I offer the bouncing girl a waning smile. “I think you’re crushing her. Her pretty little headdress is going to come undone.”
Rebecca’s eyes roll as she backs off. “Well,sooorry. I can tell you’re very attached to her hair.”
“Right?” Calypso finally finds her voice. “He is always flicking my braids.”
“Exactly,” Rebecca remarks.
I snort and am very disappointed that the braids all woven into the elaborate contraption atop Calypso’s head right now aren’t very flickable. If my father really is out there, I’ll need that touch of normalcy to make it through whatever he’s bound to say.
~*~
My father couldn’t look more uncomfortable. Standing outside in the crowded parking lot, he appears annoyed that so many people would exist at all and especially near him. I don’tknow what his problem is. It’s no different than one of his business parties, except it’s in a parking lot and only a dozen people are dressed any sort of elaborate way.
Ophelia offers me a kind smile and breaks the silence first. “I enjoyed this thoroughly.”
“Thanks,” I offer, tightening my hold around Calypso’s waist. She’s searching around us, hardly paying attention, but I feel every bit of the anxiety and heartbreak steaming off her.
My father’s eyes narrow on me, but his first words are directed at Calypso. “You never mentioned being a playwright.”
Calypso straightens, her huge eyes snapping forward. She retrieved her glasses before we came out, and they clash with her outfit in the most charming way. “I don’t recall mentioning a great number of things.”
“It was beautifully written.”
Calypso flushes, and I frown, because making her blush is clearly my job.
My father looks at me. “I regret not being invited to any of your other performances.”
My stomach dips, because that almost sounds like a compliment. Clearing my throat, I say, “Well, you never seemed to take much interest in this side of things.”
Calypso gasps, and my head turns to her. Her huge eyes whip up, and she doesn’t have to say a word. She’s found her mother. The woman came.
I kiss her forehead. “Go on. I’m fine.”
She nods, then her and her fluffy skirts disappear into the crowd.
“Do you really see a future for yourself here?” my father asks, not even bothering to give me a moment to fully watch Calypso vanish.
I meet his eyes, the stern hard things that I always thought hated the pieces of myself I wanted to like the most. I clench myfists at my sides. “I do.”
He rocks his jaw, letting his attention drift. “I’ve never seen you like that before.”
“Father, I want to be an actor. I want to wake up in a thousand different lives. That’s who I am. I don’t want to go to business school next year. I want to stay here.” I shake my head, stare at the pavement. “Iwillstay here. No matter what that means. I’ll pay my own way and live in the dorm if I have to.”
“And what about Calypso, who has been staying with us? It would be strange if you left her to live in the dorm.”
“We’ll figure it out. She wants this for me as much as I do, so she’s not going to hold me back.”
A brief sardonic smile lifts my father’s lips. “We’ll figure it outis exactly what your mother told me when I said I wanted to drop out of college and start a business.”
Shock hits me. “What? You never…”
“Told you that I didn’t even complete college? That I hated sitting through classes. That my mind ceaselessly wandered to the one place it wanted to be? You know your mother and I built everything from the ground up. I wasn’t sure it would be responsible to tell you we did it the complete wrong way since we ended up so successful.” The whisper of his smile fades, something like the brush of grief going through his eyes. It connects in my chest, and I wonder how he heard Kenneth’s song “Grief,” seeing as it’s a testament of disconnect to the end.
I don’t want us to be like that. Not if it’s possible.
“Show me, Alexander. Show me more of the will I saw in there, and I’m more than happy to encourage you figuring it out. I’ve never wanted to hold you back. I’ve just never seen you go after something sincerely like this before.” He fixes his gaze on my eyes. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I wet my lips. “You’ll let me continue going to school here, so I can continue working toward being an actor?”
