“Well,” I shrug. “It’s the truth.”
The waitress comes by and tops off our cups of water. She asks if we need anything else, but we all shake our heads. As soon as she’s gone, my friends both lean forward, obviously riveted by this little piece of information.
“So what happened?”
“Did you guys date?”
“Yeah, was there some sort of tragic breakup?”
“Sort of, but not in the way you think.”
I’m quiet for a second, trying to decide the best way to tell them what happened. I mean, it was so long ago. It was a lifetime ago, and yet it still feels like it was only yesterday that Gavin was kissing me for the very first time.
“Our dads were friends and business partners,” I tell them.
“Lovers?”
“No,” I laugh, shaking my head. “Just friends. They made some bad choices, though, and they got caught.”
They don’t need to know exactly what happened. They don’t need to know that our fathers embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and that both of our families are now essentially broke.
No, they don’t need to know that.
I attend Crescent Academy on a full scholarship and I’ve never confirmed it, but I’m pretty sure that Gavin does, too.
“Our fathers went to jail,” I say.
“Woah,” Adalee says.
“Harsh,” Karen agrees.
“Gavin blamed my dad, so we stopped being friends.”
“I thought your dad was dead, though,” Adalee points out, and Karen hits her with a French fry.
“It’s okay,” I chuckle at the way Karen gives her this hideous look, like she’s going to slap her for bringing up something so painful.
They don’t know that it’s always painful.
I never stop thinking about him.
About any of it.
“Uh, yeah. My dad is dead. Gavin’s father died shortly after they were sent to prison and my dad couldn’t deal. He killed himself. Then my mom went nutso.”
They already know she’s in a mental hospital and that I have no one but a bitchy aunt to look after me from time-to-time, so that’s not really new information. They just didn’t know exactly why my mom got locked up. I don’t speak to my aunt unless I need to have a guardian sign a form for school. I live at Crescent year-round, and that’s the way I like it.
“That’s fucked up,” Adalee says.
“So that’s why he hates you so much,” Karen says, finally. “It all sort of makes sense now. He blames your dad, but your pop isn’t around.”
“Yeah, so he’s taking it out on you,” Adalee agrees.
“Something like that.”
It’s messy and complicated in so many fucked up ways.
“That still doesn’t explain why you did what you did today,” Karen says, but before I can answer her, the bell on the door jingles and Gavin walks in looking like I didn’t tell him to stay the fuck away from him.