Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Meeting Family And Friends (Part 2)

Donald quickly made his way to where Don was seated and took a seat opposite of him, still looking a bit frustrated still by the close call.

Upon sitting down, he immediately began removing his shoes so he could wear his socks. As he did this, he asked, "where's your girlfrien-I mean close friend? She could've helped with a distraction you know?"

Don immediately replied, "she's helping right now. Why do you think the guard hasn't come looking for you despite running into the gymnasium shortly after those guys?"

"Shit! You're right, he might recognize me." Donald immediately looked concerned again but Don waved off his concern, trying to act confident in his plan now that it had worked. After all, showing himself to be capable would lead to Donald trusting him more should they continue to be associates.

"Don't worry, even if they call you, you did nothing wrong. Without evidence, they can't even call your parents." Don added, as if he was an expert in the rules surrounding such a case, but it was of-course all for show.

As in reality, he simply hoped it would turn out like that should the situation escalate.

"I guess you're right." Don's confidence in his words made Donald feel less concern and so he didn't overly stress anymore. Though he continued to look around for the guard or the trio.

Soon, a lovely girl wearing a barista outfit approached and served Donald a bagel and something to drink. "Your order sir."

"Oh, uh, thanks." He hesitantly spoke while looking at her face, a bit dazed by her sudden appearance.

Don was about to say something to help Donald but then his phone suddenly rang. "Hm?"

He looked down to the table and saw an unknown number. This caused him to raise a brow in curiosity, though he still proceeded to just pick it up and answer. "Hello?"

"Donny? Is that you? Hah! You even sound grown up my little buddy." An energetic feminine voice spoke from the other side of the call.

The voice was unfamiliar to Don and the way she addressed him was strange. The immediate thought was that this was his mother. Because as far as he knew, Gary had only passed his contact information to two people in the city, his mother and his unknown internet friend.

So he replied by saying, "uh, mom?" Acting unsure just in case. After all, if wrong, he could simply pass it off as being in a noisy place and not hearing properly.

The feminine voice on the other side laughed beautifully. "Has it been so long that you've forgotten how your favorite Aunt sounds? It's me Donny, aunt Amanda."

"Oh, sorry, I can't hear very well here and I didn't think you had my number." Don quickly explained, though keeping his tone neutral as he was still unsure of how to approach Don's family.

Aunt Amanda laughed beautifully again, "oh my, it's fine Donny, you don't need to sound so serious. I'm so heartbroken~, you don't sound happy at all to hear from me." Aunt Amanda put on a playful sad tone, all part of her plan to lessen any tension she thought Don might have toward his mother. Searᴄh the nôvel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Don was about to answer positively to this but he quickly stopped himself. Had this been the real Don, perhaps he could've been moved by those words, but the current Don wasn't.

Although he didn't carry any negative feelings toward the family, the way this Aunt Amanda spoke made it seem like she was trying to downplay the messed up situation Don had left under. And though Don knew that the past Don was partially responsible, it wasn't up to him to remedy it and act like nothing happened.

It would have been fine if it allowed him to operate normally but in fact, Don was worried that it would make the family try to make things the way they were before. After all, if he wasn't upset and all was forgiven, he had no reason to act overly different.

So until a solution was found on how he wanted to approach it, he couldn't answer haphazardly. So to buy more time, he chose to delay the interaction. "Oh, I'm next in line Aunt Amanda, can I call you back when I'm done applying?"

"Oh, sure thing Donny. Silly me should have sent a message first. Alright, well uhm, just call me when you're done." She quickly replied before ending the call.

After ending the call, Don let out a minor sigh of relief. Though far from perfect, he felt he handled that pretty well. But now all he could think about was how he would approach the family situation.

This change in expression caught Donald's attention and he couldn't help but ask, "is something wrong?"

Don quickly smiled and shook his head. "No, it was just my aunt asking if I'm done with orientation. She's a bit of talker though so always better to end it quickly."

Seeing as Don hadn't showed any major reaction during the call, Donald could only take his word for the truth and he nodded in understanding. "Oh, I feel ya. My mom's the same, I'm actually surprised she hasn't called me already to ask where I-."

Before Donald could finish speaking, his phone began to ring, as if on cue.

He quickly grabbed his phone before checking the caller ID and surely enough it was titled "MOM" with a heart & kiss.

"Yes mom?" He answered with a sigh, and almost immediately a worried feminine voice could be heard coming from the other side of the call.

"Hello? Donald? Baby is everything okay? Why didn't you call to tell me how orientation is going? Are you having problems? I told you to let me take the day off and go with-."

Before Donald's mother could say more, he hurriedly cut her off. "Mom please, everything is fine and yea orientation is going just fine. I already got accommodation covered and registered for campus VR-league. I just need to get my library card and a few other things done."

"Oh, okay, that's my boy. Did you manage to make any friends? I won't be able to visit you on campus everyday so it'll be good to have some real friends Dodo." The mother worriedly suggested, causing Donald to show a look of embarrassment.

"Mom please don't call me that anymore and I do have friends. I'm with one right now, just listen" Donald quickly revealed while giving Don a pleading look and holding the phone toward his face with the loudspeaker on.

'Well, it's not like she's known Don before so it's no big deal.' Don thought before leaning in to speak. "Uhm, hello miss, my name is Don. Your son has helped me a lot with getting through orientation-."

Before Don could finish speaking, an excited sequel came from the other side of the call. "Aww~ Don and Donald, that's so cute. And please, just call me Aunt Sally or Aunt Sal. You should come over for dinner and-."

This time it was Donald's mother who was interrupted as Donald quickly pulled back the phone and turned off the loudspeaker before putting it close to his ear.

"Mom please! We just met, it's a little overbearing to put him on the spot and ask him to dinner already. Anyway, I've got college stuff to do so bye." Already feeling very embarrassed, Donald wanted nothing more than to end the call.

"Aw don't be like that Dodo, mommy loves you nine thous-*click*" the call cut, and Donald placed his phone back on the table before looking at Don, who was now smiling at him.

"Well Dodo, shall we go get our library cards once you're done with your bagel?"

Donald simply face palmed and let out a sigh. "Please don't start too…"