Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
^^^^^^
" IT'S SO SAD. "
alexa, play HALLEY'SCOMET by billie eilish
^^^^^^
"You should go tonight, Tatum. Honestly, you know? Go on, hang out with your friends, have fun. Go and be a kid, go and have that fun, you deserve to."
"Okay," I was saying every word as carefully as possible at this moment in time. "But Dad, it's at a bar. That's where we'd all be hanging out."
"But none of you would be drinking, right?" He asked, and I shrugged, determined to not lie.
"I don't know," the old New York accent made 'I don't' sound more like 'Iont'. "I mean, like, I hope so, but Liv is Liv, and also, Bri and Laina always drive each other to...unspeakable idiocy. But no, no, most of us wouldn't be drinking. Liv, Bri, Chad, and Laina are big if's."
"Well..." He was at a loss for words now, and I felt bad. "You can all hang out at the pool tables, right? And I'll sit there too, not right next to you guys, y'know, I'll keep some distance between you guys and myself, but I'll be there to keep an eye out. I know you don't like all that...drinking stuff. So you won't have to wait, in case you wanna leave, or you get uncomfortable, you can come over to me, and I'll save the day. I'll be right by your side."
"You'll stand by me?" I asked with a smile, shooting a quick glance at the television, which was purposefully playing Stand By Me. They were running off the train tracks right now.
"I'll stand by ya," he heartily chuckled and pulled me in for a side hug, which felt very nice.
Side hugs on the couch in the trailer always provided the utmost amount of comfort. Why? Well, I'd been receiving side hugs on this tweed couch since I was about eight years old. Side hugs on the tweed couch, for me, is like one of those repeated things that happens so frequently in your childhood that always provides you a source of infinite comfort. Every living organism on planet Earth has that sort of thing. Maybe it's walking along the same trail you used to bike on all the time as a child, or going to the same ice cream place and ordering what you used to order, or that one blanket that you throw over you before you fall asleep, or that one sweatshirt you would wear whenever watching Grey's Anatomy. Regardless of what that thing might be for you, you have a thing like that.
"You know what, I think...there will never be a moment in time where I can sit down, and watch this movie, and not sob uncontrollably." Dad spoke up after almost two hours of silence; I could hear his voice shaking from the stream of tears running down his face.
