Rock Starz

10| Devon (part two)

"So you finally got a job." Devon froze when he heard that voice behind him. He slowly straightened his back and turned around as slowly as he could. He could recognise that voice instantly.
"Dad." He said softly and incredulously. He didn't feel like doing this, he already had one rejection behind him, and he really didn't need his father's rejection on top of that. Devon's father cleared his throat and looked at his son seriously.
"About time." Devon felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Is this man bothering you Devon?" Devon turned his head a quarter turn to look at his coworker, but before he could answer his father interrupted him.
"I'm his father, why would I bother him?!?" Devon looked at his coworker for help. But he let go of his shoulder, nodded and walked away.
"How did you know I was here?" He asked as he stared at his feet.
"The girl you live with told me. After two idiot boys completely forgot.' Devon bit his lip.
"What do you want?" Devon asked right after. He knew his father had come for something. Because his father had no reason to visit him just like that.
"Can't I just visit my son? What kind of world do we live in?!" Devon clenched his fists and felt himself shaking with fear and anger.
"What. Do. You. Want?" His father looked at Devon in annoyance. He sighed and stumbled his foot in the gravel.
"Your mother wants you to come home." Devon felt his jaw tighten.
"You've been hiding long enough Devon, come home." Devon's mouth opened slightly. He hadn't been home in so long that he was starting to wonder how things had changed at home.Would his father treat his mother as badly as he had before? Would all the stuff still be there, would his bedroom still be the same as he had left it. The old band posters, the blue checked duvet, the comics on his bedside table. The much too old carpet, with enough stains from his youth.
"Do you want me to come home?" He asked then, he looked up, at his father. Right into his eyes. There was a silence.
"Devon, come home." Devon looked sternly at his father. He didn't have to accept anything he said, but he did anyway for almost his entire life.
"No. Do you want me to come home?" He asked again. His father didn't answer like before.
"Your mother misses you Devon, you've abandoned her. She's sad about it every night." Devon took a few steps forward until he was close to his father.
"Look me in the eyes, and tell me you want me to come home, and I'll come home." There was silence again. Too long, Devon thought. He looked at his father, tears forming in his eyes.
"Oh come on, you're not going to cry now?! His father started laughing. Devon's eyes turned wild.
"You've ruined my whole fucking life!" He yelled in frustration.
"Jesus Devon, don't you think you're being a little dramatic?" Devon turned and walked a little away from his father.
"You don't give a fuck about me and now you suddenly come back after two years to tell me to come back home?!?" Devon looked at his father from a distance.
"I don't care what you think or what you do. I'm your father and you're coming home NOW!" The man walked closer to Devon.
"I'm nineteen, I can do whatever the fuck I like." Devon stood defiantly in front of him, cracking his neck and knuckles, ready to fight.
"Fine, you want to play it that way? Then you can have it that way." He came walking with his arms ready to punch his son but before he could do anything he was snatched away by someone else.
"Get away from him you fucking arsehole." Nathan shoved the man out of the way with a fair amount of force.
"Yeah, get away from him!" Lynx shouted from a safe distance.
"If you don't get off this property right now I'm calling the police." Nathan said with his fist in the air ready to throw a punch if necessary.
"Who do you think you are, little brat." Nathan grinned.
"I'm a rock star." He then said.
"That's right." Lynx said softly.
Right after that Devon's father got punched in the face. The man collapsed in pain and Nathan started laughing.
"Aw, is that all you can take?" He grunted as he stumbled away with his hand over his eye. Nathan looked at it with a tilt of his head.
"I don't remember hitting his leg." Before Nathan could turn around Devon flew around his neck.
"Thanks Nate." Nathan laughed and patted his back a few times.
"No problem." He said. Devon pulled back a bit and held his friend's head.
"I love you man." Devon kissed his cheek. Nathan playfully pushed him away.
"Yeah, yeah, I love you too, now back to work." Devon laughed before walking back to his workstation.
"Come on Lynx, I still have loads of practice to do." Lynx jumped off a large log he was standing on and followed Nathan.
"Did I do okay, in containing my airy-fairyness?" Nathan chuckled.
"You did awesome."

"Hey." Devon walked into the kitchen late at night. Clara was sitting on a chair at the round kitchen table.
"Hey." He said back confused. He walked a little closer to her and she looked at her with concern through her sad eyes.
"I'm sorry Devon." Devon leaned against the wall.
"Sorry if I gave you the wrong idea. The thing is. I'm just too busy for a relationship," Devon's heart broke. Too busy?
"I just got this new job at the café and dad can be so difficult sometimes, and when I get home I have to make dinner and do the laundry. And whenever I want to go to bed early Nathan is playing guitar until three in the morning because he doesn't have to get up so soon!' Devon didn't even hear half of what she said. And to be honest, he had already heard the most important thing.
"Okay, Clara." He said softly as he walked upstairs. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap to wash his face. He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment before looking back in shock as he heard the door open.
"Easy, it's just me." Nathan said as he walked into the room in his underwear. He lifted the toilet seat and started to relieve himself.
"Nathan, I don't know if I can stay here any longer." Nathan sighed tiredly.
"What do you mean? I chased him away, end of story, everything's all right." He said as he started to yawn in between.
"Maybe I'll stay at Isaiah's for a week. Just to see if things stay quiet here." Nathan flushed the toilet and turned around.
"You don't think he's coming back, do you?" He asked confused. Devon bit his lip.
"Will we ever know for sure?" Nathan walked over to him to get his toothbrush.
"Who cares, he's harmless." Nathan started brushing his teeth while he looked in the mirror at what he was doing.
"Never mind, you don't get it." Devon walked out of the bathroom and into Nathan's bedroom. He took off most of his clothes and plopped down on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed. He sighed.A minute or two later Nathan walked into the room. He climbed up the ladder and turned around in his bed until he was in the right position.
"Are you afraid of him?" Devon heard then. Nathan's voice was soft.
"You know, afraid of your dad's." Devon stared at the mattress above him.
"I don't know. Sometimes I am, that I disappoint him or something. Even though I've already done that a long time ago." There was silence between the two.
"To be fair, most of the time I think he can't make decisions for me and that he should just leave me alone. But then again, I'm still afraid of what he thinks, sometimes. That I'm not good enough for him or something." Nathan swallowed as he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.
"I know what you mean." He then said softly.
"Sometimes I feel like people set the bar so high for us in every way that we could never touch it. No matter how hard we try. There's always someone better than us. It's just unfair. They're only better because they came up with it, or just started it when no one else did." Devon rolled his eyes at Nathan's rambling on about the same pointless subject.
"I think you've spent too much time with Lynx today." He then replied before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.