09
"7:30," DAN MUTTERED. He lowered his head, setting down his phone. A distant humming of cars filled his ears, while sadness clouded his mind. He suppressed his tears, knowing that he had to remain strong. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted him." he said quietly.
With a huff, he stood up, ignoring half of his mind's pleads to stay in case Chris were to actually show up. But Dan knew Chris was only joking. What kind of jock would actually go out with someone like Dan? My life is a joke. He thought to himself, shoving his cold and clammy hands in the pockets of his black skinny jeans.
A slight bump filled the distance, and Dan's curiosity replaced the sadness that was already slowly sinking away. He followed to trail of sounds that seemed to echo from a house not too far from the park where he currently sat. Dan took a deep breath, the cool chill of wind blowing into his lungs, sending him chills.
The constant thump turned out to be a university party that Chris' best friend, PJ was hosting. Dan assumed that Chris was in there, doing God knows what to all of the girls in there. And I thought I may have had a chance. Dan sulked, stupidity flowing through him like the cool breeze that surrounded him, leaving him cold and chills peppering his body. This was yet another reason why he hated uni.
The time seemed to remain frozen, and he was already in no hurry to return home. His mother was probably working her ass off at her job until the morning or late this night. Dan decided to continue to walk around, brushing his hair away from his eyes.
As if on queue, the clouds slowly began to swarm him, and droplets of rain and moonlight bathed him, and caused his flattened hair to undo itself into his curly chocolate hair. Hobbit hair, his dad would call it when he was younger.
"Dad!" 14 year old Dan whined. "Don't call me that!" he stomped on the ground annoyed. Dan furrowed his eyebrows and a scowl began to form on his usual loving face. He folded his arms across his chest, trying to act more intimidating, but he only looked like a child who didn't get the present he wanted for his birthday.
His dad chuckled, his face growing wrinkles around the edges of his eyes as they squinted shut. Dan got his brown eyes from his dad, but he secretly wanted to have his black hair as well. But he was too stubborn to admit it. He hated his brown curls that he tried to hide so much. Dan would always complain to his mum about how he wanted straight hair.
"Whatever you say, you little hobbit." his dad smiled, black hair acting like paint and smearing the canvas that was his face. He wiped it off, his ear to ear grin never leaving his face. Suddenly, the smell of chips and burgers wafted into their noses and they turned to each other knowingly. "Let's see what American food you mum is cooking tonight."
Dan laughed, warm breath fanning his face as he turned to face his father. "Race ya'." he said, the urgency of competition floating in the air. His dad nodded, preparing himself in a racing position. His back hunched over, and his arms bent as if he were about to run.
"On you mark..." Dan's father began, "Get set...Goldfish!" he smiled and watched as Dan pushed forward, his arms pumping as he came to a halt. Dan rolled his eyes, slowly turning around to go back to the 'starting line'. "Go!" his dad said, startling Dan as he brushed by him, a flurry of haste and a cool breeze leaving Dan in a daze.
Snapping out of his trance, his legs began to take him as far and fast as they possibly could've. Beads of sweat formed across his face as he reached his father. He faced him and stuck out his tongue. His dad chuckled and rolled his eyes, but remained focused on the task.
But their moment of bonding was over when a noise cracked their father and son time. Dan's father grew weary, his vision faltering. Dan paused, turning back to his dad, who lay in the middle of the street, the moonlight casting a whirlwind of emotions at the two. He slowly walked over to the immobile body, his breath hitching with confusion and worry. "D-dad?" Dan said, nearly incoherent, but still a whisper. His voice was shrill and filled with worry.
A scream was echoed around the houses of the neighbourhood. Tears welled in the boy's eyes and guilt had a knot tied inside of his stomach. That was the last day Dan ever spent with his father.
As if it couldn't get any colder, the flashback only caused more chills to run up and down his spine, almost at an alarming rate. The rain seemed to grow stronger, as if they wanted to feel the pain his father felt all those years ago. Sharp needles penetrated his back, as he kept his body hunched. It grew slightly uncomfortable, but Dan didn't care.
Cool breath escaped his chapped lips, his eyes darting across the dark and empty horizon that loomed in front of him. Guilt once again formed a know in his stomach, but dan knew he couldn't untie it. His father was his whole world. He was my sun. His dad would never let go of him, and he wouldn't ever let go of his dad. The two went everywhere together.
So the day when his father left, a piece of him left too. His friends left him, watching him wallow in sadness. They pitied the dark haired boy, and after awhile, they claimed he changed, that he changed into a person who preferred the dark abyss of loneliness other than the bright path of friendships, relationships. But who could blame the blind sighted boy? How would you feel when your world left its orbit? When it came crashing down, taking all of its light and beautiful sunshine rays with it.
As much as Dan liked the darkness, you always needed the light to survive. So, Dan never changed. He was the boy who would wear all black, he was an unopened book. But, as the unopened book he was, people judged hind from the outside, and not from what was within.
And like the rest of the people, Dan was the same way. He felt as if what was on the outside mattered most. He was like a glass shard. He needed others people to make him feel complete. But years of being left alone in the darkness, his beautiful crystal clear being continued to be consumed by none other than the darkness and himself.
So when the headlights a white porsche was flying in his direction, the moonlight was perfectly aligned to the other side of him, so the darkness once again, had its time to pounce. There, Dan stood, in the middle of the street, his black jeans, hoodie, and converse acting like camouflage with the darkness.
The time began to slow down even more than it already felt like. Dan swallowed his fears, and let the darkness consume him once more. When there was no light, you could only see shadows. That's how he felt when the car struck him, no mercy in the vehicle.
The pain pierced through him like a bullet, but left him stunned like a cliffhanger at the end of a book. But unlike a book, he wasn't left wanting more, albeit he knew it was too late to take back what had already occurred.
While the planets crashed, he crashed too, leaving his vision in a wake of shadows and black.
See you soon, dad.
*•*•*•*•*
A DISTANT GLOW filled Dan's view. The bright white light seemed to grow larger and larger until the light was revealed to be a flashlight, in front of a man with black hair, and crystal blue eyes that sat behind a pair of big black glasses.
Dan began a staring contest with the man's beautiful green - blue eyes. When he looked in them, he expected a world of his own, but instead he saw a galaxy. Speckles of green were swimming in a vast ocean of blue that Dan wanted to dive right into. But the galaxy was also filled with the mysterious asteroids and meteor showers that seemed to fly across every so often.
He knew he was good at reading people. His mum would always scold him for looking too deeply into her eyes. Dan only needed one look to tell what you were feeling. But these man's eyes seemed to tell more than just an emotion, his oceanic eyes seemed to tell a whole galaxy of stories. And Dan being the curious young adult, he wanted to know them all.
He was sucked out of his zone when the man moved the flashlight away from his eyes, checking something off of his check board, Dan watched as he pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, too focused in his writing to see what the brown haired bow was doing.
In a moment's time, Dan realised he was in a hospital. A flicker of disappointment switched on inside of him, sad that he couldn't see his father again. A beep threw him out of his thoughts when he turned to see a heart monitor standing parallel to the bed he currently sat on.
The doctor swiftly moved over to his side, looking at his face to see any issues, or bumps. Something in Dan's mind told him that the doctor was doing that for some other reason, but he shrugged the feeling away as something that Dan wanted to feel or see, not something that actually was happening.
After the unnerving silence, the doctor broke it. "Hello there," he stated, his deep voice sending shivers through Dan's bruised body. "I'm Phil, and I'll be your doctor for the next few months." he gave him a warm smile that seemed to be more pitying, rather than a genuine grin.