The Obscure Downsides of Fame

68 // put yourself first

"Uhm, hi," she said, her brows knitting in confusion. Did I forget to tell her my dad and I were cool again? Most likely. "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Mullen."

"High school friends?" he asked me, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Not those high school friends," I clarified, and my dad dropped it just like that. He trusted me. At least, he trusted me more than Mom did.

"I just came by to discuss something with your mother. She said she'd be here," he said.

"She isn't," I told him. "What were you gonna be talking about?"

He looked around, his eyes lingering on Ava for just a second before he looked back at me. "We'll talk about it later, okay? Don't worry about it," he said. Except the words actually made me worried about it. And I didn't even know what it was.

"Oh. Okay," I said.

"I'll wait in the kitchen," he said, but before he left I decided to ask him something.

"You haven't heard anything from Oakley, have you?"

"Did something happen?" he asked, a confused look on his face.

"He should've been here by now."

"He's probably just held up. Call him," he said, leaving the room.

"I'm gonna call him," I told Ava once my dad had left the room.

"So you aren't going to tell me how you and your dad aren't just having bi-monthly phone calls anymore?"

"There's not that much to it," I said. "The videos came out and he decided he wanted to be more involved, I guess."

"Oh. Well, you're happy with it, right?"

"I guess so," I said, shrugging it off. "I just really need to know where Oakley is right now." I pulled out my phone and called him, and surprisingly, he picked up on the first ring.

"I'm sorry! I'll be right there. Dr. Brennan wanted to do an assessment and he had a cancellation right after me so he said we could do it right away and I—"

"It's okay, Oakley. Are you on your way?"

"Yes, I'm on my way." I could hear him fumbling with his phone as he spoke.

"You're not driving right now, are you?"

"Look, I just bought this phone and forgot to connect it to my car so—"

"I'm gonna hang up before you end up crashing your car," I told him, already pulling my phone away from my ear until I heard him yell my name.

"Nolan, wait! Wait!"

"What is it?" I asked, hoping he'd be quick so he wouldn't drive into a tree or something.

"I love you," he said.

I rolled my eyes, but smiled anyway.

"I love you too, Dimple. But seriously I have to hang up before you get yourself killed, okay?"

"See ya!" he said, ending the call himself.