Ricardiana

two

a/n: girl in pic is delaney

I wake up, Liam's arms wrapped around me in my bed. I raise an eyebrow and look at my alarm clock. I get out of bed hurriedly and throw a clean pair of socks at Liam. He wakes up in a daze and rubs his eyes sleepily.

"Diana? Is everything alright?" Liam asks.

"It's almost time for school and I didn't hear my alarm! I'm so sorry, Liam." I say.

"Ana, I don't think that you should be going to school today, not after what happened. I think you and Delaney need to talk about this."

I look at my reflection in the mirror. Liam was right, I couldn't go to school today. My face was puffy and my eyes were red from crying last night. I couldn't face people today. I didn't want to.

Liam gets out of bed and puts on his jeans. He comes towards me and hugs me, wrapping his arms around my body and kissing the top of my head. I needed that, and he knew it. I sigh heavily as he gets dressed for school. When he leaves, I make my way to Delaney's room and knock on the door. I open it and she isn't there.

I walk down stairs and check the garage, her car was there. I sigh and put on a tee shirt, some shorts and my ratted up chuck taylor's before going to check out the little cove behind the houses across the street. As expected, Delaney is sitting high on one of the tree branches, smoking a cigarette.

"Del?" I say.

She looks down at me, a faint smile across her lips and motions for me to climb up next to her. I do, although it was much harder than it looks, and sat down her.

"I've been up here since four this morning." She says. "The sunrise was gorgeous. I wish you could've seen it, Ana."

I chuckle and swing my legs back and forth. Delaney's face is puffy and her hands are shaking tremendously. She leans her head on my left shoulder and I wrap my arm around her and console her. Usually, the roles were reversed. I would be the one leaning my head on her shoulder and she would be consoling me.

Delaney lets out a sad sob.

"I'm so sorry, Diana. I feel like this is all my fault." She tells me.

"It's not like we could've prevented it, Del."

But she was right. I felt like I was at fault for this as well. I felt like my parents were constantly fighting over Delaney and I. What she and I wanted, what she and I needed. It was as if our parents wanted us to feel at fault for this.

"I know. But still," Delaney pauses, "it could'e been delayed."

I sigh and she sits up straight, looking at the trees surrounding us. It's a cloudy day, but it's a bright gray colour in the sky. Delaney hops off of the branch and lands in a crouching stance and sticks her hand up to help me down. I take it and hop down next to her, and then the both of us hold hands as we walk back home.

"I wish we could turn back time." Delaney says.

"I wish I could go somewhere and escape." I tell her.

"How was talking with Liam last night?"

"It was great. He just let me ramble on and on until I eventually passed out." I respond.

Delaney laughs as we walk into the house. The atmosphere is quite different from before. It was sad and quiet and I didn't like that. I went back to my room and opened my laptop and began writing about my main character and her dream world, and Delaney sat on the huge bean bag in the corner of my room, talking on with phone with Toby.

Dad had come home during his lunch break. Delaney and I rushed down the stairs like we did when we were kids and looked at him. Both of us resembled him more than our Mum. He had dark hair and brighter eyes, and a long yet handsome face.

"Girls... I wasn't expecting both of you to be here." He says.

"I didn't want to go to school."

"I didn't want Diana home alone." Delaney lies.

Dad smiles fondly and looks at the both of us. "Get dressed. The three of us should go to lunch."

Delaney and I ran back up to our rooms and got dressed. I wore a pink dress and brown sandals and Delaney wore a black skirt with a white top and black sandals. We descended down the stairs where our father was waiting for us and he kissed both of our heads.

I had hoped that even though my parents were getting a divorce, that they would still remain civil for our little siblings sake. We got in Dad's brand new Range Rover; Delaney and I both sitting in the back. Dad drove us to a French restaurant on the outside of town and we walked in, Delaney and I arm in arm with our father behind us. The hostess sat us down in a booth near the patio.

"Girls... I want to apologise to the both of you. I know your mum and I putting this pressure on you may be hard." Dad begins. "I want you to know that you two girls mean the world to me, and even though your mother and I aren't in love with one another, I will always love you two."

Delaney and I are holding hands underneath the table and looking at dad with a blank face.

"I love you too, Daddy." I say as I squeeze Delaney's hand.

She looks down, her hair falling in front of her face. I can tell she's biting her lip and trying not to cry. It broke my heart to see my sister like this and I hated it.

"Yeah, I love you too." Delaney whispers.

Our hands separate and she wipes her eyes, then looks up at our dad. Their eyes meet and Delaney smiles a weak smile before leaning back against the seat. Dad informs us about how at the firm, his best friend, James Dockery, was now expecting a baby with his wife as well. Delaney and I knew James, Delaney and I had a crush on him in primary school.

"Diana, tell dad about that story you have to write for English otherwise you won't graduate." Delaney pegs.

I roll my eyes as the waiter brings out our waters. I take a sip and clear my throat and try to find where to begin.

"You know what, Ana? I remember when you wrote your first book. You were five, and you wrote about Simba and Nala from The Lion King never got married and Scar kept ruling the kingdom." Dad remarks with a smile.

"Diana Rose Markham, the original fan fiction writer." Delaney says with a smug smile.

I shake my head and laugh a bit. "No way, really?" I ask and Dad nods his head.

"You were so proud of it, which made me proud of it as well."

I feel myself blush a bit. I didn't remember writing a story like that, but I did remember loving The Lion King as a child. It was my favourite movie and made me fall in love with animals.

"Diana? Are you there?" Dad asks.

I pull out of my trance and shake my head a bit before looking at him.

"Sorry, just thinking. What were you saying?" I ask, taking a sip of my water.

"What is your story going to be about?" Dad asks.

I turn to Delaney and she is on her phone, texting Toby and not paying attention. I debate on whether or not to tell my Dad my plan for my story. It's not that I didn't trust my family, but rather that I was super excited about it and didn't want to get myself so hyped and then let myself down. I had done that in the past, and it never turned out well.

"I can't say. It's a surprise." I say with a smile and Dad nods his head approvingly.

"That's my girl."