Chapter 10
Dan
I was asleep or at least that in between place of sleep and consciousness. I dreamed about Lia, the way she yelled at me like that. I dreamed about Phil, the way he mocked her. He was right. I didn't know her. I don't know why I was so hung up on her. I was bitter and hurt. I tried to clear my mind and started dreaming about me playing in Skyrim, except I actually was in Skyrim and I almost died from a hit from a giant. I ended up somehow (fast-travelling, I know it) back in Dawnstar at a tavern. I went up to that annoying person that's always singing and I asked him to play a song for me. What I wanted was Lia's song, but what I got strangely resembled my ringtone.
I startled awake, my phone screen blinding me. Marimba played joyfully at full blast. I didn't recognize the number and I had half a mind to hit the 'not now' button and go back to sleep, but I decided to answer it anyway.
"'ello?" I sounded so British when I was tired.
"Dan?" A shaky American voice said from the other line.
I bolted straight up, cupping my iPhone with both hands as not to disturb Phil across the way. "Lia is that you?"
"Dan. Can you please pick me up? I was mugged in an alleyway." She slurred on the other line.
Mugged? "Are you drunk?"
"A little. Dan, please pick me up. Please. I'm so sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it. Please." I heard her burst into tears.
I've never had anyone ask me to pick them up before. But it was Lia. I sighed, shaking my hair out of my face. She sounded like she really needed help.
"Where are you?"
I heard her pull away from the phone and ask someone where she was. "I'm at Waitrose on High Holborn."
"I'm on my way." I said.
"Thank you, Dan."
I hung up and threw on some jeans and sneakers and a sweater. I hailed a taxi, there were plenty at this time of night and drove to where Lia was.
She was sitting at a counter in an old-timey drugstore complete with a bar. She had her head on the bar and had an untouched seltzer water sitting next to her. Sitting behind the bar was a man that had crawled from the Jurassic era and was staring at Lia contemplatively.
Ding! Ding! Lia perked up at the sound of the doorbell and stumbled into my arms, I caught her before she hit the floor.
"I'm so sorry, Dan. I'm such an ugly person. I 'nderstand if you don't, can't forgive me." She slurred against my shoulder.
"I forgive you." I murmured. Any hard feelings about earlier, any bitterness I felt, was gone. She was lost and scared and drunk. And she smelled like the inside of a strip club. "Let's get you home."
I pulled her outside, giving a little half-salute to the prehistoric man behind the counter. He followed us out and immediately locked the door on our departure. I tried to keep her straight as I could as I pulled her into the cab. She pushed her hair out of her face and leaned against me.
We rode through the streets of London in silence and I thought she had passed out when she mumbled. "My mother."
"What?"
"You were asking about that song I sang." She drawled. "It's about my mother. I went blind when I was twelve from a rare case of meningitis. My dad left us and she went crazy and depressed. She stopped talking to me for a long time and then one night she woke me up and shook me and yelled at me and told me to see. When I told her I couldn't, she ate a gun." She put two fingers in her mouth to demonstrate. "And blew her brains out. It's all my fault because I got sick and she couldn't handle it, I couldn't fix her. That's what my song is about, my mother. I call it The Lullaby. That's why I don't have friends, Dan. Because nothing is forever in my life. Everything gets taken away from me. My dad, my mom, my sight. Everything. You'll leave me too. You'll figure out I'm not worth the time, like my dad and you'll leave. Poof. Just like that."
I bit back tears as I rubbed Lia's arm as she sighed against me. How could I let her know that I wasn't like that? That wasn't me. I didn't quit on friends. I wouldn't quit on her, of all people. We rode the rest of the way in silence.
I dragged her up to my apartment, all five stories, which was no easy to feat because 1) it was dark so it was the blind leading the blind and 2) she was drunk and her equilibrium was off. When I finally got her to my room, I put her on the bed and I pulled off the ridiculous bandage dress she was wearing in one movement and put her in one of my clean t-shirts.
I went and got two aspirins out of the cabinet, being as quiet as possible and got her to swallow both pills and drink some water. I had attended enough Uni parties to know that aspirin and water will help when she wakes up in the morning and then she lied down and went to sleep, just like that.
I watched for a little bit while she slept. She was lying on one side and had her fingers laced together prettily next to her face, her index finger hooked up on her pinkie. Her hands were so beautiful and delicate, lying like that. Knowing what they were used for, how they interpreted Lia's world around her made them that more fascinating. I reached out very gently and stroked the inside of her palm. Her fingers closed on reflex into a fist and then straightened back out.
I wasn't going anywhere. Fuck it. I was going to stay right here, so I could protect her and watch over her. She could leave whenever she wanted to, because she was free-spirited like that, but I wasn't going to leave. I would be right here when she returned. I could be her rock, if that's all she needed. Someone to cling on to when the storm got to be too much. I could do that much.
She deserved it for Chrissakes.
Phew! That one was a doozy, huh?
*Author's Note* (Cue dramatic music)
Well, hello my my sweet dolphins of destruction! I really hoped you liked those last couple of chapters. It was a mad storm while I was typing them out. I looked down at my computer and then all of a sudden I had a good four or five chapters done!
Well, time for the Thank Yous!
*ShutUpImSam*
*SincerelyAnOpportunist* (I deeply apologize for getting your name wrong the last Author's Note. I will try not to be a vortex of stupid this time around)
*beebee73*
*I'veMadeItMyOTP*
*Kaylieward*
*NightTimeSparkle* (HA! I GOT YOU IN AT THE LAST MOMENT! Wut, wut!)
Thank you all for following! And thank you random guests for creeping on my fanfic and leaving reviews! Really appreciate it! :)
*Speculations Time! Weee!*
What do you think is going to happen to Dan and Lia now?
How do you think Phil is going to take having Lia in their flat?
Where the fuck is Sam?
Do you think that creeper Francis will come back?
Do you think that Lia will get with Dan now that he knows her secrets?
Or will she push him away even more?
Here's the part where I give you random facts that may or may not be relevant to this story *YAYyyyyyyyyyyy!11* -ironic number 1 use
*Here are five random facts about Dan's favorite animal: Llamas!*
1)Llamas are members of the camelid, or camel, family. Camelids first appeared on the Central Plains of North America about 40 million years ago. About 3 million years ago, llamas' ancestors migrated to South America.
2) Llamas were first domesticated and used as pack animals 4,000 to 5,000 years ago by Indians in the Peruvian highlands.
3)Llamas weigh 280 to 450 pounds and can carry about a quarter of their body weight, so a 400-pound male llama can carry about 100 pounds on a trek of 10 to 12 miles with no problem.
4) Llamas live to be about 20 years old.
5)Llamas don't bite. They spit when they're agitated, but that's mostly at each other.
Do you have any other weird facts about llamas? Do you own a llama? Have you ever spit at someone while you're agitated? Do you have a funny story that you would like to share that involves spit or spitting? Do you think Lia will lighten up (spoiler alert: she doesn't) How do you feel about our global market trade system? Do you think that Prince William is ready to take the throne? How do you feel about red grapes? Do they make you mad? Do you have a stuffed animal you sleep with at night? Do you think Dan will ever pull up his pants? How do you think Phil would look if he all of a sudden went bald?
Let me know below! :)