A Newfound Home - Adopted by Josh Dun

Twenty-six

J Ø S H U A
I was supposed to go to a Halloween party with Tyler, but he and Jenna couldn't make it out here, so I stayed home and invited Debby over while Tori was out with friends.

"Remind me to take photos of Tori when she gets back. I forgot to earlier." Debby gave me a thumbs up and reached for another slice of pizza.

"You picked a good kid there. It's fantastic seeing you be a father to her." I smiled and we continued watching Criminal Minds.

The front door opened and I leaned over to see Tori walking in, soaking wet.

The smell of beer instantly hit my nose and I frowned.

"What happened to you?" Debby asked as soon as she saw Tori. I couldn't tell if it was from crying or that she got all wet, but her makeup was smudged all over.

"Never mind that, why do you smell like alcohol?! Were you drinking?!" She stopped and shot me a deathly glare.

"How could you even think that?!" She turned and stormed upstairs, slamming her door shut.

"Josh," I dismissed Debby's remark and was stuck in my thoughts. "I'll be back." I went downstairs to my desk where I kept most of my important papers.

Mixed in with those, was Tori's information from the orphanage.

I paged through the papers and found the page where it had the information on how she ended up there.

Her parents were killed in a car accident.

A drunk teenager was recklessly driving and crashed into them.

I slammed the file shut and went all the way upstairs, seeing Tori's door open and the bathroom door shut.

I sat on her bed and waited for her to return.

There was a bag of candy sitting on her desk, which reeked. I pulled out the candy, which all seemed to be fine. The smell was coming from the bag.

Tori returned with her hair wet, and in leggings and one of my shirts.

"Get out." She was seething mad.

"Tori, I'm sorry," she shook her head and pointed to the door.

"I said get out! I can't believe you'd actually think I'd be irresponsible enough to do that, and that you forgot that's how I ended up in the system in the first place!"

I stood up to leave but stopped at the door. "Just one thing," she looked up at me. "Promise me you won't do anything you'll regret. I know you're upset."

She slowly nodded and I went back downstairs to be with Debby.