Happy birthday, Elysia! It's going to be tough to distinguish between Holly and Elysia now! 
Happy birthday Elysia! She is very very pretty as well. I agree with Audren, it's going to be difficult to tell the difference between the two. 
Yeah, I was a bit worried about that at first as well. Fortunately Elly's face shape is just different enough, and her lips are much fuller than those of her mother. So long as I keep them in different hairstyles we should be good to go.
Thank you all so much for the comments!
Chapter 25 – A Trio Becomes TwoToday has been...interesting to say the least. I had the pleasure of shaking hands with one of my favorite baseball players. The circumstances leading up to this meeting, however, were rather...disconcerting.
Perhaps I should back up a bit.
Today was our eighteenth wedding anniversary, and Holly and I planned to make it a special one. We had everything mapped out perfectly: both of us took time off from work and planned a full day together, starting out with a leisurely morning at home followed by a concert at the stadium, then dinner and dancing at our favorite nightclub to cap off the night.
The day started out perfectly. As Darlene has been known to say, that was the first sign that something was bound to go wrong.
We spent most of the morning lounging around in bed, just enjoying each other's company. I surprised Holly with a bouquet of roses and a box of organic chocolates, which she loved (apart from coffee chocolate is her biggest weakness). Then she turned around and surprised me with a special edition print of my all-time favorite novel. Does she know me well or what?
Once we finally got moving we picked up a quick brunch at the Bistro and headed over to the stadium for the concert. Our favorite band was in town for a one day engagement, and they certainly did not disappoint. One of these days we're going to have to take a trip to Bridgeport and see them on their home turf, and maybe pick up a few other shows while we're there. I know that Elysia would love the experience.
It was just shy of 5 o' clock when we finally made it out of the stadium. At this point we were getting a little bit tired, but we figured we would stick to plan and at least have dinner and drinks at the club, even if we weren't quite up to dancing. Of course, if you order one of the wild party drinks...you can't help but start dancing anyway.
We were having a blast. The music was fantastic, the company was great, and Holly looked gorgeous. I almost didn't hear my cell phone go off and really had no intention of checking it, but something prompted me to take a peek. It was a text message from Darlene:
Come home NOW. Bad stuff. Police involved.That was enough to put Holly and I in panic mode. We got home in record time (I'm surprised that my old truck can still drive that fast). Certainly enough, there was a police car in front of the house, as well as another vehicle that I was not familiar with. Quickly Holly and I ran into the house, unsure of what awaited us inside.
The first thing that I noticed was Elysia's friend Judd laying on the couch with an ice pack on his head, Malcolm right beside him giving him the once-over. A police officer was sitting on one of the chairs in the far corner of the room, alternately surveying the scene and scribbling furiously in her black notebook. Not far away stood Elysia, who looked more than a little distraught as she spoke with a dark-haired man whom I didn't quite recognize at first.
She looked up and noticed us, and I could tell that she had been crying. Elysia ran into Holly's arms and just buried her head into her mother's shoulder.
“Sweetheart, what happened?” I asked.
“D...Dallas and Judd got into a fight,” Elysia began, her voice quivering. “I don't know what happened. Judd wasn't doing anything to provoke it, and Dallas just snapped!”
“What?!” I couldn't hide the shock in my voice. “Dallas?”
“Yeah, and if Uncle Malcolm hadn't intervened when he did it would have been even worse.” I looked over at my brother-in-law, who shook his head.
“It wasn't a fight. More like Dallas was beating the living daylights out of him,” Malcolm explained, anger clearly audible in his voice. “Fortunately the injuries are minimal. He appears to have a minor concussion, but otherwise just a few bumps and bruises.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. This was the same boy that had practically lived in our back yard for several summers running, and now all of the sudden he had turned on one of his best friends. What in the world had happened with this kid?
“All right, I have all of the witness statements and the photographs,” the police officer spoke up. She looked over at the dark-haired man. “Now, Mr. Sekemoto, are you certain that you don't want to press charges?”
“Positive.”
That was when I realized who he was. Leighton Sekemoto, the superstar first-baseman of our home team, just happened to be the father of my daughter's best friend. I don't know why I never made that connection before. Now was not, however, the time to be star-struck...
“Very well then,” the officer replied. “I will still be paying a visit to the Steel household for a good long chat with Mister Dallas. The last thing that Sunset Valley needs is another delinquent roaming the streets.” She looked down at Judd and smiled. “It looks like you're well taken care of, young man. If you have any questions or any further problems, please don't hesitate to give me a call.”
“Thanks, Officer Rose,” Judd replied. The officer excused herself, stopping briefly to acknowledge Holly before heading out the door. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Judd's father approaching me.
“Doctor Bunch, am I correct?”
“Yes sir,” I answered, shaking his hand and trying not to seem as nervous as I was. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Sekemoto.”
“Pff, just call me Leighton. I'm actually a bit surprised that we've never met before, considering how long these two have been hanging around each other.” He heaved a sigh. “It's a shame that this has to be under such...unpleasant circumstances.”
“I'm just grateful that it wasn't worse.”
“Yeah, I hear you. I never thought I'd see that trio fall apart...” His voice trailed off as something caught his attention behind me. “Though something tells me that this pair is in it for the long haul.”
I followed his gaze to the couch, where Judd was now sitting up...and Elysia had her arm around his shoulders.
Perhaps something good would come out of this experience after all.
(A/N: I wasn't quite sure who to pair Elly up with at first, but then story progression made the decision for me when Dallas aged up with the Mean Spirited trait.)
