Brave the Storm and Embrace the Rain

"So," Brooklyn started, "What have you been doing since you moved here?"

I smiled slightly at our small talk and who I thought of when she asked. I twisted my fingers in my hair and sat back farther in the passenger's seat. "I met a few guys down at my Dad's skate shop," I told her, watching as she looked to me, from the road, with an interested look on her face.

"Really? Anyone I might know?" she questioned as she rounded a corner.

I shrugged. "They aren't in school so I doubt it, Brook," I said in a happy glad to finally have a friend to talk about boys with.

Brooklyn laughed, "Well, what are their names? And who has you so giddy?"

I smiled at her and nodded to myself, as if to say 'This girl understands you, Indy.'
"There's Reid, Trent, Kalib, and Eadon. Oh, Brook. He's so so amazing." I gushed, oblivious to the horrified look on her face.

"Who is?" Brook asked, calmly, staring straight out the front windshield. I pulled my knees up on the chair and wrapped my arms around them. I smiled to brightly that my cheeks began to hurt.

"Eadon is!" I gushed, "He gets me, you know. He understands without me having to explain my life in full detail."

Brooklyn spoke next, "But do you understand him?"

"No," I said automatically, "Not one bit. But I do know that he needs me just as much as I need him. I can see it in his green eyes, that he hates leaving, having to say goodbye although he always has to. He always goes home abruptly, every night."

"He never told you why? How long have you known him?"

I shrugged, "Three weeks? He asked me out the second day I met him, well, after the mall fiasco." I chuckled, remembering the boy clad all in red that offered to help a stranger find a lost kid.

Brooklyn nodded coldly and I was worried of what she thought of me now. How could I, Indiana, fall for a boy so quick? I knew that's what she was thinking. Brook often sent me smiles as we drove, listening to music in the back ground of our thoughts. About a half an hour later we were out of Newark, back in Summit, and pulling into the driveway of my father's house.

Brook looked at me once more before she abruptly leaned over and hugged me tightly, murmuring "goodbye" before releasing me and unlocking the car door. I said the same thing and exited the car, feeling the heat of the afternoon wash away the nice chill that the car's air-conditioning that given my skin. I breathed in deeply, feeling the heat in my lungs, before I walked up the the front door of the house and went inside.

"Hello Indy," Karli said as she stood up from the couch. I ignored her and turned to go up the stairs. "No, Indy, wait," Karli called quickly, taking a step towards me as I took one up the stairs.

I sighed and turned back around with one foot on the next step. "Yeah?" I questioned.

"I want to talk to you about the conversation you had with your father the other night," she said, testing me.

"Is that any of your business, Karli?"

She shrugged and motioned for me to come back down the stairs and over to the couch. I did with a sigh. I stood by the couch, not wanting to sit down unless she did so that I wouldn't be spoke to like a child. This time Karli sighed and took her seat, patting the spot next to her. I lazily sat down and looked to her with a bored expression.

"Indiana... I don't want you to hold your father's decisions against him," she stared out slowly, trying not to offend me but doing so with every word. "He made a life choice and yes, it was hard on you, but it was best for him at the time."

I rolled my brown eyes and sat back farther on the couch, waiting to hear the rest of her explanation.

Karli quieted, noticing that she wasn't getting through to me. We sat in an awkward silence until I stood up to go. Karli called out to me, and I noticed that she was desperate to talk to me so I stopped short and sat down, finally giving her a chance.

"I care about you, Indiana. And so does your father. He always has. When I first met him he was just barely 26 and I 21. He was living in a crappy apartment in Newark. We met at the coffee shop where I worked, he was always in there drinking coffee and staring at pictures in his wallet."

"One day I went up to him to refill his cup and I saw a picture of a little girl. Her raven hair was curled around her face in messy waves. She was smiling brightly to the camera and holding her hand up as if she had blown a kiss. There was a skateboard at her feet and a helmet on her head. She was wearing bright green pads and she looked sincerely happy.

"She's beautiful," I had said, "Is she your daughter?" Your father just nodded and then after a bit of a struggle looked up to me. The words that came out of my mouth next shocked me. "This is the last picture I ever took of her," he had said as he handed the picture to me. It was frayed from behind pulled out and stuffed back in so many times.

At first I thought the little girl in the picture had died. I was struck with despair for the man in front of me. He looked broken, scared, and as if he had lost the one thing in life that actually mattered to him. I instantly wanted to make him feel better. Make him forget about what he had lost so I decided to befriend him.

About three months later he told about what he did. "I can't believe what I've done to her." He would say, over and over again as if by not taking away all your pain he had caused it. It took a really long time but I showed him that it was okay. Not that he had left you, but that he did what he needed to do so that in the future he could save you too. "

Karli took a deep breath and wiped tears out of her eyes. I was quiet, unaware that my father had tortured himself just as much as I wanted to.

"Your father had tried to get you back a couple years later, you know."

I looked to Karli, shocked. She nodded her head and reached out to brush the tears off of my cheeks, caressingly.

"Why didn't he?" I asked, wiping my own tears away quickly, embarrassed.

Karli shrugged simply. "He couldn't find you, Indy. Your grandparents changed their number and your mother's too. I remember he even went back to pick you up but your grandparents had gotten custody already and wouldn't give you up. I can't believe you didn't know that Nathaniel even went to court when you were 12."

I looked up at her in complete shock. After a moment I spoke, my voice shaky and uneven. "I don't want to talk about this anymore, Karli. I think I need to lay down. Honestly." I jumped up from the couch and hurried up the stairs, taking two at a time just to get away from that conversation.