Daddy's In A Boyband || Nathan Sykes

Chapter Five

I was sat in the corner of Costa, anxiously awaiting my father's arrival. My phone displayed the time as 4:59pm. My stomach was doing flips as my eyes flicked over to the door every few seconds. My palms were sweating and I'd barely touched the cup of tea in front of me.

The door opened and my heart skipped a beat but it was just the cap guy from Jay's band. I sighed and looked down at my phone, thinking about what a strange coincidence it was that I'd met this member of Jay's band twice in one day.

I was the only teenage girl in Costa so when my dad finally came in he would be able to find me. "Excuse me," a voice said. I looked up to see the cap guy stood by the table I was sat at. "There's no way you can be Alexis."

"I'm sorry?" I questioned, a little confused. The reality of the situation not quite hitting me yet.

"I'm Nathan," he announced, his eyes fixed on my face. My heart skipped three beats and my stomach turned. I swallowed so hard that I swear he heard it.

"Oh my God," I whispered, the realisation that this man was my father finally dawning on me. Nathan smiled weakly then sat down at the table.

"Did you go to school with my mum?" I asked him, trying to break the tension and start a dialogue.

"Yeah. Christy was my girlfriend for four years. We split up when we'd just started our final year at school."

"Why'd you split up?" I asked, receiving a sigh from him. "I got stupidly drunk one night and I cheated on her."

"Oh." There was a silence between the two of us. My mouth was dry and my hands were clammy.

"She was pregnant when she was sixteen. She couldn't look after me on her own. So she gave me up," I told him.

"I'm sorry," he said, and I believed he genuinely meant it. "It's fine. It's done now. We can't change the past."

"No, we can't. No matter how much we want to. Your mum didn't get another boyfriend for a while, you know. I didn't really see her that much after we split and I had no idea that she was pregnant. I loved her a lot. And I still do but I got into this band and I moved to London. I never saw her again," he explained.

"You really are my dad, aren't you?"

"I think so," he replied. My anxiety finally began to ease. "I can't believe it's you. My mum never told me anything about you so I couldn't find you before."

"I didn't even know you existed until now. Where are you living?"

"In Gloucester with my foster parents. They don't know I'm here. They think I'm on a camping trip with my best friend, Caiden."

"Is he the one who was with you earlier?" he asked and I nodded.

"He's fifteen and he's the greatest friend I could ask for." Nathan nodded and thought for a moment.

"Listen, Alexis, this is hard on both of us but now I know that you're my daughter, I want to be a part of your life," he told me and I smiled.

"Thanks...Dad." His face lit up at the word. He placed his hand over mine and looked into my eyes.

"You've got my eyes," he said. "I always thought it was weird that I had green eyes because Christy, I mean, my mum's are brown."

"Do you still see her?"

"Occasionally. She went off the rails a bit when she had me. She has a bit of drinking problem." His eyes filled with sadness.

"That must be hard."

"Yeah, I'm not too keen on her to be honest. I want to like her, I really do, but I barely know her."

"Yeah, I understand," he replied.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" I asked a little nervously. He smiled, "I'm married."

"Oh. What's she called?"

"Jasmine. I think you'll like her."

"I bet I will." He paused for a moment.

"I think you should go home and tell your foster parents what's going on. I'll drive you tomorrow," he said.

"But I don't want to be taken away from you."

"You won't be. I'm your dad. I have custody rights. We'll decide what'll happen later on. But right now we just need you to be safe."

I nodded and he smiled.

"Come on," he said as he stood up. "I'll take you back to Jay's."

I followed his lead and went out of Costa. He put his arm around me when he noticed that I was shivering.

"This might be a long process but eventually I'd like you to come and live with me," Nathan said.

"Really? But you'd be away a lot."

"Jasmine will still be here. She works at a dance school in London so she stays at home when I leave the country."

"It might be a while before that can happen. I mean, I've only just found you."

"Yeah, I understand that. I know that because I'm your biological father I have custody rights but I want you to feel comfortable and I don't want to rush you into anything."

We turned the corner to the building where Jay's flat was. He led me inside and up the steps then stopped outside the door to Jay's flat.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning at about ten," he told me.

"Yeah, okay."

"Bye, Alexis."

 "Bye, Dad."