The Good Life

Vic

"You all aren't allowed to come anywhere near the baby or any of the rest of my family."

Those words repeated over in over in my head as I stormed into our house. I ignored my mom calling my name and walked right past my dad without making any eye contact with him. He was the reason I would never be able to make any of this up to Izzy or her parents and never see our baby. I went upstairs and went to my room and slammed the door behind me. I didn't care to lock it so Mike came in minutes later.

"What's going on?" He asked worriedly. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair was wet; he had just gotten out of the shower.

"Dad just ruined my life." I sighed.

"What are you talking about?"

"He was yelling shit out loud about Alex and Izzy for them to purposefully hear. Then Alex told him to apologize and dad didn't so Alex said none of us were allowed to come near the baby when it's born." I placed my head in my hands, trying to stop myself from crying because I was so frustrated.

"Of course, leave it to Dad to fuck something up." He told me. "Have you said anything to him?"

"No. What's the point?"

"Vic, he obviously thinks you didn't have sex with Izzy if he's still tormenting them. You need to go tell him the true."

I didn’t think about that option. I guess I never got around to telling him the truth because everything was so hectic. I didn’t know if telling him would make things better or worse. "Yeah I guess I should. I just don't want to start an argument with him right now."

"Just do it and get it over with. The worst case scenario is him yelling at you for sleeping with an underage girl, which he kind of should do. I regret not stopping it, because now that I think about it that was so stupid of you.” He sighed and I nodded in agreement. “But maybe Dad will find it within himself to go apologize to Alex and Alex will let you see the baby." He reasoned.

"You make it sound so easy. Dad's might be pissed at me for a long time." I complained.

"Yeah, but we should finally be touring in other states a year from now. Then we can go look for our own place when we get back. Things won't be bad for long, Bro."

"Yeah you're right. I'll go talk to him, just let me think about how I should tell him." I said and he nodded. My mom walked into my room before Mike could speak.

"Michael go put some clothes on." She sighed. Mike left us alone and she sat on the bed next to me."Are you okay, Sweetheart?" She asked me.

"No. I need to go talk to dad and tell him the truth, but I'm scared."

"Yeah you should go do that. I don't want any more trouble with Alex and Jack. We actually need to get on their good side since I kind of told Paula about the baby." She mumbled and my eyes grew wide.

"You told Aunt Paula that I got Izzy pregnant?!" I asked, kind of shocked and annoyed. I didn’t everyone in the family calling and lecturing me, and telling my Aunt Paula anything was like telling the whole family.

"It kind of slip out. I'm sorry! But I told her that the Izzy is nineteen if that makes things better?"

"No mom it doesn't make things better." I complained and fell back onto my bed. They were going to eventually learn the truth. It was just another lie I would have to fix later on.

"Well it's too late, I'm sure she told my mom and your other aunt and uncles. And since our family reunion is going to be here at our house this year, we're going to have to have the baby here so no one gets suspicious. They’re going to all want to meet the baby."

"Do you know you've now made things ten times more complicated than they needed to be?"

"It's not complicated. Go tell you father the truth, then he can go apologize to the Gaskarth's, then we'll kiss up to them for a few months. When the baby is born, in a few months, they'll trust us enough to have him or her at the family reunion."

"It still sounds pretty complicated to me and I don't want to just have the baby at the reunion. I actually want to be there to take care of him or her too."

"How are you going to do that from a tour band?" She asked and I rolled my eyes. She always said things to try and talk Mike and me out of leaving home away from her.

"I don’t know, I’ll figure something out. But I'm going to go tell Dad the truth so he can go apologize to Alex and maybe I can start over with them all." I thought out loud.

"Well go now while he's paying attention to the TV." She said and I left her in my room.

I took a deep breath and went downstairs. My Dad was sitting on the couch with a beer in his hands and a scowl on his face. I was still pissed at him for what he did, but my fear of how he would react to this news was covering the anger.

"Hey Dad?" I called out.

"What?" He said without talking his eyes off of the TV.

"I need to tell you what actually happened between Izzy and me." I stated and he looked at me telling me to continue. "We actually did have sex together and ...I'm pretty sure I'm the one that got her pregnant." I told him while looking at the ground.

"I warned you that girls would try to sleep with you and get pregnant on purpose." He said. He was still putting the blame on her.

"What? No we were both drunk, she didn't plan to get pregnant. It was her first time." I explained.

"Oh so she just managed to get pregnant the very first time you two had sex." He raised an eyebrow. I was actually surprised that he was trying so hard to blame her for this happening.

"Dad it was my fault, I didn't use protection. None of this is hardly Izzy's fault. I think you should go apologize to Alex and Jack for the horrible things you've been saying."

"Apologize? For what? As far as I'm concerned their daughter knew how old you were and still decided to get in bed with you. She's just as much at fault as you are. There is no reason for me to apologize." He said stubbornly.

"But-"

"-I don't want to hear any more about this shit. There's nothing you or your mother can say to get me to even consider apologizing to those assholes. If Alex doesn't want us around the kid then its whatever. That’s his choice and the baby’s loss." He shrugged.

Talking to him made me angrier. I stopped arguing with him and got up and went back to my room. I didn't need him to apologize to anyone, I was going to fix this problem myself. I don't think they would trust me to date Izzy again anytime soon, but maybe they would allow me to spend time with the baby.

"What did he say?" My mom asked.

"He said ‘nothing we could say would even get him to apologize.’" I told her and she sighed.

"I'm sorry, Vic."

It's okay. I'm just going to try my best to earn my trust back with them."

"And how are you planning on doing that?" She asked.

"Maybe apologizing a whole bunch and trying to plea my case to them. Alex won't give in unless Jack and Izzy talk him into it so I need to appeal to those two the most." I told her. "Will you help me think of a good way to start off saying ‘I'm sorry’?” I asked my mom.

"Yeah, go get your laptop."
***

The Next Day

Izzy

Daddy, Papa and I were causally watching TV in the living room. I had school today and both of them had to work so we were all relaxed on the couches. Today, thankfully, was a drama-free day unlike yesterday. That's mostly because we didn’t see any of the Fuentes family. Daddy was pretty adamant about us staying away from them all. I thought he was just angry yesterday, but today he reminded me not to talk to them under any circumstances.

Papa didn't dislike the Fuentes as strongly as Daddy did. He also didn't like the idea of them not being allowed around the baby, but at the same he probably wouldn't let them around it anyways. I was on the fence, I didn't know how to feel about this situation. I don't like the way Vic was handling things so far, and his dad was making it worse. Maybe I would be okay with Vic and Mike seeing the baby every once in a while. Just until Vic proved to me that he is serious about wanting to help out.

“Izzy?” Daddy called my name.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Can you explain why all my students keep saying ‘slim thick with your cute ass’ in my classes?” He asked and I laughed.

“It’s from a song, Daddy.” I told him and Papa laughed.

“Oh I knew it was some meme or something dumb on the internet.” He chuckled.

“I’ll show you the video, that it came from, later.”

We heard the doorbell moments later and Papa got up and went to see who was there. We could hear him talking to someone and then he closed the door. He walked back into the living room with a huge fruit bouquet from Editable Arrangements. I immediately began craving fruit and chocolate when I laid my eyes on it.

“Who is that for?” Daddy asked.

"It's from Vic and it’s to all of us. It says he's sorry that his dad is a jerk, and he wants to be here for Izzy and the baby." Papa said, reading off the card.

"Aww that's sweet." I smiled, but Daddy frowned.

"Did he really think that would work?" he said.

"I think it was a nice gesture." Papa said.

"Of course you do. It's too bad that thing looks really delicious, but throw it away."

“No Daddy please! My mouth is literally watering right now.” I complained.

"Yeah Alex, it would be mean for us to throw it away. It looks like he paid a lot of money for this thing."

"He bought us a fruit basket. This sort of thing might work on you two, but it won't on me. It's going in the trash." He told us.

“But I want fruit!” I whined.

“I’ll go buy you a new one.” Daddy told me.

“So you are going to throw this basket away and then drive to Editable Arrangements to buy the exact same fruit basket that is literally right here?” Papa asked, while he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah.” Daddy said stubbornly.

"Fine throw it away, Alex." Papa rolled his eyes.

"I will! Actually I'm going to sit it next to the curb outside so he knows that we're throwing it out." He smiled to himself as he picked up the basket.

"You're such a horrible person. That's going to hurt his feelings." Papa told him.

"Good! Maybe for once he’ll know what that actually feels like."

Notes

Both of these families need to sit down and talk all of their problems out.