Never Make A Promise

Never Make A Promise 45

Okay, so I lied. There's going to be one more part after this, it's not going to be that long but it's going to be another part. I just didn't have time to finish the whole story today in one part, so I just decided to make a whole new part tomorrow. OH! AND there's going to be an epilogue part after the part that's coming out tomorrow and stuff, so yeah. Enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading and sticking around this long. Oh and for being patient with me! Peace!

<3 Nikky~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inside the box was the most ADORABLE puppy I've ever seen! He was brown and tiny with these cute little dark brown floppy ears and a dark brown spot over his left eye. He was just ADORABLE!

"Damon!" I exclaimed, picking the little guy up. "He's SO cute! I love him! When did you get him?"

"Just yesterday after I left," he answered. "Jordan, Seth, and Larry all helped. Aliyah didn't come because she was here with you."

"And because she can't keep a secret for squat," Seth added. She nodded before looking at him with her mouth open in surprise.

"Excuse me," she said. "It just so happens that I CAN keep a secret."

"Uh huh," Jordan nodded. "Sure you can."

"I can too! I haven't told Hayley that her dad is coming today!" she said. I gasped and then she realized what she had just said. "Uh oh." My jaw dropped a little and my eyes had widened. I looked at Joyce, who was looking at Aliyah with a 'I so want to attack you right now' look.

"Joyce," I said. "Is that true?" She looked at me with a guilty expression, but didn't answer. Which told me that it WAS true. "Oh god," I said, feeling faint.

"Now hang on, Hayley," Jordan said, standing up.

"He's coming here?" I gulped. "As in...today? When? From where? Why? How? What? I- with who? I-I when?" I couldn't form a complete sentence, only words. I couldn't believe that Joyce had actually called my father and invited him here. Did he suggest he come over or did Joyce? Was he actually coming? When was he coming? Why was he coming? Was he coming WITH someone? Oh, sure. I can THINK of these questions, but I couldn't actually ASK them. I slowly lowered myself to the chair right next to me, holding on to my new puppy.

"Hayley," Damon said, getting on to his knees by my side.

"You knew," I said.

"We all did," he said. I closed my mouth and nodded, and put my head back.

"I see," I said softly.

"Hayley, I-"

"Let's say that Aliyah didn't just say anything," I said. "How would've you expected me to react when he got here?"

"I thought you would be a bit surprised," Joyce admitted. "But I thought you would be happy to see him all the same."

"Happy to see him-" I said breathlessly. "I don't think I would have been all 'oh hey, pops! Nice to see ya again! Oh I've gotten taller, have I? Yeah, that's kind of what happens after TWELVE YEARS'. Twelve years! I haven't seen the man in twelve years!"

"Hayley, calm down-"

"And the best part!" I exclaimed, standing up to walk around again. I couldn't walk around in here, I needed more space. I walked through the living room to the kitchen doors and walked through the kitchen as I talked. "The best part is that I've spent most of those twelve years, well almost thirteen years, disliking him! Resenting him! Loathing him, even! I don't think that I-" I pointed to myself as I passed through the living room again. "Would have exactly brought out the welcome wagon once he got here. I would probably be more like 'oh.....hey....yeah, nice to see you again. I guess. It's really been a while. To be honest, I don't remember you all that well'. That's what I would have said! That would have been me there! Come to think of it, I'm probably going to say that anyway, because there is nothing else TO say!"

"Hayley," Damon said. "Remember what you told me?"

"I told you a lot of things!" I shouted from the kitchen.

"I meant about not hating him. About actually wanting to see him again."

"I don't believe I said that," I told him as I walked through the living room and back to the kitchen.

"Well, you didn't say those words exactly, but something similar," he said. "And would you stop walking around the house like a mad woman? You make me think of someone who's thinking of who to kill next."

"I'm sorry, I'm nervous," I said, slowing my pace down. I looked at the fuzzy puppy in my hands who was trembling. I kissed the top of his head and realized that I didn't have a name for him. Hmm....

"You know, he should be getting here soon," Joyce said.

"You aren't picking him up?"

"No, I thought going to the airport would ruin the surprise. Turns out it was someONE not someTHING who ruined the surprise."

"Hey, she gave me a fair warning," I said in Aliyah's defense. "Now, I can think of what I'm going to say to my father."

"Easier said than done," Damon warned me.

"You hush!" I said. "I'm not too happy that you knew about this and didn't tell me."

"So you're mad at me too?" Jordan asked.

"I'm not mad, no one said I was mad at anyone. I just said that I wasn't too happy about it."

"Yeah, cause that's much better," Seth scoffed.

"You can hush too!" I exclaimed.

"You do kind of seem mad about it," Aliyah observed.

"Gah! Why is everyone ganging up on me? I'm not mad!"

"You sound a little mad," Becca told me. I bit my lip so I wouldn't scream at them and say something I would regret later. What I really wanted to do was run upstairs and hide under the covers of my bed with my new puppy and just stay there until I was sure my dad wasn't coming, but I knew that was the most childish thing I could do.

"Hayley, didn't you say that you were going to call him yourself?" Joyce asked. I slapped my free hand to my forehead.

"I didn't mean that I was going to call him THIS month! I meant maybe in like....I don't know, three months? After I graduate high school? After I graduate from college? When I get engaged? When I have my first kid?" I blurted it all out without thinking about how awkward it was to say all the things I wanted in life, including kids, to everyone. Damon looked a little pale from my outburst and everyone else just kind of looked around, as if they were trying to pretend that they didn't hear any of what I had just said.

"Awkward," Jordan sang in the silence.

"Just a bit," Seth said through a strained voice, like he was trying to keep himself from laughing his butt off.

"Um...." Joyce started. "Well...the point is, he's going to be here soon."

"Great," I sighed. I sat back down on the chair I was sitting in earlier and gently stroked my puppy's head.

"What are you going to name him?" Aliyah asked.

"Oh, I don't know," I said. "Maybe Spot. Or Lucky."

"Name him Lucky, he looks like a Lucky," Becca said. I smiled.

"Lucky it is, then," I said. Joyce stood up and came to my side.

"You do know that you were going to have to talk to him sooner or later?"

"Yeah, I know," I admitted.

"Good," she said. "Please just talk to him and be honest with him. Don't be a stubborn brat."

"Am I like that most of the time?"

"No, I just don't want you to START acting like that."

"Wonderful," I said to myself. "I won't. Don't worry."

"Okay," she said. I could tell she wasn't fully convinced that I was going to be nice to him. I probably was, to be honest. The door bell rang and I had the urge to run upstairs again. Damon, like the mind reader he was, grabbed my free hand.

"Stay," he said. My leg started bouncing up and down.

"I'll get it," Joyce said. She went to the front hall to answer the door.

"Hayley," Michelle called from the couch. I forgot that she was here. Now I felt bad. I looked at her, but didn't say anything. "It's going to be okay. He's your father and no matter what you felt in the past, it's all going to change once you see him again. Trust me, I know," she said. I looked at Damon and he nodded. I knew that he felt some harsh feelings toward his father when he didn't pay a speck of attention to him or Larry, but I could tell that that was all changed now. No one was coming in and so, naturally, I thought that something bad was happening. Something bad as in someone else instead of my father was there and hurt Joyce. I went into the front hall, taking Lucky and Damon with me, to see what was taking so long. As it turns out, no one bad was there. Instead, it really was my father. He was talking to Joyce, neither of them noticing Damon and me were standing behind Joyce.

"Hayley," Damon said. I didn't look or answer him. I could only stare at my father. He was exactly as I remember him, only older with the same brown hair, the same height, the same face, and the same eyes. The only difference was that his brown hair now had a little gray growing out of it and his eyes had lost some light to them. As if feeling my stare on him, he looked up right at me.

"Hayley," he said, looking at me like I was a precious long lost object.

"Daddy," I whispered.