Something He Said (A Limelight Story)

Chapter 7

((Alonzo's finally stood up to his dad! Things are building up now, one more chapter to go before the epilogue~))

Chapter 7 theme songs: Don't Tell Me from Spectacular!, If I Fail You from Black Friday and There's A Fine, Fine Line from Avenue Q

"... He couldn't even let you cry about someone dying..."

"That was the last straw. I wasn't gonna put up with it anymore."

"Good. So, we're almost at the divorce now?"

"Yeah. But that still took some time."

~ I failed you once, but I won't fail again ~

That couldn't just be the end of it. He had finally stood up to him, defied him, talked back to him. And then he yelled at him. And his dad yelled back. And suddenly they were arguing – something Alonzo had never dared to do before. But soon Lindzey was crying again and Alonzo rushed to get her away.

He shut himself and his sister away in her bedroom; while Lindzey ran straight to her bed, Alonzo stood holding the doorknob and positioned himself just right to keep their father from entering. He heard his fist pounding on the door, which stopped suddenly when Hazel's desperate voice came pleading for him to calm down and leave him alone. There was a few seconds of back and forth, his dad angry and his mom begging, until one last thud hit the door and he heard footsteps storming away. A moment later, there was a much lighter knock.

"Al? It's just me. Can I come in?"

He opened the door and threw himself into his mother's arms.

– SOMETHING HE SAID –

None of them wanted to go out for a few days. Roz didn't want to do much of anything at all, and it felt wrong to carry on without her as if everything was normal. So they all waited. Roz skipped a couple of days of school and neither Alonzo nor Zach would meet anybody's eye, not even each other's, when Mrs Tod delivered the news.

His dad had only gotten worse since his outburst, but now Alonzo was fighting back. Now, he was shameless. On his tenth birthday, he'd gotten an old CD player from Zephyr (which he had traded some old headphones and a cassette tape to Paizley for) and it practically became a weapon. Bonzo had learned how to burn CDs using Eliza's computer so Alonzo now had a small Bowling For Soup collection of his own, and he sang along at the top of his lungs. He watched movies about humans with dogs in the living room. He brought his coveralls downstairs to customise on the kitchen table instead of hiding it away in his room. He did everything right in his father's face, and when he was told to stop, he would only pause, scowl at him, and turn up the volume. He sang Lindzey to sleep every night. Nothing his dad said deterred him. He was being driven by pure spite at this point.

By the end of the week, though, he needed to escape again.

When he reached the park, he was surprised to find Zephyr and Zach already there, and even more surprised to see their disgruntled expressions.

"What's wrong?"

Zephyr glanced at him, "He keeps asking me about Zane," he explained, rolling his eyes at Zach.

Zach was a little more animated, gesturing widely at Zephyr, "He keeps talking to Zane! And he won't tell me why."

"You don't need to know why. It's private," Zephyr snapped, then he paused, looking at Zach curiously, "... Why do you care about Zane so much?"

There was an instant change; Zach turned almost shy, barely meeting Zephyr's eyes, or Alonzo's, and subtly swaying from side to side. He shrugged.

"I don't... I just think he's cool..."