The Day After

CHAPTER FOUR- THE UNRAVELING

As I look out my curtain I can see Daniels's car outside, he has to sit out there all night. Well, he swaps with someone half way through but he already looks tired so I decide to make two coffees and sit by him for company. I walk down the stairs and jump in the passenger seat. "Here, how are you supposed to protect me if you're not even conscious" I joke and he laughs. I could tell he was bored out of his mind but it was his job to protect me and I started to feel bad about making him have to sit there and watch me as I do nothing but there wasn't anything I could do to help that until my father gets put back into jail.

"Thankyou! Believe it or not protecting you isn't as interesting as you would've thought" He says and I laugh. I'm glad it's not interesting because if it were it would mean that not only I, but Daniel was in trouble.

"yeah well I'm here to keep you entertained" I say as I reach into the bag I brought down and pulled out some doughnuts and chinese food.

"Wow you came prepared" he said smirking, "what can I say, I like Chinese" I laugh and he joins me.

"What's going to happen next in my father's case?" I ask him seriously, not sure if I really wanted the answer to the question or not or if I even cared, what am I thinking, of course I care, I'm going to be freaking out for the next few weeks because of him.
"well, we will be going to court in three weeks to reassess his case but even though he's not in our custody at the moment he won't be allowed anywhere near you or your family, he also has conditions to uphold while he's out on bail so you are safe, you shouldn't worry" he says I know he was trying to be reassuring but he sounds uncertain.

"How old are you?" I asked him curiously.

"I'm 20, why?" he responds,
"just wondering, little young to be an officer aren't you?" I ask surprised.

"I got pulled out of high school when I was 18 and was offered an internship, It was a big opportunity, I couldn't pass it up and I became a police officer early, they said I had great potential." He said with such sarcasm that I just had to ask.

"Did you always want to be a police officer?".

"Yeah I did but I never thought it'd be like this!" he replied.

"Like what?" I asked

"I'd always thought that because I got to start out early and was hand picked that I'd be respected but I'm not." He said sourly.

"They're just jealous" I said "not many people get chosen straight out of high school to be an officer of the law!" I said justifyingly.

"Yeah I guess so" He says but I can tell he's not convinced.
We sit there for a while and I end up dozing off. I wake up to someone picking me up, it takes me a while to realise where I am but I'm too tired to walk so I let him take me upstairs, I know I must be heavy but if I'm hurting him he doesn't show it, he opens my front door and carries me to my coach and gets up to leave.

"Wait" I say as I grab his hand to make him face me,

"Don't worry my partner's going to be right outside, your safe." he says reassuringly.

"thankyou" I say quietly as I drift off into a deep sleep.

I wake up the next day feeling fuzzy, I check my phone to see if any messages have come in and I see one from Daniel which says 'Thank you for last night, and for making my boring job more interesting, have fun with your lectures today, Daniel.' I smile at his text and proceed to get ready for my second day at Uni. It's only the second day and I'm already dreading it, I have two classes with Professor Langston today about astrophysics and one in English Literature with Professor Montgomery. I get ready and head to Uni. After my second Lecture in Astrophysics I get a text from the police telling me to meet them at the station immediately. I wonder if it's about my dad, I still have one more lecture today but that's going to have to wait. I go to the police station and walk in only to find Daniel and his partner detective King standing by the entrance, obviously waiting for me.

"Melinda, i'm so glad you could make the time to come down, I know how busy you are at Uni at the moment" says Daniel. He's being very professional but I guess that's just because we're at the base of his career.

"It's fine I could tell it was important so shall we get started?" I ask them politely.

"Of course miss Whitmore this way please" says detective King as he and Daniel lead me towards the interview room.

"Miss Whitmore I take it you're aware that you're father was let out of our custody a few days ago?" asks detective King as he glares at Daniel who looks down embarrassed.

"Yes I am aware" I reply slightly confused.

"Yes, well earlier this morning your father's body was found outside the train station, he died around 12:30am this morning, i'm so sorry"

I didn't know what I was suppose to be feeling, angry that he didn't pay for what he did or sad that the person who made it possible for me to be standing here isn't. I was numb, unable to feel anything, just like that night, the night i've tried so hard to forget keeps flooding back into my mind no matter how hard I try to keep it out.

"Thank you for telling me." Is all I say as I stand up and walk out of the interview room not noticing or hearing anything that's going on around me. I get to my car and pull out my keys to unlock it only to see that my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't press the button. Daniel comes walking up to me grabbing my two hands together and pulling me towards him and embracing me in a hug. We stay like this for what felt like hours before he says,

"Here, let me."

As he takes the car keys out of my hands I stand there frozen, "you're in no state to drive." I let him guide me into my seat only because I'm not sure I would be able to do it by myself. I was expecting him to drop me off at my apartment but he doesn't he starts driving out of town and towards a swimming spot. It was a lake with a waterfall in a private, secluded spot.

"Where are we?" I asked

"this was one of my favourite spots to come to when I was a kid, it helped me get away from all the dramas of my life and just refocus my head, you need to do the same thing so go get a swimsuit from over there and come for a swim with me" he said and I did
I got into a red bikini, untied my hair so it came across my shoulders and jumped in the nice cool water. He was right this is helping me to forget all the complications that is my life and just enjoy the moment. Suddenly nothing feels as bad as it once was and I could just focus on me and my life.