Chapter II: Sunrise

I couldn't wait to get into my father's car and listen to his music and talk to him. It seemed like my father, Alex, was the only real person I could talk to without being judged and making fun of someone. He was pretty outgoing and casual, like me. Mother always claimed that I act just like him, whereas he claims I act just like her. Maybe they both have the same personality, and I act like both of them? I couldn't really see my mother acting like him, it just wasn't possible.

"So, did your mother feed you before you guys left?" he asked me as he pulled the Volkswagen out of the parking lot, and started to drive out into the street, passing several buildings and fast food restaurants.

"Not really. I had a bagel and some milk," I answered him cheerfully.

"That's no breakfast. I'll show you a breakfast. I'm famished, I got up like at six this morning to come and get you, and I haven't had anything to eat. I was actually thinking about taking you somewhere to eat. How about your favorite restaurant?" he asked me. I beamed at him, knowing only one place he was thinking.

"Denny's?" excitement was flowing through me, and that plain bagel I ate earlier just seemed to evaporate inside me, leaving a large, gnawing hole in the pit of my stomach.

"You got it, kiddo," Alex leaned over and tussled my black hair playfully. "Kiddo" was always my nickname from him. He wasn't one of those parents that gave their kids embarrassing and humiliating nicknames. He always stuck to the casual, comfortable "kiddo" which was enough for me. I didn't mind, and I made it show that I actually enjoyed him calling me that.

Alex swerved the car onto the left lane, and turned quickly once we drove over the bridge on Winchester Road, just over the freeway ramp leading up into L.A. and heading down into San Diego. He pulled the car into the parking lot of one of my favorite diners, and then parked it just close to the entrance. It had been a long time since I had been in Denny's, and it was usually our tradition every summer that on the morning Alex picked me up, we would find the nearest Denny's diner to have breakfast at. We ended up actually spending longer than we usually plan at Denny's, having breakfast there, and even lunch. It wasn't wrong, but I have such a great time with Alex I literally loss track of time.

I hopped out of the passenger side of the Volkswagen, and eagerly looped my arm around my father's as we walked inside. I was very affectionate towards him, and I wasn't afraid to show it. Not in an inappropriate way—but enough to clarify that I was his daughter. The moment we stepped inside, the seating waitress beamed at us with a warm, welcoming smile, and asked if we wanted to sit in a booth or table. I usually didn't care where we sit, so we ended up sitting in a booth near a window overlooking the freeway in the front of the restaurant. I sat across from Alex, and the waitress handed me a menu, giving me a smile that made me just feel calm and welcomed around her.

"Can I get you some drinks?" she offered, and Alex immediately stared down at the back of the menu—even though he usually orders the same thing each time we came here. I decided to order mine first.

"I'll have a Coke, please," I ordered, and then Alex looked up.

"I'll have a coffee."

The waitress simply beamed appreciatively, and then walked away, her steps having a somewhat kick to them. Then I turned to the menu, and tried to decide what I wanted. I've been to Denny's so many times in my life I probably knew the menu by heart and had tried everything on it, almost. Today, though, I was in the mood for something casual and ordinary. I looked up over the menu and at Alex, who was still deciding. It took him a few minutes, but by the time the waitress came back with our drinks, he was finally done. He took his coffee eagerly, and flashed at the younger woman a flirtatious smile—she giggled a little when she received it—before she took our orders.

"Can I have the veggie-cheese omelet?" I asked of the waitress, who simply nodded as she jotted down my order, and then turned to my father.

"And you, sir?" she asked.

"I'll have the country-fried steak and eggs," Alex ordered, and then handed her his menu just as she finished scribbling it down. Then she took mine, and left us to talk. I watched in a rather uncomfortable silence as him sweetened up his coffee, but I had a smile on my face the whole time, which was something that hardly seemed to happen a lot when I was in L.A.

"So, how was your summer thus far?" Alex asked me, interrupting that somewhat distracting silence between us. I looked up, somewhat surprised that my idiotic self had forgotten that I had been on summer vacation for a while. Well, duh, why do you think you didn't go to school those two and a half months?

"Um…it's been alright. Just the same old, average summer," I answered him, trying not to go into too much detail of what had happened in the past two and a half months. Only two weeks--two more weeks--and I'll be starting my junior year in high school.

"Well, I got you enrolled in this high school in East Lake. It's supposed to be one of the best out here in San Diego, and already your old high school had transferred your transcripts to it," Alex explained.

"That's great, Dad," I smiled at him, giving off a feigned expression of excitement and pleasure out of this information.

Truth was I could really care less about school. Mother always wanted me to go to college, get the best education possible and the best grades ever, whereas Alex just wanted me to try my best and succeed the best I can. There were several things wrong with starting a new school. One was the different classes—I had high honor classes back at my regular school. I was already taking calculus, and even that seemed somewhat easy for me. Here, I wasn't sure if I would be able to do calculus. Then I'd be taking the same old boring classes I had already taken, and that would be a major drag. Then there was the case of making new friends. Every kid has trouble making new friends when they go into a new school, but me and my "circle"—as Mother so forwardly put it—have known each other since we were practically in elementary school. We were all close friends, and knew practically everything about each other. It just wasn't going to be the same going to a new school and not being able to recognize a single face there. There would be no one there to grab my arm and drag me to behind the gym where all of them would get a smoke in or start to drink alcohol from disguised cans. There would be no one who would back me up in a fight with a popular or bitchy girl who claimed herself to be "all that." I was used to putting those kinds of girls in their places, along with my good friend Erica. That wasn't going to happen this year, and chances were, I wouldn't even be able to get a good smoke in me. Eh…I need to lay off that stuff anyways. I'm going to get cancer if I keep doing it, I thought to myself.

"You'll like how the neighborhood is now. Remember? You used to go on walks with me around the blocks and get to know some of the neighbors when you were younger. I think you'll remember some of them. There have been a few new people who moved into the neighborhood, though. Maybe you could get to know them while you're home," Alex's voice just seemed to wake me up in the same manner and effect as shaking me from a deep sleep would. I blinked, and looked at him with a submissive smile.

"Probably," I quickly answered. Although I was happy to be with my father, I wasn't in very much of a talkative mood. Chances were it was because I was pretty tired and hungry. Once I had food in me, I might be better.

The waitress came with two plates of food and laid them on the table, asking if we needed anything else before she walked off from us, but we insisted that we didn't. I looked at my food, and for a moment felt myself grow a little uneasy. Just staring at something that was a delicacy and delicious made me feel queasy. Was this the result of me deciding to move out here and live with Alex?

"Go ahead and eat. You look starved," he said, and I obeyed, poking at the omelet with my fork before shoveling a small piece into my mouth. The warmth just seemed to fill my throat, and surge through my entire body, yet only brushing against my heart. I just didn't feel anything in that area anymore. Not since my boyfriend broke up with me.

We ate in silence—which was an unusual thing, since we were pretty talkative while eating breakfast at Denny's—for a few moments before Alex finally spoke up and asked me the very question I had been dreading him of asking since I called him three months ago, when I had insisted on coming down to San Diego to live with him.

"So, why did you want to come live with me?" a large, transparent lump formed in my throat. This was something I really didn't want to explain to anyone at the moment.

"I just…I needed a break from the craziness and insanity of L.A.," I told him. I was half-lying. I just didn't feel like explaining the situation to him--the real, major reason why I wanted to get as far away from Los Angeles as possible.

"Is everything okay in L.A.?" he asked me, and that was another question I had to flat-out lie at.

"Yeah, everything's fine," I answered almost too quickly, and my tongue silently clicked against the back of my teeth in an antagonizing way. It was a habit of mine when I lied to my father. He was someone I always found it more than difficult to lie to, even though I found it so easy to lie to Mother and Jonathan, and the sad thing was was that they knew this, ("lying is your passion, the only thing you're good at!" Mother would always say).

We finished our meal in silence, and I felt a sudden urge to go and vomit in the bathroom. I wasn't nauseous, but I just felt sick all of a sudden. It was the same exact way I felt when I first watched the whole DVD set that I had of the anime series, Elfen Lied. My stomach was just twisting itself into painful knots, and reacted the same way it did to all the gore, violence, and angst that was in that depressing show.

The waitress came back to give Alex the check, and he quickly paid for it with his credit card. He seemed to be in lighter moods, and although the food had a more positive effect on me, I still was not in much of a mood to talk at the moment. Once the waitress came back with his credit card, we bid farewell to the restaurant and went back out into the parking lot. I got into the passenger seat of the car, and sat there quietly as Alex got in on the driver's side and started the Volkswagen up. Then we were off again towards the freeway and heading into San Diego. Within only a few minutes of driving, though, I seemed to have drifted off into my subconscious world—this is ironic seeing as how the music was blaring so loud it could have blown my eardrums out—and I ended up falling asleep for an hour and a half.