Seeing you again

Chapter 26

Dan's POV

Today is the day I "bond" with Matt, Francisca's guardian, Francisca's step father, and I guess my step father too, or ex....

I don't know how we will come out of today, but I doubt we will become besties, considering we barley spoke a word to each other on the ride here.

We are at the park now, just waking and eating hotdogs that we bought earlier.

I  have anticipated that this was going to be awkward, but I didn't know it was going to be this awkward.

We haven't spoken a word to each other, well other than when Matt asked if I wanted a hotdog. Other than that, not a word.

As much as I want the silence and the awkwardness to stop, I have no idea what we are supposed to be talking about.

We end up sitting on a park bench, still not taking, still not making eye contact, still nothing.

But I do see Matt out of the corner of my eye glance at me a few times. I'm guessing he's as much of a fan of the awkwardness as I am.

"So....how is school?" Matt finally asks.

"Good good" I nod.

A pause.

"I um...I am really glad to be doing this you know" Matt says, smiling. "I've seen only pictures of you for a long time and it's finally great to be able to get to know Francisca's brothers" he says.

I give him a small smile too. "Yeah um I'm glad to be talking to you too, Fran doesn't shut up about how great you are" I say and he laughs nervously.

"ha yeah I heard...it's a little embarrassing to be honest" he says. I shake my head.

"No no, honestly I think she's been doing that so that we'd just give you a chance and well..." i give a little shrug "here we are I guess".

Matt smiles at me and gives me a nod "here we are".

A pause again, it stays long enough for me to fear that we are going to go back to the awkward silence but Matt — thank god— speaks again.

"Welp, how about we play 20 questions?" He asks.

I raise an eyebrow "20 questions?"

"Yeah" he says "I mean we are here to get to know each other right? What better way to do that?"

I stare at him for a while.

He starts looking unsure. "I mean if you don't want to that's fine we can do something else—"

"I want to" I say, with the corner of my mouth tipped up.

He smiles at me "great".

And we play, and you know what. This turned out not to be so bad.

Francisca's POV

I'm in Ivan's room right now. We are hanging out. And by hanging out I mean he's playing video games and I'm pacing the room.

"Stop worrying so much, I'm sure it's all okay" Ivan had said.

"I'm not worried" I responded.

But I am, I so am.

What if they don't like each other? What if Matt thinks Dan is a bad influence and Dan doesn't accept Matt as part of the family.

I hear Ivan sigh and pause the game.

"Okay, I can practically hear you overthinking" Ivan says.

I look at him, he has his head titled to the side, waiting for me to say something. To confide in him. And confide I will.

"I'm just worried" I say.

He scoffs "no shit"

I glare at him and he smirks at me in return.

I take a deep breath. "I mean what if they end up not liking each other?"

Ivan rolls his eyes, "don't be ridiculous, Dan is doing this whole "bonding trip" thing for you, he's already decided that he's gonna like him".

I stare at my brother with my mouth hanging slightly open.

"You mean he is going to pretend to like Matt?" I ask, horrified.

Ivan just shrugs in response.

"But I don't want that, I want them to genuinely like each other". I say.

"Do you want them to get along or not?" Ivan asks.

"So the only way for them to get along is by pretending to get along?"

He shrugs in response again.

"Is that what you're doing?" I ask "pretending to be okay with all of this?"

"I'm not pretending to be okay with your step dad, Fran, when did you see me be friendly with him?"

I stay silent after that.

"So what? Dan has been just pretending to somewhat get along with Matt this whole time?"

"I'm not saying that" Ivan says, "I'm saying that if this bonding trip with Matt goes sideways, Dan would still pretend to get along with Matt. But this whole time he's been genuinely friendly with him for your sake."

I nod. I guess that makes sense. I just hope they become friends after this.

After a couple more hours, it's almost time for dinner.

And when Ivan and I were coming down the stairs I hear the front door open and voices that sound like Dan and Matt.

They're back!

I rush to greet them. To see them. To see how it all turned out, leaving Ivan behind. Are they friends now? Do they hate each other?

I guess I'm going to find out.

So, as I said, I rush there and as I get closer I hear....laughing?

That's good. Right?

Once they are in my line of sight, I begin sorting through all the questions that I had in my mind but end up only settling on one.

So I head over to them slowly. They are speaking with dad. They look happy enough I suppose.

Once I am close enough, they notice me.

"Hey hun, how was you day?" Matt asks.

He doesn't look sad. His smile doesn't look fake.

"Good" I mutter.

I take a deep breath.

"And...how did it go?" I ask, fiddling with my fingers.

Dan and Matt look at each other then back at me.

"I think it went pretty well" Dan says.

And that causes a big smile on my face.

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Hey guys hope you enjoyed this chapter.

It's a little short though I know, I'm sad about it too.