Somewhere Only We Know

The Next Day

Gabrielle started stirring from her slumber way before her alarm was due to wake her up for school. Once she finally had woken up she checked the clock on her bedside table and it read 4:50 AM. Groaning she threw her comforter to the side and got out of her bed wincing as her feet hit the cold floor. After they adjusted to the temperature change she hastily made her way down the hall where she found her father sitting at the bar in the kitchen.

"Hey pops." She yawned out and noticed the coffee pot brewing.

'Well that explains what woke me' she thought as she sniffed the delicious smell of the coffee.

"Hey Elle. What are you doing up sweetie? It's way too early." Her dad said rubbing his eyes and looking up at her.

As she plopped on the bar stool she just pointed to the coffee pot adjacent to them. Her father gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry kiddo. I couldn't help it." He said and patted her back as she crossed her arms on the bar and laid her head down so she could still see him.

"It's ok pops. You look like you need some." She responded with yet another yawn. She then really looked at her dad. She could see the dark circles under his eyes. Trailing her sight she then saw the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. Those she liked. Those showed he's laughed a lot, which wasn't common around the house. Something that wasn't told. They hid their sorrows with smiles. Never wanting anyone to feel sorry for them. Not even her own boyfriend knew. No one knew her mother had left last month. No one knew she was pregnant with another man's baby and starting a life with him just a few towns over. No one knew the pain the Sepeda's were in.

Her father nodded his head in response to her statement. "That I could Elle. Worked a bad wreck tonight out on the highway." That was all he offered and she didn't ask. After 16 years, she had known better than to ask for more information from her dad seeing as he was a state patrol officer. All she did was put her hand on his arm and they sat together in silence for a few moments.

"That Lahote kid still around? I haven't heard you talk much about him lately." Her dad said as he went to get a cup of coffee from the now finished pot.

"Yes he is pops. He is going to be around for a long time. Just like the last 5 years." She replied.

"I just don't like the way his-"

"Temper gets the best of him? Yeah me either pops. But he is working on it. He tries to better himself all the time so we can-"

"Leave this God forsaken town? Yeah I know kiddo." He replied with a smirk.

The talk had been done enough around the household that they knew what the other was going to say as if it were lines they were memorizing in a play.

"I just worry about you. I don't want this to be a situation where you get Stockholm Syndrome or something. I don't want him to beat the shit out of you because then I'd lose my badge over killing a kid." He joked and set a cup of coffee in front of his daughter. "By the way. Did you even look at yourself before you came down here?" He asked covering a smile by taking a sip of his coffee.

Furrowing her eyebrows, Gabrielle turned her barstool to the side and checked herself in the mirror hanging by the back door. "I look like Medusa!" She exclaimed turning back to her father only to get a flash of light in her eyes.

"And now I have blackmail." He laughed holding up a camera.

"Hey! That is only for evidence dad! Not blackmailing your daughter!" She said jumping up for the camera.

Laughing her dad took off to the cabinets and placed it up top out of her reach.

"Good thing you got your Grandmother's height smallfoot."