It’d been a week since she’d been hiding out at her dad’s place. Her mom would freak out if he knew she came there but that’s the perfect place for her to hideout in. She’d turned her phone off after she cancelled all her tutoring appointments. She’d missed too much school and she needed to face everything. Jackie had never lied to her but he believed there was always two sides to a story so she needed to hear from Michael too. She was at the window again with a cup of coffee in her hand per usual since she came over to stay. She heard footsteps and she didn’t have to turn to know it was her dad. His latest plaything has been avoiding her since she came over.

“Dad, I will be going back to school today”, she said turning to look at him, “Thank you for putting me up this week.”

“It was my pleasure, baby girl. I know I’ve been gone for a while but-”

“Don’t. Let’s not get into it right now.” She cut him off.

“Alright”, he said.

She walked up to the sink and rinsed out her cup and gave her dad a hug and peck and then she strolled upstairs to gather her stuff. When she came downstairs, her dad looked dressed and ready.

“Dad? You and Mabel got a date?” she asked.

“Nope. I’m driving you to your place. No need to call a cab or an Uber or any of those things” he said happily.

“Ummm, you don’t need to worry about that. I-”

“Please, let me do this for you” he pleaded.”Okay, let’s get going then”

Unlike her mom, her dad was closer to her campus, the drive was a half an hour trip. They arrived at her building.

“Well, this is me. Thanks, dad. Wanna come up?”

“Not today. You seem to have a lot to work on before you begin your classes so I’ll visit some other time”

“Okay, no problem” she reached over and hugged him.

“I love you. Take this” he said handing her a couple of bills from his wallet.

“I love you too and thanks dad”

“Who is she talking to in that car?”

She got out of the car and watched him drive off and then she started walking towards the building form the parking lot. As she neared the entrance, a hand grabbed her and she cried out of fright.

“Who was that?” The voice questioned angrily.

She screamed.

“Hey, hey, calm down it’s me,” the voice said and let go of her arm. It sounded like Michael’s so she turned to see.

“What the heck did you do that for?” she asked angrily ignoring his earlier question when she confirmed that it was him.

“Sorry, I’ve been trying to reach you” he apologized.

“So you had to give me a heart attack?” she said without giving him another glance and continued walking up to her apartment.

“You just left without a word. I was worried” he explained.

“You have a very weird way of expressing concern” she unlocked her door and entered her apartment. She turned to invite him in and that’s when she noticed the bruises on his face thanks to the hallway lights.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, “What happened to you?”

“It was Ben” he answered.

“Ben? Which Ben?”

“Jackie’s cousin”

“Why would he beat you up? What did you do to him?”

“Nothing”

“Nothing? Ben isn’t some idiot that just goes around punching people for no good reason”

“I went to Jackie asking about you and the next thing I knew, Ben attacked me at my place later with a bunch of his & Todds friends”

“Right”, she said sarcastically, “Are you gonna keep standing there?”

“You haven’t offered me a seat”

“You can sit anywhere” she offered as she went about opening her windows and turning on lights.

“Okay, thanks,” he said as he sat on her sofa.

“So, about the almost first date. I-”

“Yes, let’s talk about that. Why did you leave and why have you been ghosting me?” he interrupted.

“If you let me finish my sentence we’d get to it” she responded.

“Sorry, please continue”

“I found out some things about you that have made me hesitant in taking whatever is happening here any further” she stated matter-of-factly.

P. S: Thanks for reading! 😊