Lies My Parents Told Me

Chapter Twenty-Two

Owen

Sean only every played heavy metal when his world was falling apart. He has used it as a crutch at 12 and 13 to provide a tangible reason for his parents to be disappointed. He furthered that by embracing everything he deemed inappropriate pushing against their rules. When he tried to be what they wanted, they were critical of him, picking him apart until he broke. Once he was broken, he gave up following their rules and rebelled as hard as he could, they were livid. The music meant he was giving up accepting being, in his words, a fuck up. I opened the door hoping it would be a physical representation of my being open to his moods. Accepting him with the door open. Whatever had happened had pushed him past that point. I asked him not to slam the door and he rebelled, kicking it closed, two loud thumps. I was grateful that Gabriel wasn't here, he would have flinched for sure. When I asked him what happened he growled at me. His green eyes practically glowing with the poisonous feeling behind them. He was dishevelled as he usually was following the late shift, but his hair was wild the curls looking like he has been furiously pulling at them and running his hands through them. I shouldn't have mentioned the shoes, but my nerves were beginning to fray at the sound of the boots on the floorboards. Gabriel and I shared that trigger. Once the bedroom door slammed behind him. I gathered up Sean's shoes and placed them on the shoe rack by the door. My mood had soured, and I could no longer focus on what I had been doing. Padding through to the lounge I turned off the movie I had been watching and retreated to my bedroom. Closing the door firmly but quietly I crossed over to my desk, flipping through the sheet music I had left out from last night's concert. Victor had accompanied me on the piano at the country club, it had been well received as usual, music to eat to. I pulled out the composition Victor had been working on, he was struggling to make it sound just right. Seating myself comfortably I lost myself in the sounds of my violin.

Whenever I played, I found myself losing track of time. The routine and automaticity of playing a familiar piece, was a comfort, I could turn my brain off to a degree rely on muscle memory to coax the sounds from the strings. But when playing a new piece, my brain was active, finger positions, angle of the bow, the pace, I needed to perfect it. To master it. A discordant note broke me out of my reverie. I frowned preparing to replay the section when I realised, I had been blocking out the beeping of my phone. I cursed setting down my violin in its case I searched around my desk for my phone. Underneath layers of sheet music was my phone, glowing up at me with a list of missed calls. I had three from Gabriel, two from Nathan and two from North. I started with the most recent missed caller North. As always, he answered on the first two rings.

"Hello Owen." "North." "I'm calling to let you know the sale has gone through on the church, the one in the suburb near Kota's house." Norths Uncle had been hunting for a secure business venture for a while. He had money he needed invested and wanted to keep his nephews out of trouble. I had worked with him to assess the best capital investment strategies in our area, the suburb we spent most of our time in lacked a diner. With a high number of teens and families Uncle and I had decided this could be a worthy investment, after running a cost analysis it was finalised the perfect property had been found, and now it seemed procured.

"When does he want to start the works?" As a silent investor I was keen to ensure that I knew all my obligations.

"Silas and Charlie are going to head round today to look at the plumbing. Uncle wants to take out a few of the walls and I'm going to help mark them. I'm thinking clean up of cabinets and soft furnishing should happen tomorrow though I'm reaching out to see if you are happy to round up the boys to help, Silas will come no worries, but Luke wants to help and he's a fucking liability. I need at least Gabe to babysit Luke and then an actual adult to baby sit them both. Also I could recruit Nate he can swing a sledge hammer to break apart some cabinets, I don't think Vic would be interested but then again he helps keep Luke and Gabe in line." North had barely taken a breath he wasn't the best at asking for help, 11 years of having to parent himself before Uncle found him had taken a toll. He slight accent coming out to play. The harsh consonants betraying the years spent in Germany and Greece.