Daddy Issues

7 - Deal

I startle awake when the car comes to a halt. It takes me a second to remember what's going on. But when Dan talks to me, I remember.

'Okay. We're home.'

Yes, we are. I recognize the house and shake my head to wake up a little. I shouldn't have done that. Everything starts spinning again and my head starts to pound. I grunt and reach for my head to try and stop it.

'Come on', Dan says kindly. 'You'll feel better tomorrow.'

He gets out of the car and walks around it to open my door as well. Too tired to care, I decide to take the hand he holds out to me and let him help me out of the car. He throws the door shut behind me and continues to hold me while we walk over to the front door. Which is probably for the best, because otherwise I might have ended up in the bushes.

When we enter the hallway, the stairs loom before me. Honestly, I can't even imagine getting up them right now. But apparently I don't have to, because Dan drags me with him to the kitchen and sits me down on a bar stool.

Without saying anything, I lay my head on my arms and try to fall back asleep. But Dan walks around the kitchen making noise and soon he nudges me to get up.

'Here', he says, handing me a large glass of water and two pieces of aspirin. 'Take these and drink the water.'

'No, thank you', I say, pushing it back towards him over the counter. I don't want to drink anything. I just want to sleep.

'Just do it', he says, pushing them to me again. 'Trust me, your morning's going to be a whole lot better.'

'Fine', I say dramatically, popping one of the pills into my mouth. 'You're so bossy.'

'The other one too', he says relentlessly.

I sigh, but do as he says and somehow manage to drink the entire glass of water. When I'm done, I slap it back into the counter and smile at Dan.

'Happy now?' I ask him sarcastically.

'Very. Now, let's get you to your room. Think you can get up those stairs?'

'Yes', I say confidently. I don't like how he's belittling me. Telling me to drink things, acting like I can't get up a stairs.

To prove my point, I get up from the bar stool before he can try to help me and make my way over to the stairs. Holding on to the wall here and there, I manage pretty well. I only allow for a moment of hesitation at the bottom of the stairs, since they do seem much longer than usual. But Dan's right behind me, so I don't want to seem incompetent.

The first five steps are fine. But on the sixth, I stumble. A strong hand catches my back and saves me from falling down the stairs. I'm glad he doesn't say anything. I don't either. I pull myself back up by the banister and get going again.

Fortunately, I reach the top of the stairs without further incident and stumble my way to my room. I can hear him following me and it's really starting to aggrevate me. At the door, I turn around to confront him.

'Well, you've done your job, honey. You got me home safe. Did you get whatever you wanted out of this?'

'As long as you stay in your room, I'm happy.'

'I don't know if I can promise that', I say coyly, leaning back against my door. 'Maybe you should tie me down to be sure.'

Once again, he shakes his head exasperatedly. But then, he moves closer. I tense up when he gets right in front of me. He leans in closer.

But then his hand flies right past me and lands on the door handle. I fall back a little when he opens the door, but he doesn't let go, so it doesn't open all the way.