The Adventures of a Scrawny Musician and a Compulsive Liar

16. Asshole Fathers

            By nine o’ clock last night, we arrived in this sort of old-timey town in Louisiana that was named Natchitoches. It was all red brick, lush trees, wooden benches, lampposts, and it was pretty awesome. We were going to book two rooms like last time, but Nathaniel complained that he was cock-blocking Evan and me and insisted that he get a room for himself. To be honest, Evan and I didn’t really protest all that much which we should have, but I saw something in Evan’s eyes that just told me we should leave him alone that night.

            I gotta say, waking up next to Natalie the next morning was incredible. Blonde-brown strands of hair were everywhere; sprawled out on the pillows, creeping onto my pillow, across her forehead, and one strand stuck to her pale pink bottom lip that moved every time she breathed. And when she furrowed her brow and her eyes slowly fluttered awake, her pale pink lips curved up in a smile when her eyes connected with mine. Then, she leaned over and pressed her body to mine while she initiated an intense make-out session which left me to be a bit, erm, “excited.” Natalie laughed while I burrowed my steadily reddening face underneath the covers and proceeded to stay there until Isobel knocked on our door at seven-fifty announcing we had ten minutes to get our asses out of bed and in the bus.

            However, the first thing we saw when we headed out towards the bus was Nathaniel frantically arguing with someone over the phone. From the sounds of it, it was likely his father. With a frustrated sigh, Nathaniel finally hung up the phone, sat down, and put his head in his hands.

            “What happened?” Evan spoke from behind me. Isobel was coming out the doors a few steps behind him with a matching concerned look on his face.

            “My fucking dad…” was all that Nathaniel said with his head buried in his hands. The four of us immediately went to Evan’s side with Isobel stroking his shoulder to comfort him. I patted his shoulder. Nathaniel’s voice shook as he continued, “He cut me off. He fucking finally notices after all these years how I’m ruining his credit and he fucking cuts me off. And of course I told him that I do this thing every year going to visit Eric but the moment I mention his name he just shuts down. Just says, ‘Nathaniel, you better come home right now or I’m not sending you any more money.’ He never talks about him, ever. I don’t even think Helen knows he exists.” By the end, we can all see Nathaniel’s eyes going a bit red and watering and hear the crack in his voice. Isobel pulls him close to her and lets him cry on her shoulder as she whispered in his ear that it was going to be okay.

            Natalie tugged at my sleeve and I turned towards her. “I think it’s time you told me who Eric is.”

            I hesitated and looked over towards Nathaniel.

            “Just tell her, everybody knows.” His defeated-sounding muffled voice says from Isobel’s shoulder.

            I sighed before I turned back to Natalie. “Let’s go over there,” I pointed to a place shaded by trees just a little ways away. Once we were there, I looked her in her concerned, dark brown eyes.

            “How much of the story do you know?” I asked her.

            She pursed her lips in thought. “Not much. All I know is that something bad happened and now they’re separated. What happened?”

            “Whew,” I sighed. “Let’s just start from the beginning, I guess.” I put my left hand in my jacket pocket and started fiddling with the loose change—it was an annoying nervous tick I acquired over the years. “Eric was Nathaniel’s little brother. Back then, Nathaniel’s parents were still together. Four years ago, they were driving home after Eric’s birthday dinner and Eric wanted to sit in the front seat. Nathaniel’s mom was reluctant at first but nobody could resist Eric’s puppy dog eyes and even though he was way too small to be sitting up front, his dad convinced his mom to let Eric do what he wanted. It was his birthday, after all. So they get in the car, everything’s fine, and all of a sudden Nathaniel’s father thinks he sees something in the road so instead of braking he swerves.”