“It’s not because I didn’t want to be.”
“Chase tried so many times, Brandon. Our parents even tried. Her mom wouldn’t budge and eventually got a restraining order against Chase.”
I didn’t really understand this.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t understand. Don’t single parents usually want some sort of involvement from the other parent?” Chase suddenly looked pale, and Morgan leaned forward as if to say something, but nothing ever came out. Clearly, I hit some nerve; I didn’t know what, though. I didn’t want to sour anything, so I retracted. “I apologize if I said something to upset you. I’m not trying to be a jerk. I just don’t understand everything. Maybe someday you can explain it to me.”
“I will. I promise you that I will explain all of it to you, Brandon.” I believed him. “Ever since I saw you and played with you that one time, I’ve wanted nothing more than to be part of your life.”
Wait.
What?
He saw me?
He played with me?
“What? So, there was a time when you came over or something?”
He nodded. Even though his eyes suddenly looked glassy, he still smiled.
“It was the best night of my life. You were a toddler. Your mom and I were still on speaking terms, and I’d been begging her to let me bring you something for Christmas. She refused several times, but she finally called me on Christmas Eve and said I could come by to see you.”
“He tore out of the house. Our grandparents were over, and the phone rang and Chase ran out as fast as he could,” Morgan said.
“I went to get you a gift, but the toy shelves were empty.” He laughed and looked at Morgan. “I got him the goofiest fuzzy socks—”
“With the monster faces on them,” I eagerly jumped in.
Morgan shook his head and rolled his eyes at Chase. “Socks, no surprise. Chase has a thing for socks,” Morgan said. At the same time, James playfully patted my side.
“Sounds like someone else we know,” Andrew said and looked at me.
“Oddly enough, this one also has quite the sock collection,” James said as he looked at Morgan.
Chase looked at me and nodded.
“You remember that?” he asked.
“Brandon has an incredible memory. Photographic memory, in fact,” James spoke up.
He’d been so nice to me that night.
He was the only one of Mom’s friends who came over who was nice to me and didn’t ignore me.
He brought me socks.
Why… why would Mom keep me from him?
“You remember me coming over and the socks?”
I nodded. I could picture us playing with my balloon. Out of all of Mom’s friends, he was the only one who’d played with me.
“My balloon game.” I brought up the silly game I’d created that I could play alone.
“We had to keep the balloon in the air because the ground was fire,” Chase explained to James, Andrew, and Morgan.
“From the dragon!” He remembered!
