Realization creeps across his face. “But wait you just said you were going back to Ithaca. Is she going with you?” He begins picking at the napkin, which was under his drink. Apparently, relationship talk makes him nervous.
I huff at the reality that our time is running out. In just a few days, my time with Maddy will be relegated to nighttime phone calls and weekend sleepovers. “Well, she just got a job back in Elmira – that’s where she lives. And the baby’s doctor is there. We just got an apartment together too, but it looks like I won’t be living there with her until the spring.”
He swipes his hand across his face. “Wow, that’s blows. I mean you guys having to spend that much time apart.” Dylan’s eyes convey the sadness that he feels for Maddy and I having to be apart. I wish more than anything that we didn’t have to be, that Dylan’s words didn’t have to be true, but they are. In fact, in just one week, Maddy and I will spend more of our time apart than together. I hate it.
“Yeah, it does. I’ve tried to move my internship, but there just aren’t any openings in schools in Elmira and I haven’t been able to find anything else. I love Maddy and I want to move into the apartment with her, but I can’t just up and leave this position.” Dylan sighs and leans forward, folding his arms in front of him on the bar. Blankly staring at the football game on the television, he looks lost in thought.
Shifting abruptly, he twists toward me. He seems conflicted, but I can’t tell over what. It’s not his life that’s in upheaval. “Look, I don’t know if it’ll work out, but the place where I work, The Bridge, well, I might be able to see if I can get you in there. It’s right outside of Elmira, so location-wise it should work out. We work with local school districts to set up Gay Straight Alliances and we do work in the community to help change the climate for acceptance.” He registers the look of shock on my face and quickly begins speaking before I can even get a word out. “I’ve been there for a few years. I’m not sure, but I might be able to pull some strings to see if there’s an internship opening. Hell, if things work out, you could end up there fulltime.”
“Are you serious? That would be fucking amazing.” My mind is racing with a million thoughts and I know my voice just conveyed how excited I am for the chance at this position. Living with Maddy and getting to keep my hopes for my dream job that would be perfect.
“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do and give you a call this week.” He smiles happily at me and I catch a glimpse of the real Dylan – not the fearful one who is scared to be seen in public.
I want to spend more time with him, so I venture a question. “Would you want to come back to the house with me for a bit? I know Maddy would love to meet you. Joe and Katie will be there too. I think there’s another game on later too.” He signs the bill that the bartender just slid in front of us and says, “Sure. I’d like to meet them too.”
As Dylan and I pull into Joe’s driveway, in separate cars, I notice another car parked across the street. I’m not too familiar with the neighbors or anything like that, I’ve only been here a few days, but I know that I haven’t seen this car before.
As I close my door, Dylan approaches me and notices the quizzical look on my face. Just as I’m about to say something, I notice someone getting out of the unfamiliar gray sedan. My fists clench at my side; my jaw tightens so tightly that cracking a tooth is a very real possibility.
As the man approaches us, my pulse quickens and my mind races.
It’s my father.
Dylan recognizes him and stands by my side. My father eyes us and a look of disgust contorts his angry and overweight face. “What the fuck are you doing back here?” His voice is laced with fury and hatred. His words make bile rise in my throat.
Stepping forward and into his space, I tower over him by a few inches. “I could ask you the same thing.” Folding my arms across my chest, I notice that he suddenly recognizes I’m no longer the thinly muscled teenager that I used to be.
He just huffs a dismissive laugh in my face. “I thought that was you I saw driving through town the other day, but when I heard that your mother finally died, I knew it. So I came by today to pay my respects.” His words drip sarcasm and nastiness. In that instant, all of the years of her abuse come crashing down around me.
With visions of Shane’s lifeless body floating in a bloody bathtub and my mom’s weak, frail body lying in the coffin, I step towards him with clenched fists. “You’re a fucking piece of shit!” I scream in his face.
Maddy must have heard me pull in and is now frozen on the spot as I stand face-to-face with my father. We look similar enough in features and build that she can figure out who he is.
Maddy races down towards me, screaming. Her words fall on deaf ears, though. I will not back down from this piece of shit that destroyed my family. There is no way in hell I’m letting him take me down like he did to Shane and Mom.
Dylan catches Maddy before she gets too close. I hear Dylan say, “No, Maddy. Stay here with me. The baby.”
With my hand clenched in a tight fist, I feel someone grab me from behind. Joe quickly steps in between my father and me. He pushes me far enough out of the way as Thomas Connely, the coward of a man who is my father, steps back unsteadily.
My father looks at Joe arrogantly. “So I supposed you’re the prick she married after leaving me. Don’t think I haven’t kept tabs on you.”
Joe doesn’t even respond to him. He just stands in between the two of us. When my father realizes that Joe isn’t going to say anything, he scoffs a laugh at him. “Whatever, she was just a useless bitch anyway. And you,” he eyes me and I step to Joe’s side, “are you a fag now too? Hanging out with this one,” he tips his chin in Dylan’s direction, “you’d have to be.”
Rage boils and I push Joe out of the way and punch my father with a nasty right hook.
“Reid!” Joe’s arms wrap around mine tightly and he pulls me back again. “He’s not worth it. Just leave him alone.”
With a nasty look on his face, my father says to Joe, “Leave this between me and myson.” He wipes the blood from his nose and spits to the ground.
Joe has to restrain me yet again as the word “son” comes out of my father’s mouth. Taking a deep breath, I gather all the hateful, angry feelings I’ve kept pent up all these years and spew them right into my father’s arrogant face.
“I am not yourson! You aredeadto me. You have been for years, but this little scene, you and your fucking bullshit, seal it for me. Get the fuck out of here and leave me and myrealfamily alone. You’re just a scared little piece of shit who bullied his own wife and kids. I’m not taking it anymore.” My throat hurts from the yelling and I can feel the veins bulging in my neck and face, which I’m sure is bright red.
I step into his space one last time. Menacingly close to his face, I venomously whisper, “If I ever see you again, I swear, you won’t be able to walk away from me. So turn around and walk away now, while you still can.”
When he doesn’t start walking immediately, I jerk my body forward, threatening to hit him again and I absolutely love that he flinches. Huffing at me, he says, “Fine. Go be one ofthem.” He indicates Dylan and my rage bubbles at the surface at his stupidity and blind hatred.
I don’t waste my energy on another word. I just wait patiently for him to walk away.
