Up in the Air

Chapter 27

Dedicated to hiphopkidz because, my God, I laughed my head off at the ship name JujuBbles (in a good way).

Not Enough by Avril Lavigne in the sidebar (no relation to the chapter).  There's probably typos in this but YOLO.

Chapter 27

Dinner was, undoubtedly, a disaster.

Mom and Dad tried to salvage what they could of it by filling four peoples' worth of conversation with only the pair of them.  

I sat through my parents' questions – all directed at Daniel, all answered with his usual politeness – and stories – all of which were about me, all surprisingly non-embarrassing – and, when the doorbell rang, pretended like giving candy to trick-or-treaters was the most important thing in the world.

At some point, I decided to not just go back.

Waiting for the next batch of trick-or-treaters seemed to be a better way to pass the time than just staring at the food on my plate.

And so that was how Daniel found me, swinging mindlessly on the porch swing like a zombie and cradling a large bowl of candy to my chest.  

But he didn't walk up to me immediately.

He simply stood by the door, watching as I handed out candy to the kids that arrived and studying me intently as if being illuminated by the street lamps lining our block, I'd somehow become one of those works of art that he and I could appreciate but never fully comprehend.

After five minutes of looking at me looking at nothing in particular, he cleared his throat and folded his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants.

"Sara," he started quietly.  "You're angry –"

I shook my head and stopped him before he could continue.

He frowned looking even more mind-boggled than ever.  "You're not?"  

I shook my head again.  "I'm not mad because I can understand why you accepted the offer."  I smiled at him – weakly but it was a smile nonetheless.  

Before I continued, I motioned for him to take seat next to me.

"I'm not mad," I repeated sincerely once he'd sat down.  "I'm sad that you and I won't be going to the same school –" 

"Sara, I –" 

"Don't say you're sorry," I interrupted him quickly.

I set aside the bowl of candy and reached out for his hands.  Realizing that they were strangely cold, I began to rub comforting circles on them with my thumbs like he usually did to comfort me.  

I smiled at that realization before looking back up at him.  "Just," I tilted my head to the side.  "Let me just explain, okay?" 

"How are you smiling at this?  Shouldn't you be angry at me?"  He looked at the bowl of candy behind me.  "By now, you should have smashed that bowl there on my head."

He looked like a very lost and very confused little boy that I couldn't help but smile even wider.

"Mom likes that bowl," I joked before my smile became sad again.  "Look, Daniel, I'm over the moon that you got to have this opportunity but, admittedly, I'm also a bit sad."

He flinched at the word sad.  

One of the many things he and I had in common?  

We didn't like hurting people.