Chapter 8) Father

I sat there staring at my ceiling for a solid half hour. Every now and again my eyes wandered over to the far side of my bleek room. I stared at the blank wall, where there should have been regular guy stuff like maybe a poster or three, and maybe a couple of pictures of some good times with my friends. Instead, I had nothing but a wall clock, a calendar, and a schedule for the next month. All three were just meant to help me focus on timing and certain events I have to attend every so often, like next month, where I have to attend my mother's grand premiere of her new game "What Lies in the Dark."

When I say that I have to attend, it is more that I'm expected to attend, after all, she is my mother. I'll probably be playing a demo of her game, and then have to act like I lost to get more of a promotional view for all the hardcore gamers. If the public thought it was easy, the game wouldn't sell very well. I started thinking about what Tricia said to me downstairs, and I wondered what it would feel like to be angry, or sad. I walked over to my dresser and started to make sad faces, and a couple of angry faces, just to get used to the feeling. After I calmed down, I pulled a can of soda out of my mini fridge and started my walk to the kitchen downstairs.

I found Nick offering Tricia a bottle of water and some aspirin. Stupid, I thought to myself, just now realizing that I wasn't the only one inside the library when I seemingly exploded.

"Are you okay?"

This was more of a way to avoid getting that same question directed at me, but I was fairly worried for her now. Both of their heads snapped up as they realized I had entered the room. They then realized how close they were to each other and immediately split themselves apart for some reason I couldn't understand. A blush was creeping into their faces, which I still couldn't figure out, until Nick decided to end the silence.

"So, Jason, buddy, pal. Are you alright man, after, um what happened?" he finished the sentence with a high pitched voice.

That triggered a bit of laughter from both Tricia and I before I said it was alright. Then Tricia realized that the previous question was directed to her, so she stopped laughing.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry abou-" I cut her off mid sentence with a wave of the hand.

"Don't worry about it Trish, I'm over it."

A blatant lie, but with my stone cold face, it was practically unreadable. Nick noticed, but he kept to himself which I was definitely grateful for, considering I didn't want to get any special attention. We sat there for a bit, discussing the events that had taken place at school today. Every now and again I'd catch myself looking over at Tricia, but after the aspirin she had taken, she seemed to be fine. I still felt a dull feeling in the back of my mind, as if there was something trying to push it's way forward, but didn't have the strength to do so. I should ask Nick about this feeling once we are done. I felt like I really need to talk about it, but I don't know Tricia too well, so I'll stick with what I'm used to.

"Hey guys, if you wanna lay low for a bit, my house is gonna be practically empty up until next week."

I told them this only because I felt as though all of this was my fault to begin with. After all, I was the one who exploded the library, most likely gave Tricia the pain in her head, and summoned the police officers for an unexplainable explosion. They both looked at me as though I had tripped a landmine. In unison, they both screamed out:

"MY PARENTS!"

They quickly whipped out their phones and dialed numbers. Tricia walked off towards a living room, while Nick walked over to the back porch, that opened up into my outdoor pool. I sat there in the dining room for about ten minutes before both of them returned with somewhat more relaxed faces.

"My mom threw a tantrum when she had heard the news about the explosion, but once I told her I was fine, she cooled down."

That covers Nick, but Tricia might be the bearer of bad news. Tricia looked at both me and Nick before she took a deep breath and walked us through what was going on in her end.

"When my dad picked up the phone, he was furious at me for not calling him sooner, but I calmed him down, but then he asked me where I was."

From the way her face suggested, I could pretty much sum up what she had said, and the reaction her father gave. Nick didn't quite understand it yet though, and when Tricia looked at him, she realized he hadn't understood.

"Nick, I'm saying that I told my dad I was at a boy's house. He blew his top, asking me who he is, and where the house was. Luckily though, he didn't notice that it's midday so I should still be at school. The bad news is he is coming here now, and I have no idea how to explain what happened at school to him, or why I'm here with two boys."

With this she slumped into her seat, looking off to the distance with a faint expression of defeat. Nick, with a new sense of what is going on, starts to pace back and forth with a face of pure concentration.

"Alright, I've got it."

Nick came walking back with an expression of happiness, as though he just solved one of those rubix cubes.

"What do you mean? Did you figure out what language the ring is, or maybe you solved the problem with my dad."

She looked at him with an expectant glance, and her eyes lit up when he nodded.

"All you've gotta do is say Jason is helping you out with your studies, considering that is the easiest and most logical answer. I mean, he is top student in the grade. Not only that, but you could sugarcoat it, and make it seem like you were doing it for your dad's sake."

Nick was beaming after he said that, as if his plan had solved all of our problems. Of course he knows that we wanted an answer to what was happening around me too, but I let him have his moment. Tricia looked at me again, but this time with a bit of shock and something else, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"Are you okay with this Jason?" she asked, looking at me with pleading eyes, but again with the mysterious second emotion.

I thought for only a second, and nodded my head. I didn't want to talk, mostly because if I did, I wouldn't even know what to say.

We all looked toward the door when we heard a car's brakes outside. I walked over to the door, and opened it to find a relatively fit man walk towards the door. When I say fit it is more like ripped. This man looked like he could rip a door off it's hinges, sprint a twenty-five mile marathon, finish in first, and make his way to a board meeting all in the same few seconds.

In other words, he was a terrifyingly strong looking individual. I could see exactly why Tricia was worried about her dad being mad, but that didn't stop me from trying to greet him in a formal manner.

"Welcome, Mr. Woods, I presume, to my home. Please come in, and walk straight down the hall to the right to make your way to the dining room, where your daughter is waiting."

He gave me an amused look, a firm handshake, and made his way inside. I followed closely behind, making sure not to step on his feet, in anticipation of a punch thrown my way. When we made it to the dining room, Tricia got up to cautiously greet her own father, as if he were a complete stranger. When they'd had a father-daughter exchange of hugs and hello's, her father strode toward me with a look of intense seriousness.

"What are you to my daughter kid?" he asked me with a cold glare and a quick flex of his biceps.

I stood there with a steely expression, then changed my expression to reflect the exact same amount of intensity back at this man.

"Sir, I'll have you know that you are in my home, so I suggest you stop acting tough in front of your daughter, sit down, and maybe, just maybe, we can have a gentlemen's approach at this, shall we?"

He took this in for a moment, then his expression change from cold and menacing, to a big grin.

"You've got iron in your blood kid. I can respect that, so why don't we have a little chat as to why three teenagers aren't at school in the middle of the day, and why one of them, just so happens to be mine."

I didn't relent in my facial expression for a single moment, but there was no way that I was going to try telling him the truth. Instead, Nick caught my eye, and we had a silent agreement on the subject. Tricia was in a bit of trouble, so it was only fair that I help her out of it. I sat down across from this man with a heavy thump, gave Nick and Tricia one more glance, then I told him my fully developed lie.

"The reason Tricia, Nick and I are all here is because when the damage was done to the building, we were all relatively close to the area. I thought then, what would happen if they blamed this on us? So I brought them both to this house to help them feel safe for the time being. It also helps that your daughter wished for assistance with her studies before the building was damaged, so it ended up being pretty convenient. There are no other reasons for us being here, at my house, sir, so now I will ask you a very serious question that you should consider."

With the look Tricia's dad gave, it was safe to assume that he had bought the lie I used, but he also seemed a bit confused as to what I might ask him after telling him this. 'Perfect,' I thought to myself reflecting on how easily I had thrown the man off.

"Sir, I am asking you man to man. For the next week, I would to recommend having your daughter stay here until this mess blows over. The reason being, my house is not open to the public, and it is also protected by hidden defenses in case of certain popperazzi situations. In other words, if the police manage to somehow figure out she was around the area of the explosion at school, they would have absolutely no way of reaching her unless you were to sell her out. By the way, the only reason you made it to the front door is because I turned off every defense as you passed them, then reset them to recognize your car on the way out, so you don't have any problems."

I hit him with the full force of my words exactly the way I wanted, because he looked shocked out of his wits, as he tried to piece together just how grave the situation is. Nick and Tricia sat at the far end of the table with looks of awe, as I had just tricked a man into actually considering leaving his child in a stranger's care. Tricia's dad snapped out of his stupor, looked me in the eyes, and sighed heavily.

"Alright, that does seem to be the best possible decision. Just please, keep my daughter safe. I'll get her mother to prepare clothes for her. Meanwhile, I'm going to assume you have food and a room for her, right?"

I gave him an annoyed look, as if he had done something outrageous for no other reason than for his own amusement.

"Of course I have a room ready for her, after all, I am the one who offered. Give me some credit gramps, I'm the top of my class for a reason."