22. On God

Sky.

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"Wait so— Hold on. You're choosing a sixteen year old to be your kid's godfather?" My dad asks outraged.

It's the day of Rosie's christening. Aron, my mom and I are all getting ready but to my dismay my mom also brought my dad.

"I'm not, Loren is. And honestly, I don't really care." I sigh as I adjust my tie.

"I can't believe you didn't invite me, I'm your father!"

"Not for long." I mumble.

"Exactly. Before you know it I will be your dead father. So please, let me meet my granddaughter already!'

"This is a holy ceremony, remember?"

My dad sighs.

"Oliver," He makes me look at him. "I promise I'll be good. I just want to meet my granddaughter before I die. That's all."

"Are you seriously guilt tripping me into this?"

"I'm not, I just—" My dad starts to cough heavily.

My heart flies into a frenzy.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine—" More coughing.

I run to the kitchen for a glass of water.

He's still coughing when I get back.

"Here," I hand him the glass.

He drinks the water down fast.

Dad clears his throat. "Whew. I'm getting old." He chuckles.

I try to calm down. I thought he was about to drop dead before me.

"Oliver, I'm fine." He grabs my shoulders and gives me an earnest look. "Don't worry about me."

"How can you say that when you're dying? Why did you wait years only came back when I had no chance to get to know you?"

"Alright, maybe that was a bad call on my part but at least I'm here now! Don't make the mistake of depriving your daughter of meeting her grandpa!"

I sigh. He has a point there. Not that she'll remember any of this, although that might be a good thing.

"Fine. You can come."

"Yes!" My dad wraps his arms around me and squeezes me to death.

"Dad!"

Aron comes in, smirking at us. "Sorry to disturb you, but we're gonna be late."

I wriggle out of my dad's hold. "You have to hurry." I tell dad.

"I'm ready."

I frown. He's just wearing a plain white T-shirt, old blue jeans, sneakers and a hat.

"You can't wear that. Loren will scream if you wear that."

"Look, there's no time to change. Loren's gonna be angrier if we're late." Aron says.

My mom comes into the room wearing a light pink dress with matching heels. Her hair's all done up and she's wearing a beautiful pearl necklace.

"Wow, wow, wow.." My dad walks towards her. Before I know it they're in each others arms making out.

"Ew, gross!"

I turn away from them.

"Come on guys, let's go." Aron grabs my hand and leads me out the door. Everyone else follows.

"You guys have to pretend not to like each other." I say to mom and dad once we're in the car.

"Why?" Mom asks.

"I'll explain in the near future, just please, don't be all lovey-dovey."

My mom shakes her head. "You were always a special kid.." She muses.

We turn up at the church ten minutes early, though Loren, Diana and Steven are already waiting in front of the church. Loren's got Rose in a stroller next to her.

I say hi to everyone.

"Oh my God, Sky, is that your dad?!" Loren beams.

"Yeah. He went along last minute so I'm sorry he's not dressed." I give him a look.

"It's fine. Hi! I'm Loren!" She gives my dad a hand but he pulls her into a hug instead.

"My daughter in law! You are so beautiful! You look just like—" He looks at my mom and stops himself from talking.

My eyes shoot to Steve who seems kind of down.

"Just like I thought you would: pretty." My dad says as pulls away. He makes his way to the carriage. "And you must be Rosalie." He's gleaming with joy as he takes her out of the stroller.

"Hi Rose! I'm your grandpa."

She starts to touch his nose. It's the cutest thing.

Aron's taking pictures. "You're gonna want these later."

"Thanks, Aron." I give him a kiss.

Everyone's talking to my dad. Listening to his nonsense stories about me from before he left. I make my way to Steven, the only one who isn't listening.

"Where's Chase?" I ask.

"He.. went to a friend's house two days ago. He says he's coming soon so.." He seems so downcast. It's unlike him.

"Is everything okay?" I ask, concerned. He's barely meeting my eyes.

"Chase told me, Sky. About your mom. That she's in love with your dad."

He did? Why would he do that?

I immediately feel terrible.

"It wasn't his fault. He was drunk, I guess. So you can stop the charade." He turns to walk away.

Chase was drunk? When?

I grab Steven's arm. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have lied. You were just.. you were so happy and I didn't wanna break your heart—"

"I know, Sky and I don't blame you for this." He looks at my mom and dad standing next to each other. They're so happy together, it's impossible not to notice. The way my mom looks at him. It's probably how I look at Aron.

"They're together, aren't they?" I can hear the heartbreak in his voice.

I nod.

Steven sighs. He puts on a smile. "Well, it can't be helped. Guess it wasn't meant to be."

"I'm really sorry."

"Don't be. I'm not mad at you. It's not your fault." Steve squeezes my arm and goes over to my dad. He shakes his hand and strikes up a conversation like everything's fine.

"Chase is taking way too long!" Loren complains. She looks pissed as hell.

"Why don't we all just wait inside? I'm sure he'll be here soon." Steven says.

× × ×

Steven tried to call Chase twice already but he wouldn't pick up. It's so unlike him to be so unreliable, especially about something important like this.

The pastor (or bishop or whatever you call those people) is explaining the ceremony to us. It's actually quite interesting. A bit creepy with the whole ritual he's talking about, but interesting. I wonder if this is actually going to purify Rose. I sure hope so. She's gonna need it with me as a father and my dad as a grandfather. I look at my dad. He's holding Rose and he looks so proud. My heart tears a little as I remind myself he won't be here much longer. I hate myself for caring so much about a person I barely know. Someone I'm so angry at! But he's still my dad.. and he's here. Finally.

Chase bursts through the massive doors, making quite the entrance.

Loren looks angry enough to slap him, Aron's just lightly irritated and Steven seems relieved. I wonder what that's all about.

The pastor carries on like nothing happened.

Chase rushes up the isle to join Loren's side.

"You're late." She whispers.

"I'm here now, aren't I?" He snaps.

"Yeah, you did your one job, finally."

"Stop it, you guys! You're embarrassing." Diana whispers.

Chase doesn't look too good. He's really pale and he's sweating. I'm worried about him.

"Now that we're complete we will start the prayer..."

Chase starts to move away, towards the isle.

"What are you doing?" Loren whispers angrily.

Suddenly Chase bends over and begins to vomit right in the middle of the church. The priest stops talking now.

"Oh my God." Diana mutters, covering her face.

Chase runs down the isle, up the stairs on the side of the building that leads to the bathroom.

We all just stand there in shock.

"I am so sorry! He just had a bad lunch!" Diana says to the preacher.

Loren is absolutely furious. She steps towards the isle, ready to rip Chase's head off, I'm sure.

I stop her. "I'll go talk to him, okay? Just try to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down! He ruined my daughter's christening. He couldn't even keep it together for a day!"

"Look, we just need to clean this up. I'll go talk to him and then we can continue."

"I'm sorry.. I have another baptism after this.." The priest says apologetically.

"That's great. Just great." Loren sits down in one of the pews. Aron joins her and tries to comfort her.

"I'll see if I can clean this up," Steve starts looking for cleaning supplies.

I make my way down the isle and up the stairs to find Chase.

I open the door to the bathroom and unlike the rest of the church it's really light in here.

Chase is leaning against the massive window, sipping water from a glass.

"I'm so embarrassed." He groans.

"What happened?"

He puts the glass down.

"I drank a little too much last night.."

"Didn't your parents ground you for what happened at school?"

"I forgot. Intentionally."

"Chase," I make him look at me.

"What's going on with you? This isn't like you."

His eyes look so sad. They're screaming to tell me something but I can't figure out what it is.

"Nothing." He looks down at floor. "Just drank too much."

"Yeah but why? What's going on?" I grab his arm. His eyes meet mine. He looks like he's ready to break down in tears.

Aron comes into the room.

"Are you guys coming? Loren's blowing the whole thing off."

"Aron, I'm so sorry!" Chase pleads.

"You should tell that to Loren. She says she'll never speak to you again." Aron says, an edge off irritation on his voice.

"Aron," I say.

"Look, I get that you're growing up and everything but it wouldn't kill you to think about how others feel for a second. Your dad's worried sick about you and this was supposed to be a really important day."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'll do better." Chase says, guilt dripping off him.

"Loren wants to talk to you." Aron says to me.

I nod and leave the room. I make my way downstairs and walk up to Loren.

"I want your dad to be Rose's godfather." She says.

"Loren.."

"No, I'm serious. I'm so tired of him! You know what dad told me? Chase came home high the night after New York. High! I don't want him anywhere near Rose and neither should you!"

"And you think my dad's better? Look, there's probably a reason he's acting out like this!"

"Yes! And the reason is that he's 'growing up'. He told me himself! He's just being selfish!"

"Do you seriously buy that?"

Loren takes a moment to think.

"I don't know what to believe anymore, Sky." She says finally. "He won't talk to me and I'm tired of staying in the dark. He can come to me when he wants to talk."

She makes her way to her mom.

"Come on, we're leaving."

I sigh.

Chase and Aron come down the stairs. I wonder if Aron was able to get through to him.

"Loren, I'm sorry—"

Loren gives Chase a cold look and ignores him as she walks out of the church.

He stares after her looking hopeless and lost.