A long lane at night

2.20. LET'S STAY TOGETHER Part 1

** JACK **

ONE WEEK AFTER I WAS ALLOWED BACK HOME, the whole family got together again to celebrate Alice's first birthday. Since I have always called her 'Princess Alice, Ruler of Candy Floss Land', that was basically the theme for her birthday tea.

The house was a little bit more crowded than usual, actually. There was the family, of course, which already counts for six adults and a baby, but I also wanted to invite Taylor, Nate's secretary. It took a while for my folks to mention Taylor's help in securing Alice's safety and I felt indebted to him. He had come with his girlfriend and their baby boy. Who knows, Alice might even make a friend!

There was also uncle Henry with his new girlfriend, Susan, and her teenage son. It was a funny scene to watch. Apparently, Susan had neglected some pivotal pieces of information from her own boy.

'Uncle Henry says he's arriving,' Chad had said. 'And he's asking if pop can be the one to get the door.'

Dad Brian followed the request without understanding much of it. We could get a short glimpse of a classic cranky teenager face (Lord, please give me patience with Alice when she gets there) before he understood who had magically appeared in front of him.

'Ba-ba ... Ba-ba ... Brian Altridge-Fucking-Leech!' He was turning whiter than the snow outside.

'And you must be Parker Fucking Foster, I presume?' Poor Parker, already getting a full blast from dad Brian.

'Brian, don't scare the boy, he's just arrived! Wait until we cut the cake at least,' Dad Allan called from behind the candy floss machine. 'Come inside, Parker! There's plenty of food and it's warmer in here.'

Here's the thing with superhero-movie nerds: they all worship my dad Brian; he's the composer of almost all of their favourite soundtracks ever. But when you have a guy like Parker, who's not only into superhero movies but also into games, they overload when their brains connect the dots with dad Allan.

'No way!' Parker was this close to losing his shit. 'No way!' He turned to his mother. 'That's Allan Altridge-Leech and he's making candy floss! What kind of fucked up alternative reality is this?'

'Real life, Parker,' dad Brian said, getting the candy floss from dad Allan's hand. 'Here, have some candy,' and he shoved a large chunk of the sweet into Parker's open mouth, earning a loud round of laughter from everyone.

'I don't get it,' Will did a rather poor job at concealing his whisper. 'Why do people never expect one when they meet the other?'

'You'd think the conjoined surname would be enough telling,' Chad whispered back.

'It never is,' Nate didn't even bother trying to whisper. We were all laughing at poor Parker's expense. Then again, that must have been his mother's plan all along.

'Susan, you've already met my best friend Brian,' uncle Henry said, guiding his girlfriend in and closing the door behind him. 'That's his husband, my other best friend, Allan.'

As dad Allan moved to shake Susan's hand, Parker found his voice again.

'You're best friends with Allan and Brian Altridge-Leech and you thought the best thing you could say to impress me was a lame pun? Man, what's wrong with you?'

'Parker, enough.' Susan was blushing.

'Don't worry, Susan,' I said, trying to throw the boy a rope. 'Young Parker here isn't the first and certainly won't be the last teen fangirling over my dads. I'm Jack, by the way,' I said, offering her my hand. 'It's great to finally meet you. I believe you might have heard one thing or another about my fiancé?'