Chapter 20: Music Festival
The day of the music festival was the day Mom wouldn't stop with the text after text, telling me about all the music schools that were here in Spruceworth that we could try talking to in order to get information about registration and auditions.
I didn't reply to her at all and now, I didn't want to go to the music festival so I wouldn't have to worry about running into her and her forcing me to talk to the schools anyway. But I didn't want this day to be ruined for me. I loved music and the festival sounded amazing. I didn't want to miss out on my first one.
I was either going to have to do a lot of avoiding or figure out someway to finally get it through my mom's mind that I was perfectly happy in Spruceworth.
Though the latter seemed quite impossible so I was going to have to go with the avoiding option. At least Grant told me there were going to be a lot of people there so maybe it wouldn't be so hard avoiding my mom.
And Fred. I was going to have to avoid him too because after the run-in with him at the previous musical rehearsal, I realized he was just an annoying piece of crap.
I wasn't too worried about running into Fred, though, since I was going to be with Grant the whole time and Grant definitely had a way of getting people annoyed.
I would know. He may be my boyfriend but he loved annoying me all the time.
The festival was such a beautiful sight right now. Colourful lights were strung across all the buildings, and as of now jazz music was being heard throughout the streets. Tables of food, drinks, and other sorts of things were lined up as well.
"You know what I love the most about being the mayor's grandson?" Grant asked as he was handed two cinnamon rolls before he gave me one of them. "All the free food handouts. My grandpa even told all the merchants to give his grandchildren and great-grandchildren free food."
"But... The sign by the cinnamon rolls table literally says One Free Roll Per Person," I pointed out.
"Yes, I can read, Ollie," Grant said. "I just like feeling important. Don't ruin it for me."
"Well, you really are important," I said, kissing his cheek.
Grant only scowled and wiped the kiss away. "Ew, gross, cheesiness. I don't do cheesiness."
"Sure you don't. So what should we do?"
"Well, I've been hearing the jazz music play for a while now so I kind of want to find where the stage is and just relax to the music."
"As long as my mom isn't there, that sounds great."
The stage where all the performances were going to be was close to The Gold Mine; where the largest road of Spruceworth was. Not too many people drove through Spruceworth unless they were heading off somewhere or were arriving here so that road was always available for use.
I was keeping an eye out for my mom the whole time but I hadn't seen her yet so maybe I could actually have fun during the festival without worrying about seeing her.
I did spot someone I would rather not see, however. Hennessy was standing close to the stage with Wilbur and a woman who had a stroller set in front of her; Hennessy and Grant's mom, I was guessing.
Wilbur spotted us and before Hennessy or his mom could stop him, he hurried over with a huge smile on his face. "Grant!" he said, throwing his arm around his older brother. "I haven't seen you in so long!"
"You saw me two days ago at the musical rehearsal," Grant said.
Wilbur frowned. "That's not the same as seeing you every day like when you were living with me."
Grant sighed. "I know. I wished there was something I could do so you could see me a lot more but I doubt that's going to happen."
"It's not fair," Wilbur muttered right as Hennessy and their mom walked over.
"What do you want?" Grant asked the both of them. "To yell at me more? Call me selfish yet again? Remind me that I'm a failure? Whatever it is, I'm not interested in hearing it."
Grant's mom basically paid no attention to Grant. She just looked at Wilbur instead. "Come on, Wilbur. We're going to check out some of the booths by the grocery store."
"Why can't I spend time with Grant?" Wilbur asked. "You never let me see him and he didn't do anything wrong."
"We're not going to talk about this right now," Grant's mom said.
"You're not going to talk about it at all," Wilbur said. "I don't want to be kept away from my own brother. It's not fair that I can't see him because of some stupid love triangle."
"Wilbur, that isn't the only reason why Grant doesn't live with us anymore," Grant's mom said. "There are a lot more reasons that you're too young to know about."
Grant looked at Wilbur and I could tell he was about to tell Wilbur everything despite it being clear their mom didn't want Wilbur to know. "She thinks I'm going to end up like Dad," Grant said. "And how I'm already close to it because I had a slight drug addiction."
"Grant," his mom said in a warning tone.
Grant just tipped an imaginary hat on top of his head, giving his mom a smile before grabbing my hand and pulling me away from his family. We found a bench and once we were sitting, Grant sighed, his smug smile fading to a look of upset.
"You doing okay?" I asked.
"As okay as I could be," Grant said. "I've basically come to the conclusion that my mom is never going to see me as anything but my dad. She won't see me as me and because of that, she'll never forgive me for things I didn't even do. I better get used to not seeing my family as often."
"Grant, don't say that," I said. "There must be something you can do to get your mom to change her mind."
"That's the thing," Grant said. "I shouldn't be the one trying to change my mom's mind. I shouldn't be the one having to do all the effort to show her that I'm my own person. She's my mom. She should already know that I'm not like the person she thinks I am but she doesn't. So I don't see why I'm the one who has to try to convince her otherwise. Look, I know I may seem upset but I'm fine."
I knew he wasn't but I didn't know what else I could do or say to help Grant out with this situation.
It wasn't like I could say something anyway. Fred and his two friends suddenly walked over to us, all three of them looking as conceited as they could. "I'm surprised to see you here, Oliver," Fred said. "Isn't all of this just a reminder of how much of a failure you are?"
"Not really, no," I said. "But thank you for the consideration."
"I wasn't being considerate," Fred said.
"Well, why else would you go out of your way just to ask that?" I asked. "Do I still have a huge impact on your life?"
Fred snorted and crossed his arms. "Actually, yes. You impacted me in a way to remind me exactly what I shouldn't do if I actually want to do well in life."
"Yes, because doing well in life means going out of your way to try to belittle someone," Grant said. "I'll keep that in mind whenever I want to do well in life."
"I wasn't talking to you," Fred said.
"Well, that's how conversations start," Grant said. "Ollie wasn't talking to you but you still spoke to him."
"Why are you standing up to someone like him anyway?" Fred asked.
"He must be as much as a failure as Oliver," the guy friend said.
"Probably," Fred said. "After all, birds of a species flock together."
"It's feather," Grant said. "Birds of a feather flock together. If you're going to use an idiom, at least use it correctly if you don't want to sound vacuous."
"Ooh, someone's using big boy words," Fred said. "Trying to sound all intelligent."
"You're right, I am," Grant said. "And how does this sound as an intelligent sentence? The music festival is such a big deal here. If you really showcase your talent, you can be accepted into an orchestra after you graduate from the conservatory. So it would be such a shame if the mayor banned certain people, namely you three, from performing at the festival."
"Oh, right, because you can totally convince the mayor to do that," Fred said.
Grant said. "I might be able to. After all, the mayor is a huge family person and will do anything for his family members and their loved ones. So just imagine what would happen if you three were really irritating one of the mayor's grandsons. Oh, by the way, we haven't officially met. Hi, my name is Grant Simms. The grandson of Mayor Simms."
Fred narrowed his eyes at Grant. "You're bluffing."
"He's really not," I said. "You could go to the Spruceworth website and under the information of the mayor is a family picture where you'll see Grant."
"Yes, so if you want to stay at the festival, I suggest you back off because trust me..." Grant stood up from the bench. "Getting you banned from performing isn't the only thing I do. If you don't leave me or my boyfriend alone, I will make your life a living hell."
I was honestly proud of Grant from holding off on the threatening side for as long as he did. He probably only turned to it just to end the argument.
However, Fred was backing down for once. "I'd like to see you try."
I stood up from the bench as well and gently grabbed Grant's arm. "He'll be gone from here when the weekend ends. It's not worth it."
"It will be once I beat the living crap out of him," Grant muttered as I pulled him away.
"You're not going to," I said. "Yes, he's annoying but you really can go for the option of telling your grandfather to ban him from performing."
"Nah, I only said that to scare him," Grant said. "My grandpa really will do it if I ask but I'm not going to let some feud get in the way of Fred's musical career. He got into the conservatory for a reason."
"Awe, you really do have a heart inside of you," I said.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm a nice guy," Grant said. "I'm still waiting for my kiss."
"For what?"
"Uh, for being your boyfriend? Do I need a reason for a kiss?"
I rolled my eyes and was about to kiss him but I got interrupted when I heard the one person I wanted to avoid say my name. I guessed if I really wanted to avoid my mom, I shouldn't have been in the same place for too long.
"I've been looking everywhere for you," Mom said. "There's a headmaster from one of the best music schools in British Columbia that's here and is willing to talk to you about an audition."
"Mom, I keep telling you, I don't want to go to another music school," I said.
Mom didn't reply yet. She just looked at Grant and said, "Can you give us a moment?" Grant nodded and stepped aside so he wouldn't be present during this conversation. Mom then replied to me. "Oliver, you need this. You need a music school for your talents. You can't throw them away."
"I'm not," I said. "I still play the piano every day. I'm working on one of the world's most difficult piano pieces ever. I'm in the orchestra for the school musical. I'm happy here. I want to stay here."
"Want and need are different things," Mom said.
"Okay, then I both want and need to stay here," I said.
"You don't need to stay in Spruceworth," Mom said.
"No, I'm pretty sure I do," I said, debating on whether or not I should tell Mom the truth just to get her off my back. I quickly decided against it when I reminded myself that if I tell her, she would only turn against my dad even more and she wouldn't get off my back at all.
"Really?" Mom asked. "And what is here that you need to stay for?"
"Grant," I said.
"Long distance relationships exist."
"Dad."
"You can still see him from time to time."
"My other friends."
"Again, long distance exists."
"Stability. My life is stable for once."
"Yes, and it will be at a music school with strict authoritative figures. There isn't anything you need to stay here for."
"Yes, there is," I said, feeling the irritation start to rise since she wasn't listening to me at all. That wasn't anything new, though. I should be used to it but I wasn't.
"Oliver, there is a clear difference between want and need," Mom said. "All of those things are why you want to stay here, not need."
"Oh, yeah?" I asked. "And my sponsor living here is the one reason why I need to stay here. He won't be able to sponsor me if I don't live here in Spruceworth."
I said all of that before I could even stop myself but it was no surprise it came out. It had to sooner or later with Mom's constant pushing.
"Sponsor?" Mom repeated. "As in... A music sponsor? To help you get a career in music?"
The hope in Mom's voice made it difficult for me to shake my head but I did. I couldn't lie to her. She would only find out the truth in the end so now was the time for her to know about me being an alcoholic.
Mom said nothing to me in reply. Her reaction was just to walk away which cued Grant to walk back over to me. "What just happened?" he asked.
"I let it slip that I had a sponsor," I said. "She didn't say anything and I have no idea where she's going."
"You think she's going to actually support you through this?" Grant asked.
"I hope so but I'm smart enough to know that's not the case," I said. "Whatever she's planning on doing, I just want to forget about it now and enjoy the festival."
"And you couldn't have chosen a better time to say that," Grant said. "The jazz band finished."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "So...?"
"So now it's time for some karaoke," Grant said before he walked towards the stage.
I was still confused but I soon got my answer. The mayor was on the stage, introducing the karaoke portion of the festival. He also had a list in front of him and when he called Grant up as the first singer, I guessed it was the name of people who signed up.
Grant had already chosen the song and it was appearing on the screen set up beside the stage. He didn't even have to look at the music to sing and I was actually having a fun time listening to him sing. I didn't know why I've never heard him sing before but I really loved his voice.
He was a very talented singer and he definitely had the stage presence.
I even spotted Hennessy standing with her family, and she was singing along to it, looking as if she was genuinely enjoying her brother singing to the song. There had to be some part of her, even a small part, that missed spending time with her brother.
Maybe there was some way to fix Grant's family situation.
When the song ended, everyone applauded and some even cheered as Grant bowed and put the microphone back in its stand. He then got off the stage and walked over to me where I pulled him into a hug. "That was amazing," I said. "I wish I knew you could sing like that."
"Well, now you do know," Grant said. "By the way, that song was dedicated to you."
"Awe, how sweet," I said, smiling at him before giving him a kiss. Spending time with Grant was definitely one of the main things that helped me take my mind of anything negative that was happening.
And right now, I really needed it because I didn't know how rapidly my life was going to start going downhill.
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can grant be my boyfriend pls? i need a grant. he's so soft and ugh i need to stop creating these expectations for boyfriends and girlfriends.
my writing helps me feel more lonely ahahaha. i love life.
at least i have food to keep me company :)