Airplanes | Spruceworth 6.1 | Wattys2019

Chapter 10: Life at Home

Chapter 10: Life at Home

       "I heard you joined the orchestra for the school musical," Dad said while we were eating the brunch he made; pancakes, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs. "So what happened to not wanting to play again?"

       I sighed. "I let Mom get into my head. She was telling me there's nothing here for me musically wise, so I lied and told her I was part of it just so she would leave me alone."

      "And now she wants to go to the musical just to see you play," Dad said and I nodded. "This is why you never lie to your mom. It's hard to get out of it. I assume you tried thinking of an excuse but you know she would get mad you left the orchestra so you didn't have any choice but to join?"

       "Bingo," I said. "At least I'm not the only one in there so I don't feel alone and I might have the slightest bit of encouragement."

       "One of your friends joined?" Dad asked. 

       "Yeah, we're actually all part of the play somehow," I said. "Hennessy auditioned, Vikram is doing sets, and Grant is in the orchestra with me."

       "You know, it's quite surprising to see you being friends with Grant," Dad said. "Considering you were, you know, about to start a fight with him on the first day of class."

       "Trust me, I'm surprised too," I said. 

       Out of all the people I knew, I least expected Grant to be the one to try to help me with my drinking problem. In fact, I least expected him to be the one to first notice it. Nobody else has noticed. Even when I was drunk. I mean, I knew how to moderately drink so if I were to get drunk, it was just a tiny bit but somehow, only one person noticed.

       And speaking of that one person...

       I got a text message so I picked up my phone to see it was from Grant. Can we meet at the walkway?

       After I sent a reply, I stood up from the table. "I have to head out."

       "Okay," Dad said. "Just clean up your plate before you go. Oh, and I just want to tell you that even though I'm so proud of for joining the orchestra, don't feel like you have to. Feeling pressured to do it will only make you want to play the piano even less and that's the last thing you need."

       I smiled as I grabbed my plate and brought it to the kitchen counter. "Thanks, but I think I'll be okay. Even though I don't want Mom to get mad at me for quitting, I know that if I really didn't want to, I wouldn't have joined it. A small part of me still wants to."

       "Well, then that's great," Dad said. "And know that you don't have to do everything your mom says and wants you to. As long as it makes you happy, and it's legal, I don't see why you shouldn't be choosing what you do with your life."

       "Did you know she wants to get me into another music academy?" I asked.

       "She does?" Dad asked.

       "Yeah," I said. "And as much as I did want to get into the conservatory and I still regret losing that opportunity... I don't want to go to another one. I actually like living here in Spruceworth. I actually have friends for once. And speaking of, I have somewhere to be."

       I walked to the front door and put on my sweater and my shoes before leaving my house and heading to the walkway where Grant was standing by the stone wall, resting his arms on top and his chin on his arms.

       "Hey," I said softly as I walked over to him. "Are you okay?"

       Grant hesitated before sighing and resting his forehead on his arms. "No, I'm not."