Don't Get Angry

37- Dalta: Beliefs

Dalta: But for some reason, I'm still his.

I turned to Otis again. My phone buzzed.

Todd: Dalta, I don't know WTH you're talking about. But it's fine. Don't know half the time anyway.

I giggled.

"Texting Todd?" Otis looked at me them back at the road.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Isn't he supposed to be following us?"

I slapped my forehead. "Idiot."

Dalta: Todd! Start driving!

Todd: Aye! Aye! Ca-Pi-Tàn!

I smiled and shook my head. "Todd is such an idiot."

"Like a good idiot or a bad one?"

"A good one."

Otis nodded. "I get that... He sure seems to make you laugh a lot."

"He does. He's a clown."

"Do you..." He looked at me and lifted his brows.

"No...," I mumbled, turned away. Then I pictured Todd. "Oh -NO. No, I don't. He's just really cool...," I frowned, "like Penny was."

"Have you guys spoken since?"

I shook my head and rubbed my thumb against my screen. "No. She wouldn't talk to me."

Otis sighed. "Maybe she's waiting for you to make the first move."

"Maybe...Hey." I looked at him. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"As long as it's not about something I wouldn't want to talk about. I'll just not answer you."

I rolled my eyes and giggled. I stared at him. "What...," I gulped. "What do you do when you're with Taylor?"

His brows fell. He looked at me then at the road again. "Not what you're thinking."

"Have you ever-"

"Dalta," Otis chuckled uncomfortably, "why do you think you need to ask me these kinds of questions?"

I shrugged my shoulders and looked down. "The world just makes such a big deal out of it these days. It's insane. The girls have been talking about prom night and their boyfriends since the begininng of the semester and it...it was never something I really cared about... I just...I don't get why it's such a big deal."

Otis sat quiet. He cleared his throat. "Are you thinking about...Are you thinking about it?"

I wasn't sure. I shrugged again. "I don't know."

He nodded. "Okay...I've been trying this thing where I think about the other person's feelings and morals from now on."

I smiled. "Sounds good."

"Yeah...well...Knowing you, Dalta...I don't want to be harsh, but..."

We stopped at a red light.

He looked at me. "Do you really know what you believe?"

I sat still, not sure what he meant.

"When I met your mom, I was having a hard time. I was going through this rough patch and one little conversation helped me through it... I told her that I believed in forgiveness; that it wasn't just for the person's benefit...but for me. But I couldn't forgive that person... So, she asked me, "How could you believe in something and not trust it or live up to it?" I didn't understand what she meant at first, because the way she didn't pick up on her redundancy was mindboggling-"