Sleepwalking // Sam Fender

28

Sam's dad was in town and Sam had tried every single excuse that he could come up with in order not to see him. But his father was staying for long enough to run out of excuses.

Sam and I were in his car, with Elliott in the back seat as Beth had stayed at Shirley's. Sam said that it would be better off this way. Later, Shirley explained that Sam's father was actually a good man but that him and Sam had too much in common. All I knew is that Sam was wearing his best outfit and told me to put on one of my dresses. He even ended up choosing a red tight dress with black heels. He was wearing a white shirt with black formal trousers. And he decided that Elliott was going to wear his dungaree with a white bodysuit underneath.

The car ride was silent as Sam didn't bother to turn the radio on. That silence was interrupted from time to time by Elliott's baby sounds. Sam parked in front of a fancy restaurant on the outskirts of Newcastle, and then lit himself a cigarette.

"Are you nervous, love?" Sam had stopped smoking as much as he used to do. Now he had his occasional cigarrete whenever he felt uneasy.

"I'm alright, Liz, don't worry" He kissed my forehead before taking a puff.

I turned to look at the inside of the restaurant from the large windows in which its name was written. I quickly spotted a man that looked exactly like Sam, and a consequence, as Elliott. The baby was in his stroller, babbling and making sounds to himself and Sam scanned him while finishing the cigarette.

"Alright" Sam sighed as soon as he was done smoking. "Let's go" He rubbed his hands in his trousers before opening the door for us. He then led us to the table where the man that I had previously seen was sat by himself.

"Hey" Sam said to the man, who was busy reading the menu. When he heard Sam, he looked up.

"Hello, son" The man stood up and shook Sam's hand.

"This is Alice" His father greeted me. "And this is Elliott" Sam's father raised his eyebrows.

"I am a grandfather now, aye?" He smiled wide as he kneeled down to talk to the baby. I stared at Sam in disbelief as our kid was eight months old and Sam's father had only found out today.

Sam was looking down, clearly uncomfortable. "Alice, he is my dad, Alan"

"Aye" His dad sat down again and offered us a seat.

We sat down in front of Alan, with Elliott by our side in his own little chair. Elliott was a blessing, and you could just give him you napkin and he would be entertained the entire meal.

"So" Alan pointed to Elliott. "How did this happen?" I heard Sam sigh so I started talking first.

"Sam and I decided that it was time to have our own kid since I had one myself and Sam was already like a father to her" I quickly said.

"You already have one kid?" He lifted his eyebrows and nodded slowly. I blushed in embarrassment. "How long had you two been before the child happened?"

"We were not... actually... together" Sam said in almost a whisper.

"Great" Alan lifted his eyebrows once again in disapproval, so we took the chance to look through the menu and order our food and drinks.

"How have you been, dad?" Sam asked him.

"I have been alright. Paris has everything that Newcastle needs" Sam nodded once again and took a long sip of his beer.

"Are you working, lass?" I knew why he was asking this question, he wanted to check if Sam was gaining a lot of money and I was simply living of Sam's money.

"Yeah, I opened an animal shelter around Durham and it's going really well, actually" I gave him a smile, which he didn't bother to return. Instead, he turned to Sam.