Swallow

Chapter 1.35:

Riley started tapping her foot against my stool. It matched the rhythm of the pulse racing through my veins.

Just the sound of the word "dad" had me ready to jump up and run.

Riley's foot just kept fucking moving. Every little flutter of motion she made kept me from being able to concentrate on what I should do next. This was something I had never done before. I never stuck around long enough after I hooked up with a girl to be introduced to her whole family.

Tap, Tap, tappity-tap, tap, tap.

I nudged Riley's foot with mine to try to pin it down so she would stop. She dodged me and kicked out at my shin. The little boy inside me was ready to pick her up and flip her upside down.

Riley turned away from me and towards the door with an enormous smile on her face.  A shorter, wide-bodied guy with sandy brown hair was standing in the doorway, watching the two of us pick at each other.  I knew he saw the exchange between us because of the way he pursed his lips at me.

"Hi Honey," Mrs. Davis said excitedly when she saw him.  She seemed to notice him staring a hole through me and quickly went into introduction mode. "Kurt, this is Ezra. Ezra is in the band with JD. He plays guitar."

Mr. Davis looked down to where my body had drifted closer to Riley's. If I wrapped my arm around her waist and applied a little bit of pressure, she could have easily been sitting on my stool right along with me.

I wasn't sure when or how we even got that close.

I placed my foot on the ground and inched my stool back a few inches to give her a little space. Mr. Davis' slight scowl softened as soon as I was sitting at a more respectful distance from his daughter.

"Hey, Ezra." His deep voice boomed. Even though we had never met, he felt familiar to me. He and JD had the same timbre to their voice. They both had this deep and raspy tone that resonated all from their throats.  "New guitarist, huh? I played a little guitar back in my day too."

"Dad, you still play." Riley performed her signature eye roll at him.

"Well, I didn't want to brag about it." He smiled at her warmly, like she was the only person in the room. 

Mr. Davis was nothing like I expected. I felt much more at ease seeing the way he responded to Riley.  A pang of jealousy washed over me, seeing how the two of them were together. Not because of my selfish need to have all of Riley's attention to myself but because she had something I would never have.

She had a dad who loved her.

"How long have you been playing?" Mr. Davis asked me.

"I started about ten years old," I answered.

I didn't feel comfortable talking about how I discovered my love of music. It wasn't intentional dodging, but I felt reluctant to say much more. The heaping heaviness of my messed-up childhood had been weighing me down my whole life. I didn't like to share much about my family. It was safer that way. I hated when people gave me sympathetic stares. I didn't want anyone to feel sorry for me.

When I looked around the room, all three pairs of eyes were staring at me like they expected me to keep going. There was no way any of them were going to let me get out of this room without giving them a little more information, especially the frustrating girl sitting next to me who was looking at me like I was a science experiment.

"My dad left my mom and me and the only thing I had of his was his acoustic guitar. I picked it up one day and never put it down." I started fiddling with eyebrow rings nervously.