Outer Space | Spruceworth 6.3

Chapter 29: Eighteen Years of Lies

Chapter 29: Eighteen Years of Lies

~Ollie~

       Throughout the movie that I was watching in the living room while lying on the couch, I was constantly looking at the time on my phone. I was waiting for Grant to be finished with Sing Loud and Proud so he could come home. And I didn't want to ask him to come home since this round was the duet round so him coming home would also affect Alison's performance.

       That, and I already felt bad for making him come home early last week. I didn't want him to always come home when I didn't feel like being here alone.

       Rehearsal was going to be over soon but there was still the time it took to travel from Vancouver to Spruceworth and depending on the day, it did take Grant quite some time, like if he missed the first bus or if the bus was making quite a few stops.

       Even though I did put a movie on for me, I was extremely bored. I just wanted someone to come home so I wouldn't be here alone.

       Thankfully, the front door soon opened. I looked over, seeing Dad walk in. "Hey," I said before looking back at the TV.

       "Hey," Dad said, closing the front door behind him. "Is Grant here?"

       "No, he's either just finishing rehearsal at Sing Loud and Proud or he's on his way home," I said. "Why?"

       "Because I need to talk to you," Dad said as he walked over and sat on the couch with me. 

       I paused the movie before looking at Dad with furrowed eyebrows. "Okay but then why did you ask if Grant was here?"

       "Because I need to talk to you alone," Dad said.

       Oh. Well, that didn't sound good at all. Normally when my dad needed to talk to me about something, he didn't care if Grant was listening in on the conversation as well, even if it was a serious subject.

       But this? Not wanting Grant to be around as he talked to me?

       That definitely couldn't be good.

       "What about?" I asked hesitantly.

       "About Cyndi," Dad said. "And about why I didn't get married to her because I bet you're wondering about that."

       Okay, that definitely took the weight of my shoulders. It was probably just hard for him to talk about and even though Grant was his son-in-law, he didn't know him as well as he knew me. It would probably be easier for Dad to talk about his past with Cyndi with just me.

       "Yeah, I was wondering why you didn't get married," I said. "If she was your ex-girlfriend, that would be a different thing but she's your ex-fiance. Obviously you were planning on getting married so... What happened?"

       "A lot happened," Dad said. "Cyndi and I had been close friends for years since we've known each other since kindergarten. We started dating in our junior year of high school and her parents... weren't happy about it."

       "Why not?" I asked.

       "Remember how I told you I used to be a very angry?" Dad asked. I nodded. "That's why. I got angry over the tiniest things. I was constantly yelling at everyone and, admittedly, I did yell at Cyndi a few times. Her parents were always afraid that I would eventually hurt her."

       "Did you?" I asked.

       Dad shook his head. "No, I didn't. My anger, thankfully, never turned physical. I hate that I was constantly yelling at people but at least I never physically hurt anyone. But that didn't stop them from being afraid I would hurt Cyndi. But she didn't want to listen to them because we loved each other. Which was why I proposed to her a year after we got out of high school. And that definitely didn't make her parents happy at all. They didn't try to stop us from getting married, though. I guess they thought that eventually, we'll just call things off so they don't have to worry about it."