Chasing Forever

4. Sleeping Over

   I walked into my basement, hoping to keep Ever entertained playing pool or something while I quietly made her some food in the kitchen. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw my dad and Danny down there. 

      "Oh...um...I didn't know you two were down here. Or well...still awake." 

      Right on cue, Ever came in after me, giggling like crazy. 

     "You promised me food, Chase." She fake pouted for a second before erupting in laughter again, and I gave my dad an awkward smile. I never brought a girl home before, let alone a drunk girl. 

     I had no idea what could be going through his mind right now. He was probably thinking I was going to start acting like my older brother, and that couldn't be further from the truth. 

     "Hey, sunshine, why don't you wait outside in the hallway for me?" I gave her a smile, but she was looking around the room and didn't notice. 

      I was surprised when she raised her eyebrows at something, and I followed her gaze to see what she was looking at. 

     "Hey dad, fancy seeing you here. Did Chase call you? I thought the plan was to sober me up before he dropped me off to you. Oh well, I'm not embarrassed that I had fun tonight." 

     I looked between the two of them, and wanted to smack myself. They looked so similar, of course they were related. I knew Danny had a daughter he never got to see, I don't know how I didn't put that together. 

     "Well, this has been an interesting turn of events..."

     "Ever, you're drunk?" Danny looked so uncomfortable, I sort of pitied him. It couldn't be easy raising a kid that you knew nothing about. He had gone with my dad to pick my brother up from parties more times than I could count, though, so it's not like he was inexperienced with teenage drunkenness. 

     My dad was muttering something about being surprised that the friend I went to see was a girl, and I rolled my eyes. 

     "Bobby called me, dad. I just...ran into Ever there. I wanted to help her out. There was a guy who looked like he was ready to pounce on her, and she's obviously not in the state to make decisions about things like that right now..."

     Ever came over in front of me, and gave me a couple playful kisses on my lips and cheeks, and I blushed. I couldn't believe she was doing that in front of our dads. 

     "Come feed me, Chase." Of course, the food.

     "Give me a minute, sunshine." I caught the death stare that Danny was giving me, and I took a step backwards away from her. 

     "Ever, I think we should go home." He had his arms crossed in front of his chest, and he looked so angry I thought he might explode.

     "I'm going to stay here tonight." She turned and put her hand in front of her mouth like she was whispering something, but she stayed just as loud. "Chase here is pretty handsome, and this handsome guy is going to cook for me."

     "Ever, you're sixteen! You can't sleep at a boy's house!"

     She turned back to me, and gave me another playful light kiss, before turning back to her dad with a shrug. 

     "I don't remember mentioning sleep."

     "Wait for me in the kitchen, beautiful." She gave me a nod, and turned and walked a little unsteadily out of the room. Part of me was worried she might not make it up the stairs on her own, but with the railing she would probably be fine.