A Father and Child Reunion

Pittsburgh: Craig Taylor's Office

 

"Fuck!" Craig slammed down the phone.  He had just talked to Andy McPherson at Dartmouth.  He didn't know why he was paying that idiot to keep track of his son.  All he could get out of him was that he hadn't seen Justin today and there was no record in the logbook of anyone visiting him on the weekend.

 

Where could Justin be?  He had tried again and again to contact his son on the weekend, but Justin's phone was turned off.  There was no way to reach him.  Could he be sick?  What if he was in his room ill?

 

He picked up the phone thinking that he would call Andy back and get him to go up to Justin's room to see if he was there and if he was all right.

 

"Mr. Taylor," his secretary's voice over the intercom jerked his thoughts back to the here and now.

 

"Yes," he responded.

 

"Your son is on line one."

 

"Thank God!  I'll take it," he told her.  He picked up the receiver and punched line one.  "Justin, where have you been?  I've been trying to reach you.  Are you all right?"

 

"I'm fine, Dad," Justin said, pleased that his father was worried about him.  He wanted to believe that his father still loved him and would after he told him what he had done.

 

"Where are you?  Shouldn't you be in class?"

 

"I'm … I'm here in Pittsburgh."

"What?  What are you doing here?"

Justin could hear the disappointment in his father's voice.  "I had to do some things here, so I came for the weekend.  I'm at Mom's."

"That's good," his father said rather tentatively.

 

'Good that I'm not with Brian,' Justin thought.  "I want to talk to you.  Could you come over to Mom's this afternoon?"

 

"I guess I could clear up a few things here and be over there in an hour or so."

 

"Great!" Justin said.  "I'll see you in a while."  He hung up before his father could ask anything else.  He didn't want to deal with this over the phone.

 

Craig hung up the phone on his end.  He didn't like the sound of this.  Justin should be at Dartmouth, not in Pittsburgh.  What was his son doing?  If it was what he thought it might be, he would put a stop to it immediately.

   

Pittsburgh – Jennifer's Condo

 

Justin waited.  He got antsier with every minute that went by.  He dreaded telling his father, but he wanted to get it over with.  Waiting wasn't something he was very good at.

 

Suddenly the front door bell sounded.  "This is it," he thought as he went to open the door.

 

"Justin," Craig said rather matter-of-factly and stepped past his son.

 

"Hi to you too, Dad," Justin mumbled.  This didn't bode well.

 

Craig walked into the living room and turned to his son.  He did not sit down.  There was nothing casual about his stance.  "You wanted to talk to me?"

 

"I've made some decisions that I thought you should know about."

"Let me guess!  You're quitting Dartmouth, moving back to Pittsburgh and resuming your disgusting lifestyle."

 

Justin was taken aback at his father's bluntness and his accuracy.  "Right on all counts," he said gently.

 

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?  One day you are at Dartmouth, the next you're not, one day you promise to live a normal life, the next you don't, you're all over the map.  What is wrong with you?  Can't you make a decision and mean it, stick with it for more than a few fucking days?"

 

"I tried to keep my promises to you, but that's not what I want.  It's not who I am," Justin tried to explain.

 

"I don't think you tried at all.  A few weeks is hardly a good effort.  I guess I was right the first time when I said you couldn't keep your fucking promises.  You're a quitter!  You're useless."

Justin felt like his father had slapped him in the face.  "I'm not a quitter!  You just asked too much!"

 

"Too much?  Too much that you live a normal life, get a decent education so that you can support yourself and grow up!"

 

"I am grown up!" Justin replied lamely.  His father had a way of beating him down, hitting him where it really hurt.

 

"Then act like it!  Take responsibility for yourself."

 

"What does that mean?" Justin asked, afraid that he already knew.

 

"What are you going to do back here in Pittsburgh?" his father demanded, not answering his son's question.

"I'm going back to PIFA."

"And you expect me to pay for that?"

"Not unless you want to."

 

"I don't want to!  I want you to go back to Dartmouth."

 

"Well, I'm not going to."

"Then you get no money from me."

"Fine!"

"Is he paying for you?  Buying you once again?

 

"He … Brian … is not buying me!  I love him and he loves me."

 

"You have the nerve to call your sick acts love?  I am so fucking disappointed in you!  I thought we had made real progress when you came to me for help."

 

"I did too, Dad, but what you ask of me is impossible.  I was miserable at Dartmouth.  I can't be what you want me to be."

"A normal grown up man is all I want."

 

"Normal, by your definition, is something I will never be."

"Then we're through.  I wash my hands of you."

"Can't we try to be friends?  I liked getting to know you again, especially on that drive to Hanover."

 

Justin thought he saw his father soften for a moment.  A strange, tortured look passed over his face.

 

"That son, that Justin, is dead and gone as of now!"

 

His father turned away from him, grabbed his coat and slammed out the door.

 

Justin heard the door slam like the lid on his coffin dropping into place.  He had so wanted to establish some kind of relationship with his father, and instead this was worse than before he had gone to him for help.  He felt a tear slide down his cheek.  He had burned that bridge once and for all.  His father would never trust him again.  He had broken that trust by coming back to his old life.  His father would never speak to him again.

 

Craig got into his car, slamming the door as hard as he could.  He couldn't believe that Justin had thrown everything away.  He had called in so many favors to get Justin into Dartmouth.  It had been his dream to have his son follow in his footsteps.  He had been so close to seeing that happen.  And now Justin had thrown it all away.  Craig knew why that had happened.  He knew who was responsible for this.  He should have killed that fucking bastard when he had the chance!

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