Double Or Nothing

Chapter 2 ~ Father and Son

'Why are you here?' I asked him. I had no time for pleasantries with him. My father was a horrid man. He had beat my mum before I was born, and then left her for another woman while she was heavily pregnant. I had seen him since, of course, but he had hated me for my 'lifestyle choice' of being in a same-sex relationship. He was homophobic, racist, misogynistic and basically just a massive bigot. He was violent and rude, he was pretty much archetypal Neanderthal with a little more hatred brewed inside him.

'I came to see you. I know things haven't been exactly easy between us-'

'Do you really think that's a wise choice of words?' I asked, very close to losing my temper. 'I told you I never wanted to see you again. Nothing has changed. Get out of my house, and stay away. And before you say anything, be aware that if you don't leave when asked I will not hesitate to call the police as you are trespassing.' I warned him.

'Ryan, just hear him out.' Caleb told me.

'Why should I? This man has been the cause of all my problems since birth. I won't stand for him coming into my house, uninvited and making himself at home, no matter what he has to say.'

'Your grandmother is dead.' My father told me, almost shouting. 'She died yesterday. I came to tell you and to invite you to the funeral, which is next week.'

'You're lying. She might be dead, but that's not why you came. I never knew her. You know I wouldn't feel to badly about it, she was a stranger to me.' I sighed. 'Just get out.'

'But-' He began.

'GET OUT!' I screamed.

He stood up and walked past me toward the door. He walked outside without a word, and once I heard the door click behind me, the tears started.

Caleb walked toward me and wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my head in his shoulder. I was rarely ever that angry, but I couldn't deal with him. Not when everything was going right. Not when things were just fixing themselves. When I was making a life for myself. He always showed up at the worst times, and this time he showed up at the best time and ruined it.

'I didn't realise, I'm sorry.' Caleb whispered.

'It's not your fault. It's his. It's what he does.' I sighed.

'Still, I let him in, I should have spoken to you, first.'

'No, no. This is your house, too. You have every right to invite people in, I mean, don't get me wrong, I wish you would have warned me at the very least, but I understand why you let him in.' I told him.

'As long as it's okay.' Caleb said, moving away from me a little but keeping gripping my arms with his hands. 'You okay now?' He asked.

'I'm fine.' I said, wiping my eyes. 'Let's just have dinner, watch some TV and forget about it. He won't show up again for a while. He has a habit of coming back after long periods of time.' I sighed.

'Okay. Well I'm halfway to finishing dinner, so if you want to put the TV on, then we can eat when it's done.' Caleb told me, moving toward the kitchen.

'Okay, thanks for doing that.' I said, smiling a little. I picked up the remote for the TV and flicked through the channels until I settled on one that I wasn't overly interested in but was the best I could find at that point in time.

'So how was work?' Caleb asked me.

'It was okay. Josh wasn't himself though, apparently he and Liam are going through some trouble.' I said.

'Oh really? What about?' Caleb asked.

'Well evidently Liam thinks there's something going on between Josh and me, which is totally ridiculous, but apparently he's taking some convincing.' I shrugged. 'It's not really our place to get involved, but I feel kinda bad for Josh, I mean I'd hate it if you trusted me that little to think I was cheating on you and for you not to believe me when I told you I wasn't.'