AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sorry, Dana.”
“Now apologize to Abby. You weren’t innocent, young man.” She clucked her tongue against the rough of her mouth and went towards the dining room.
Rhonda walked past me to help her mother.
Dan watched over the two boys looking between me and each other. I felt awkward. I didn’t feel like Luke should be forced to apologize if he didn’t mean it.
“It’s fine,” I finally whispered.
Cal turned to me. Angry at me and for me. “It isn’t fine Abby. He and Aiden have been verbally abusing you.” He turned to his friend. “Did you throw anything at her?”
“I didn’t. That was all Aiden. Abby, I am sorry that you were scared last night.” He stopped looking at me. “I could see how terrified you were. I didn’t like it.”
Mr. Cooper was rubbing his hand over his neck. “Luke what the hell, son?”
“It just got out of hand. You know Aiden,” he explained. “He’s a hot head like his dad and he takes his frustrations out on everyone else.”
“Not girls, Luke.”
“I know. I know.”
Dan Cooper shook his head. “I’m disappointed in you, Luke.”
“I’m sorry Sarge. Really. It won’t happen again. At least not by me,” he promised.
Dan grabbed Luke around the neck and took him with him towards the dining room. Cal’s mother and sister returned several times to take more food to the table.
Cal’s eyes were intense when he gazed down on me. “No more secrets Abby.”
“I just didn’t want things to get worse between you and your friends.” I wanted him to understand.
“Abby, let me worry about my friendships. Don’t keep what they are doing to you from me again.”
“I won’t.”
Cal leaned over and kissed me quickly before his mother walked in the room again. “Come on. We need to go to the table.”
I must admit that the breakfast was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Even if we had our whole family together, grandmas, grandpas and my Dad’s sister we didn’t have this many people, but I liked it.
There was love and good, natured teasing. Cal’s dad was getting caught up on what everyone was doing while he had been gone. Soon he would be leaving again, and I could see the effect that it had on everyone. I don’t think he realized it.
When he got up to put his plate in the kitchen, he stopped by Rhonda’s chair and kissed the top of her head. Her miscarriage was on his mind, I could tell. She teared up at his sweet gesture. Then she looked at her fiancé and he reached beneath the table to touch her. It was something that only the two of them could understand.
Dan left the room for a few minutes. I liked him and I think he liked me too. When it was time for Cal to take me home, he walked Cal and I outside. It was already ten minutes till one and soon I had to get ready. He told Cal to get in the car, he would open my door for me. Cal frowned but did as he was told. I don’t think that he ever defied his father.
At the passenger door, he put his hands on my shoulders. “I have to admit I gave Cal a lecture last night about letting you interfere in his plans for the future.” I didn’t really know what he wanted to do in the future. “Cal has big dreams Abby. College football. NFL. Every boy dreams of the NFL who has played football for as long as Cal has. I don’t know if has the talent. Stranger things have happened.”
I knew why he was worried. We were young. Things happened. There was a teen who was pregnant at school. One who just broke up with her boyfriend. He didn’t take it well and broke her car window. Were we too young to feel this way? I didn’t want to imagine my life without him in it. That is all I could say.
“I was sixteen when I met Dana which she reminded me of this morning before Cal arrived with you.” He released me and touched my cheek. “You remind me of Dana which is probably why Cal likes you so much. He needs someone soft and tender hearted who cares for him. You’re different than the girls I’ve met in his class. You’re sweet.”
I laughed. He wasn’t exactly wrong about that. The girls the football players tended to hang out with weren’t nice. They had their clique and no one else fit into it well if at all unless you were in line with their ideals and styles. I wasn’t. I was me. My mom? She would have been perfect for them when she was fifteen. I just had to be me though.
“What I’m trying to say Abby, is that I like you,” he said.
“Thank you, sir.” I couldn’t bring myself to call him Dan.
He chuckled at me. Then he peeked into the window. “Cal is getting restless.” Mr. Cooper surprised me when he gave me a hug. “One more thing, Abby. Don’t hide it from either Dana or Cal or your own parents when someone whether it is Aiden or Luke or someone else are being abusive to you. It isn’t right. They could have hurt you last night.”
