Pretend You're Someone Else (Chap.6) 3/3

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ID: 1727540   (Rated: 18+) Pretend You're Someone Else  A man hides a secret from his family and has no clue that his son has the same secret. by KAT26/Adrian--Published!

Chapter Six is divided into three parts. This is part three.

Part One

Chapter Six

March-1992

Avoy, Georgia

Part 3/3

"Is my son dating Paul?"

         The memory, like so many others, was still fresh in Peter's mind. Not a single day went by that his brain didn't retrieve a certain moment from his turbulent past. He tried to block them out, but his subconscious refused to allow him. Peter was being punished for his evil deeds in high school and he accepted this fact long ago.

         Standing over the hot stove Peter scraped the omelet from the frying pan and gingerly transfer it to a plate. The muffled laughter and chatter of Erich and Paul drifted in from the living room. Paul had spent the night, just like he had been doing since the start of their senior year.

         Until recently, it never bothered Peter that his son was spending a lot of time with Paul; after all they did grow-up together. Robert traveled four months out of the year and instead of taking his son with him, he just left the boy in Peter's care. At first it was unusual, but later on he understood. Robert's own parents raised him the same way he was raising his child. Peter gladly accepted Paul into his house from May to August, while his father spent the summers vacationing in some exotic land. There was no other choice; he was not going to let his friend drop his only son off at some boarding school. That was ridiculous.

         As the children grew-up together, Peter began to notice that their friendship was unlike the one he had with Robert back in the seventies; for that he was extremely relieved. Now that the boys were older he started to wonder about Erich. He couldn't handle those thoughts. It was so odd to see his son and Paul constantly together. During school they had plenty of friends to talk to, but afterwards all they wanted was to hang-out alone at either one of their houses. Erich would usually take Paul home with him, where they promptly grabbed something to eat, tip-toed by Joy who was passed out on the couch and retreat up to his room. The door would click shut and they wouldn't make an appearance until late that afternoon when Robert dropped by to pick Paul up. It was so bizarre and familiar to see his son follow Paul to his room.

         One night he decided to walk in on the boys unexpectedly---he had to know. His decoy was the laundry; what a stupid, silly, excuse.

         Gathering some courage, Peter walked briskly down the hallway, praying that he wasn't making any noise then purposely gaining speed as he neared his son's room. If his shoes made a clicking noise on the wooden floor, then what he was about to do would seem unplanned. Reaching the door, Peter grasped the doorknob, turned it and stumbled into the room.

         Expecting to find the boys curled-up on the bed making-out, he was relieved to see the complete opposite. Erich stood by his TV remote in hand, while Paul perched on the edge of the computer desk. At the sight of Peter, the boys looked over at him in disbelief.

         Standing there in earth-shattering silence, Peter began to feel like a complete and total idiot.

         He remembered mumbling something about laundry. Erich nodded his head and calmly explained that he was waiting for Georgina to wash her clothes before starting his.

         Peter could tell by the amused look on his son's face and the polite way he answered the question that Erich knew his father was lying.

         With nothing left to do, Peter mumbled a quick, "goodbye," and turned to leave. As he started to shut the door, he caught a glimpse of Paul in the corner of his eye. He still sat stiffly on the edge of Erich's desk. He saw Robert in that moment. The long, black hair falling softly around his face; the Italian nose, golden skin, but there was something else in Paul's facial features that didn't belong to his father, his eyes and the way they curved in surprise. Even the shape of his mouth was familiar. It was slightly opened in shock. Where had he seen that before? It wasn't something inherited from Robert, yet it was very familiar.

         Shaking his head Peter left the room and made his way to Georgina's. He knew he was embarrassed by what just happened, and unknowingly took it out on his daughter. He knocked loudly on her door and without waiting for a reply yelled out, "Finish your laundry, your brother has to do his!"

         She shouted something and Peter rushed to his room. Collapsing on the perfectly made bed, he turned and buried his head into the mountain of feather pillows.

         It's not that he hated his daughter, for how can a father dislike his own child? The reason why she annoyed him was quite simple: Peter was drunk the night she was conceived and he had mistaken Joy for his long-lost true love, Frankie.

         The next morning his wife knew all about Frankie and Peter's secret. Two months later, she came to him with the news of her pregnancy. During the next few weeks Joy did the most horrific deed any woman could ever do to her husband. She told Peter that she would not get an abortion if he agreed to let her openly cheat on him. If he refused, she would abort the baby and his secret with Frankie would be revealed.

         Too much of a coward to let anyone in Avoy know about his long-lost true love, plus he didn't want his wife to harm the unborn child, he agreed to her evil plans.

         That decision had haunted him throughout his marriage. Funny, the name "Joy" meant: "cheerful," and "happy." His wife was a cold, selfish bitch with the powers to damage Peter's life.

         He didn't like to think about the incident and perhaps that was the reason why he seemed to take his anger and frustrations out on his daughter; she was the splitting image of Joy. Thankfully, his son resembled the Native American and Irish side of the family.

         Of course he loved his children, even though he never planned for them. Erich was going to turn out to be everything Peter's own father wanted him to be in the seventies. When his fears about his son's sexuality with Paul were laid to rest, he began to plan Erich's future in his mind. The boy would graduate with honors (all rich children did anyway), enroll in the same college his grandfather did to study law and then return to Avoy to help manage the real estate company. Peter saw his son marrying a beautiful woman, who didn't have to be intelligent. The family legacy that his father worked so hard to maintain would be fixed.

         Peter ruined it when Joy became pregnant, and he was forced to marry her. Now that his wife was finally agreeing to a divorce, it was time to restore the family name and it was up to his son to do it. Even the name, "Erich" meant: "Eternal ruler;" the name suited him perfectly.

         His daughter on the other hand, well Peter couldn't figure her out. She inherited Joy's blonde hair, blue eyes and hour-glass figure. He was worried that she would someday make the same mistake her mother did. Erich would never disappoint him, like he had his own father. His son was perfect, intelligent and would fix everything.

         Georgina just annoyed Peter and today was no different. After breakfast everyone gathered in the hallway to await her presence; she had yet to make an appearance this morning. For the millionth time, Peter glanced at his watch. He had to meet the judge in an hour and his daughter was still taking her sweet time. Meanwhile, Erich and Paul were standing by the staircase skimming over the newspaper.

         After ten minutes of waiting, Peter rolled his eyes and made his way up the stairs. He found his daughter in her room, talking on the phone.

         Frowning in frustration, he made a signal to hurry. Georgina was running her fingers through crimped, blonde hair with one hand, while holding a powder-blue princess phone up to her ear with the other. From the giddy expression on her face, Peter knew she was talking to a boy and by the way she kept tossing her hair around, he didn't like whom she was talking to.

         With a loud clearing of his throat, he caught his daughter's attention. Georgina smiled shyly and held up a hand in the, "wait a minute," gesture.

         Peter wanted to storm across the room, yank the telephone out of her hand and slam it down. That motion she just gave him was something Joy would have done.

         Georgina ended her call with a, "Bye, baby," then she lay the phone down, and focused her attention back to Peter.

         "Who was that? Why aren't you ready? We have to leave."

         "Oh daddy, who cares? I just met the most wonderful man!"

         Peter scoffed at the word, "man," and watched his daughter fall backwards onto her gaudy bed.

         "I was introduced to him at a party last night, and 'oh, my God daddy,' he is so cute! He wants to take me out to lunch today, so I'm going to have to miss the trial."

         Peter was at a loss for words. He stood there in open mouthed shock, while his daughter leaped from the bed and raced to her walk-in closet.

         Not really knowing how to address the dilemma, Peter slowly turned around and walked out of her room. He heard the door slam behind him as he began his slow walk down the spiral staircase. On his way, he passed the greasy fingerprints on the wall. They seemed to taunt him. His anger that was being kept bottled up inside began to spew forth. Today was going to be a long day.

*Next Chapter*

ID: 1735692   (Rated: 18+) Pretend You're Someone Else (Chap. 7)  Demon Bird, Peggy Lee, Latin and Watermelons (1971) by KAT26/Adrian--Published!