A hand on my back startled me awake. "Sorry, Dani didn't mean to scare you," Jess said with a warm smile.
"It is okay!" I was so happy to see her.
"Do they know anything yet?" She asked.
"I don't know, I woke up and came in here, and I guess passed out again," I mumbled, trying to rein in my emotions from the dream. I haven't had a dream of my dad in so long, he looked so real, so alive. It broke my heart.
"Okay, want me to find out for you if you are still tired?" Jess asked as she rubbed my back a little.
"That would be awesome! Thank you" I was so grateful to have a friend like her.
Jess soon left the room, and Luka came in after her. I couldn't help but stare at him as he came in.
"How are you feeling? I popped my head in earlier, and you were sleeping, so I let you rest."
"A little better now," I found myself admitting.
"Here, I got you something to drink at the cafe, your doctor said no caffeine yet. So I hope this is okay?" He asked, handing me raspberry lemonade. Besides root beer, this was my favorite.
"Thank you, this is actually my second favorite drink." I smiled at him.
"What is your favorite?" Luka asked.
"Root beer, but it has to be Old Timers root beer, the other ones are just wanna bees." I practically scolded him.
"Yes Ma'am!" he chuckled
Silence fell over us, and it wasn't the uncomfortable kind. It felt nice. Then I remembered I was wondering how old he was when I was talking to my mom.
"Hey... How old are you?" I asked rather bluntly.
"Uh.. 36 why?" I seemed to have thrown him off.
"No real reason. I just realized I didn't know much about, not even your age." I rambled on. "Oh yeah. I'm 20, almost 21."
"Yeah, Joel and Jordan told me. They invited me to your birthday party."
"Oh..." I was uncertain why they would do that.
"If you don't want me there, I won't show up. Whatever will make you happy." Luka tells me honestly.
"Oh, no! Please come. I just didn't know there was a birthday party."
"Oh, you idiot! It was a surprise party!" Jess scolded.
"What! Jordan didn't tell me that! I am so sorry." Luka looked horrified. Jess began to smirk, so I knew she was teasing.
"Nahh I'm kidding, I couldn't help myself." Jess started laughing. The look on Luka's face was priceless, and I couldn't help but break out laughing too. I haven't laughed so hard in a while; my belly hurt. Whipping the tears from my eyes. Realizing how incredibly rude I was for laughing at him. I look to see Luka's reaction. To my surprise, he didn't look mad or embarrassed. He looked happy?
"Why are you smiling like that?" I asked.
"I love your laugh." Luka admitted with no hesitation. I, on the other hand, was very embarrassed by his admission. I looked away from him. How should I respond appropriately to that?
"Alright, secret spoiler! Out! It's girl time." Jess practically shoved him out the door. I watched him go. I know it wasn't forever, but my heart ached at him leaving.
Once he was out the door, and the door was shut behind him.
"So the doctors say there is nothing new to tell. They are doing more in-depth tests, so they are just waiting to see if anything comes from that or changes. How are you holding up?" She asked, looking into my eyes.
"Okay, I guess," I answer, unsure how to process everything that happened.
"Dani… come on, it's me. How are you really doing?" She knew me better than I knew myself.
"I don't know…. I'm scared…. I don't know how to process all of this. I know my house is probably gone, and I don't know when my mom will wake up. Will she even be able to process what happened? Because we know how well she handled losing my dad. Now we have lost our family home." I began to cry as I rambled on. I don't know what made me so upset? Maybe it was just all of it. It was too much. I don't know how much more I could handle.
"I know it's a lot to handle. You know I will help in every way I can. You're welcome to stay with me as we figure the other stuff out. Just take it one day at a time, otherwise, you'll drown. But if you do. Know that you have plenty of people who will more than happily toss you a lifeline. You just need to shout."
"Thank you..." I said voice filled with emotion. I would always be so grateful for my friendship with Jess. I wish I could pay her back somehow. "I wish I could pay you back for all you have done for me..." I admitted my thoughts to her.
"You never need to pay back the ones who love you. We help you because we love you. Not because we want something in return.
After a few days in the hospital to make sure I was give the green light to leave. I still hadn't quite decided on who I wanted to stay with. Joel thinks my best choice is Luka, but they will obviously be happy if I stay with them or Jess. Phil stopped by a few times with Jordan. Jordan didn't talk to me at all. He seemed mad at me. I tried speaking to him a few times when they stopped by, but he disappeared whenever I had a chance to speak with him. I asked Phil about it, and he assured me he was not mad at me. It didn't feel that way. Luka was around a lot. He always seemed to know what I was craving for food when he'd come by. He always said something along the lines of he was craving it too or that he saw a post on social media, and it looked like something I would eat. Luka never asked me if I was going to stay with him. I appreciate that he didn't. No one pushed. Like Joel said, it came down to me, I had the final say.
Now that my discharge papers were all in, I was ready. I just had to pick up my phone and call the person I was planning to stay with to come get me. There was nothing at the house for me to get. It was all gone, the few things that were salable Phil had boxed up for me. It was a few Pictures and some important documents. Phil also told me they were looking into possible arson. It was looking like someone set that fire on purpose. Until mom woke up, we also couldn't rule out suicide, especially with how she had been acting lately. That was a tomorrow problem as the phone rang in my ear. I really hope they don't mind doing some shopping. I needed some outfits ASAP. The person finally answered the phone.
"Hi, I hope you are still okay with me staying with you, and would you mind if we go to the store so I can get some new clothes, seeing how I lost everything I owned in the fire?"