Present day...
"Eli you can call me if you need anything don't forget. If things get rough again you can crash in your room here." Declan was on the phone with Eli. Eli had to move back in his real house with his father. Earlier this week and Declan had to go out of state to help out with a major case. Eli wasn't ready to leave Declan's but the state reviewed there case and Luke looked like he had cleaned himself up and was in shape to receive custody back. Something never mentioned before, the state had temporarily signed Eli's custody over to Declan so Luke could have a chance of correcting anything that was wrong and not worry about taking care of his son. Eli wasn't ready to go back to public school either. Unavoidable were the two and they came sooner than Eli wanted and Monday morning Eli was up around six am getting ready for school and Luke was still asleep as he just got a new job and he didn't have to wake up until at least seven.
Eli still didn't trust Luke at all and when Eli returned home to his real house Luke and him sat down and had a conversation. It went a little like this...
"Hello Eli, you look good. How have you been?" Luke asked his son respectively.
"I'm good, I joined a band well they asked me too and I said yes." Eli responded quickly.
"Look Eli, we both know I was not the father I should have been when your mother passed away and I did some unforgettable things. I can't ask you to forgive me, nor can I ask you to trust me any time soon, but the one thing I ask of you is to let me try to be the father I should have been and used to be. I'm not saying forget last year, I want to learn from my mistakes and become a better person."
Eli stared at the man who is father in complete and utter shock of what he just said to Eli. Eli had no idea what to say, his mind and words escaped him. He struggled to think of something to say to Luke. Before Eli could say anything Luke stepped in again, "Just give me chance Eli, you don't have to say anything to me right now. With your school year starting back up shortly and I know we just got back settled in, I was maybe thinking to move out of this house and into a new one in your school district."
"Luke did you already find a place?' Is all Eli could think to ask.
Eli didn't even bother he didn't call him dad and his dad continued, "During the past few months it's were I had been living, living in this house brings back to many bad and horrible memories for me. I don't want to force you to move, but if you wouldn't mind we can move or not. I just need to know before the end of the week that's when I have to tell the owner if I'm going to actually buy the house or not."
Eli just ran up to his room feeling overwhelmed by everything. Eli's thoughts were racing all around his head as a fly buzzes about a room. They were fast and annoying. Eli began to have a mental conversation with himself.
"Why the hell is he doing this?"
I don't know, this house does bring a lot of bad memories back." He reasoned with himself.
"He couldn't have changed, how long will he play mister nice guy?"
"Eli hold yourself together, things will get better."
This went on for hours that night as Eli collapsed onto his bed in exhaustion and looked up at the blank ceiling. He was scared and afraid of what could happen at the same time he was hoping that his father had actually changed, however his worries replaced all his rational thoughts. Tonight was supposed to be a band practice for Anthem Falls but Eli told Jeremy that he couldn't make it tonight and he was sorry. Eli couldn't force himself to get out of bed at all after falling back onto it. The ceiling had a barely visible pattern that Eli noticed the longer and longer he continued to have his eyes directed at it. His mind kept playing that one night on the ceiling, the glass, blood, punches, pain, most hauntingly the opponent he faced that night; someone who he should never had to fight against for his life.
Climbing out the bed that was calling to him as soon as he left at 4:03 in the morning, he relieved himself and mindlessly crawled back into bed staring up at the ceiling trying to bury the past. The clock on the nightstand was antagonizing him as the minutes kept slowly passing by. Before he knew it he was on his phone watching a lame comedy to pass the time. His alarm clock went off at exactly seven in the morning and Eli rolled over and smacked his hand on the snooze button going back to sleep. A knock on his door refrained him from being able to fall back asleep.
"Time to get up Eli, you can't be late for your first day back to public school." A voice that haunted his nightmares sounded and then disappeared. Groaning and screaming into the pillow he slowly rolled out of bed and stumbled to his closest pulling out a band tee and pair of skinny jeans. He could have cared less about how he looked and the stereotype he was currently fulfilling as he grabbed a beanie off the ground and placed it on his head. The one thing he dreaded that he had to wear was his glasses as his contacts had run out as he had managed to never tell anyone that he wore glasses or contacts.
Running downstairs, grabbing shoes and running to his truck Eli had managed to get to school in a somewhat safely and on time manner. Stepping on the school grounds everyone's eyes were focused on Eli and he should have expected this with his band Anthem Falls becoming increasingly popular. On YouTube their channel was almost to five hundred thousand subscribers, half a million subscribers. Most people in Eli's state knew who Anthem Falls was and Eli just kept his head low as he walked into school and to the office to get his schedule and lock assignments.
"Eli Carter" he spoke concisely.
"Ah Mr. Carter, nice to have you back. The principal would like to see you before you when to your first period class today so when you're ready you may go see him." The secretary informed him and went back to his work leaving Eli to drift towards the office within the office. Eli knock slightly on the door before it swung open and he was ushered in and the door closed almost as soon as it was opened to allow Eli admission into the office.
"Eli, how are you?" the conversation started out civil.
"I'm okay and you sir?"
"I'm great, thanks for asking. Now this is why I wanted to talk to you before you assimilated back into the school atmosphere..."
Two words that Eli dreaded almost as much as hearing her name. YOUR FATHER. The conversation ended with Eli pissed right off his principal and that led him to storming out of the office slamming Mr. Dovern's door hard. Eli found his locker and kicked that when he couldn't get it to open, giving up Eli walked into the bathroom before heading to first period so he could calm himself down before breaking down in the beginning of school on his first day back. After the end of first period he walked out of the bathroom calm and collect walking to his next class. Mr. Dovern figured that Eli wouldn't show to his first class he gave his history teacher a heads up and he called his therapist and asked if he could come into the school to talk to a kid, Eli already knew that he was doing this and that was something that majorly angered Eli. Having gym second period of the day sucked although at the moment playing kickball was a nice stress releaser for him. Kicking the ball let him direct his anger and the running the bases helped him to forget and focus on running not his messed up life.
"Hey dude!"
Eli looked over his shoulder. John Walters was actually acknowledging Eli.
"Hey man what's up?" he responded ever so casually like old friends.
"So my parent's are having a sweet sixteen party for my little sister and she was wondering if your band Anthem Falls would play. My parents would pay you guys nice. Also..."
Eli cut him off there.
"I'll talk to Jeremy and the rest, but I personally would say count on us coming."
John thanked Eli and then went back to his conversation about football with Evan and Matt.
Eli's thoughts were confusing and he shut his locker as the bell rang and walked to this third period technology class. He liked this class. At the moment they were doing isometric drawings of whatever they wanted. When he first started the class he had major problems with hidden lines and the different views as it differed from three-dimensional drawings in regular art classes and normal drawings.
The rest of the day flew by and before Eli knew it he had successfully assimilated back into the highschool scene. He made the journey over to Izzy's and Jeremy's house. Eli turned the truck off and pulled the key out before opening his door and walking silently up the house. Right before he was about to knock the door flew open and Izzy was walking out and walked into Eli as she was furiously talking on the phone. He steadied her and then let her walk around shouting that she shouldn't drive if she's mad. Izzy walked past her car and down the street and he down to the band's room in the basement. The guys were already down there and fooling around. Eli announced his presence by singing the song that was playing on the radio. At the chorus he sung,
"It just takes some time, little girl, you're in the middle of the ride. Everything, everything will be just fine..." Jeremy picked up the guitar and began playing along setting everyone else in motion and before they all knew it they were playing The Middle by Jimmy Eat World as a band. Eli smiled and knew this was a keeper.
"So over at my school this dude Josh asked me if the band would play at his sisters party and I told him I would love to, however I'd talk to the band about it."
"Hell ya, the more publicity we get we could actually make it. Also, you mentioned pay too."
The other members agreed with Jeremy and then for the rest of the night they experimented with new songs to do for the party The Middle was number one on the new set list. By ten, the new set list contained the songs:
The Middle by Jimmy Eat World
Dani California by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Dear X (You Don't Own Me) by Disciple
Better Off This Way by A Day To Remember
Loverboy (acoustic) by You Me At Six
People Live Here by Rise Against
The list wasn't complete but for band practice they did good and set up the band practice schedule before Eli began to drive himself home. He had texted Luke awhile ago saying that he was at band practice and wouldn't be home until around 11 and didn't need dinner so he didn't have to wait around for Eli. Driving home he was singing the chorus of the Rise Against song. He had to admit it was pretty catchy and when he got home he looked up the chords to it. Today might have been the day he picked up his guitar that sat in the corner of his room doing it's best at collecting dust.
His fingers touched the guitar's Maplewood neck and the memories hit him like a train. He pulled his hand back as if he touched the stove. The eyes of his dead mother flashed before his eyes. The hazel color burning in his sight, he shut his eyes stumbling backwards. The cold skin, motionless body, the lifeless eyes haunted his thoughts. Thoughts of the coffee shop pierced his thoughts. He had it still, he needed to get out and he ran there. The waitress was the one who tried to strike a conversation with Eli so many months ago. She gave him a look and then disappeared as he sat at his usual corner booth seat. Bringing out a hot chocolate she knew better this time than to try to talk to him as she set the drink down and walked away, thanks, she heard him mutter and she smiled. His brain was wired and before he knew it he was chucking the mug of hot chocolate across the café. Overwhelmed with fear, he felt like he was going crazy, he needed to escape from reality. He didn't notice his heart was pounding inside his chest, he did happened to notice his stomach clenched up on him. Scared with what was happening he huddled under the table breaking down. The waitress knew exactly what he was going through at the moment and went over to help him. Little less than an hour later he had a blanket wrapped around his body and was asleep in her car. The little Toyota Rav 4 sped along the streets and began to slow as she approached his neighbor hood and eventually found the house that matched the address he gave her. Parking in the driveway she walked up to the house and knocked on the door.
Lights were on so she assumed someone was up. Zoe was greeted with a half awake middle aged man. "What?" he muttered. She explained what happened and the two carried Eli up to his room. She gave him her number and explained that she had to get home. He thanked her for bringing his son home, hiding his emotions until he shut the door. "That little (chose whatever swear word you find fits)!" he was going to barge into Eli's room before he decided not too and turned to his friend Alcohol to make him forget his dead wife.
Before that night Luke had no clue that Stacy had left the café to Eli instead of him and was outraged. Yet his anger management classes had paid off and he forgot how well alcohol had tasted. The next morning Eli got up and got ready for school while yawning like every five minutes. He walked downstairs and found his father passed out in the recliner with a bottle in his hand and a few on the floor. Shaking his head he carefully avoided waking up Luke and headed to school earlier than normal to avoid dealing with a drunk or hung over Luke.
Heading to his locker he looked at the shirt he threw on today. While Eli was looking down at the Blink 182 band shirt he had on his father was waking up and groggily walking into the kitchen to find a pain reliever to kill his major headache. A sharp pain in his lower back would trouble Luke more than he thought it would in the end. Climbing the stairs finally he got into the shower which helped to wake him up and get rid of the alcohol stench he was covered in.
Later that day Eli was sitting in the middle of lunch and suddenly got up throwing away his food, he had lost his appetite after reading the text he received. Luke not caring what class Eli was in and he texted his son acknowledging the fact that Eli had forgotten to mention something about his late mothers café. Eli returned to his seat and deleted the text as if he never saw it. His father would not ruin his life he told himself not knowing that one-day things could ever be so different.
Eli headed to his next class and Luke managed to call into work sick. He lied saying that he was asleep earlier that morning because all night he had been puking his guts up. Eli was right about one thing when he came back into Eli's life. The crackling empty noises of a radio with no station or the lack of change, known as static.
Luke had gotten another job from a company that his anger management class teacher had gotten him affiliated with. To the company he was the perfect worker who may have had some problems in the past, but picked himself up and moved on. They didn't know that he had a son, the company didn't know that just over a year ago he had lost his wife, this was the perfect second chance that Luke was offered, but was about to throw all of it away because of his dead wife's choices. Laid up in bed for the rest of the day Luke slept until he heard the garage door shut and the house door open. His least favorite person was home and he wanted to have a little discussion with him.
"Eli Taylor Carter!" he screamed.
Eli froze, a shiver ran up and down his spin and he flinched. Gulping he ascended the steps. "Hi Luke."
"Don't you dare start with that." Luke said letting his anger get the best of him.
"With..." Eli was abruptly cut off.
"How dare you not tell me about Insomniac's, the café's name, you little shit. For over a year you kept this a secret from me and your going to pay for that, since your only seventeen I can legally take it over, and I'm letting you know that it will never be yours."
Eli looked at the man he knew as a father or rather a person he was forced to live with.