The Bastard and the Butterfly

Chapter 3

Clef surprisingly left Kondraki alone. Well, he would've if Kondraki's time at the meeting hadn't been cut short.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and glanced down at it. Draven's school was calling him. That was odd.
He looked around before quickly exiting into the hallway. He picked up the phone.
"Hello?" Kondraki said.
"Benjamin Kondraki?" said the woman on the other end of the line.
"Yes, that's me,"
"Draven has gotten into another fight and we need you to pick him up,"
Kondraki tensed. "What do you mean 'another fight'? And why? What happened?"
"We can talk about it when you get here,"
"I'll be there right away," Kondraki hung up and hurried to his office to grab his things. Just as he reached the door, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Konny? What's wrong? What happened?" Said Clef. He looked worried.
"It's Draven. He got into a fight. Why do you care anyway?" Kondraki was irritated. He had to get Draven. There wasn't any time for dilly dallying.
"Well... I saw you leave, then you didn't come back in after a while, so I thought something was up," Clef still sounded worried, which was odd. Especially considering how much he hated Kondraki, so why wouldn't he hate Draven too?
"I thought your kid didn't get into fights. What happened?"
Kondraki shrugged. "Didn't say. Now please, let me go. I have to get to him,"
Clef understood the life of a concerned parent, so he let Kondraki go. But that wasn't the only reason Clef let him go. That reason was something more... private.
Kondraki quickly grabbed his things. He nodded goodbye to Clef and ran to his car.
He was probably breaking a few laws based on the speed he was going, but Kondraki didn't care. He just wanted to make sure Draven was okay.

Kondraki pulled up in front of the school and quickly went inside. He checked in at the office and found Draven sitting in one of the chairs they had in front of the principal's office.
"Draven?" Kondraki asked. He sounded frantic.
"Hey dad..." Draven didn't even look up.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
The principal came out.
"Ah. Doctor Kondraki. You're here,"
"Are we going to talk about the fight or what?"
"Of course," said the principal. "Let's go into my office,"
They all walked in. The principal sat behind her desk. Kondraki and Draven sat in the two chairs in front of her.
"So, principal...?" Kondraki started.
"Winscott," she smiled. Thought he noticed that it wasn't a warm smile. It seemed like more of a threat.
"So what kind of fight did-"
"Ask him yourself, doctor," she gestured to Draven.
Kondraki turned to his son. "What's this all about, Drav? And what does she mean by 'another fight'? How many have you gotten into?"
Draven still hadn't made eye contact with his father. "It's... well..." he took a deep breath. "It's my second fight, but I told mom instead but we couldn't get ahold of her, so here you are..."
"Wait, you told your mom? Why her?"
"Because you always overreact!"
"Overreact?! When have I ever-"
"Don't even try that. You always do it. Either that or you don't give a fuck at all!"
"Draven, don't use that language-" Principal Winscott started.
"Stay out of this!" Kondraki and Draven said in unison. She looked shocked but she did as she was told.
"I just didn't want you doing something crazy. You're always doing crazy things,"
Kondraki took a deep breath. "Okay, fine. But can you tell me why you got into a fight?"
"I didn't start it. It was all in defense,"
"Who were you defending yourself from?" Winscott asked.
"Michael Coleman. It started as just name calling, but I kept ignoring him so he eventually got violent. I didn't-"
"Michael Coleman is a star student though. He would never do anything like that!"
Draven desperately looked at Kondraki.
"Hey, uh, Principal Winscott, do you mind if I take Draven home? I... feel like it'd be better for him,"
She thought for a moment. "Fine. But I want him back tomorrow with a written apology for Mister Coleman,"
"Will do,"

When they got home, they sat in the car a little bit longer. Draven was staring out the window, even though there wasn't much to stare at.
"I'm sorry I only told mom instead of telling you as well.." he finally said.
"It's okay. If I were you, I would've gone straight to her too,"
Kondraki thought about his ex wife for a moment. She was wonderful. But he let his job get in the way. He'd work late hours, sometimes not even coming home until the early hours in the morning. Eventually he became distant, so she decided the best thing for both of them would be getting a divorce.
As Kondraki thought about this all, he found his thoughts dancing back to work. A bad habit he had. But he realized that it wasn't just work... specifically it was Clef. That was odd.
No, he thought to himself. My job already ruined my marriage, I won't let it ruin any other parts of my life.
"You ready to go in, kiddo?"
"Yeah. Let's go,"