Misfortune by L.Bann (christmas read aloud TXT) 📖

put on a DVD and tucked into bed. I was so tired from the night before I didn’t realise that I left the TV on.
I woke up at 6 and looked at my TV. It was on the home menu. I got and turned my TV off. I went to have a shower and got dressed. It was 7 when I decided I was going to eat. I only had a small bowl of cereal, but my dad was watching so I forced it down my throat.
The bus came and I sat with Jenna. The day flew by. Harry still tried to kidnap me but Jenna is like steel. And Ben helped with his hard shoulders. He sat next to us at lunch but I just talked to Ben about the BBQ. Jenna kept smiling at me and April and Faith just chatted between them.
When I got home I had been told that the BBQ started at 5 so I took another shower and change into my nicest jeans and a grey vest top with a blue checked button over it. I didn’t button it up though. I didn’t want to act like this was a fancy thing so I put some converses on.
My dad got home 2 hours early and he had a shower and got dressed up quiet nice in a grey buttoned shirt, jeans and his Italian loafers.
On the way there we didn’t talk much to each other.
“Dad, David has 3 children doesn’t he?” I asked.
“Yeah, Freddie is the oldest, then Ben and then his youngest is called Adam” he replied.
“Cool” I said.
We pulled in to Ben’s drive and saw that people had already arrived, including Harry.
Ben obviously recognised our car because he walked towards it. He opened the door for me.
“Hi” he smiled.
“Hi” I smiled back. ”So, Harry’s here”
“Yeah, he forced me to invite him. He was saying that it would be a good way to mingle” he said.
“Does your dad know that he’s a potential stalker?” I added.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you” he grinned. ‘With your hard shoulders’ I thought, and I smiled to myself.
Just then Harry ran over to us.
“Hi Daisy, I didn’t know that you were coming” he chuckled.
He did know I was coming. Ben and I were talking about it nonstop at lunch.
“Yeah, well my dad said I needed to get out a bit, so here I am” I said, smiling at Ben.
I didn’t know if Ben was thinking the same thing as me, but I was hoping he did.
“So, what do we have to eat?” I asked Ben.
“Well, we have hot dogs that have almost gone so I would grab one now but if you don’t want a hot dog we have burgers that are almost ready” he suggested.
“I’ll have a hot dog now” I said.
So Harry followed Ben and I to get a hotdog. I ate mine instantly. Ben gave me a look.
“I’m hungry” I insisted. Ben laughed and then so did Harry.
“Uh, your dad said that you haven’t met all of my family before” Ben said.
Just then someone called Harry’s name.
“Oh, sorry guys, I have to go for a bit” Harry moaned.
“Oh, that’s ok. Catch up with us later” I said. Harry smiled at me and then walked away.
“I thought that you didn’t like him” Ben frowned, sounding confused.
“I don’t but I can’t say ‘Oh don’t bother coming to look for us. I don’t like you’ can I?” I said.
“Ok, fair enough, I guess you’re just too nice” he said.
We went to see his dad and mum who were with my dad.
“Dad, Mum, this is Daisy” Ben said.
“Hi Daisy, this is my wife, Elaine and I’m David. I’ve heard a lot about you” David said.
“Hi Daisy” Elaine smiled.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you finally” I smiled back looking at my dad.
“I’m just going to introduce Daisy to Freddie and Adam” Ben said.
“I wouldn’t take Daisy to see Freddie. He’s with his friends” David suggested.
“Oh, ok then. Do you know where Adam is?” Ben asked.
“He’s in the living room” Elaine said. “Nice to meet you Daisy”
Ben took me to see Adam and he was watching TV with a friend.
“Hey, Adam, this is Daisy, Jason’s daughter” Ben said.
“Hi” Adam muffled.
Ben shook his head and we walked to the kitchen.
“Sorry that he’s so rude. He’s 14 so” Ben explained.
“Oh, it’s ok” I agreed.
Just then a tall, big built, black haired man, about 20 walked in and went up to Ben and interrupted us.
“Do you know where the beers are?” he asked.
“Freddie, can’t you see I’m talking to someone” Ben said.
Freddie looked at me and said “Hey, aren’t you Jason’s daughter?”
“Yeah, Daisy” I replied.
“Nice to meet you. Anyway, do you know where the beers are?” Freddie repeated.
“No and I wouldn’t tell you anyway” Ben replied. I thought he was being a little bit childish by saying that.
“Why?” Freddie asked.
“Do you remember the last time you got drunk?” Ben started to whisper, facing away from me. Well, I guess that made some sense.
Freddie just walked away after that.
“Oh, look who is coming” I grumbled.
Ben looked up and then Harry came and stood next to me. Before he could say anything I interrupted him.
“I need to go to bathroom. Ben, can you show me where it is, please” I asked.
“Yeah, follow me” Ben replied and he led me upstairs. Luckily enough Harry didn’t follow us.
“It’s in there” Ben said, pointing to a door.
“I didn’t really need to go, I just didn’t want to hang around with Harry. That’s my nice way of telling him piss off” I said.
“Very cunning” Ben smiled. ”So what shall we do?”
“We could sneak out your window and go to the woods? I know it seems quite hard-core but my dad might see us if we go out the front door and get worried or angry, depends” I suggested.
“Yeah, we might break our necks and I don’t want to be responsible for you being in hospital or for your dad being angry or upset. That wouldn’t be good for our mutual relationship since he doesn’t know me that well, and then he finds out that I take his daughter on reckless adventures” Ben said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Ok, I get it and why would you be in trouble if it was my idea?” I wondered.
“Well, I’m the male, so I would be in charge in this situation of recklessness” Ben explained.
“You were so right when you said you are only stereo typed about women” I said.
“Well, shall we sneak out the front door? I don’t think your dad is even in the hallway so we could be sneaky” Ben asked.
“Yeah, let’s go” I smiled.
We went quietly down the stairs and peeped round the staircase to see if Harry was looking. He was standing to the side so when a few people walked by we quickly ran out the front of the house.
We kept looking back as we were running to see if anyone saw us but we were safe.
When we got to the outskirts of the woods we stopped and just started laughing. We walked a bit further into the woods. It was starting to get dark so we stayed near the edge of the wood. We didn’t want the chainsaw psycho
“I wonder what Harry’s doing” I said.
“Yeah, if we’re out here for too long they’ll send out a search party. I don’t think that we should stay out here to long, we’ll go back when it starts to get really dark” Ben suggested.
Though it was starting to get really dark, we just sat down on a tree stump and started to chat. We chatted a lot and didn’t realise the time or the lighting change until we heard someone shout our names.
“What’s the time?” I asked Ben, panicking.
“9:20” he replied.
We ran out of the woods and found Ben’s dad.
“Where have you been?” he demanded.
I looked at Ben and he looked at me.
“It was my fault dad. I said that we should go into the woods" Ben confessed. I looked at him, eyes wide, but also impressed.
“Well, at least you didn’t go far. Daisy, you might want to see your dad, he’s in the kitchen” David said.
I walked away on my own and I saw that Harry was looking at me through the window. He was frowning. Oh well. Like I cared what he thought. I walked into the kitchen.
“Where the hell have you been?” my dad asked, with a harsh tone.
“I was just in the woods with Ben. We didn’t go that far in” I replied.
“Please, don’t scare me like that again” my dad breathed. I hugged to say sorry and he said that we had to leave.
When we left the house Harry came running after me.
“Daisy, can I talk to you for a second” he asked.
“Sorry, Harry I have to go now” I apologized.
“It won’t take that long” he pleaded.
“Ok, what?” I said, quite harshly.
“Well, I was wondering, if, um, you wanted to go to prom with me?” he asked.
“Harry, I…” I started but Harry stopped me.
“Look, I know its ages away but I thought I’d better get a chance before anyone else does” He said, looking over at Ben. I looked as well, and he’d obviously been listening because he was staring at me.
It’s not that I didn’t want to go with Harry, well, it was, but, I thought, at that moment, I would go with Ben, so I had to come up with something.
“Harry, I’m flattered, but, it’s not a good time for me in my life right now” I thought I would have to start fake crying, but the feelings come back to me. My eyes started welling up. “With my mum, my dad and I are in a bad place, no, sorry”.
Tears had started to fall down my face, and Ben must have been watching because he came running over in the corner of my eye.
“What’s wrong, Daisy?” He said, putting his arm around my back.
“Nothing” And I walked away from him. My dad saw as well and stopped me.
“Are you OK?” he asked. He put his hands on both my arms.
“Yeah, I just want to go home” I said, opening to car door. I sat in and so did my dad. I looked up to see Ben and he was talking to Harry. I couldn’t make out what they were saying against the noise of the engine. My dad drove away from their house, the light from their porch was getting dimmer as we drove away into the night.
“So what did that kid ask you?” He asked, wary of my state.
“That was Harry Mullins, asking me to prom in April” I explained, looking out of the window, not wanting to make eye contact, since that would result in showing him how much I had actually cried then he would of anticipated.
“Oh, that was Harry. He’s a bit skinny, and spotty” he said, I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw he had his eyes crossed as if to enhance to grossness of his situation. “So what, were you saving yourself for someone, like Ben?”
I looked at him, “Dad!” I exclaimed.
“What, just saying if you were, you are Dad Approved” He smiled and laughed.
“Dad don’t, just don’t” I said, trying not to smile, but I couldn’t help myself.
“So, what were