(A/N)

Attention!!! This is the first time I've written two chapters from the same point of view before! I don't know about any of you, but my OCD is trying to get me to change my mind! BUT IT WON'T WORK!

-KieliGirl

Chapter 8

My mom was silent for a few seconds taking it all in. then a smile broke out across her face as she threw me off of her and started running towards the stairs with me right behind her.

By the time we got downstairs Dad was already there. He stood with his back towards the staircase facing the living room with his hands on his hips studying the room. At the sound of us, he turned around, and I studied his appearance like I did every time he got back.

His messy dark brown hair had grown out a bit and stuck out in jagged spikes from his head, and his radiant green eyes, the same as mine, flashed with happiness as he saw us.

"Dad!!" I cried, catapulting myself into his arms. "I missed you! Where did you go this time? Was it nice? Did you see anything interesting? Did you meet any natives with cool stories to tell? What was your mission? What-"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Hold your horses Nikki!" He laughed and spun me around. "I get to be home for a while this time. I just have to go to the office every morning for a few hours. So I have plenty of time to tell you about Switzerland.

"The chocolate capital of the world?!" I shrieked. "No fair! Did you bring me any?"

"You betcha." He winked at me. I slipped out of his arms and stood of to the side as my dad looked up at my mom on the stairs, his eyes softening. He walked closer to the stairs so he stood at the bottom, and my mom on the first step. He smiled at her tenderly. "Kathleen." He said softly holding his arms out for her.

"Michael!" She whispered with tears in her eyes right before she fell into his arms. "I've missed you so much." She said through her tears. She leaned against him and Dad picked her up in his arms and started carrying her up the stairs bridal style.

I followed until we got to the top of the staircase and Dad carried her to their bedroom. Figuring that they would be busy for awhile, I walked back to my room, and looked at the clock. Eight o'clock, I thought, startled. I had been snacking for 2 hours, running through memories about my dad in my head. I hadn't realized.

I sat on my bed and pulled out a book called Sarah's Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay. It was about the French arresting Jewish families like the Germans did under Hitler's rule. It was very sad.

Before I knew it, the numbers on my clock read 9:45. "I should start getting ready." I murmured to myself. I doggy-eared my page in my book and set it on my nightstand, before getting up and turning on the shower. I stripped down to nothing and stared at my naked body in the mirror. But not at the usual things girls didn't like about their bodies, I was staring at the scar across my hip. Thick and jagged and angry, it ran diagonally from my belly-button around to the juncture between my pelvis and thigh bone. It had faded from red to white over the years that I'd had it, since I was six. The story behind the scar…

"Don't think about it Nikki." I scolded myself. "Today is a good day. Don't dwell on the past." I stepped into the shower and took my time, shaving my legs arm-pits…other…places, and shampooed my hair with my midnight pomegranate scent from Bath and Body Works, and matching body wash. By the time I was done, my skin was pink and glowing from scrubbing, and the scent was locked into my skin for at least a day. Suddenly I heard a buzzing. My cell phone. I wrapped a towel around myself and quickly ran across the room and snatched my phone off the bed as I bolted back towards the warmth radiating from the bathroom attached to my room.

"Hello?" I asked, letting the towel fall to the floor and cradling the phone with my shoulder. I pulled a bottle of lotion, also midnight pomegranate, and started smoothing in over my legs.

"Nikki?" It was Polan.

I smiled as I applied lotion to my arms and neck as well. "Yes? Who else would it be, this is my phone!"

"I was just calling to make sure you're getting ready. You know…making sure you didn't forget." I cocked an eyebrow. As if my brain was capable of forgetting something as important as this. "Okay, I didn't think you would forget, but I wanted to call anyway to see how things are going."

"Good, things are going good." I said enthusiastically. "I'm putting lotion on right now to make my skin all nice and soft."

"Excellent." Polan said, the approval obvious in her voice. "So, what's up?"

"My dad got home this morning. He and mom are in their room at the moment though so you can't talk to him yet."

"Are they…you know…?"

I blushed bright red at the mental image that came to my head. "No, I would've heard at least something by now. He seemed tired, I think she's watching him sleep."

For some reason, when my dad got back and went to sleep, she always watched over him, as if she was afraid he would disappear before her eyes. I asked her about it once and she said "I watch him because I missed him so much, and his face is just so boyish when he sleeps. He looks just like when we first met in high school." And then her expression gets so soft and sweet.

"Mmm. Okay then. Well I gotta go, I need to make sustenance for the little one. He's whining again. See ya'!" She hung up the phone and I put it on the counter with a smile.

After that, I got dressed in my carefully planned outfit the day before and straightened my hair like I did every morning. Then it was time for critiquing. I stood in front of the floor-length mirror and studied myself. I looked perfect. I looked at my small silver analog watch I had turned to the inside of my wrist. It was eleven!

"Nikki?" My mother's voice came from the other side of my bedroom door.

"Come in!" I called softly. My mom pulled open the door quickly and smiled at me. "Well?" I asked her, twirling like I had for Polan yesterday morning. "What do you think?"

She smiled wider. "You look beautiful sweetie. And your date's here." I gulped. He was here! Oh my god!

"He's downstairs? Don't tell me you left him alone with Dad?!" I panicked.

She laughed at me. "No, your father's asleep. He had a long drive last night. No, Damien's sitting on the couch downstairs. I've interrogated him already. He pulled up in his car early and he was going to wait till eleven exactly to come up and ring the doorbell, but I lured him in with those silly cookies you and your father like so much. He's snacking right now." She smiled a knowing smile that baffled me, but the quizzical feeling was replaced by comicalness. He likes frosted animal crackers too? Aww. A grown man who liked cookies who's not my dad. That's so cute. My mom interrupted my thoughts. "Well? Don't leave the boy waiting. Or I should say man. He is very polite and mature. Excellent find Nikki dear!" She kissed my forehead and wandered back down the hall back to her room.

I found myself blushing. Mom likes him. That was a good sign.

I took a deep breath and walked to the head of the stairs. Here we go.