Highly Unlikely [BxB]

CHAPTER ONE

The Boy In The Mustard Yellow T-shirt

               The scenery wound past my window quickly at first, then slowly as the traffic lights turned red. I always thought that if the world finally fell apart, people would still follow three simple colours religiously. It could even make for a good episode of love, death, and robots. Humanity was weird like that.

The chauffeur's fingers tapped noiselessly against the wheel, it was the only indication that he might be on edge. I knew because everyone was always on edge around my father.

               It didn't matter if he'd worked for my family for more than fifteen years, it didn't matter if anyone was as scary as a dragon, around my dad, they seemed to be more careful.

My father, on the other hand, didn't show the same side he did the others, to his family—although this chauffeur, in particular, was family. And it wasn't that he was shitty to everyone else, no, he was just really scary when provoked.

               Otherwise, he was always polite and straight to the point. To his actual family, he could be really sweet when he wanted to be. To my mom more than anyone else. It was evident in this little trip we were having.

The chauffeur, whose fingers still tapped noiselessly against the wheel, was Andre. The one I've come to accept is like a second father to me.

My real father was the great Mr. Hawthorne; a very wealthy man, with at least a few billion to his name. It was probably great, if the things the papers said were true, it should have been great.

But things like that came with their own consequences. My dad always made time for me whenever he could, but it was filled with wherever he was planning to expand, or meetings where he wanted to take me, so I could 'have a feel of what I would be inheriting in the future'.

To him, we were solidifying our connection, and maybe we were, but I just wanted him to smile more when he was with me. He seldom did. But with his associates and friends, he always did.

               It might have made me jealous, and I believe there was a time when I was, but the smile never reached his eyes, so it stopped bothering me.

There really wasn't much my dad could teach me out of the business world, and I learned to accept that. It was the hardest pill to swallow when I was younger, but eventually, I did. And that was where Andre came in.

From the time I could walk and remember, he has always been there. As the clumsy child I was, it had always been Andre picking me up a thousand times from the ground.

He nursed my leg when I fell off a bicycle for the first time as he was teaching me how to ride it. He wiped away my tears, saying I was a strong little man and strong little men didn't cry. I had puffed my chest at the praise as I bit my lower lip and looked up to prevent the tears from falling off my eyes. And then he'd gone ahead to pick me up and perch me on his shoulders, running around with me until the only tears that fell off my eyes were that of joy and laughter.