savior

forty two

DAY TWENTY SEVEN; FOUR DAYS TO GO

Minutes after Michael was gone, my phone made a reappearance in my hand as I dialled Dad's phone number. It took a few rings, but he finally picked up, sounding a little tired as he mumbled a greeting. Then I remembered that it was still early in the morning and he was probably still sleeping. I thought maybe I should call him back later, but I shoved that thought away, because my whole relationship, or whatever it will be, with Ashton was depending on this call.

"Dad, we need to talk," I said into the phone. I heard shuffling in the background of the phone call, probably from him moving around in his bed.

He lazily hummed a response. I let out a sigh. Maybe when I drop the bomb on him that I wasn't going to be boarding the plane tomorrow, he'd get up and have a conversation with me.

Things like this always happened with Dad. He wasn't always lazy, but sometimes there was no way you were going to get him out of bed. When he and my mom were still together, sometimes Kaitlynn and I would take a cup of water and lightly pour it on his face to get him up. I was like that occasionally, too.

"I'm not flying to Florida."

"What?"

"I'm not flying to Florida," I repeated. I was determined to get this call over with soon, because I needed to go talk to Ashton again and get him to listen to me. I wanted Ashton back more than anything, and if something happened and he got hurt, I'd never forgive myself for letting him go so easily.

"You're not going to walk all the way here, are you? You'd be, like, my age by the time you get here," he said, sounding a bit confused.

I let out a sigh. This was definitely not going as I planned. It was so difficult for me just to blurt out that I had no intentions of coming to see him at all. He was my dad, after all, and I'd hate to hear and know that he's upset because I'm not with him.

But this had to happen. I needed to stay in Pennsylvania because that's where I belonged. More specifically, in Pennsylvania, with Ashton. I didn't want to leave him. That was my final decision.

"I'm not going at all. And I know, you've already paid for the ticket, and everything like that, but I just can't do it," I explained. Hopefully he'd understand. "I mean, I'm eighteen, for Christ's sake! I'll be an eighteen year old still living with her parent. You don't normally come across people like that."

Suddenly I started to panic, and I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because I felt that maybe he wouldn't understand how I was thinking and that, maybe, I just needed to be there, because he missed me or something. I missed him, too, but I wasn't going to throw my life away to move in with him. Especially at the age I was.

"To be honest, I think the whole idea isn't really thought through that well. Like, what am I supposed to do about all of my friends? Or my school. It's only three months into my senior year, Dad!" I rambled. He wasn't saying anything, which only made me thinking more negatively.

I started pacing around the room like I had earlier that morning. I wasn't sure why I was getting so worked up. Nothing in my head was making sense. I just needed him to tell me it was okay to stay here, and then maybe I'd calm down, but at that moment, I was too anxious to hear what he was going to say.

"Pumpkin. It's alright," he said after a few minutes. I instantly relaxed. "We'll do something about the tickets. Don't worry. I'm not forcing you to live with Christy and I."

With those words I remembered Kaitlynn saying something about his new girlfriend. She had mentioned something about him telling her that they had been dating four months before he called her, and they were still going strong.

"She lives with you now? How is she?" I asked. I had no idea who she was, because I had never met her, but if my dad liked her, I guess I could try and get to know her.

"She's awesome. I'll tell you something while she's in the kitchen brewing coffee; I'm actually thinking of proposing? Do you think I'm being too quick?"

That made me remember the conversation with Anna a few weeks ago, when she was telling me about Calum. I had a feeling even then she was speaking about Michael, because when we were in the supply closet, she confessed that it was Michael that she was in love with, not Calum.

I shook out all of those bad memories.

"Sure. Go for it."

"I wanted to know what you thought. I know the whole divorce thing still gets to you guys," he said, awkwardly coughing as he said those words.

But actually, he had no clue that we weren't too affected by the divorce anymore. Now that we knew the whole story, we agreed that the divorce was the best option. We weren't going to say anything about that, because Dad always said that hating someone wasn't good for you in the long run, and he'd just make us feel guilty about disliking the woman who birthed us.

The next few minutes consisted of the two of us telling each other what was going on in our lives. I decided not to mention that my now ex boyfriend was the reason I was staying behind, and I avoided explaining anything that happened between Ashton and I, so I just told him that things were running smoothly and we were still alive and breathing. Christy had entered the room, and I could hear her and my Dad flirting—which was actually kind of gross—but I met her by ear, and she seemed really nice.

Dad told me that he'd call me back some other time, because he had to get ready for work, and he was going to call up Kaitlynn and see how she was doing.

So for the rest of the day, I sat in my room and watched television. I was going to go talk to Ashton, but Michael texted me saying that he wasn't at his apartment anymore, and neither was Luke. I went through a few episodes of American Horror Story, because that was the first show that I liked that popped up on the screen.

The front door slammed a few episodes in. At first I thought maybe the show was coming to life and something was going to kill me, but it was only Kaitlynn. She barged into my room, and then the thought occured to me that maybe I was going to die, because if looks could kill, I'd be six feet under already.

"What did you do?" she yelled at me. I looked at her from my position on my bed, after having paused the episode I was currently on.

I guess she could tell by the look on my face that I had no clue what was going on. Suddenly I noticed that her face had tear stairs on it. I stood up, walked towards her, and tried wiping them away, but she swatted my hands off of her face.

"Dad called me earlier. He canceled everything! All because of you!" she screamed at me. She threw her backpack on the floor, and tried removing the tears that were spilling from her eyes. She started walking out of my room, but before she left, she didn't forget to say, "I hate you more than Mom."

And that's when I almost regretted calling my dad in the first place.