15. Elijah #2
She pointed her finger right at me and came in close.
Aubrey was tall for a girl, so we were almost face-to-face.
“I don’t know what you are thinking about doing with my little sister, but if you fuck with her, I will kill you.
I don’t care how important you are to Lincoln.
Brielle is my everything. She has been hurt and broken in worse ways than you could ever imagine, and she doesn’t need some fuckboy messing with her peace.
If you ever make her anything but happy, I will murder you and hide the body. Got it?”
I nodded. I was too scared to utter a single word.
I had been trying not to message Brielle too much in the last week because I didn’t want to seem needy, but today, missing her won.
How is painting going? Have you finished it yet?
MP
It is going great. I am loving how it’s coming out.
What is it for again? My memory is absolute and utter shit lol
MP
We have our final showcase in May. It is actually the day after the engagement party. (Don’t forget you have to be there if possible.) We are doing anonymous paintings.
I will be there with bells on. So what do you mean, anonymous? How does that work?
MP
We won't know who did what, and the buyer, if we are lucky enough to get one, won't know who created it until after it is purchased. I think it’s kinda cool.
That sounds really cool. Maybe I can come to your showcase since I'll be in town already.
MP
I would love that.
Then I’ll be there.
MP
Can’t wait.
“Hey, Elijah. Where do you want this to go?”
I looked up and saw Perry, one of our roadies, holding my microphone. “On stage is fine. Thanks.”
“I got you, bro.” He froze and stared at me. My eyebrows rose in surprise. “Yeah, I don’t know why I said it like that.” He chuckled.
“No worries…bro.” We both laughed hysterically.
I got up and went to the stage for the sound check. Everything went as smoothly as it could have. But Owen kept staring me down, and not in a good way. When we finished and returned to the bus to get ready, I finally got sick of the stares.
“Did I kill your goldfish or something?”
Owen shot me a dirty look. He knew what I was asking, so he didn’t even bother to ask me to explain. “How’s Dad?”
“You should call him.”
“Why?”
“He’s…different.”
“Sure he is.” Owen started gathering his things to get off the bus. He huffed and turned back to me. “Why did you have to go see him?”
“‘Cause he’s dying, asshole.”
He threw a granola bar at my head and missed. “Yeah, no shit.”
“What are you five? Cut the shit. What is your problem?”
“You make me feel like a piece of shit every time you are telling people about him. I didn’t even know he had gotten a transplant. Fucking Beck knew before I did.”
That made me tense up. “I didn’t know you wanted to know.”
I didn’t tell him because he told me not to. He told me he didn’t care what I did and didn’t do when it came to our dad and that he wanted nothing to do with him.
I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I told him the latest on what had been happening. “My mom donated half her liver to him. and now they are both recovering.”
He looked shocked. “Your mom? The woman who he beat and abandoned gave him her liver?”
“A piece of it, yeah. Dad stopped drinking years ago. He and my mom reconnected when he was going through the steps for AA. The ninth step is making amends. It took her a while to agree to meet up with him, but my mom, her husband, and Dad are actually really close now. They have been for years, according to my mom.” I paused.
“My mom was the one who reached out to me and told me he was sick.”
He looked like he had more questions but was hesitant.
“Ask me whatever you want. It hasn’t been long since we’ve started talking again, and it is not even close to what I would call better between him and me, but we’re trying.”
He looked down at the ground. “I want to see him, but then again, I don’t. I’m afraid him being back in my life will fuck with me too much.”
“That’s a fair fear. It took me a while to decide, too. I think it was months before I decided to go. I only went because of Brielle.”
He smiled. “She's good for you, ya know. I've noticed it in the little things.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I said embarrassed.
His smile fell a little. “Is Dad…okay?”
“He’s recovering. My mom is doing really well, but Dad is on a lot of anti-rejection medication, and it’s been really hard on his stomach.
I will see him again soon. I am hoping for May, but it will probably be when we finish the tour.
I don’t know if I will get back there before then, but I would like to.
” I looked down at my phone and saw it was almost time to be in the Pre VIP lounge or whatever the fuck they were calling it now.
“I have to attend virtual family therapy with my mom tomorrow. I usually give myself a day to compartmentalize how that went, and then I check on Dad the day after that. Do you want to be with me when I call him next?”
“Nah, I don’t think so, not yet. But maybe when you go see him in person. Could I come with you then?”
“If you really want to, yeah. If you want alone time to talk with him, we can do that too. However you want to do it is fine with me, Bro.”
He walked by me to grab the granola bar he had thrown a few minutes earlier, and when he stood back up, he hugged me. “Love you, Lijah.”
I chuckled and hugged him back. “You haven’t called me that since we were little.”
“I know, just go with it. I am trying to hold it together and not to cry like a little girl.”
We both continued to chuckle. I held him back at arm’s length and looked him in the eyes. “I love you too, Owen.”
He pulled away with a smile. “Fuck you, man.”
MAY
Owen and I decided to visit our Dad for a few hours before I headed to Connecticut tomorrow for Link and Aubrey’s engagement party.
We had a week break from the tour before finishing up our last few shows at the end of the month.
After that, I had no idea what we were going to do.
I would guess we'd probably take quite a bit of time off and write some new stuff.
When I spoke to my dad last week, I told him about Owen possibly coming with me. Dad told me he had something important to tell us.
“Want me to go in first? Or do you think you should do this alone?”
Owen looked at me, then back at the hospital door. “I want to talk to him alone, I think.”
I smacked his shoulder. “Good idea.”
He smiled, knocked on the door, and walked in. I figured while I waited, I would get some food in the cafeteria. Forty-five minutes later, I got a text to come back.
I walked in with a hesitant smile on my face. I saw Owen first, and it was clear he was crying, but the small smile told me they were probably happy tears. But then I saw my dad, and my smile dropped. I now knew why he hadn’t wanted to video chat the last few times we spoke.
“Dad,” I said with a shake in my voice. He looked worse. His skin was a pale yellow color, and he looked like he had lost even more weight than the last time I was here.
“Eli,” I swallowed the lump in my throat when he paused. “My body rejected the liver. It didn’t work.”