Chatoyant College Book 5: Parents' Weekend

Chapter 23: Calm Down

When they were safely away from the man who said he was Corrie's father—nearly to Gilkey, in fact—Dawn tugged her arm gently, still in Corrie's grasp. "Corrie," she said softly, "you're hurting me."

Corrie abruptly dropped the arm as though it had burnt her. "Sorry." She wasn't looking at Dawn.

"That's okay," said Dawn, rubbing her arm gingerly. She might have a bruise in the morning. But she couldn't blame Corrie. Having that man show up, frighten them, and then claim to be both her father and a werewolf had to have caused a lot of upheaval in her mind. Of course, it would be less bothersome if it was all lies, but Dawn doubted that. Dawn didn't know Corrie's mother as well as Corrie did herself, of course, but from what she had heard and seen, it seemed likely that the man had known her. And there was no reason to believe he wasn't a werewolf. After meeting many faeries and a mermaid, there weren't any supernatural creatures that Dawn could persuade herself to disbelieve in.

Lost for a moment in thought, it took her a while to realize that Corrie was trying to open the door but having a hard time holding onto her ID card. Quietly, Dawn pulled out her own card and swiped it through the electronic lock. The door clicked. Still not looking at her, Corrie pulled the door open violently.

"Corrie, calm down," Dawn said gently. "If you go up to your room all pissed off like this, you're going to freak Edie out." She tried to soften it with a smile.

Corrie took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right. Sorry." She tried to smile too, but it was twisted and obviously insincere.

"I totally understand why you're upset," Dawn said. "But you're just reinforcing the same reaction in yourself."

Corrie turned and slumped against the wall, her hands in her pockets. "I know. I try not to let my emotions get the better of me. But that was... well, not exactly something I could brace myself for."

"No, I guess not." Dawn allowed a pause in the conversation, and heard Corrie's harsh breathing slow down a little. "Are you going to call your mom and ask her about him?" she asked.

Corrie shook her head slowly. "Not tonight. I don't know if she's home yet and if she is, she's probably getting ready for bed. I was going to call her tomorrow anyway. I'll ask her then."

"Do you think she'll tell you anything?"

"Probably. She wouldn't lie to me, and since he actually showed up... well, she'll have to respond to what he said. Either say it's true or explain why it's not. It's not like I just decided this. He told me."

Dawn nodded. "Do you think it's true?"

Corrie took a deep breath. "I think so. I don't want it to be—I want my father to have had a better reason for never contacting me my entire life—but what he said makes sense."

"Well, now you have some sort of closure, I guess," Dawn said. "Maybe now that you know what his motivations were, you don't have to worry about it." Then she sighed. "Sorry. Here I am trying to fix things for you. I shouldn't do that. I don't even know if you have spent time worrying about your father."

Corrie smiled and hugged her briefly. Dawn hugged her back. "It's okay," Corrie said. "I know you're trying to help. And you're right, anyway. It has bothered me that I didn't know who he was, and this is a little bit of closure. But I don't think I want to talk about it any more, at least for tonight."

Dawn nodded. "Fair enough. You seem calmed down now, anyway."

"I am. Let's go back upstairs."

As they climbed the stairs, Dawn thought about the events of the day. It had been a full one, that was for sure. All of their families had been there—even more, it turned out, than they had expected. But there was something she had wanted to talk to Corrie about, she was sure. She'd been about to ask her when they had heard the man coming and had been pretty thoroughly distracted. But there was something else that had happened, wasn't there? Something her aunt had told her.

When they reached Corrie and Edie's room, Corrie pulled the door open and noise burst out. Edie's parents and grandmother were still there, and they were talking and laughing about something. Corrie seemed to relax even more, probably because Edie's family seemed so happy and inviting. Dawn said hello, then excused herself to go work on her homework a little before bed. After getting up so early in the morning, she was exhausted.