Status: Active.

Father and Daughter

Rising

I constantly turned my head to look over my shoulder as I left the Aether Falls library. I only had five more minutes until Dan was set to pick me up and I had planned to leave sooner. I smiled as I rushed up the hill of Andrea’s crowded street, but the smile soon disappeared when I saw the Chevelle already parked in front of her house.

Dan was next to the car, leaning against the driver’s door with his arms crossed and his head lowered. I took my time as I neared Andrea’s house, thinking of what I could say. The thoughts jumbled into a huge mess and by the time I had reached the Chevelle, I didn’t have a single word prepared. My lips parted to speak, but Dan had beat me to it.

“Right now would be a really good time to explain this to me.” He remained in his stance, with his back to me.

“I… It’s not what you think, Dan. Did Andrea tell you where I was?”

“She did,” Dan replied. “But she wasn’t able to tell me who you were with… That’s what you need to tell me.”

I looked back at Andrea’s house and saw her standing at the front door, eyebrows arched apologetically. I gave her a tiny smile and waved to her, telling her she could go inside. She backed into the house and shut the door quietly. When I turned back, Dan was facing me. The look in his eyes practically ripped my heart out. He was obviously angry, but an expression of remorse overwhelmed that.

“Mina, I need you to explain right now. And no lies.”

“I was at the library--”

“I know that!” Dan snapped. “Who were you with?”

I wanted to protect Mr. Conway. I knew exactly what could happen if anyone found out I was alone with him after school hours without parental consent. There was so much that I could try to explain to Dan about Mr. Conway’s innocence, but I knew that he wouldn’t listen. Nobody would believe a tale of purity about a student and teacher being alone together at night.

“Mr. Conway.” I eventually retorted. My voice was sparse and gave away my trembling fear. I looked to the surface of the street below us and knew that I had just ruined everything for Mr. Conway and I.

Dan’s boots stepped closer to me and I watched them until they stopped right in front of me. “There’s only one Conway in town--the teacher at the high school... Is that him?”

I began to visually count the silver grommets on Dan’s shoes, following the laces with my eyes. “Yes,” I whispered. “He’s my English teacher.”

“Get in the car.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, watching him open the driver’s door.

Dan sighed as he lowered himself into the driver's seat. “Just get in the car, Mina.”

After I settled anxiously into the seat next to Dan, I expected the Chevelle to head towards the police station or some place where Dan could tell someone about Mr. Conway, but the wheels rolled straight for home. Andrea only lived three blocks away, but that two-minute drive perpetuated. I didn’t dare look at Dan as he drove us home in withdrawn, infuriated silence. Despite how terrified I felt, I wanted to place my hand over his and tell him that I was sorry. Apologizing was the only thing I could do.

After we finally reached home, Dan instructed me to go inside. I entered the house and sat on the living room couch, expecting him to come in immediately. The door was left ajar, moonlight peeking through, and swayed subtly from the nighttime breeze. I approached the door after a few minutes had passed and feared that Dan had left.

But he was there, standing outside of the car with his back to the house, painstakingly still.

His eyes were averted to the dirt road beneath his feet and his hands were balled into fists. The very sight of him caused me to plummet headfirst into a sea of guilt. I was able to imagine how upset he was that I had betrayed his trust after our bond had tripled in the past few weeks.

I was a horrible daughter... Actually, I wasn’t his daughter at all--not while I was betraying his trust, I wasn’t.

Dan relaxed his hands and turned for the door, causing me to stumble backward and hurry to the couch to take my seat. He stepped through the door, shutting it behind him and locking it. He and I stared at each other for a moment before he took a seat across from me.

“Mina,” he said after taking a deep breath. “I understand that you’re not used to all of this--a normal life and public school… but there’s boundaries you have to understand.”

“I know exactly what you’re going to say, Dan,” I said.

“And what is that?”

“You’re going to tell me that I can’t go sleeping around with my teachers.”

Dan’s face slumped into an unhappy contortion. “That’s not what I was--”

“Don’t lie,” I interrupted. “You told me not to lie to you, so you shouldn’t lie to me.

He sighed, slightly lowering his head and bringing his hands together. “There’s just a lot of things that people assume when they find out that a teacher and student spent time alone together after school hours… And they’re not exactly the best assumptions.” Dan sat upright. “The thing that just unnerves me the most, Mina, is that you didn’t tell me what you really wanted to do tonight. There’s legal boundaries that have to be regarded here, Mina--”

I interjected him again. “Dan, I didn’t do anything with Mr. Conway!” I shouted, rising from my seat. “I was there to practice my lines for the play we’re reading in class and that’s it! So, stop assuming that I’m some stupid, teenage whore!” My feet carried me toward the stairway and stomped up the stairs, ignoring Dan as he called my name.

“Mina, come back here right now!” Dan called after me. “I am not finished talking to you.”

I slammed the door to my bedroom and hid under the piles of sheets on my bed, cloaking myself in pitch darkness. The sound of Dan shouting was drowned out by the numerous layers of blankets and I squeezed my eyes shut to try and force myself to fall asleep.

I didn’t know why I was so angry with Dan. Perhaps it was the fact that I wanted him to be different from the rest of the people in town. I didn’t want him to think I was a slut. Sister Margaret had burned an image in my mind of what female students do with their male teachers behind closed doors. I now knew that it was what everybody thought when they put the two items together.

My door opened and, from the silence, I could tell Dan was standing there, staring at the lump coming from the blankets. “Mina…” he finally said, stepping to the opposite side of the bed. I bit my lip and held my breath, hoping he would just walk away.

I jolted under the sheets when I felt another body’s weight come down onto the other side of the bed. I peeked out from under the blankets and saw Dan sitting at the edge of the bed with his back to me. “I want you to listen to me, okay?” he said.

“Okay,” I replied meekly.

“I wasn’t calling you a whore,” he began. “But I knew it was a possibility that you and Mr. Conway, you know, did something inappropriate. It’s just a common scenario that people think of. Still, you don’t need to testify against that possibility because, regardless of what happened at the library tonight, I’m by your side.” He turned to face me. “But it is still my job to raise you and you’re going to have to follow the decisions I make when it comes to what you do out there. Just don’t ever sneak around behind my back ever again, okay?”

He paused again, sighing heavily. “… The incident with Logan was overwhelming for us and since he still might be out there right now, I definitely don’t want you walking anywhere alone at night--even if it’s only for a couple of minutes.”

I shoved the blankets away from me and slid to the side of the bed, leaning my head on Dan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just didn’t want you to worry about me… I’m sorry I lied.” I glanced up at him. “You’re not going to get Mr. Conway in trouble, are you?”

“No,” he said, placing his hand over mine. “I trust your word, Mina. If you say nothing happened… then I believe you.”

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“‘... Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours. O, these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights!
And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,
To eke it and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.’”

I shifted in my place to look over at the boy standing across from me. His vibrant, blue-and-grey Letterman jacket contrasted the blank look on his face. I wasn’t quite sure if he was staring at me in awe or absolute disgust about how I had just delivered my lines. The rest of the classroom mirrored his expression.

Mr. Conway was seated at his desk, only several feet away, and he had a proud smirk on his face when I turned to him. “Go on, Derek,” he urged the boy in front of me. “It’s your line.”

Derek snapped out of his daze and looked down at the book in his hand. “Sorry,” he said before clearing his throat.

The diction of the other students performing seemed to falter as the scene continued. Their heads hung low and their voices were hesitant. I was completely baffled and looked over at Andrea several times, who grinned pompously at me. Before I knew it, I had said my final lines of the scene, and the performance was over. Mr. Conway instigated applause and the class followed.

It was strange--being applauded for. It almost made me feel completely vulnerable. The moment dragged out until the performers were told to take our seats and as I returned to my desk, I was submerged in a dream-like state.

“Nice job,” Andrea said, nudging me. “You actually… became Portia. How did you do it?”

I failed to form the right words. The only thing I could do was look at Mr. Conway while he wrote a series of questions on the whiteboard.

“Ah, I see,” she said. She began to write down the questions on the board but then stopped. “Is everything okay between you and Dan?” Her voice was nearly a whisper. “Was he pissed?”

I set down my pen. “Sort of… But he settled things after I freaked out and started yelling at him. I actually feel bad about that.”

“So, what’s the deal now? Are you grounded?”

“No,” I said. “I just can’t run off without telling him where I’m going.”

“Gosh, you’re lucky… If my mom had caught me, I’d be grounded for months.” Andrea brought a hand to her mouth, immersed in thought. “You know, Dan seems like he’s a great father,” Andrea eventually said. “You’re really lucky.”

What happened to yours? I thought. The question itched. I had noticed that there hadn’t been a male presence in Andrea’s house when I had visited. Just Andrea and her mother.

We continued to write down the rest of the assignment as Mr. Conway returned to his desk. “I’ll give you guys fifteen minutes to answer the questions and then we’ll go over them,” he said as he sat down.

I stared at him as he flipped through a thick leather planner and scribbled onto a certain page. My eyes slowly wandered from the pen in his hand up to his face. He looked so focused and yet, so content. I was beginning to become more comfortable with him ever since I had found out we’ve known each other for ten years. During the time I spent at the orphanage, I wasn’t completely alone. He was probably the only one who thought about me during those years.

He confessed last night, at the library, that I had often crossed his mind and he didn’t know why. For years, he wondered about where I was and if I was alright. Eventually, I was out of his head, but two years later, I showed up to his English class.

I didn’t know what I thought of Mr. Conway. He was my teacher, but also a friend. And my hero.

Every time I considered him my hero, guilt flooded through me. I didn’t want Dan to feel replaced or unappreciated by me and that was exactly why I couldn’t tell him about the history between Mr. Conway and I.

I couldn’t tell Dan that I thought I was falling in love with Mr. Conway.

It was all too typical.

Image


That night, Dan made dinner perfect and completely relaxing. He grabbed a couple of movies from the rental store, according to what taste in films he thought I had. All of the pasta was completely gone by the time he and I had settled onto the couches. I juggled between the two movies he had rented. One was about a fictional president’s daughter falling in love with some guy from Secret Service. The other followed a group of mercenaries whose characters were mainly played by action stars from Dan’s days.

“Seriously?” Dan asked as I handed him the action flick. “I thought you’d be into the romantic comedy stuff.”

“I kind of want to see these old guys pick up some guns and shoot stuff without breaking their backs,” I laughed.

Dan burst into laughter and walked over to the DVD player. “Hey,” he said. “Don’t underestimate those action stars. They’re stronger than you think.”

“Chuck Norris?” I asked, plopping down on the couch. “Isn’t he like… eighty years old?”

“You are so mean,” he laughed. The surrounding speakers hummed to life when the DVD began playing. “You’re probably going to make fun of me when I reach that age,” he went on. “If I reach that age, that is.”

I gulped suddenly. “Are you telling me that you’re dying or something…?” I nearly whispered.

“Nah! I’m just playing with you.” he said, sitting on the opposite couch. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good,” I said, crossing my arms. I lowered my voice to a murmur as the disc menu played blaring music. “... Jerk.”

“I heard that,” he replied with a smirk as he hit “play.”

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The film was almost over. The climax of the story was approaching it’s high point with the explosions, gunshots, and bloody knuckles. Dan and I were on the edge of our seats, pumped up by the action and loud noises. I was definitely wrong about those old guys. They threw punches that were most likely ten times harder than mine would be.

We could hardly hear a thing with how the speakers boomed throughout the house. We were lucky that the next neighbor was at least fifty yards away. Our movie night was peaceful up until the moment the doorbell rang.

“Aw, come on,” I cried out as Dan paused the movie. “It was just getting good.”

Dan froze in place and I asked him what was wrong.

He brought a single finger up to his lips.

My eyes widened as I watched him walk over to the closet by the dining table.

Logan.

He was here. It had been more than a week, but he was here. He had built himself up enough to come this far just to terrorize me for his own satisfaction.

I never would have thought he would show up. Perhaps I was too caught up in wanting to play pretend with The Merchant of Venice and didn’t realize that someone had been traveling all this way to claim their pound of flesh from me.

The shotgun was soon in Dan’s hand. He walked over to the front door and peeked through the peephole. His body was then still as ice and his unequipped hand reached towards me, a single finger jutting out.

“Mina,” he whispered. “Go up to your room, leave the lights off and lock the door.”

I inhaled to prepare myself to ask a question, but he hushed me. “Go now,” he said. “And stay quiet.”

I rushed up the stairs as silently as I could. My limbs began to shake as I pressed in the lock of my bedroom door. My breathing echoed between the four walls of my room. The moonlight shining through the blinds were my only dim source of light. My ears were ringing as soon as I held myself still.

I could hear Dan’s voice, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. I stepped cautiously towards the door and pressed my ear against it.

“You need to leave,” Dan’s muffled voice said. “Now...”

An abrupt grunt from Dan startled me. I jumped where I stood and listened in on further struggling between two men. I could hear the barrel of the shotgun being hit against the walls and my heart screamed at me.

Go down there and help him!

My fingertips were on the doorknob when the shotgun went off.

BANG.

The only thing that stopped me was the thought of my first father’s face. The noise of his gun going off when he decided to leave this world.

The arm I had broken years ago began to tingle from the bitter memory. For years I had never wanted to see a gun in my life. And I was lucky that I hadn’t been traumatized by the sight of my father’s gaping, bloody skull. Regardless, I wouldn’t be able to stand seeing Dan like that. He was all I had.

I had two choices. I could stay in my room, hide, and wait to see who would open my door. Or I could face my fears and find out who was the last man standing.

I threw the door open and ran down the stairs.
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I'm really sorry for the late update. My Sadist King has been snagging my attention like a bitch.

Sorry if there's typos, I have to go to work. BLAHHH.
Just let me know in the comments if there's any mistakes you notice.