Daniel hurriedly grabbed his three suitcases from the conveyor belt, one by one, before they disappeared and he would have to wait until they came around again. He set each one on the floor with a huff.
Looking around, he quickly ran a hand through his brown locks of hair, looking at the many signs around him to find the correct directions to get to the meeting point where his father would pick him up.
"Ah-ha!" He lowly exclaimed to himself, shifting his laptop bag strap to a more comfortable position on his shoulder and then grabbing the handles of his suitcases, hauling them through the airport.
On his way he saw a couple, most likely a few years older than himself, and he smiled lightly as the boyfriend quickly took his girlfriend's heavy bag with a cheeky grin before entangling his fingers with hers, giving her cheek a quick peck.
Daniel hurriedly looked away from the sight, his legs moving faster and he screwed his eyes shut to avoid looking at the lovey-dovey scene.
10 minutes later he found himself at the entrance to the airport, and he breathed in the cold air through his nose, breathing out through his mouth to help calm himself down and will away his memories.
Daniel settled himself next to a wall, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a packet of cigs and a cheap lighter. He stared at the box for a moment, an argument forming in his head before giving in and pulling a stick out and lighting it up, inhaling the smoke into his lungs.
He looked up at the grey clouds above him, the many shades of grey interesting him as the smoke exhaled from his mouth and nose disappeared into the air.
A light sound of thunder echoed from the skies and rain drops slowly descended to the floor, and a moment later the rain came crashing down, soaking those unfortunate to be stood outside.
A moment later Daniel saw a police cruiser pull up and he quickly flung the half-finished cig from his fingers, grabbed hold of his luggage and rushed towards the car as his dad hurriedly got out and opened the trunk.
"Hey son!" Charlie greeted with a smile, grabbing one of the cases and hauling it in the trunk with a slight bit of struggle evident on his face.
"Hey dad." Daniel said, already finishing putting his two cases into the trunk without any difficulty, unlike his dad.
"It's good to see you; I missed you, son." Charlie said, closing the trunk and nodding to himself when it didn't open again.
They stood still for a moment, not knowing what to say to each other in the pouring down rain. The sky thundered again and Charlie finally made a move, making his way to the driver's seat while Daniel got into the passenger seat.
Daniel looked at his soaked jacket in distaste once he was settled in the car, a small groan leaving his lips when he could feel the wet material clinging to him, causing him to shiver.
"Don't worry about it, kid, you'll get used to the weather soon enough!" Charlie laughed at him, starting the car and driving to their house.
A short drive later and a very long silence, Charlie pulled into one of the neighborhoods and parked his cruiser outside of an old looking white house. Daniel studied it, looking at the white wood and the green stairs.
"It's not much, but it's something to come home to and relax, you know?" Charlie said, a small smile on his lips as he looked out of his window. "Come on, let's get you settled in." He said as he pushed open his door.
Daniel didn't reply, instead opening the door on his side and making his way to the trunk to help pull out his suitcases.
The rain had stopped, but it left the ground covered in puddles and slippery.
"Alright, let's go inside before it rains again!" Charlie ushered them both up the stairs and into the house after unlocking the door.
Daniel looked around the living room, taking in the old décor and the small piles of instant meals and beer cans scattered around. The house had a homey feel to it.
They made their way up the stairs and Charlie led them to a room along the hallway with an open wooden door. He walked in and placed the case he was carrying down, urging Daniel inside the room.
"What do you think?" Charlie asked. "I have some money saved up, so I got you some new furniture to hopefully suit your taste. How did I do?"
Daniel looked around the newly furnished room; freshly painted white walls, black carpet, and a double bed with white sheets and pillows with a black duvet to match the carpet and balance the wall colour. There was a desk opposite the bed with some simple stationary with a few shelves and a desk chair with rolling wheels.
Next to his bed was a white wooden bed table with 3 draws. On the opposite side of the room was another white wooden set of draws to put his clothes, while the corner of the room next to his bed had a full body length mirror.
Next to his desk was his own bathroom. There was also a plasma tv sitting on a stand on the wall opposite his bed.
It was a fairly simple room, slightly more modern than the rest of the house, and his dad had gone out of his way to pay for the new stuff in his room to make him feel happier.
Daniel had a ghost of a smile on his face as he turned to his dad, giving him a quick, awkward hug. "Thanks dad, you didn't have to, but I'm glad you did. It's perfect."
"You're welcome! I'm gonna…go…order some pizza now, so you can settle in and get ready for your first day of school tomorrow. I'll call you down when it's here." Charlie rubbed the back of his neck, nodding with a slight flush to his cheeks as he left the room.
Daniel breathed in, shaking his head at the awkwardness of his dad before having a wander around his room. He ran his finger over the duvets of his bed before going into the bathroom.
It was a simple bathroom; a toilet opposite a white sink and a few feet away was the shower with a shower curtain. The tiles were white, and there was some white towels on a small hanger on the back of the bathroom door.
Daniel chuckled at the choice of colours; black and white in both the bathroom and the bedroom. He then suddenly paused his chuckling in shock. He had just chuckled for the first time since everything had happened.
"Well I'll be…" He whispered to himself, leaving the bathroom and going back into his bedroom, grabbing one of his cases and lifting it onto the bed to open.
The first case he had picked up had his clothes, and he began arranging his socks and boxers in the top draw, in the second he put his shirts and polo's, the third his jeans, khaki's and sweatpants, the fourth his jumpers and hoodies and the fifth his clothing such as his pj's and workout clothes.
Looking at the draws with his neatly folded clothing, he nodded to himself, happy, before moving onto his second case with his personal items and some more of his clothes. He grabbed his bathroom bag first and began placing everything in order, from the mouthwash in the mirror cabinet to the cup holding his tooth brush and then to the shower gel in the shower rack.
Once he was done with his personal stuff and more clothes, he finally moved onto his third suitcase; things he thought he would need to help settle in. He pulled out some photo frames with photos of himself and his family and one with him and Louise, setting them comfortable on one of the shelves.
Walking to his second shelf he carefully placed his collection of beginner motorbike figures, still in the boxes, on the shelf next to each other.
Finally, he pulled out a letter-man jacket; the letter 'D' on the left side of the jacket with 'Swan' on the back for his name in white. The sleeves were white and waterproof, but the center of the jacket was black with white stripes on the collar and waist. It was the jacket he had gotten when he first joined the football team at his old school.
Daniel pulled out the hanger and hung the jacket up on the back of his bedroom door. He sighed in relief once he was done before going over to the now empty cases and pushing them under his bed.
Standing back up he stretched, cracking his back, before he grabbed his forgotten laptop bag and made his way over to his desk and sitting in the comfy chair.
Setting his laptop onto the desk, he plugged in his charger and his phone and set them to charge while setting his writing pad and fountain pen next to his laptop.
Once he was finally done he sighed and leaned back into the chair, just relaxing.
"Hey Daniel! Pizza's here! Come down and get some before we eat it all!" Charlie shouted up to him, and Daniel sat upright in his chair.
"We?" He whispered to himself, standing and making his way down to the kitchen. He was not expecting there to be 2 extra people waiting for him.
"Daniel! This is my best friend; Billy Black and his son, Jacob. You remember him, right?" Charlie asked his son as he introduced them all to each other.
Daniel look at Billy, then looked at Jacob before shrugging his shoulders and grabbing his plate with his pizza slices. "Sorry, don't remember either of you." He said.
Charlie laughed, patting Billy's shoulder in his humour. "Well he was only 5 the last time he was here!"
"No harm, no foul. It's good to see you Daniel." Billy said, holding his hand out to shake, to which Daniel looked at before hesitantly shaking it, pulling his hand back as fast as he could.
"It sucks that you don't remember me! We used to make mud pies together all the time." Jacob exclaimed, his long black hair swaying as he gave Daniel's arm a quick jab.
"Urm yeah…sure…" Daniel nodded, biting his first slice of pizza, trying to exclude himself from this conversation as much as he could.
"Have you settled in?" Charlie asked him, swallowing down the crust of his second slice of pizza, wiping his greasy fingers on his jeans.
"Yeah." Daniel said, swallowing his pizza. "Everything's put away and set up, but I was wondering if I could go into town next weekend to look around and maybe get some stuff?" He asked.
"Of course you can! You can learn your way around the town." Charlie replied before continuing a conversation he was having with Billy.
Jacob and Daniel stood around for a minute, silently eating pizza before Jacob turned to Daniel to ask him a question.
"So I know we kinda just met, again, but how about I join you on that weekend out? I could show you around the town so you don't get lost, catch and up and stuff." He said.
Daniel stopped chewing to think about it before nodding his head. "Sure."
"You don't talk much, huh?" Jacob asked, sticking his hand into his jean pockets while facing Daniel.
Daniel stared at him, but Jacob met his eyes, almost in a challenging way. After a moment of staring and silence, Daniel shrugged. "I guess not."
"It's whatever, dude, you're the silent type of guy now, I get it." Jacob nodded his head, his upper body swaying slightly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry to hear the reason you moved back here." He said.
Daniel stopped eating his pizza, closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He was silent for a minute. "Thanks…" He whispered, trying to keep the many conflicting emotions out of his voice.
"Alright boys, the games about to start! Who's in?" Charlie shouted excitedly, grinning at everyone in the room as he grabbed a can of beer and flipped it in the air, catching it and opening it straight after.
"Wait! Don't open it-" Billy shouted, trying to reach out to get Charlie to stop, but he was too late.
"Argh!" Charlie yelled, his beer spraying all over his face for a long moment. "Crap…" He muttered to himself, using his thumb and pointy finger to remove the liquid on his eyes to open them.
For the first time in a while Daniel laughed, well and truly laughed. He laughed so hard that he clutched his stomach and doubled over for a few minutes while Charlie mumbled and grumbled.
"Few…" Daniel sighed, standing up to his full height and wiping his watery eyes. He shook his head in amusement and astonishment.
"Gee, thanks son!" Charlie said, his tone of voice sarcastic and teasing with a grin on his face.
"Yeah yeah dad, I'm gonna call it a night after I shower; school tomorrow." Daniel said, walking away with small chuckles escaping him as he made his way to his bedroom. "Night." He threw back as he headed upstairs.
Once he was back in his room he checked his phone; he had 13 missed calls and 17 messages from Connor Kelly and he glared at his screen, deleting them all and slamming his phone back down on his desk.
Daniel began stripping off his clothes while entering the bathroom, turning on the shower and throwing his clothes into the laundry hamper next to the sink.
Over the next 20 minutes he washed his hair and body, letting the warm water soothe him. After that he got out and brushed his teeth and wash his face, then got into his pj's to sleep; an old grey t-shirt with light blue and grey flannel pants.
Once his alarm was set, he got under his covers and curled up into a ball, trying to get warm as quickly as he could while he tried to fall asleep. He knew he would have the same nightmares, but as he drifted off into his own personal hell, he briefly wondered about what his life would have been like had he not agreed to see Conner Kelly that night.
A/N: Chapters for my other stories will be uploaded in the next few days.
