The Last Song - Virgato/Jochris

ONE

Whenever someone mentioned LA, people always pictured the Hollywood Hills, the tall buildings downtown, Malibu being just around the corner. But for Joel, it was a bit different than that. For him LA just brought a picture of his father to his head. Safe to say, nowhere near the Hollywood hills. In fact, Francisco lived in a small town south of LA called Coastal San Pedro, right by the beach and unlike the city of angels, it wasn't as filled with people and traffic.

It was his first time going and the first he would see his father since he moved there from San Francisco, where he lived with his mother and brother who happened to be in the car with him. He was honestly surprised Patricia agreed to drive them down there herself instead of accepting the offer his father made of paying for plane tickets. She said something about bonding with her kids and it being a good way for them to spend time together, all things he didn't really care about. There was not a thing about that trip he was looking forward to.

"Are we almost there?" It was like the tenth time his brother had asked that question, like they hadn't told him the drive was gonna be over six hours long. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and felt his mother give him a stern look from the drivers seat. He ignored her though, and continued starring out the window.

Patricia sighed, Joel was always a lot more complicated to deal with than Gabriel. She looked at her youngest son through the review mirror and smiled "we're almost there honey" she told him "your father said his waiting for you with a plate filled with shrimp tacos"

"Yum, they're my favorites"

Turns out his mom had lied to Gabe because what remained of the ride was long enough for the youngest one to fall asleep. His mom smiled at him through the mirror once again and the looked over at Joel in the passenger seat. His focus wasn't out the window anymore but at his phone's screen.

"Hey, you okay?"

Joel sighed "you care?"

Patricia felt the sudden need to stop the car and have a serious conversation with him, but tried to remain as calm as possible "of course I care, why would you think otherwise?"

"Dad doesn't"

Somehow Joel's problema always went back to the same person and that pained her. She didn't divorce Francisco cause she thought he was a bad man, let alone a bad father. Things just weren't the same and both of them had the right to be happy, just as much as her kids did.

"You dad cares Joel" she told him sternly "if you would just give him a chance, you guys used to be really close"

Joel turned to her "is that why you're forcing me to spend the summer with him? So I can give him a chance?"

"He is your father and he deserves to spend as much time with his kids as I do"

Joel looked back out the window in his side "We'll I'm sure him and Gabriel will have more than enough time to bond, I'm not planning to build a relationship anytime soon"

"Well, you're gonna have to weather you like it or not" she could've said more, but arguing with the teenager was useless.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. Gabriel woke up when they were pulling up on the bumpy driveway. His father lived right in the beach.. literally, his house was on top of the sand. Joel saw his dad standing on the lifted front porch waiving his hands in the car's direction.

"Dad" he heard Gabriel screaming from the back seat. As soon as the car came to a full stop, the youngest jumped out of the car as fast as he could and on to his dad's arms.

"At least pretend like you don't hate him" Joel hear his mother say before she turned off the engine and stepped out of the car as well. He sighed, grabbed his backpack and opened the door.