CHAPTER 28
DAINE
Drunk and happy, amongst friends.
That’s how everyone should spend their birthday, right?
“Speech, speech, speech!” Fox and Richie chanted as everyone gathered around to toast me at the end of the night.
“Okay, okay,” I said, swaying. I reached out and put a hand on a chair to steady myself, lifting my drink and nodding. With a sweeping gaze, I took in the crowd, the sheer volume of familiar faces bobbing around filling me with glee. “First of all, I can’t believe all of you showed up. But this only proves you fools will do anything for free booze!”
The cheers exploded and I laughed, waiting for them to die down before continuing.
“But seriously, I’m so grateful for all of you. Richie and Tillie, the two of you have changed my life. Blaze and Fox, y’all are the best friends a guy could ask for.” I stopped, tears stinging my eyes. “Not to get all mushy on you, but I don’t have any family. My folks won’t have anything to do with me, and I’ve had to create a family out of friends. It’s a hard life, sometimes. But I get by. Because of you, because all of you are my family now. I don’t know what I’d do without —.”
“Bullshit!” A voice called from the back of the crowd.
“What?” I muttered.
“You’re a fucking liar,” the voice slurred.
“What the fuck?” I said, my anger rising. “Who is that?”
The crowd parted like a curtain, revealing a drunken Finn swaying precariously and shaking a finger at me.
“What the hell are you talking about, kid? You’re drunk.”
“I might be drunk,” he shouted, “but you’re a liar!”
“What the hell are you blabbering about?”
“You have a family.”
“What do you know about it?”
“I know you have a son.”
I burst out laughing, shaking my head. “Dude, I’m gay.”
“So what?”
“Look, kid, you’re drunk. You need to go sleep it off.”
He stumbled forward, stopping in front of me. I cringed.
“You smell like a fucking distillery,” I said.
“My mother’s name was Rachel O’Brien.”
“Okay…” I said, shaking my head. The kid was clearly pissed and I just wanted to get away from him. I didn’t give a shit what his mother’s name was. I turned to walk away but he grabbed my arm, stopping me.
The party stopped, all eyes turned our way.
“You dated Rachel when you were sixteen,” he slurred. “She moved to Oklahoma shortly afterwards. You never saw her again, but I’m the reason she left. You’re my old man. You’re my father, Daine.”
“That’s impossible!” I said.
“She never told me who you were. She died a few months ago. I went through her journals, and I found your name. That’s why I came here. To find you.”
“Finn, this can’t be true,” I said, my mind spinning.
“Finn, Daine’s gay. He’s never even had sex with a woman,” Fox said, stepping up and quietly trying to diffuse the situation.
“She said you cried afterwards. In her journal. She wrote that. It was your first time, you cried, then you broke up with her and wouldn’t talk to her afterwards. She found out she was pregnant and her folks made her move away. She never contacted you.”
“Finn,” I said, shaking my head, the blood draining from my face. How could he know that? Everything he was saying had happened. It was ancient history, an event I never gave a second thought to, except not to repeat it. It was one night, when I was kid. And although, it was significant enough to make me sure that I was indeed gay, as I’d already suspected even at sixteen, it was not significant enough to think about over the years.
“You had sex with a woman?” Fox asked, looking at me with disbelief.
“He sure did,” Finn said, staring back at me, daring me to call him a liar.
It hit me hard.
His face, looking back at me like a mirror.
The way he moved, the way he walked, the way he fucking talked like he knew everything already.
Hell, the way he bothered me even made sense now.
He was everything in me that I’d tried to escape.
“It can’t be true…” I said, shaking my head.
“It is true. But coming here was a huge mistake, because you’re a total asshole!”
He turned and ran into the pool house, slamming the door behind him. I started after him, but Fox put a hand on my arm to stop me.
“Wait till tomorrow, man. He’s wasted.”
“Right,” I nodded, running a hand through my hair. “What the fuck just happened?”
“Looks like you just became a father. Congratulations.”
“Fuck you, Fox.”