Jonathan
"Are- are you sure you really want to go home? Why can't you come to my house? Just for tonight?" I rush out at Alice.
She cups my face. "I need to go home."
"I can be your home."
She lets out a soft laugh. "Maybe one day."
She carefully gets out of my as she always does, but I come out too.
"Wait- Alice!"
She squints at me through the rain as I run over to her.
"I love you." I try to say to her.
"What?!" She tries to shade the rain out of her face.
"I love you!" My hair falls into my eyes.
She just stands there for a moment in the pouring rain before yelling back, "I love you too!"
And then she skips over and plants a fat kiss on my lips, and runs to her house and shuts the door.
Leaving me out here smiling like a damn maniac.
~~
"Where have you been?" My father says as I enter the living room.
"Remember the girl who went missing? I found her."
My fathers eyes widen. "You found her? What is that supposed to mean?"
I stay quiet for a moment. Should I tell him?
I think I should.
"Alice Fink is my girlfriend... and I spent the last 4 days looking for her... and I know you don't like her family, but I actually love her, and if you can't except that then I don't care. Have your opinions and beliefs, nothing will change."
My father stands up and walks over to me. "Her mother and I used to know each other."
I stare at him, waiting for him to go on. "We went to junior high together and high-school, and even a couple years of college. We were... we were really close. Close enough to even love each other."
My eyes widen in shock. "What?"
"We had dated for a good, ah, two years or so before she met Jake. Then she... she got with him, they had a kid, Alice, and they left her for Jennies awful sister."
"Her moms name was Jenni?"
My dads eyes sadden. "Yes. Jenni Wakowski."
This is all very new information. My dad had loved Alice's mom? Alice's parents left her?
"Jenni and Jake both had passed on by a horrible fever." My father adds after a moment.
"So why should I stay away from Alice then?"
He sighs deeply then makes straight eye contact with me. "So you don't have to go through what I went through."
———
We are coming close to the end of this book.
Just a little reminder.