Oh, Dakota

32- Hold Onto Me

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“I don’t understand your answer,” He admitted as he pulled up in front of our house. I could tell that there were a lot of people there, because there were a lot of cars parked around the house parked on the curb and whatnot. “But we’re here, so go say hi to everyone and whatnot, I’ll get your bags.”

“You’re the best, Daddy!” I chirped as I hopped out of the car and hurried up to the house because although I wasn’t happy about this whole ‘party’ thing, I was really excited to be seeing my brother after two weeks and Nikki too, of course. And then I was also excited to talk to Braeden so that I could fix things with him as well. There was just a lot of excitement for me.

When I got inside, everybody was standing around talking so I don’t think anybody noticed me come in. It was basically just the whole baseball team and the whole dance team there in my living room.

“Dakota!” Somebody cheered my name, and I recognized that voice as Nikki. When she announced that I was there, everybody looked up from their discussions and began to cheer loudly for my arrival, which made me blush heavily just before Nikki found herself by my side and threw herself into my arms.

I hugged her back tightly because I really missed her so much. “I missed you so much,” I sighed, voicing my thoughts.

“Gosh, I’ve missed you too. How are you? You’re good and everything?”

I nodded in the confirmative. “Yes, I am good and ready to rock and roll.”

“Okay then,” She laughed.

“I’m still on the drugs,” I explained to her. “So I’m very happy right now.”

“Ah,” She nodded just as Owen, Levi, and John made their way over to where I was standing with Nikki.

“Hey, kiddo,” Owen chirped as I ran into him for a hug because like I said, I really missed my brother.

“Hey, kiddo,” I mocked him with a giggle as I hugged him like an anaconda trying to eat its prey. “You didn’t get any taller. I figured you’d get taller.”

“You were only gone for two weeks, you know,” He reminded me with a small laugh. “And I’m pretty sure that I’m done growing.”

I shrugged. “I don’t feel comfortable with technicalities.”

“What?” He laughed.

“She’s high on drugs,” Nikki filled him in.

I greeted Levi and John briefly before having some bonding time with people from the dance team like Karen and Alexis. Marnie was there and I decided that I should talk to her, but I didn’t want to today because the nurses had given me an extra dose of my antidepressants that morning for the trip home, so I was extra loopy that day. I was going to talk to Braeden later though, because I really had to talk to him that day, but I would just wait a little while longer so that I wasn’t so hyped up when I did so.

Todd wasn’t there, which was good, because I didn’t want to see him still. Braeden was there (looking as lovely as ever), though, he was just keeping his distance from me, like Marnie was.

“He thinks that you hate him,” Nikki informed me when she saw me looking at him from across the room.

“He does?” I whimpered.

She nodded sadly. “Yeah, because you’ve been ignoring him and whatnot.”

“No, I definitely don’t hate him,” I said quickly. “It’s more like the opposite type of thing.”