SO BAD [MXM] [MAFIA] ✓

5: CRIMSON

Skylar's father essentially has half the top floor of the office to himself, and when Skylar enters he gives the front desk guy his ID.

Skylar has never seen this man before, and the guy barely looks at him when he takes the ID, beginning to examine it. Skylar sees the exact moment that he recognizes the last name.

The man's gaze shoots up to look into his eyes, wide. Yeah, Skylar isn't sure what he was expecting. Now that the man is sitting up straight, Skylar can see his name tag. Edson.

Yeah, Skylar doesn't recognize him at all. He's in uniform, though.

"Hall?" The guy asks, and Skylar supposes that his concern is valid. Skylar is wearing a torn hoodie and pajama pants, both with dried blood on them, though it's not super noticeable, due to them being a dark color. Still, he probably looks more like a homeless person than the mayor's son.

"Yeah, I need to see my dad."

The guy is just looking Skylar up and down, no doubt thinking the same thing. After a minute, Skylar hears Holly's voice;

"Let him in! Sorry about that, Skylar. He should be in his office!" Holly is clearly busy, since she's having to tell him this from a separate room. Skylar just glances at Edson one more time before walking to the elevator.

He presses the button for the top floor and steps in. The office isn't super busy, made even more apparent when he reaches his destination and it's dead silent. He just walks down the winding hallways until he finds the familiar office door with his fathers name on a gold plate.

V. Hall

Skylar knocks on the door, and contemplates praying for a slow demise.

Again, however, his prayers are never answered. He's learned that several times over with his complicated relationship with Ashton.

Skylar and Jessie's parents divorced when they were pretty young. Jessie was in elementary school and Skylar hadn't even started school yet. It was very one sided, Vince claiming that he'd just fallen out of love with their mother, Candace. Skylar bought it when he was little, but he knows better now. Love isn't conditional. If you stop loving someone, you never loved them to begin with.

Vince always felt guilty about it, though he never admitted it aloud. Still, Skylar could tell. Vince sent their mom money a lot, because she was a lot less well off than he was, and that was just one of the few things he did to try and make up for changing his mind like that. It didn't do much, since Candace probably wanted Vince more than any money on the planet. Then again, Skylar was pretty certain that she didn't love him like she used to anymore. Not when he fucked her over like he did.

It has become one of Skylar's greatest fears, though. He always wonder if he's going to push it too far one of these days and his dad is just going to snap. Like he did with Candace, decide he doesn't love Skylar anymore. That he's not worth the trouble.

Skylar had tried to clean up his act so many times, almost entirely because of this fear. However, it was no use. No matter how much he knew he should bring his grades up and calm down on the stunts and everything, he just couldn't. He was addicted to the thrill.

Vince flipped a paper over, glasses set low on his nose as he reads something. He's yet to acknowledge his son, who is getting more nervous by the minute. Eventually it becomes too much, and Skylar breaks the silence.

"I'm, uh, I'm gonna do credit recovery."

"Are you?"

Vince replies fast, almost cutting Skylar off, and it sets him more on edge. At least with his mother she will just yell and scold him. His father's coldness almost felt worse in this moment.