. So one day, my sister and I decided to search the house for something to read. We found an old pile of books in the basement that possibly belonged to his children and that made us very happy.

We studied the books all day, everyday. Most times, my sister would act like a teacher and teach me about words and numbers. At other times, we would set questions from the books for ourselves and pretend like we were writing an exam." He smiled.

"We found solace in doing this while we diligently waited for our uncle to fulfil his promise to us. Little did we know, it was all a lie. But we were about to find out the hard way."

"Whoa! The story just keeps on getting interesting. I wonder what happened next." She folded her arms across her chest.

"Well, a few weeks after we had that conversation with my uncle, his wife and kids returned from a different city and moved into the house with us. They were back permanently. That was when the real trouble began for us."

"Oh no!" Caren gasped.

***************