Challenge (MxM) (COMPLETED)

Chapter Forty One- Family Dinners

Elian stands awkwardly, and it seems like he doesn't want to be here anymore than we want him to be. My father must've convinced him to come. After our last conversation I was sure that he'd leave us alone.

"Please refrain from insulting my guest. After all, I've decided to be quite kind to you." My dad tells Noel.

Noel opens his mouth, probably to say something rude, so I tap his thigh with one finger, making him shut it again.

"Let's just eat." I announce.

"Of course." He agrees. We eat in silence for a minute before he speaks again. "I'm glad to see that your business is still doing well despite that scandal with your secret club."

"No thanks to you, no doubt. I find it awfully ironic that you sold your shares in my company just the day before that story went public on tv. I wonder why that was." I say, being as passive aggressive as I can.

I don't want to upset my mother, but I know he had something to do with it. Especially now that he and Elian are clearly working together. Elian was out to get Noel, claiming that he wanted me back, but that's obviously not the case anymore.

"I didn't think you wanted me to have anything to do with your company anymore. I know I wasn't the best dad, Dax, but you're my son. I love you and I'm willing to get over everything if we can just try to mend this rift between us."

I stare at him while he talks, seeing the emotions in his eyes. He seems to be genuine, but I know better. He's never going to change. I've seen that look a thousand times, and every time it's a lie.

"Yeah. Do you remember that time in 7th grade where my English teacher sent home a note asking me to write an essay to be published in the paper?" I ask, and my dad smiles.

"Yeah. Yeah, you asked me what you should write about and I told you everything I know about economics so that you could write a great essay."

"And we worked on it together for the whole week. We made it all perfect and you told me how to phrase things and what information to put in it. We spent so much time together and it was the happiest week of my life." I tell him, feeling my eyes tear up.

He tilts his head as if to ask why I'm getting emotional about it. I'm not surprised he doesn't remember.

"You remember the day I was supposed to turn it in, you wanted to read over it one last time and you did. You noticed I changed the title. It wasn't what you told me to put, and you got so angry at me. You tore it up into pieces and threw it in the trash."

"Dax, now is not the time-"

I laugh bitterly and take another bite of the pasta. "Yeah well I think it's the perfect time actually. Don't you want your new boyfriend to know what kind of person you are? I think I forgot to mention all of this when we were engaged."

"Sweetie-" my mom starts, but I cut her off too.

"Do you also remember how I started crying because you ruined it. I wrote it all by hand so it wasn't saved anywhere and that was the last day to turn it in. All the hard work I did went to waste, but you yelled at me because men shouldn't cry."

"Can't we just eat?" He snaps at me.

"You took your belt off and beat me with it until I stopped crying." I tell him, looking him in the eye while I take a little sip of the water my mom set out for me.

"Or the time when I was a freshman in highschool. You and mom started going to couples counseling, and you came home a changed man. You swore you'd never lay a finger on me again, but I came out of the closet two weeks later and you hit me so hard I got a concussion and threw me down the stairs so I broke my arm too."