Love, Dad

1. Five Years

The party was already in full swing when I got back to it, the attendees seemingly unaware that I had even been gone. It was my party after all, to celebrate me, what I had accomplished. Immediately I was spotted by a man whose name I knew I should've known. Playing my part, I smiled and chatted with him, eventually parting company without him ever even knowing. Wading through the sea of faces I finally saw that of my agent, just a few paces from me. Her face was alight, and I knew that she was taking all the credit for herself—as if she had done the work that actually mattered. Still, Maureen Orburn was the best in the business as far as I was concerned, and for what she had helped me to achieve she could tell the world she made me for all I cared.

"There he is now, the man of the hour!" She exclaimed as she noticed my presence, throwing out her hand to me as if knowing already that I would gravitate towards it.

"Honestly, it feels like it's only been a week since you wandered so fresh-faced into the city with your big dreams." One of the partners, Dan, chided in. I never liked Dan.

"Thank you, it certainly has been a good learning experience these last five years." I laughed with him and sipped my drink, hoping that he could feel the way I bridled him with my eyes.

"Ray, I know this is just the beginning of such great things for you." Maureen focused her attentions back on me as I sighed admiringly. Several other compliments were exchanged, and I counted the seconds in my head until it seemed appropriate to excuse myself from the conversation. After I had freed myself from them I managed to float around the room unrestrained, soaking in all the accolades from the friends and colleagues I'd made here in Los Angeles. I could play it off, like I always did, that all the time I'd been here was such a vast wealth of knowledge.

That wasn't the truth, though.

No, in honesty it was an arduous and fearful road. It was no exaggeration to say that I'd had my fair share of nights spent sleeping in my car, many dinners consisting of only noodles. It was the kind of thing people only usually see in movies, not stuff that actually seems like it goes on in real life. There were so many times I thought I might give up, throw in the towel, crawl back home and admit that I wasn't good enough. Then I remembered that I had sworn to myself that I would prove them all wrong. That I would show them that I could do everything I said I could. Now I had.

"Ray?" At the sound of my name I pulled my head up, looking around the noise filled space to see who had called it. "Ray?" Closer this time, and finally I spotted the voices owner.

"What do you need, Archie?" I smiled and awaited my praise as Archie and his mess of dense, black curls bounced up to me.

"Congratulations," he beamed after pausing for a moment, as if trying to figure out how to start. "I almost couldn't believe my ears when they told me you got the lead in Landing Eight." Now his lips curled ear to ear, and I almost believed that he wasn't completely jealous that I had beaten him out for the part.

"I appreciate that," I shrugged, "maybe next time?" My fake smile didn't seem to faze him.

"No worries, you've been an actor way longer than I have, I'll get my moment." He looked off as if lost in thought, but he didn't release me from the conversation so I just stood there watching him.

"I better get back to it, then." I finally added, returning him back to the world of the living.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he extended his hand towards me, just remembering that he harbored my phone to his chest, "there's a Caitlyn on the line for you."