Untouchable (boyxboy)

Chapter 21

A few weeks later, the cast comes off my arm. The breaks in my forearm and wrist had been clean, and the bones knit well, but it would still take me some time to regain full strength and flexibility.

I wasn't worried though. If I had little else, I had time.

Too much, it seems.

My dad notices the fact that, when I'm not teaching, composing, or practicing music, I don't do much else.

Even he's been living life more than I have.

He and Mr. Aikawa—George, as he insists I call him—have reformed their little band, though now they play more Israel Kamakawiwoʻole and Jason Mraz than ACDC and the Stones. My dad can't sing anymore, so they roped in a third old friend—a dude with the distressing habit of wearing socks with sandals—to cover the vocals. They don't sound bad, and they have a lot of fun—something my dad notices I don't seem to remember how to do.

"Why don't you try one of those dating app things?" he asks one evening over a simple dinner of grilled chicken and summer vegetables. "You won't find someone if you don't look."

I set down my fork with a sigh. Despite the many times I've explained it, he still doesn't quite get me. He supports me one-hundred percent, but he doesn't fully understand.

"I doubt that would work for me, Dad. The context of a date already assumes that I want certain things. Having to explain again and again, not knowing how the other person will take it...I'd rather not."

"Well then join a goddamn club or something and make some goddamn friends!" he exclaims, and then immediately winces with apology as he's forced to take a moment to catch his breath.

"Dad..." 

He shakes his head, asking me to wait. "Felix, I just want to see you smile again," he says when he can. "I got a few good years left in me, I think, but I don't want to leave you before I know you'll be okay. Maybe it's selfish of me, but I just want to see you happy."

There's a tightness in my chest and an ache in my throat, and I can't do more than nod.

He sighs. "I'm sorry, Felix. I'm sorry he let you go. But it's time you stop looking back and start looking forward to something new."

I can't argue, but the thing is, I didn't look for Isaac. He just showed up in my life and demanded my attention. Circumstances threw us together, and circumstances tore us apart; but in the space between, he'd seen something he liked in me, made me feel things I'd never felt before, and had the tenacity to draw me out of my shell even when I was clamped shut tighter than a clam at low tide.

There was barely anything between us, really—a few weeks of acquaintance, a few days alone—but for me, I have a feeling that what we had was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing, and I'm not quite over losing it just yet.

#

Another month goes by.

One day, as I'm finishing up my last lesson of the day in Mr. Aikawa's shop, he comes over and taps me on the shoulder.

"Felix, you got a visitor," he says, pointing towards the front of the store.

I turn and see Isabelle Mason waving at me from near the electric guitars.  I don't remember what else I said to my student after that—probably, "that's great, now go home and practice it," which is what I usually say—and I finish the lesson a little early.

With my student gone, Isabelle joins me at the baby grand, sitting beside me on the bench.

"Hey, Felix" she says, offering me an uncertain smile. "How are you?"