The Technique

Chapter 22: Untrue

I was walking down the dorm when my phone buzzed. 

Mom had a message. 

The first thing that caught my eyes was a picture of a man who I didn't know. He had stubbles growing. His eyes were blaçk, and it was as though he was looking straight at me. His hair was black and a little curly. He was smiling thrifty. I scrolled down and read mom's previous message. "Your dad." 

I stopped walking halfway stairs. My eyes grew wider. I quickly zoomed in on the photo. "Dad?" I whispered. I jumped in ecstatic. I didn't know what to say. I constantly looked at the man's photo and mom's message to check if everything was real. It felt surreal. 

When I first came to this school, this had been my happiest moment so far. I replied, "Mom, are you for real?" 

I checked if the photo and I had commons in appearance. I couldn't find anything, but what was important was that it was my dad. I breathed deeply multiple times. I put the photo on my wallpaper. I decided not to tell Mike and Kylie first. I wanted to surprise them. I walked down the stairs after staring at my wallpaper for like 10 minutes. I could almost memorize his face. I was wishing that mom could send me another picture of him, whole body so that I could see if he had the same physique as me. 

The students had been at the main gate, waiting for their parents to come. Mike and Kylie's parents had come already. They were sitting on the bench while waiting for the event to start. The event would be starting at noon, but these parents right here seemed to be very excited and proud of their children.

I hope dad could come here as well.

 I walked over to join Kylie and Mike with their parents. They were waving at me even before I reached them. 

"Hey, Nathan. What's up? I heard you've been doing good," Michael greeted, Mike's dad. 

I smiled at him. "Yea, I think Mike had told you a lot of things already." Mike grinned. 

He was standing next to his mom, Miranda, who was sitting down on the bench. Michael was sitting next to his wife. Kylie's parents, Carla and James, were sitting on the next bench. I'd been with them a lot of times. Our families had this huge connection that we made a bigger family. 

Michael had been a basketball player for decades, so I had the chance to play with him. He taught me how to carry a ball, but no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't get it. I was born to carry a pen. 

Miranda was always inside their house, either embroidering or making juice for us. Some of Mike's clothes were embroidered by her mom, but he loathed them and never planned to wear them since he thought they were all old-fashioned. 

On the other side, Kylie's dad, James, was an interior designer in France. He was the busiest dad. We never had the chance to bond, but whenever I went to Kylie's fancy house, I could feel her dad's existence since he did most of their interior designs. They were sort of well-off. The family owned a big pool and a gym. 

Carla loved baking, so whenever we hung out in their house, she'd make us a cake. Kylie's sister, Kate, had been traveling around the world. Kylie told me her sister had been trying to switch to different countries in a single day, kind of a rich challenge. 

They smiled at me while I also stopped next to them. Kylie gestured me to come over to them. "It's your time to meet my dad." 

I gave her a nod. This was indeed the right time to be introduced by her dad. "Dad, you know him, right? Nathan. He is one of my best friends," Kylie introduced. 

James smiled along with his brows. "Oh, hey Nathan. Kylie had been telling me a lot about you." 

I was a bit surprised about it since Kylie wasn't the talker type. She was very talkative with us but not with her family. I looked at Kylie in question and turned back to James. "Really? I wasn't expecting that." We shook hands while Kylie rolled her eyes. "It's nice that you came here for Kylie."