the essence of life is love

Naamloos deel 77

Inside, Seb hugs his little sister. Despite her disabilities, she's half-blind and has a brain abnormality due to oxygen deficiency at birth, making her less mobile, he gets along well with her, especially in the past year. His mother informs him that Ann always watches when episodes are aired. Now, he must take photos with her and print them, signing each one. Her entire room slowly fills with his face. Fortunately, his parents are fine with it, and the advantage is that the contact between them has improved over the past few months. Lara turned out to be the disruptive factor.

"Did she call a lot?"

His mother looks at her husband before smiling and saying it's not too bad. She lies, he can see it immediately, but he won't correct her. Seb can't handle repeatedly uncovering what his ex tells others about him.

"How did you find it last night?"

"Beautiful!"

Ann screams uncontrollably. This is precisely why his parents moved to a detached house years ago, which is much smaller than their previous one. This way, Seb couldn't stay at home for long, his room was a large closet. During that time, he found a lot of support in Harry Potter, however, he didn't have a magic wand and couldn't perform magic. Lara might have been an unintentional solution in those days. He fled with her in everything, to an unknown and unintended future. She determined what he would do. Now he knows why. Still, he can be a little grateful to her for what she eventually allowed him to achieve. He plans to check in with her soon.

After an hour, Ann is in her bed. Seb had to tell her a story about the soap and all the actors he knows. Once she falls asleep, he stands up and goes to his parents in the living room.

"How are you really doing?"

His father is direct but gentle, his questions sincere.

"It's okay, a lot of recordings in the past weeks."

"Tell me, what will you experience?"

"Mom, I can't say. You know that."

He laughs at her disappointed look.

"It will be exciting and surprising."

"Bo?"

"No, not yet. That's all I can say."

"What's it like to play with him?"

She keeps asking about it, especially after the first kiss they gave each other on-screen.

"Is he real, you know."

That was the first question he heard. Immediately, he withdrew into his shell, making it challenging to convey his own doubt. Now, this weekend, he has resolved to do so.

"Mom, I don't know, I don't know him that well."

He lies, his mother sees it, she raises one eyebrow subtly without moving the other. It seems that only his mother can do this so subtly. With a sigh, he has to come up with something else.

"I haven't asked him, is that better?"

"Yes. I think so. He seems very nice. Just as a human being."

"Actors act differently in front of the camera than in real life."

"What do you mean? Isn't he nice?"

"Yes, he is nice, rather shy, I think. He lives quite withdrawn."

Then it's quiet for a moment, it seems she's thinking about something. His father sits absentmindedly concentrated on the television, a sports program. Seb finds it uninteresting. This is one of those things he can't understand. Men who are not athletic themselves but, slouched on the couch, record everything that moves in competitions and have an opinion about it.

After a long silence, his mother looks at him and motions for him to follow.

"How's it at home? With Rick and Kaan?"

"Good, they're taking care of the house now."

"Do you still talk to them often?"

"Because of work, less. They spend a lot of time with Bo. I mainly talk to Kaan when I'm jogging outside. Then he sometimes walks a bit with me."

Earlier, it was the other way around, sometimes Kaan had already finished his round when he decided to do another one together with Seb. He wants to talk about it when the phone rings. His father reacts angrily.

"There she is again!"

His mother looks disappointedly at Seb.

"Is it Lara, Mom?"

"I think so. She doesn't give up."

"Wait."

In the room, he takes the phone in his hand, his father has turned down the volume, and both he and his wife are looking at their son.

"Lara. Good evening. How are you?"

Seb hears her choking.

"Good."

Short and powerful, as he knows her.

"Why are you calling?"

"You know why, I think. I call your parents to warn them what a jerk you are."

Seb puts the phone on speaker and places it on the table between the three listeners.

"I keep telling them that you're a faggot, a good-for-nothing."

"Then you don't have to call anymore, dear Lara. I'll tell them you're right. I'm a faggot, but a proud one. So, you can stop calling and bothering them."

He then ends the call, and his parents look at him astonished with open mouths.