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Sam looked at me from across the table, his face soft as I tried to keep some tears from escaping. I knew they were going to ask some questions. I knew they wanted to scold him for what he did to me at prom, but we had moved past it ourselves and moved on from it.
“The reason why I wasn’t there for Kim, to collect her for prom… Which, can I assure you I have apologized for, and she has forgiven me. But, I didn’t show up because I was embarrassed. I got into a fight with my father after he had a few too many drinks, like he did most weekends, and I ran. I didn’t want to tell anyone as it had been going on for years. I just left and didn’t ever look back.”
They were all silent. Dad was the first one to defend him, which made sense. Dad knew Samuel’s father since high school as they’d grown up together. I was pretty sure they still played golf once a month together. I hadn’t mentioned it to Sam just in case it upset him. Which thinking about it now was wrong to keep from him.
“Karl? Don’t be daft, he wouldn’t hurt anyone. Let alone his kids.”
“You don’t always know what goes on behind closed doors.” I replied.
Mom turned to look at Sam fully this time. I thought in that second, she might yell, shout, or do something, but instead she wrapped her arms around him. Which took all of us by surprise, including Sam.
“I am so sorry you had to grow up in a home that was like that.”
Letting go of him, she looked at him with such kindness, it almost brought me to tears. I wasn’t expecting my mother to be kind this evening, I thought she would continue with the cold shoulder towards Sam and me. I wanted to ask her why, why did she think that was okay and yet, here she was hugging him.
“Did he hit you? – You know, I always got a weird vibe from him.”
“Anna, you can’t be serious? Karl has been friends with us for many years!”
Dad pushed himself from the table and stood, looking at mom with anger. Mom stood her ground though. So much for a nice family dinner. Poor Beth looked a little weary as did Sam, whereas Joe continued to stuff his face, unbothered or unchanged by anything. Typical.
“I apologize, I didn’t mean to cause an argument,” Sam said over the sudden yelling.
“You don’t need to apologize. If anything, we should be the ones to say sorry. For now, Noah and I are going to discuss this elsewhere, you guys just enjoy the food.”
Taking hold of dad’s hand, mom pulled him out towards the back porch and shut the door. They weren’t the parents that argued in front of their kids. It was rare they did argue in front of us growing up and I guessed it was the same around house guests.
“Sorry, Kim, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Joe said. “They will be fine as soon as they come back in. Bad luck in childhood though, bro. Explains why you were a bit of a dick in school.”
Classic Joe held up his drink in a cheers motion and downed the rest of his water. He looked at Beth who rolled her eyes at him and excused herself from the table to which Joe followed straight after. Just leaving Sam and I alone.
CHAPTER 27
Samuel
The snow had gotten heavier while we were at Kim’s parents’ house. Once dinner had calmed down, we sat down in the living room. While the women seemed to be discussing the wedding, myself, Joe, and Noah sat and watched the rest of the football game.
Football was never really my thing, but he seemed to be trying to make amends or at least, to not discuss or ask questions about my parents. Both of which I still hadn’t seen or bumped into. Occasionally I looked up over to Kim when I felt a pair of eyes watching me and she’d quickly look away.
The thought of my upbringing had clearly put a damper on the evening, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to get past that. The weekend's event was going to be great fun and not awkward at all.
“Have you seen your parents since you’ve been back in town?” Noah asked out of the blue.
“Eh – No, I haven’t. I know they know I’m here as it's pretty much front-page news.”
“Do you plan on speaking to them?”
“Not if I can help it.”
Noah huffed and turned back to watch the television. I knew I had to try and build that bridge again with Kim’s dad. He was important to her and if I wanted to be permanent in her life, I would need her father to at least accept I was here to stay.
Realizing the air was going a little stale as I sat there, I opted to let Daisy out to do her business. I was hopeful Kim wanted to head back to hers soon. The night was coming in as was the snow the more hours we spent here. I trusted her driving, but driving in the snow was always a little difficult.
“So, about dad, he can be a bit touchy when his friends are brought up. Even if they are jerks.”
I hadn’t noticed Joe had followed me out. He puffed into one of those fancy vape machines and blew out a fruity smelling gas. I always thought they were a little stupid. If you were going to smoke, smoke a real cigarette at least.
