Chapter 27 – A Dark Past Pt two

Harmoni

“Are you still in contact with her?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me after he mentioned his sister.

“No,” he sighed, running his free hand through his hair. The sadness he was feeling was so strong I could feel it radiating from him and rubbing off on me. “Stella fell pregnant during her second year of college. Her father asked her to abort to not throw away everything she had worked for; she was very bright and had received a full ride to Harvard.

He had raised her alone and understood the struggle of being a young parent, especially since he didn't trust her boyfriend to stick around and help her through the hard times. Although it wasn't his decision to make, he insisted, not wanting his daughter to go through the same pains he had.”

He paused for a second before continuing his story. I could feel my heart beating as my thoughts went to Stella. She must have felt so lost and scared, I couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it was to go through what she went through while fighting against her family at the same time.

“He pushed her too far, and she ended up disappearing with the father of her child. I wasn't there when it happened, but we both looked for her for years. It's like she had dropped from the face of the earth. She was the closest thing I ever had to a sibling and in a blink of an eye she was gone,” his eyes glazed over as he spoke about his long-lost sister.

My throat tightened at the pain emanating from him, wishing I could alleviate it somehow.

“I'm sorry this happened to you,” I said sincerely. He had obviously been close to his sister. I could relate to this feeling of powerlessness and abandonment; I had felt the same way when my mother left me. I knew from experience that there was hardly anything anyone could say to make it better.

“Do you think you'll find her one day?” I wanted to hold on to the hope he would one day be reunited with her.

“Truthfully, I don't think she will be found until she wants to be,” he admitted, blinking away the tears that had threatened to fall. It was rare to see him this emotional, which made it even harder to bear. I squeezed his hand, hoping to bring him some comfort.

“So when you said you were visiting your family, you meant your teacher, right?” I asked, to confirm my previous suspicions.

“Yeah, his name is Tim, by the way. I never saw my father again after I left. I'm not even sure he noticed I was gone, looking at the rate at which he finished a bottle of hard alcohol,” he added, chuckling sourly. “Tim has been more of a father to me than that piece of shit ever was. I try to visit him as much as I can, especially since he's by himself now,” he explained.

I could tell that although he hadn't seen his father for many years now, he was still affected by him greatly. The thought of his biological father alone had made his fist curl, while the anger in his voice was evident in each word.

“You mentioned you weren't here, what did you mean?” Thinking about his sister again, his voice softened and his hand flattened out once more.

“After high school, I had different plans than college. The day I graduated, I enlisted.” Now that explained why he already had a lot of experience. Knowing his birthday was in October, he was probably still seventeen when he went into the army.

“I did two tours, each of one year, and quickly climbed the chain of command. By the time I was twenty-one, I had already been highly decorated and had seen my fair share of death and misery. I decided to leave the army and start building a life for myself. The transition was harder than I had initially anticipated. I had never been on my own elsewhere than a war zone, but even then, I had been surrounded by my team.”

“One of my former brothers in arms recommended me to the SWAT academy instructors. This is how I ended up there. I accepted to join SWAT because I wanted to make a difference, I hoped I could help people in need, and prevent horrible events from happening.”

“And did you?” I asked, curious to see if he felt like he accomplished what he had in mind.

William pondered my question for a few seconds before nodding.

“Yeah, I think I did.” For the first time since we had started talking, he gazed at me straight in the eyes and offered me a small smile.

“For what it’s worth, I think you change people’s lives every day for the better. You saved a few kids from their kidnappers, you help the students in my school. Not to mention how you have affected my life,” I admitted as my heart pounded in my chest at the truth behind my words. The corner of my mouth curled up as his smile widened, a shiver ran through me at the intensity of his piercing silver-blue eyes.

After that, we fell into a comfortable silence, giving me some time to process everything he had just told me. I packed my bag while he drank some water.

“Want to go for a walk?” I finally asked, hoping to get his mind off the heavy topics we had just discussed. He smiled at me before nodding, using our intertwined hands, I guided him through the house and out the front door.

***

“Oh my god, you’re terrible at this!” I screamed as both Emily and I bent over laughing ourselves to tears.

I had asked both Emily and Jessie to go ice skating at our local ice rink. It was a tradition for Emily and me to come here at least once a year and make fun of those who weren’t able to place one skate in front of the other without falling flat on their asses.

This year we didn’t have to look far. Jessie was a disaster on the ice. I lost count of the number of times he had fallen, nearly taking us down with him on multiple occasions. It felt great to be laughing to tears again, it felt like ages since it had last happened.

“We are never doing this anymore!” he yelled back agitated by his lack of coordination, I could swear that if you looked close enough you would be able to see the smoke coming out of his ear. He was furious. Who knew, the star football player couldn’t skate?

“Why? This is hilarious! Best year ever,” Emily said still laughing as she held her hand up for a high five which I happily gave. Jessie had been very entertaining, to say the least.

“Help me up,” he said lifting his hands towards Emily, who was closest to him. She gracefully slid towards him and struggled to bring him back to his feet.

“Look grab my hands, I’ll guide you. We’ll go around a few times and then you’ll have it all figured out I promise,” Emily told him genuinely, as she looked straight at him with her million-dollar smile. I knew her well enough to know when she was hiding another laughing streak. I held myself back as well, to avoid triggering her. Otherwise, I could nearly guarantee we would lose our main entertainer of the night.

“Fine,” he agreed reluctantly, as he grabbed onto her hand harder. She started backward, pulling him with her.

“You coming?” she asked as she noticed my lack of movement.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll wait here,” I knew Emily was falling for Jessie, it was only fair I gave them some time to spend alone. Understanding my intentions, she gave me a shy smile, to which I discreetly winked back.

Both of them made their way into the flow of people skating in a circular motion around the ice rink.

Looking up at the two of them, I found myself smiling, they reminded me of two days ago when William and I had gone on a walk.

We had ended up in a sledding field. Benjamin and Logan weren’t thrilled as it was hard to protect me if I was going down a hill at a hundred miles an hour. Okay, well maybe it wasn’t that fast but it sure felt that way. It was exhilarating.

William and I had shared a sled. I could feel the warmth of his body as I leaned back into him, while the mixture of his cologne and aftershave invaded my other sense. My heart palpitated most pleasantly through the afternoon.

It took us a while to get the hang of it but eventually went down the entire way without crashing and falling into the snow. The entire afternoon had been spent in laughter. It had simply been perfect, I wish we could do this more often. Yet, I knew that this was an exception since it was one of the rare times William wasn’t working.

“What are you thinking about?” Emily asked as her eyebrows curved curiously, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“College,” I lied.

“Right, I didn’t know college had you smiling like an idiot,” she chuckled, seeing through my lie. I mean, what do you expect from my best friend? I shoved her playfully.

“Speaking of, have you decided if you want to join your father’s company?” Jessie asked.

The corner of my lips curved upwards at his question.

“Yeah, I decided to apply for a business school and join the family business. It took me a while, but I thought about everything I like and took a few personality tests to see what I would be good at and enjoy, and everything points to this,” I explained.

I had discovered this only a few nights ago and still hadn’t told my father. Yet, the relief of finally knowing what I would be doing in my life lifted the heavy rocks that had been weighing on my heart. It was refreshing to know that at least one thing was certain in my life.

“Maybe we could go to the same school!” Emily exclaimed. Emily had always known she wanted to study business, more precisely marketing and sales.

She had always been great at persuading people and creating attractive graphic designs.

I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, people sought her out directly for her skills.

“I know! I’m super excited!” I answered, equally thrilled by the idea.

Between Emily, Jessie, and William, perhaps my future was looking brighter than my past.