The Father

Chapter 33

Trish and I sit side by side at the small table on the patio, Diane sits across from her, and there's an empty seat across from me. It's just now beginning to get hot out, the sun is shining, and it feels wonderful.

Helena is going to be here any minute and I'm not really nervous, but it will be strange to see her again, I'm sure.

Why would she want to come to breakfast with us? With me? Why does she want to even be near me when she doesn't have to? Trish's graduation was unavoidable, as well as move-in day, but this? I'm not going to read too much into it. I do know that Trish is leaving right after this and I hope it's to end things with Derek.

"He's a douchebag, anyway. Fuck him."

I raise an eyebrow at Diane and smile. I'm catching the tail end of their conversation.

"Who are we talking about?"

"Her idiot boyfriend. She told you what he did, didn't she?"

I glance at Trish, she looks exasperated, and I nod.

"Yes."

"I'm sure your dad agrees that you just need to dump his ass."

She looks at me with her eyebrows raised and I nod in agreement again.

"Yes."

There's a slight bit of awkwardness hanging in the air and that's when I know for sure that Trish did tell Diane what happened. I don't feel much embarrassment over it anymore, it was hard in the beginning, but it's sort of faded away now.

"See? Even your dad agrees. Just do it. You'll be better off, I'm telling you."

"I know I will. I'm probably going to."

"I'll come up there and kick your ass if you don't. Anyway, I like your tattoos, Mr. Byrne. They're pretty cool."

I glance down at my arms, then smile at her.

"Thank you. I see you've gotten a couple, too."

My first thought when I saw her was actually that she reminds me slightly of Katherine now. It took me back for a moment, but the more I've looked at her, the more I've realized she really doesn't. It's just the tattoos, she doesn't even have full sleeves like she did, they're all over the place on both of her arms. But she did also dye her hair black and even got her nose pierced. Not a double piercing like Katherine, though.

Maybe she does look a little more like her than I want to admit.

It's not a good thing. All it does is make me think of her more than I already have since I woke up. Last nights conversation with Trish gave me even more vivid dreams of Katherine than usual, so much so that I didn't even want to get out of bed this morning. If she hadn't stayed with me and we hadn't made plans, today would have been of those days where I did absolutely nothing except feel sorry for myself.

I look up from the menu to see Helena walking toward us. My first thought is that she's been working out. She was always small, but she looks even smaller, and more fit. And the way she's dressed? I wonder when she started dressing like that again, the way she dressed when we met, in jean shorts and a revealing top.

Maybe that's why she wanted to have breakfast with us. Because she looks good and she wanted to try to show me that.

When she reaches us she smiles, kisses Trish on the cheek, gives Diane a hug, and sits down across from me. I know her and Trish get along a lot better since she moved out, I'm sure they got closer after I left, but that whole time is cloudy for me. I was completely out of the loop with Trish.