Page 95 of Never Forget

“It’s alright,” I tell her. “They’re exaggerating anyway.”

Simon and Luc murmur to each other about how I’m full of shit. Jesse throws a wadded-up piece of newspaper at Luc and draws a stern look, effectively distracting him from continuing the conversation.

“Mr. Lester, would you like to try for a short walk now that it’s cooled down some outside? We still have enough light to do a loop around the driveway,” Simon says, standing from where he was working on Luc’s leg.

“Are you going to make me use the walker?” My grandfather grumbles.

“It’s better than having to drag that tank with you,” Simon points out. “Since it’s got that neat little holder for it.”

“Well, I suppose.”

The rest of the group disperses as though we’ve been dismissed. Jesse follows Luc, and Will and Ari go out on the back patio to light the firepit. I notice our three security guards are out there, too, standing in a huddle off to the side, looking serious.

I sigh, wondering what Scott is doing right now. He should have made it to the condo already, and considering all he was doing there was beating on my door and making a ruckus for attention, he should be headed this way soon.

“Nazario?”

I look down to find my grandmother watching me closely, a solemn expression on her face. “Why didn’t we know?” she asks again.

“Because you don’t like to watch TV?” I offer jokingly.

She doesn’t look amused. She looks sad. Despite spending the last decade of my life wishing I had a way to show her how important this band is to me, I don’t want her to feel bad. Sitting down in the chair Simon brought me earlier, I scoot a little closer to her and take her hand in mine.

“Grandmother, I know neither of you loved that I chose this life. I think losing Dad stuck with us all in different ways, and I know it doesn’t help that I look so much like her. I always thought that’s why you both kind of shut down whenever the band or my music came up. I’ve always understood, and it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine,” she says. “By doing so, we blocked out who you are. We missed out on all the ways we should have been supporting you and showing you how proud we are of the man you’ve become. Your father would have been proud, Nazario.”

“I always wished I could be more like him,” I admit. “That if maybe I was, I could make losing him a little less painful.”

“Your father used to talk about how happy he was that you took after her. He was so in love with both of you.” Grandmother’s eyes fall to our hands, and a tear falls down her cheek. “What happened to them wasn’t your mother’s fault, and it was unfair of us to make you feel that being anything like her isn’t something to be proud of. She was such a beautiful woman, and so full of life. Like you,” she says, reaching a hand to touch my cheek.

My lips move into something that feels like a smile, but I’m not sure it reaches my eyes. Everything is blurry, and I feel like I haven’t taken a full breath in hours. If I’m being very honest, I’m not sure I’ve taken a full breath since I left Scott behind in New York.

“We’re going to do better,” Grandmother says, patting my hand. “I’m going to have one of you boys help me get my computer set up in the office, and then I’m going to do my own research and learn everything there is to know about my grandson.”

“Oh no, Grandmother. That’s really not necessary. Please don’t. There is stuff out there that you really don’t want to see. Some of it might be real, but a lot of it isn’t, and I don’t want you to think⁠—”

“Oh, don’t you worry. We overheard your friends talking this morning, and William assured me that this recording that’s taken over the news is just another ploy to make you look bad. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to do that before, but now I suppose it would discredit you to have something so unsavory out there. I had no idea that… What did he call it? Deep-fake AI pornography?” Her hand comes up to clutch her metaphorical pearls. “Well, I just didn’t know that was a thing. It must be terribly embarrassing.”

“You have no idea.”

I’m not sure whether I want to hit or kiss Will for that.

We’re all sitting around the fire pit after the most surreal day of my life. I just sat at the dinner table with my grandparents, my bandmates they’ve always hated, an NFL superstar, three bodyguards, and a nurse. And the only time I wanted to gouge out my brain was when Jesse let slip that the entire world knows my bodyguard is in love with me.

I assured my grandparents it was just a silly internet game, but not one of my friends backed me up. Instead, they all repeatedly, and loudly, mentioned all the times Scott has either done something ridiculously sweet for me, like being overly concerned about me being properly hydrated, or been caught sneaking out of my room.

Absolute assholes, all of them.

“We’ll have to make sure to meet this Mr. Riley,” my grandfather said. “Make sure he’s good enough for our grandson.”

“Honestly, you’ll probably worry about it being the other way around,” I joked humorlessly. “I’m the tattoo-covered hooligan. He looks like Captain America with Flynn Rider’s hair.”

“Who is Flynn Rider?”

“He’s a Disney prince,” Ari explained. “Very handsome. Very suave. Perfectly quaffed hair. It’s a pretty good description, actually.”

So now we have a family movie night planned for tomorrow.