The Lonely Girl

Chapter 25: (un)balanced

Derek p.o.v

I was working behind my desk when my phone rang. I flipped it over to see who was calling and saw it was Nathan. I was surprised as he did not call often especially not at this time during the day. 

I picked up the phone to see what this was all about. "Derek speaking." 

"Hey, Derek it's Nathan."  I heard Nathan's low voice coming through the phone. 

"Hey, Nathan. What's up? Is there something wrong?" I didn't want to be too upfront but his timing was unusual and if he needed help I wanted to cut right to chase. 

"Uhmm, I don't know if there is something wrong... but there is definitely something that concerns me." 

I became more alarmed by the minute hearing Nathan's worried voice. I never heard the confident man speaking like that. 

"Okay...what concerns you?" 

It was quiet at the other end of the line for a while when Nathan finally spoke up. "Look I don't want to interfere with your life. It's not my place. But I do want to shed some light on something." 

"All right, go on." 

"It's about Rose." 

My brows went up in confusion. Did something happen during the sleepover I wasn't told about? I had talked to Ellis and she said everything was fine, except for the fact that Rose was of course upset when she arrived. 

"What about Rose?" I asked. 

"I don't want to tell you how to live your life, I want to make that clear first. But dude, you really need to find some balance between Olivia and Rose. It was extremely kind of you to take Rose in but you can't...you just can't keep her as some side piece in your life." 

I could hear how Nathan's voice got more agitated and I became more agitated too. 

"Excuse me? Side piece? What kind of guy do you think I am?!"

"Look, what I mean is that you can't just fulfill your Daddy needs whenever you feel like it with Rose and then go off live your life with Olivia. Rose feels like she is being pushed away." 

I got enraged now. How does he dare to comment and judge my life?

"What?! Did she tell you that?" 

"No, but that is the feeling I get from her. Dude, she was crying herself to sleep at Ellis' place. We didn't even notice until we both checked up on the littles. When got to her I took her with me to the living room to calm her down and for a full hour she was crying until she was too exhausted to be awake anymore." 

 I sighed, this was getting annoying. "Rose just has a strong attachment to me because I saved her from a difficult life. I know how to balance my life." 

"It doesn't look like it and I am only saying this to warn you before it's too late." 

"Whatever, I am busy so I have to go. Talk to you later." I didn't leave any room for Nathan to say goodbye as I had already hung up the phone. 

Nathan was wrong, I know how to live my life. 

Rose p.o.v

I was so happy. Daddy stopped earlier with his work and now we were going to the store for a surprise. I was jumping up and down as Daddy helped me to get into some clean clothes as I painted this morning and my clothes got paint on them. 

When we were all ready and set in the car Daddy asked, "You ready baby girl?" 

"Yessssss!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms in the air. We hadn't done something like this together for a long time. So, I was very excited.