I Am Not Uptight!

Daniel part 4

Holding a welcoming event wasn’t exactly a new tradition in the house that had been home to quite a number of people over the years. Daniel loved the idea of it—hosting a dinner, a party, or a small outing to get to know the newest member of his small family—even though he knew it in himself that one day, they would eventually pack their bags and move to a new place that they could call their own. All of the tenants he had viewed the house as something to live in temporarily—somewhere they could stay to save money for a while—a stepping stone to their real life, but Daniel didn’t mind it.

Well, he did at first. After all, seeing people and eating meals with them every day was bound to make him connect to them emotionally, which would then fuel the betrayal he would initially feel when it was time for them to leave; but eventually, he learned to make peace with the fact that people come and go. Some simply aren’t meant to stay—just like what he told Josh in a lame attempt to comfort him.

That was what he was thinking as they sat gathered around the large dinner table. It was a welcoming meal, but Daniel couldn’t help but already think about how much he would miss having a full table when one or all of them inevitably leave. It should be a happy occasion, he knew, as he watched Dustin and Gary continue to bicker like kids by making faces at each other as they finished setting the table; while Jane kept showering Josh with compliments about his cooking as they carried in plates of food from the kitchen, which only made the newcomer's face turn bashfully red. Wells was coming down the stairs, wearing a different shirt and holding an unopened bottle of wine—not even attempting to hide the look of regret in his face as he joined them in the dining room.

Daniel didn’t always like everyone that had lived in his house. Actually, there were quite a rotten few that made life much more difficult—like that one guy whose room always smelled like smoke, that girl who ended up stealing their TV when she moved out, or that other guy who romanced and slept with everyone in the house that it made Daniel feel as if they were living in a reality show.

But this—this bunch was different. He didn’t really have an answer as to why he thought that—especially with Dustin and Gary always bickering, Wells looking perpetually disinterested and/or slightly threatening, Jane without her sense of boundaries, and now the new guy Josh always walking on eggshells around them. They