Chapter 5 A Little More than I Expected

Steve decided to ignore Laura's question .

" We'll use my car " he said once they were outside , the Way garage contained three cars , Laura had expected more . Maybe five or six , Steve's was a black BMW car with tinted screens.

The interior spelled Steve from the black leather chairs to the cool smell of the pinewood air freshener .

The drive was quiet all the way ,

Laura was tempted to start a conversation but decided against it , he already thought she was talkative so the she most she could was shut up her big mouth .

At Macdonald's Steve ordered a big Mac and Dr Pepper while Laura got a quarter pounder with cheese bacon and diet coke .

" For an apology " Laura took a long sip of her coke" I thought you'll be taking me somewhere fancy " .

" Don't push your luck " Steve chuckled lightly.

" I'm beginning to like this Steve , you know?" Laura said shyly averting her eyes from Steve's gaze.

" So now you like indecent people?" He asked with a tingle in his voice , his eyes seemed less cold and more alive.

" Well. . .I'm just relieved to know you're not all cold " Laura replied.

" Yeah . And I'm not all roses and sunflowers either. Don't forget. Do you like Cornell?" Steve asked.

" Let's see. . . not really. What do you do for fun here anyways?"She asked him drawing away the question from her .

" There's the country club where I go to swim and play tennis Steve said ticking off his pinkie. " And there's also the gym . During summer we usually travel anywhere my mom picks . There's also the movies and Spencer's." Steve ticked off the finger before his thumb.

" Huh. . . " Laura said . The last time her family had gone on vacation was four years ago to Italy . They couldn't even afford country clubs, that was the socio economic circle she belonged to. But her parents did try thier best , they lived in an expensive upper middle class neighborhood were the schools were prone to less violence and better teaching . Her father was convinced that was the best he could provide for his children. And here was Steve. . .

" Why did you actually bring me here?" she asked Steve coldly.

" As I said . My own very little way of apologizing plus I felt like eating burgers" Steve said dismissively , fiddling with his tooth pick.

When Laura got home , the house stood quiet which meant granny Osborne was out .

A stick on note on the fridge said

I'm out with Patty playing bridge . You food's in the ice box

love ,your grandma

Granny Osborne and bridge. . . Laura's mom always joked that one day she'll sell her children all because of bridge .

Opening the fridge Laura's meal was carefully wrapped with tin foil over a disposable plate .

Laura made a small tear . . . couscous with spinach and pork and then she put it the microwave.

Steve's sudden friendliness scared her as much as it thrilled the shit out of her . He'd been really chatty at Macdonald's and kept probing her to open up , gone was the cold Steve that made her feel stupid on her first day of school.

She couldn't deny the fact that she was attracted to him physically and he had a tingling effect on her .

Was he getting friendlier with her because he liked her aura , if she had any . Was it going to be like the movies and books where polar opposites fell in love ? Why was she even asking that question? Everyone knew that those soppy romantic stories were dumb fantasies . Laura thought and folded her arms over her breast .

Her phone rang distracting her from her thoughts .

Mom. She smiled.

" Hey mom" she said excitedly .

" Hey honey , you've suddenly forgotten about me . I've missed you so much " Laura's mom said feebly.

" Me too mum. How's dad and Rick?" Laura asked , it felt like ages since she'd seen them and she missed them awfully .

The was a pause over the line and then a faint sob.

" Laura your dad's in the hospital"

In the hospital ! Was this a joke?

" what. . . wh. . . what happened? Laura asked not believing what she heard to be true .

" I. . . there was an accident just today , he was driving home when his car got hit by , oh god Laura , I thought I was dreaming when I heard it too. He's in the ICU right now. . .Oh!" She kept rambling .

" Mum, I'll be ho-" Laura started.

" No! Don't . I'll video call you when I'm at the hospital . Stay where you are ,the doctor says he'll be okay . You don't need this sort of distraction. Promise me you'll focus and get good grades?" Eleanor Halliday asked firmly .

" I would" Laura sobbed " mum? can you tell him I love him ?" she asked faintly .

" I would honey . Remember to make us proud over here" Eleanor said.

" I would , bye mom"

" Bye honey" and the call ended.

Just when everything was falling into place something sad had to happened to her dad. She knew the situation was worse than what her mom was painting . The ICU? How was she even going to focus on her studies when her dad wasn't concious and. . .

" Shit!" She jumped off the upholstered loveseat to find a burned meal. Great . Now the smoke detector was off. How long has she sat there that the microwave was on fire ? Fuck! She'd better not burn down this house .