Exchanging Feelings (Phan)

16. Your forever is all that I need

Time skip. 1 week later.

Dan was taking a shower; I was in my bedroom, lazily checking things on the internet. Grace was taking too long to reply to a message so I scrolled down Facebook. The news about my dad kept showing up there. Things were getting worse, I could see that, but I was trying to keep control. Dan kept saying I couldn’t believe everything on the internet, that I should call my father or my mother and ask them myself… But I didn’t think they’d say anything. They’d hide it all from me.

Luckily I was just about to go meet my father. He had arrived in London that morning. According to him, he had some meetings there. That was ridiculous. My dad didn’t need to go to Europe for work. I was pretending I believed what he said though. He wasn’t going just because he missed me, no, that was for sure. We would meet for only half an hour, at 5pm. Also, if he was going just to see me, he would probably want to go there get to know my host family, my new house, but no. He didn’t.

I’d obviously not tell him about Dan. I’d go alone, so I could ask my dad what was happening.

I saw Dan going back to his bedroom, which meant I could go take a shower too. Honestly, I was extremely worried about my dad, I was just not letting Dan know about it. I didn’t want him to worry about /me/, so I kept it all to myself. I had already planned everything I’d tell my dad, the words I’d use, everything. I wanted to sound confident. I wanted to show him that I wasn’t the boy he ‘knew’ anymore. I’d wear jeans, but I chose my best shirt, one that I hadn’t worn before. I had some social clothes my parents bought me for the parties they forced me to go. I thought it would be good to bring at least one of those shirts with me, because… well, you never know. My dad was always wearing suits and everything, and he always said he was still waiting for me to become a man and wear proper clothes instead of jumpers and stuff. I never cared about his opinions, but for some reasons, I cared that day. I wanted him to be proud of me… even though I knew it wasn’t going to happen, I could try.

“Wow, are you sure you’re going to Starbucks?” Dan stood at the door gap. I didn’t know for how long he was there watching me as I straightened my hair.

“It’s not the place that matters, but the person I’m going to meet” I said as he hugged me from behind, placing his hands on my hips.

“You look so freaking wearing this shirt” he said, making eye contact with me through the mirror.

“No, I just look like a serious and emotional stable person” I giggled; blushing a bit because of his compliment. I just couldn’t help it.

“Do you really need to wear this just to meet your dad? I mean, he’s still your dad”

“You don’t know him, Dan… this is just something that will help me get some information from him”

“I wish I could meet him… I mean, you know my parents, you live with them, but I haven’t met yours… I know it’s difficult but still…” He sat down on my bed. I was almost ready to go.

“Dan, if there’s something in this world that you can be sure about, is that you don’t want to meet my parents. Imagine material and egocentric people, who only think about money and social status.”

“What do you think they’d say if you told them about me?” he asked quietly.

“They’d probably say I’m not their son anymore or something like that” I pecked his lips as I got my wallet and phone. “Really, you don’t want to meet them. Maybe someday you will, but for now I think it’s better if we pretend I don’t actually have any dad or mum”

“I see… Grace is already waiting for us”

Grace picked us up there. He’d drop me at Starbucks and they’d go to Bertie’s apartment.