Children of the Boss

Chapter 61: Dean

November 3rd

I had come to the conclusion I had no talents. It was great taking a semester off, and in the mean time I decided to find new ways to express myself or relieve myself of stress. I first tried my hand in the arts. Granny loved painting, so sometimes we would sit together and paint on canvases. I enjoyed spending more time with her because growing up she was in the city while Grandma and Grandpa were just down the street. We painted lots of things, but all of mine sucked. We even did abstract painting but mine still didn't look that good. 

After painting with Granny, I tried embroidery with Grandma. Grandma loved embroidering things. Every pillow in her house had embroidery on it. I knew quickly that this wasn't really for me. I had absolutely no idea how to create an image whatsoever. Grandma suggested I go and garden with Grandpa. I mostly just helped him, but I didn't have an understanding of how gardening worked and it was honestly boring.

I went to Pop. After he retired, he took up reading. Reading everything he could get his hands on. I tried reading with him. Fiction books, non-fiction books, memoirs, poetry, I even tried graphic novels. I just had such a short attention span. It made me feel so stupid. 

I tried writing, like Dad. I tried writing about myself, tried writing a story, tried writing a poem. They all sucked and it was boring. I didn't get how he could come up with stories so easily. Lately, he had gotten into creating children's books. From his memoir to his collection of short stories to his homoerotic romance novels, he felt it was time to write for kids.

He recently had a new children's book come out and was going to go into the city to read it to some kids at a library. He told me to join him because it had been months since I went into the city, and we were going to put Adrienne into the townhouse because Pop had given her a job in his fashion suite. For now she was just going to do photographic and video editing, but when the opportunity for more production came then she could be considered. Dad wanted me to get her situated in the townhouse.

"This can be your room," I said. I set her bags down in one of our guest rooms.

"It's lovely," she said. She kept insisting that it would be temporary, until she got enough money to move in elsewhere. We told her it was fine, she could stay as long as she wanted. 

Eve knocked in the doorway. Ever since she had appeared in Sapph Mag she was getting a lot of media attention. She never had an Instagram before but made one and had almost as many followers as me. Lesbians loved her. "Hi," Eve said.

"Oh hi!" Adrienne said. "Eve, I've seen you everywhere lately."

Eve shrugged. "It happens. Anything I can help you with?"

"Dad said she starts in the office Monday." It was Wednesday.

"You're a photographer, right?" Eve asked. 

"Yes, I love it, especially fashion photography."

"Well, I just received a PR package of some new clothing from Marc Jacobs. I was wanting to post them to my Instagram, but I'm not really good at taking my own photos. Would you want to help me out? I would of course give you credit, and you could probably keep some of it even."

Adrienne's jaw dropped. "Absolutely, I would be honored."

"Great! Let's go."

So Eve took Adrienne to her room and suddenly I had nothing to do. Kenneth had a class, so I texted Dad asking if he needed help. He told me to come on down.

I went to the library where he had just finished reading to a group of kids. They were getting their books signed by him. I sat in a chair in the corner, realizing he didn't need help with anything he just felt bad for me.

"Excuse me," said a little girl.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Could you read this to me?" She showed me a copy of an older children's book of Dad's.

"Can you not read it yourself?"

"I can but I'm not as good."

I shrugged. "Sure," I said.

To my surprise she hopped up onto my lap. I opened the book up and began reading. Naturally, I made funny voices and exaggerated my tone. I didn't even realize I was doing it, and I didn't realize other kids had sat around me. They were laughing, and passed me another book to read. So I began reading that one and I also did not realize people snapping photos of me. Dad apparently recorded me and put it on his Instagram. It had been a long time since I had posted, so people were excited to see me. Dad and I played with the kids for a little bit longer. He got along with kids, said he was a kid at heart. 

"That was fun," Dad said. 

We were walking down the street to the townhouse because it wasn't far. It was chilly, but not snowing yet, still sunny. 

"It was," I said.

"The kids loved you. And you were good with them!"

I shrugged. "I guess it's what I get from being the oldest sibling."

"That's true," he said. "I'll let you know the next time I do something like this and you can join me."

"Sounds good."

Kenneth was home from classes. Eve and Adrienne had finished whatever photo shoot they were doing. They were sitting at the kitchen island together. Madison, Alex, and Riley were with them. It kind of made me realize that I missed socializing. I of course loved my parents, grandparents, everyone in town. But I missed hanging out with friends.

That's when I realized I actually didn't have that many friends.

Gloria was one of my first friends, but she was in Paris. I hung out with Emily a lot, but now she was friends with Cassidy and Cassidy didn't want to be anywhere near me. Then there was Angela. I hadn't talked to her that much in a while. 

I sent her a text. "Hey i'm in the city, wanna come over?"

She replied a few minutes later. "Dean!!! I'm in L.A.!"

I chuckled, and replied with, "What the hell are you doing out there?"

"I moved!!!" she texted back.

"Damn. Sorry I didn't know, kind of fell off the face of the earth."

"Visit me!!!"

I didn't reply, but thought about it. I went to L.A. only a couple of times, like when the movie based on Dad's memoir was made, but that was a long time ago. 

For the time being, I sat around the table. I looked at the video of me on Instagram. A lot of the comments were positive. I actually didn't see any that were mean. They said "I've missed seeing Dean on my timeline!" One person comments, "please keep reading to the children."

I forgot how much I enjoyed people. I was good with people, and apparently with kids. My final realization of the day was that people brought out the best in me, and that I would have to find a new calling in life that incorporated people.