Finding Daddy

An hour and a half later, I was waving goodbye to Ethan and Felix from the front door of the house. We ended up hanging out at their apartment after the beach and dropped off Max first, who lived on the other side of the neighborhood by the school. I smiled to myself as I pulled out my key to unlock the front door. Today was highly satisfying.

“Danielle!” I froze in the middle of the entryway, my hand still on the doorknob. Dad walked around the corner from the kitchen with his arm crossed tightly over her chest. Val followed in a moment afterwards with a sympathetic frown on her face. I slowly pushed the door shut behind me and took a deep breath.

“Yes, Dad?”

“Living room, now,” he huffed before walking in that direction. Val let out a sigh before following him. I let my head fall back and groaned quietly at the ceiling. Of course something would go wrong today. I dropped my backpack on the floor next to the coat rack before heading towards the living room doorway.

“Hey Danny.” I looked to see Charlie peeking his head out from the game room with a sad smile. “If you cry, he gets nicer.”

“What’s going on?” I whispered, following his example. He shrugged.

“I dunno. He got a call from Thor and he’s been fuming for, like, five minutes now.”

“From Thor? What the heck - ”

“Danielle Marie!” Dad bellowed from the living room, making both Charlie and I flinch. He gave me a solitary pat on the shoulder, a ‘good luck’, and left back to the sanctuary of the game room. Taking another deep breath and standing straighter, I walked into the living room. All my confidence left as soon as I saw Dad pacing the length of the room. Val sat on the armrest of one of the couches with a look of pure annoyance as she followed Dad with her eyes. When she noticed me, she motioned towards the couch across from her.

Even as I sank into the couch, Dad continued his path. Val and I watched him for a few more moments before she exclaimed, “Jesus, Matt! Just fucking talk to her!”

I felt my entire body tense as I began to resemble a deer in headlights. I hadn’t heard sound Val so angry or really even curse since I moved in. Though I wasn’t sure if she was angry because of Dad or because of whatever situation I must be a part of. Dad seemed pretty shocked too. He had paused in the middle of a step with his own eyes wide. Val returned his stare with a pointed glare and her arms crossing over her chest. Dad nodded before sinking onto the couch across from me, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees.

“Danielle, what happened today?”

“What do you mean?” I squeaked. That was much too broad of a spectrum. At school? After school? Which piece was he looking at?

“Whatever would end up coming to my attention.” I blinked a few times and he sighed heavily as if what he was asking for should be obvious. “Like, I dunno, punching a girl in the face?”

“Oh.” That really should have been obvious. I actually kind of feel incredibly stupid for not saying anything about it before. Wow, okay. “To my defense, she was being a bitch and talking pretty shittily to my friend.”

“That doesn’t matter, Danielle.”

“Actually, it matters quite a damn lot, Matthew,” Val objected, glaring and smacking his shoulder. She turned away from him and locked eyes with me. “What happened?”

I began to ramble. “I made this friend named Cynthia, but it turns out she’s a transgender and goes by Max. So I ended up bonding with Max and he ended up coming out with Felix, Ethan, and I. I think Ethan and Max are going to date because they were all close and stuff at the ice cream parlor and are just really cute. We ended up going to the beach to hang out and a bunch of teens were there. Some girl came up asking if I was Danielle Sanders, which I was, but I didn’t really say anything. Max pretty much told her to fuck off and then she started calling him a tranny and shit so Ethan and Felix tried to get us to leave. I told them I wasn’t leaving until the girl apologized and even Max told me to go, but she kept talking and I punched her.”

Dad and Val were both silent for a few minutes, simply staring at me and blinking. I could physically see Dad’s thought process. At first his eyes were narrowed, just repeating my ramble in his head slower. His eyes grew a bit wider when he realized I had told him my friend recognized by a different gender. It quickly eased away and a small smirk of pride adapted his face before he realized he was doing it and returned to a neutral expression. Val was different. After a minute she was just grinning broadly.

“I don’t think this needs to go any further. Job well done, Danny,” Val spoke, clapping her hands together. Dad glared at her and she sighed, slumping over and crossing her arms again. “C’mon Matt, she did a good thing.”

“That was not good,” Dad argued. “Good hearted, but that doesn’t make it a good deed.”

“I think so.”

“Wait,” I interrupted with a look of absolute confusion on my face. “Are you punishing me or giving me a fist bump, because you guys are sending very mixed signals.”

Dad exclaimed ‘punishment’ at the same moment that Val held up her fist. Dad grabbed it and lowered it, giving her a pathetic looking face of betrayal. She rolled her eyes and took her fist back as she stood to her feet. “Y’know what? Fine Matt, you do whatever you think needs to be done, but I want no part of it.”

“C’mon Val, you know there were plenty of ways to deal with that than assaulting the girl. And with that lawsuit her parents are throwing at us - ”

“Wait. lawsuit?!” Both stopped their talking and turned to me with looks of worry. I couldn’t blame them. My voice had come out tight and it broke halfway through the word ‘lawsuit’. “No one mentioned that!”

“We didn’t want you to worry.”

“Well, too late fuckin’ now, isn’t it?” I snapped at Dad. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath through my nose. After a few beats I let it out my mouth and repeated that a couple of time before I felt confident enough to look at them again. Val was back on the armrest with her legs crossed at the knees, but this time Dad had his palm resting on her thigh. In fact, Dad looked a lot more relaxed and sympathetic now. “Isn’t this going to affect your custody?”

“No, hun, not at all. If we just get you to explain the same story to the lawyers, they’ll see that you were antagonized. It’ll probably slide off the board at that point. You have nothing to worry about,” Dad vowed. I could feel tears in my eyes, my mind still reeling all the ways this whole ordeal could go wrong. Even though I still stand fully by what I did, I really wish I wouldn’t have.

“Oh, Danny,” Val cooed, leaving Dad’s side to sit on my armrest and scoop me into her arms. I clung to her and tried to will my tears away. For God’s sake, I’m sixteen years old and made a choice. Now I’m being a baby because that choice had negative consequences? That’s stupid! But soon I felt Dad rubbing my back and I couldn’t really give two shits. I was being a child and my parents were going to make it better. That’s the fact here.

“Guys, we - whoa.” We all looked up to see Jimmy sliding to a stop in the living room only a foot from the couches. He looked out of breath and a little like he just woke up, even though I knew it couldn’t have been so since they were in the studio within the last half an hour. Maybe he hadn’t slept in a while. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, come in Jimmy. What’s up?” Val asked after giving my forehead a peck and standing to her feet. Instead of replying, he grinned and reached into his pocket. He produce a white stick and handed it to a very confused Val. She looked down at it and her eyes grew wide, nearly popping out of her sockets. Looking at Jimmy she could only utter, “Really?”

“Yes!” She let out a squeal higher pitched than I thought was possible and hugged him tightly around the waist. I looked at Dad to see that he, too, was confused. Turning back to the two, Val was rambling on about colors and names and I don’t even know anymore.

“Hello?” Val and Jimmy turned at the sound of Dad’s voice and smiled meekly. “What’s going on?”

“Teri is pregnant!” Jimmy exclaimed, a bright smile stretching across his face. I also let out an involuntary squeal as I jumped to my feet and grabbed his hands, the two of us jumping and swinging around in a circle.

“Congratulations!” I shouted.

Suddenly I heard running feet and an out of breath Charlie asking, “Did I just hear Teri’s pregnant?”

“You did,” Dad agreed, giving Jimmy’s shoulder a clap. Jimmy’s smile grew even wider somehow and I knew his cheeks had to be screaming in protest. Charlie gave him a fist bump and tried to persuade him into naming it after him, whether it was a boy or girl.

“Shut up. No one wants to have your name except fictional characters,” I chuckled, slightly smacking his upper arm. He pouted at me and stuck his tongue out. “Where’s Teri anyway?”

“She had to drive out to Los Angeles to tell her parents and brother in person. Plus the extended family. I offered to go with, but she told me I should run around and tell you guys and that I could drive to meet her afterwards,” Jimmy explained. I raised my eyebrow at it and I’m pretty sure everyone else in the room did too. Jimmy sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “So her dad might still not like me that great and we want to avoid telling him with me there.”

“It’s ridiculous how long he’s going to hold that grudge,” Dad sighed.

“It is his daughter, Matt. How would you feel if Danielle did it?” Val retorted with her arms crossed over her chest again. Dad opened his mouth to say something, but shut it and nodded instead.

“Yeah, true.”

“Wait, what’d you do?” I questioned.

“Him and Teri ran off to get eloped in Vegas when Teri was only nineteen,” Charlie informed with a smirk. I turned to Jimmy with wide eyes and he shrugged sheepishly.

“We were crazy and in love. What can I say?” Jimmy retorted with a shrug.

"Did you ever try explaining that to her dad?"

"Well, yes. But he's too old fashioned and thought only six months together at that point was too fast."

"Six... Jesus, Jimmy. I quit," I exclaimed, throwing my hands over my head exaggeratedly. Jimmy chuckled and took me into a headlock.

"But you still love me."

"Maybe so, but geez. You two are crazy!"

"That we are," Jimmy sighed out lovingly. I rolled my eyes as he finally let me go and we all began to chat until Jimmy would chose to excuse himself to tell everyone else. As I listened, my smile stayed stuck on my face. No matter what happened, I knew that my family and I would make it through it.