Lost in their Past

Chapter 17:-Broken Joker

"That's not you, dumbass," Dawn said. "It's your father and Ash's father."

"Red and blue?" He asked.

"How would I know?" She exclaimed, "I overheard some things when they were yelling from the living room."

Gary then playfully examined other pictures, "What else did you overhear?"

Dawn snickered, "My mom wants me to keep my distance from you."

Gary subconsciously nodded, "That won't be a problem."

Dawn looked a little hurt but agreed, "True, it won't be a problem."

She went over towards the piano which was shining so brightly that one could've suspected it to be a mirror. The piano only had one picture frame on it, Dawn picked it up and examined it. It depicted a wedding in what looked like an underground bunker. It showed James, who looked pretty much like Ash, walking down the aisle with a pretty brunette in a mermaid shaped wedding dress. Beside them was a girl with dark brown hair draped in what looked like a pink knee-length dress, Dawn suspected her to be Serena's mother because the knives around her waist gave them away. Besides her was Gary's dad, he was wearing a black tuxedo just like James. Dawn found him stealing glances at the girl in the pink dress, which was strange.

"Hey, isn't this your dad?" Dawn asked Gary, who at the time was examining another photograph.

"If he looks like me, then hell yeah." He replied.

Dawn groaned, "Come here, you idiot!"

Gary scoffed and walked towards her with his hand in his pockets. He snatched the picture from Dawn's hand to which she said 'asshole'. He lazily looked at it and handed the picture back to her.

"Yeah, he is," He said.

Dawn grunted, "That's not why I called you dumbass! Look at his eyes."

"They're viridian...?"

Dawn smacked his head, "Uh boys, look at the way he's looking at Grace."

Gary twisted his lips and cursed beneath his breath, he then paid closer attention to the picture. Charlus was looking at Grace like he saw what she really was. Gary frowned, "And it's unusual because...?"

Dawn wailed as she grabbed Gary's hand and dragged him to the picture wall. "Come on," She said. Once they got there, Dawn looked at them gravely, as if she was trying to find something, after a minute or two, she said, "Look here!" She pointed at a picture with showed a young Charlus, giving a piggyback ride to a blue-haired girl. "I overheard them talking, they used to date."

Gary looked disgusted, not knowing where she was leading with, he said, "What are you trying to say?"

She mentally facepalmed herself, "I'm telling you that your father looked at Grace with an affection that he never looked at my mother with. It's almost like tha-"

"No offense," Gary cut her in between. "My father abandoned me for fifteen years of my life, so I really don't care about him. I cared about my mom and she isn't in any of these pictures."

Dawn argued, "But he looks so sad and lonely! As a son shouldn't you be-"

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Gary snapped. "I don't fucking care!"

Dawn's nostrils fumed in anger, she balled her fists and yelled, "No wonder my mother loathes you." She turned back abruptly and left.

Gary then sank on the sofa and grabbed a handful of his hair. She was trying to be friendly and Gary was being an asshole. He did care about his father, that being the sole reason he came when he called suddenly. He didn't know why he pretended not to care, the truth was, he cared as hell. 

He joked around because he didn't want people to know why broken he was, joking was a good way to hide the pain, he'd learned that over the years.

He wasn't fond of Ash when they were kids, only because he had a mother. Delia Ketchum was the most loving mother ever, Gary was jealous, he outdid Ash in almost everything. Then why couldn't his father love him the way Delia did? For years Gary had wondered what he'd done that made his father leave him, he'd spent many sleepless nights, crying in his pillow to hide the noises.

And when he finally saw his father again, all those things that he thought he would say to him sounded useless, because Dawn was right. Charlus looked haggard, almost as if he was heartsick. Gary wanted his father to find someone so that he could be the cheerful person he was in the photos. As for Gary, he would continue to be the Playboy he was and die alone, like he was meant to be.

Like the broken joker, he was.