(Vincent's Pov)
-Five Years Later-
I was sitting in my chair as I drank a beer, it's been five years since everything happened, I was working with the band dealing with Minerva's family's bullshit, Clem still being mad at me, my own family still blaming me for my grandmother's death. I look to the door a bit as I hear a knock and I rubbed my head a bit as I get up and head over to the door and I open it to see Hazel and Minerva. I smile a bit and get to Hazel's level and she gives me a hug and I hugged her back.
"Hey princess, how are you?" I asked as I pulled away from her.
"I am good, Mommy took me to the park it was fun." She tells me and I nod.
"Well, I'm glad it was fun but guess what you have to get ready for tomorrow?" I asked her.
"School." She says and I chuckled at this.
"Yep." I say and then stand up as she goes inside and I look at Minerva and rubbed the back of my head.
"She wouldn't stop talking about going to her first day of school." she says and I nod.
"Yea she kept me up all night talking about it, told her she wouldn't go if she didn't go to bed on time." I chuckled and then rubbed my face a bit.
"Is everything all right?" She asked and I think and groaned a bit.
"I have no idea right now, I um…. I just… I don't know." I muttered.
"Is everything alright with you and Clementine?" She asked and I nod quickly.
"Yea, Yea, we are fine I just uh… she is uh… bit busy right now." I mutter again and then look to Minerva.
"She with that Gabe guy again?" She asked.
"No, god no she's hanging out with Duck and Sarah right now, maybe Mariana." I say to her.
"And you are here drinking a beer?" She asked and I chuckled.
"Yea… yea I didn't want to go out I just… got tired." I tell her.
"Tired? You?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea…. Want some coffee or something?" I asked and she nods and comes inside and I go make her some coffee and Hazel comes over to us showing her new backpack I got her along with other school supplies as well.
"And look Daddy got me this little bear pin for when I get scared." She says showing the little light brown bear pin with a ribbon around it's neck like a scarf.
"That's so sweet." Minerva says as she drinks some of her coffee and I look to her then Hazel.
"And Mama Clem helped me pick out my first day of school clothes." She says and I smile a bit and I drink my beer.
"Well, that was sweet." Minerva says and I nod at this and Hazel runs up to her room.
"She looks a lot like you when you were little." Minerva comments and I nod and then take a drink and sighed.
"Yep…. Hope she doesn't have to deal with the same shit I had to." I mutter.
"Seems like she hasn't." She tells me and I clear my throat a bit.
"Well, when your aunt and uncle say in front of a very talkative child that their dad is a tranny, she repeated that word for fucking months, even after I told her to stop." I say as I finish off my beer and then go and grabbed another one and take a seat. I pop the cap off and toss it on the table and take a drink then looked to Minerva.
"And then… they tell her I killed her great grandmother and she asked my 'Dad why did you do that?' as if she thought I was physically there when she shot herself… and god forbid I corrected them in front of her." I mutter and take a drink.
"Wait did this happen the last time you went to visit your family?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea." I take another drink and then rubbed my head.
"Get this, my uncle had the fucking gal to tell my daughter 'You know your dad is actually your mom right? Her real name is Violet.' Fucking prick." I mutter and I lay my head on the table.
"What did Hazel say to that?" She asked.
"'How can my dad be my mom when my mom is back home?'… I couldn't tell her anything after that… I was scared and I just… I knew it would happen but… I can't let her near them but she loves my cousins." I say and lift my head up from the table and I hear the door open.
"Hey Vincent, Duck and Sarah said hi." I hear and I wave a bit and nod.
"Hi back." I say and take a drink and see Clementine walk into the kitchen and I take a drink.
"Hello… Minerva." Clem says and I roll my eyes.
"I invited her in for coffee." I mutter and look to Clem.
"Hazel is upstairs." Minerva says and then I hear some little feet running down.
"MAMA!" Hazel yelled as she runs and hugs Clem's legs.
"Hey little slugger." Clem says as she picked her up.
"What are you up to?" Clem asked her.
"Getting ready for school tomorrow." She tells her.
"Oh really?" Clem says and they talk for a bit and I look to Minerva who motions that she's going to leave I nod as she gets up and leaves the house and I look over to Clem as she and Hazel talked and I took another drink.
"Daddy's been drinking." Hazel says and I nodded a bit.
"I had a few and I am fine sweetie, nothing to worry about." I tell Hazel and she looked to Clem then to me.
"Yea your dad is fine, but I think it's time you get read for dinner hu?" Clem says and she nods as Clementine sets her down and she goes and gets cleaned up and I get up from the chair and drink my drink. I hear someone come up to me and grabbed my beer and I look to Clem as she shook the bottle then went to the sink and drained it.
"You know… that hurts the fishes." I mutter.
"Well, I don't care, you know you aren't supposed to drink with her in the house."
"Hazel is fine." I tell her.
"Last time you got drunk near her you got mad at me for hanging out with Gabe and then went outside and threw the firepit across the yard." She says.
"Hey, you and I both know he still wants to get in your pants, and I don't like him." I tell her.
"That's what you're concerned about? Not the fact that you were drunk in front of your own daughter?" She asked.
"Of course, I was upset with that too… I didn't like it when my dad drank I didn't… she wasn't even supposed to be here that day." I mutter and look to Clementine.
"Do you even want her here?" Clem asked.
"Of course, I do, why does everyone make it seem like I don't want her here?" I asked and looked to Clem who held the bottle and I groaned.
"I had a few drinks, ok? that's not an issue, and that was going to be my last bottle… I'm not drunk." I tell her.
"Doesn't matter, she was here and you were still drinking." She tells me.
"I had a few before she even got here." I mutter.
"Vince." She says.
"Look, look, look… I am ok, I am calm, and… I am not drunk." I tell her and she looked to me.
"No more." She says and I wave my hand off.
"Why do you care?" I asked her.
"Excuse me?" She asked. And I lift both my hands up a bit.
"I mean, we aren't… you know." I mutter and take a seat as she worked on making food for Hazel and I rubbed my head.
"Married? Together?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea… that word." I mutter and I rubbed my face a bit.
"Look, I care for that little girl… have you even tried to talk to someone about this?" She asked.
"I tried but I get told the same thing, 'Do you think that it's your fault? Maybe you should rethink your life, how does that make you feel.'" I said and slammed my hand on the table and glare at the wall a bit then looked to Clem.
"Everything is my fault hu? oh Vincent, it's your fault that grandma died, it's your fault this family broke apart, you're the reason your dad was a drunk, you're the reason your mom had to work three jobs, shut the fuck up Tranny, hey how about I fucking beat the ever living fuck out of you hu?" I say and I get up and rubbed my head a bit.
"Vincent?"
"I caused all these issues just because I was born, I was the mistake in the family, right? You should hang yourself right now, better yet shoot yourself LIKE MY MOTHER DID!" I yelled and glared at Clem.
"I get told all that fucking shit right in front of my own daughter, they tell me all this right in front of her… I'm the fucking reason everything is so fucked in my family, right?" I asked her.
"No, god no you aren't." Clem tells me and I take a deep breath and took a seat on the floor. I feel her hand on my shoulder and I rubbed my face as I chuckled and felt the tears and I look down.
"Well, I am… I finally was able to get my grandpa's money and… I donated it to any mental research program I could think of that… that actually would help people… and my aunt says that it was a waste of money because according to her, her father had the devil in him because he accepted me for who I was… said I should have donated it to the church to free me of my sins, bitch just wanted the fucking money." I mutter and sighed.
"Then they tried to get me to give the house to one of their kids… I told them no because they weren't old enough yet, then we went back and forth arguing about the house then they say that I should just tear the damn thing down, that it was going to rot away, I told them they could piss off because it was my house, and I at least had memories there… good memories." I mutter and looked to Clementine.
"Then my uncle… stole my grandpa's car that we worked on together…. And I tried to get it back but couldn't because he had all the paperwork… I took the safe from their house so they couldn't steal anything else." I mutter and look to the ground.
"You can't get it back at all?" She asked and I shook my head.
"Even showed them that it was in my grandfathers will that it was my property but then they forged my damn name on the title and…. Fucking cops believed them of course… doesn't matter he wrecked it anyway trying to show off." I mutter and looked to the ceiling as I took a breath and then stood up from the floor.
"Fucking assholes." I mutter and went and grabbed a glass and filled it with some water and took a drink.
"Vincent… why didn't you tell me this before?" She asked.
"Didn't want to bother… you were out having fun with your friends and stuff… just didn't want to bother." I mutter and took another drink and set the glass on the counter.
"I think you should really talk to someone professional if this is… I want you to get some help." She says and I shake my head.
"No one is helping that's the issue Clem, the only people that could help me are gone." I tell her as I look at her.
"I'm still here." She says and I sighed and nodded.
"I... I know I'm sorry I just… I just miss them." I tell her.
"I know you do." She says as she hugged me and I take a few deep breaths.
"Is dad, ok?" I hear and look to see Hazel and I nod as I move away from Clem and backed up a bit as I lift my hands a bit and they were shaky and I nod again.
"Yea… yea I'm good." I tell her and then look to Clem.
"I'm… I'm going to lay… Lay down for a bit is all." I mutter and go to the couch and take a seat and looked to the TV a bit.
"Can I sit here?" I hear and see Hazel and I nod as she takes a seat next to me and I look to her and then rubbed her head a bit.
"Are you mad?" She asked.
"At who?" I ask her and look to the TV again.
"At people?" She asked and I sighed a bit.
"Hazel people… in our family… mostly my aunt and uncle… aren't the smartest when it comes to basic common sense… uh…. Like you know it's bad to tall people the T word." I tell her and she nods.
"Yea it's not a nice word to say to people who are tran- trans." She stopped as she thought on the word.
"Transgender." I tell her and she nods.
"Like you." She says and I nod and rubbed my face a bit.
"And my aunt and uncle… like to cause me problems… in more ways than one." I mutter the last part. I think for a bit and I sighed.
"And I let it get to me sometimes, when I shouldn't but it happens and right now, I'm just a bit angry at people… not at you or Clem, never you two." I tell her.
"What about mommy?" She asked.
"Eh she pushes some buttons sometimes but we're ok as we can be." I tell her and she giggles a bit and I hug her.
"Oh princess…. I'm sorry if I made you worry." I tell her as I pull back a bit from her.
"It's ok." She says and I nod and chuckle at her and then looked to the kitchen a bit.
"Mama said not to worry she's making dinner." She tells me and I nod a bit.
"Is it ok if I take just a small nap?" I asked her and she nods as she moves off the couch and I lay back on the couch and set an alarm to take this small nap. It felt longer than I expected but I was woken up by the alarm and I opened my eyes slowly and turn the alarm off. I turn my head to the side to see Clementine and Hazel who apparently also took a nap but they didn't wake up. I smile a bit and take my phone out and took a picture of this. Hazel was curled up against Clementine on the other couch and facing Clem, I get up slowly and rubbed my head a little bit. once I was up fully, I went into the kitchen to see dinner had been made and I go and grabbed a beer from the fridge and looked at it a bit before I went outside and took a seat by the firepit and started it up. I looked to the fire and opened the beer and took a drink and sighed.
"Vincent." I hear and closed my eyes a bit and looked to the side to see Clementine.
"I know sorry." I say and set the beer down and looked to the fire some more.
"No, your mom is on the phone." She says and I look up at her then get up and walk inside and grabbed the phone from the wall.
"Hey mom everything ok?" I asked.
"Oh yes dear, I was wondering if it would be fine if your father and I could take a visit to you and Hazel next week?" She asked.
"Of course, you know you don't have to ask, just tell me when you're coming." I tell her.
"I know but it's nice to ask sometimes, just incase you are busy." She says.
"Yea ok… but yea you and dad can come next week, it'll be fun." I say and we talked for a bit. it was about twenty minutes into the call when Hazel came over to me sleepily and I rubbed her head gently.
"Hey mom I have to go I'll call you tomorrow ok?" I asked.
"Sure, have a nice day." She tells me and we hang up and I picked Hazel up and looked at her.
"Grandma?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yep, and guess what?" I asked.
"What?" She says and I chuckled.
"Grandma and Grandpa are coming up to visit next week, does that sound like fun?" I asked her.
"Yea, Nanny and Poppy are coming?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yep, so are you going to be good till they get here? Don't want to be grounded when they get here." I tell her and she nods.
"I'll be good." She says and I chuckled.
"That's my princess." I say and she nods and I look to Clementine and set Hazel down.
"Did you eat?" I asked.
"Yep."
"Even your greens?" I asked and she looked to Clem then back to me and nodded and I crossed my arms.
"Hazel?" I asked.
"Greens are nasty." She mutters and I smile a bit and bend down to her level.
"But they are good for you… alright I'll let it slide just this once, but you will eat your greens tomorrow?" I asked and she looked to the side and put her hands behind her back and I smile at her.
"No crossing fingers." I say and she looked to me.
"How did you know?" She asked and I smirked.
"Well, I didn't like eating my greens and tried to pull the same thing with my grandpa, and he knew I was going to do the same thing." I tell her.
"Oh." She says and I look at her.
"Trust me greens are good for you… and if you don't eat your greens, you don't get dessert." I say and she looks at me shocked.
"Mama." Hazel says as she looked to Clem.
"Your dad is right, if you don't eat your greens, you can't eat dessert, it makes it seem like your too full to have… an ice-cream sandwich." Clementine says and I look at her and chuckled as I look to Hazel.
"Can I have one tomorrow?" She asked.
"Will you eat your greens?" I asked and she nods and shows her hands to me to show she wasn't crossing fingers and I smile.
"Alright, if you eat them tomorrow, I'll let you have one ok." I tell her and she nods. I take her up to the bathroom so she could brush her teeth and then we went to her room and I helped her into the bed.
"Can you tell me a story?" She asked and I think.
"Um I'm not good with… stories." I tell her and she looked to the bed and I rubbed my neck and I take a seat next to her bed.
"I can try though." I tell her and she looks to me and smiles. I think a bit before I started to tell her a story, sometimes she would interrupt the story and I would try to explain it. But after I finished, she finally went to sleep and I leave the room and I look to see Clementine and I nod a bit and head over to the stairs.
"Are you really sleeping in the living room again?" Clem asked and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"I um… it's fine." I tell her.
"Vincent… do you want to talk?" She asked and I shook my head no and I went down the stairs.
"Vincent." I hear and look over to see Clem looking down at me.
"I already talked." I tell her.
"Not about this." She says motioning between us.
"What am I supposed to say Clem?" I asked her and she looked to me and I shake my head.
"What am I supposed to say?" I asked her again and she looks to the side.
"Why do you let me stay here?" She asked and I think.
"You had school, and you help me with Hazel… and it's as much as your house as it is mine." I tell her and she comes down and looks down at me.
"And I have no reason to kick you out, I'm not cruel." I explain and then head over to the back yard. I take a seat by the firepit again and I rubbed my head and Clementine took a seat next to me in the other chair and I look over to her. We sit in silence for a while before I cleared my throat.
"Do you want to leave?" I ask her.
"No… I was just wondering why is all." She tells me and I think a bit.
"I have to head to work early to open up the shop." I mutter.
"Then sleep in the bed." She tells me and I shake my head a bit.
"No, it's fine I just… I'm going to head to bed soon, you need to sleep too." I mutter.
"Vincent, I think we should talk." She says.
"We are talking."
"I mean… ok smart ass." She says and I chuckled at this and look to her as she smiled at me.
"I just… I think that we should talk about all of this, I just want… I can't explain it." She says and I look at her then rubbed my neck.
"We have been on a break for five years, you help me with Hazel, you're sweet to me even after this… I don't think… I just don't want to seem like I am bothering you, I mean I am glad you are here I am glad you are willing to help me with Hazel and I just… I'm just getting tired with everything… especially with my family and Minerva's fam-."
"Her family is bothering you?" She asked and I lean my hand on my head.
"A little, but I can deal with it." I tell her.
"Has Minerva done anything about it?" She asked and I shook my head.
"Didn't tell her, she might know she might not." I simply say and looked to her.
"Did she talk to you about this, or even say something that could have hinted at this?" She asked and I shake my head.
"Don't talk much only when it comes to Hazel." I tell her. We stayed silent and I rubbed my head and look up a bit.
"I am sorry, how has your day been?" I asked her and I look at her.
"Vincent-."
"How was your day?" I asked her again and looked to the side.
"It's been fine." She tells me and I nod.
"Anything interesting happen?" I asked.
"One kid stuck a crayon up his nose, another kid decided to climb up the big doll house and try to jump off before Sarah caught him." She says and I chuckled at this.
"Sounds like fun." I look over to her and she looked to me.
"What about after work?" I asked her.
"Duck, Sarah and I went to the bar you know the one with the video games." She says and I nod.
"Yea opened up last year, right?" I asked and she nods.
"We went there didn't drink but we played a few games, one guy started to flirt with Sarah, but he got the idea she was with someone when Duck went up to the guy." She says and I nod.
"She's a sweet woman." I say and Clem nods.
"You know Duck is thinking about asking her to marry him." She tells me and I chuckle.
"Really?" I asked and she nods.
"Oh yea, he's got the ring ready just needs the right moment." She tells me and I nod.
"Smart." I say and lean back in the chair and looked out to the chicken coop and I look down a bit. As time passed us by, I finally get up and so does Clementine and I opened the door for her and she walked in and I come in behind her. She heads to the stairs and I look as she walked up a few steps and I think.
"I'm sorry." I say and I hear her stop and she walked down a bit and looked at me.
"I'm sorry if I'm being an asshole, it's just… I'm having to deal with Minerva's parents trying to take Hazel away from me…. and then… my dad's side of the family being a bunch of assholes to me, and then my grandparent's deaths are still…. Bothering me…. so, I am sorry if I seem down in the dumps and if I'm just… acting like this." I tell her and she looks at me and nods a bit.
"Want to come to bed?" She asked and I think for a bit and nod just a little and I follow her up to the room and we both get ready for bed I was in a pair of sweats and a short-sleeved shirt. I lay in the bed and so does Clementine and I look up to the ceiling for a bit before I was able to fall asleep. I was woken up by my alarm and I get out of the bed and shut my phone off and head into Hazels room and wake her up. She gets up still a bit tired but she goes and brushes her teeth after she took her bath and I set her clothes out for her and head out to make breakfast. Once I had the food done Hazel comes down with Clementine and I smile at her as she takes a seat to eat her food and I drink my coffee after I hand Clementine her mug and I go and get dressed for work and come back down just as Hazel finished breakfast.
"Ready?" I asked and she nods as we all head out to my car and I look to see the mustang still covered up and I pull out the driveway and drive to the elementary school.
"Dad, I don't feel good." Hazel says as we pull up to the school and I look in the rearview mirror and sighed a bit and think.
"You nervous?" Clementine asked and Hazel nods.
"Well, I was nervous to go to my first day of school… you know what I did?" Clem asked her.
"What?"
"Well, my dad gave me his hat, now he said I could borrow it, and I thought that if I had that hat my dad was with me." Clementine tells her and I look at Hazel.
"Just like my bear pin?" She asked Clem who nodded.
"Yep, just like your bear pin, you have that with you then your dad is with you." She tells her and I park the car and I turn to fully look at Hazel.
"I'll always be with you ok Princess? And your Mama Clem too." I tell her and she nods.
"Ok... I think I can go in." She says and I nod as I get out the car and go over to open her door and Clem follows me and we go inside the school to one of the teachers who was greeting students. She tells us where to go and we take Hazel to her classroom where we meet her teacher.
"Oh, hello there, you must be Hazel, right?" The teacher asked and Hazel hid behind my leg.
"A shy one hu?" The teacher asked and I nodded a bit as does Hazel.
"Well, how about this, I'll make you the line leader the whole day if you come out from behind your dad." She says and I look at Hazel.
"Ooooh a Line Leader that sounds awesome." I hear Clementine say and Hazel looked to us then the teacher and nods as she comes out from behind my leg. I then look to see a familiar face and smile.
"Look Hazel, Christa is here." I say and point to the woman and Hazel smiles and runs up to her.
"Aunt Christa." She says and I chuckled and looked to her teacher who was smiling.
"Oh, she knows Christa?" She asked and I nodded.
"Oh, yea that's a family friend." Clementine says and I nod in agreement.
"Well, she seems ok, oh are you going to be picking her up or will she be riding the bus home?" The teacher asked.
"She will ride the bus home so she knows what the number is." I say and she nods and makes a note of it.
"Alright, I'll write it on her hand so she knows the number." She tells me and I nod and we wave to Hazel and Christa who wave back and both Clem and I headed out. I drove Clem to her job and we sit in the parking lot for a bit before there was a knock on the window and I see one of Clementine's coworkers.
"Got to go." She says and I nod and she leaves the car and I sit for a bit before I head to work as well. As I open up the doors there are a few parents who need to get some instruments for their kids school band and I help them as best as I can.
"You blow into the damn thing." The man says getting pissed and I rubbed my forehead at this stupidity.
"Sir there are many instruments that you blow into, Flute, oboe, tuba, French horn, hell even a kazoo." I tell him and he looked red with anger.
"I want to talk to your manager." He says and I groaned as I go and get Chuck.
"Chuck, there's a man here wanting to complain… about me." I mutter and look to him.
"Please tell me it's not Mr. Harley." He says and I nod.
"Just get him the clarinet case, his daughters been playing that for six years now and he still doesn't know its name." Chuck says as he gives me the number and I go look for it as he goes and talks to the man. It took a bit and I finally found the case containing the instrument and I come out and hand it to chuck.
"Thank Fucking God, was it that hard?" The man says and I glare at him.
"Sir you didn't specify the instrument your daughter has been playing for six years now, that is your own fault." Chuck says.
"You're supposed to remember that." He tells us and I roll my eyes and head into the office before I decked the man in the face. It was a few minutes before Chuck came in the back and I was looking at the custom orders we had and I nod a bit at this.
"We can ship these out tomorrow after I get the strings put on the bass, I'll call them and send an email with the shipping number." I tell him as I hand him the papers.
"Alright, sounds like they'll be getting an early delivery." He says and I nod and I notice that he doesn't move and I look back up to him.
"Everything ok?" I asked and he nods and I look back to the papers.
"Yea just… thinking about retiring." He says and I looked up to him so fast that my neck hurt and I grabbed it.
"Retiring? You?" I asked and he nods as he goes and takes a seat and I watch him.
"Yea just getting too old… and I was thinking maybe you'd want to take over the store?" He asked and I dropped my pen.
"You want me to take over the store? Are you sure?" I asked and he nods.
"None of my kids were interested in music, so I can't leave it to them, and I know you will do great." He says and I rubbed my head a bit.
"I uh… thanks for the offer, Chuck." I tell him and he nods.
"I'll give you the deed when I think you are ready ok?" He asked and I nod at this.
"Yes sir, thank you sir." I say and he waves his hand at me.
"You know to call me Chuck, your basically family to me." He says and I nod again and then go over the paperwork.
"How's your daughter doing?" He asked and I look to my watch and then to him.
"She's fine, nervous for her first day of school." I tell him.
"Of course, a lot of kids are." He tells me and I nod at this and place my hand on my mouth.
"Seems like something else is bothering ya kid." He says and I shake my head and take my hand away from my mouth and lay it on the table.
"Nothing just family drama, but I got it handled." I tell him and he nods.
"Well, if you need anything then just tell me." He says and I nod. As the time passed on by, I would help out customers and I saw it was close to Hazel getting out of school.
"Hey Chuck I'll be back Hazel is getting out and I have to pick up Clementine." I tell him.
"Alright, oh and dress up nice we have to meet up with some clients tonight and they want to go out to eat." He says and I nod as I head out and get Clementine first. Once she gets in, I drive to the house and park the car just in time for Hazels Bus to pull up and I get out the car and see Hazel running up the driveway and she slams into me and I chuckle as I pick her up.
"How was school princess?" I asked as Clem laughed and I look to her just in time for her to take a picture of us.
"Nothing it's just cute." She says and I set her down and she goes over to Clem.
"School was so fun; aunt Christa ate lunch with me and we played games and they let us take a nap too." She tells us and we head inside.
"That does sound like fun." Clem responds as I open the door for them and they head inside the house and I go and get a drink from the fridge and I get some for Hazel and Clem.
"Can we watch a movie tonight daddy?" Hazel asked and I look at her.
"I'm… well you don't have school tomorrow… if you are still up when I get back then we can." I tell her.
"I get to stay up late?" She asked and I nodded.
"And you still have to eat your greens." I say as I head up the stairs.
"Dang it." I hear and Clem laughed at this.
"He is right, remember the ice-cream sandwich?" Clem asked and I closed the door and changed my clothes. I was wearing a nice suit and tie; I head down to the kitchen and see Hazel sitting at the table working on a drawing and I go and give her a kiss on the head and I look to Clem.
"Hey I'll be back as soon as I can." I tell Clem and she nods at this and I look at Hazel.
"I got a movie ready when you get back." She tells me and I nod at this.
"Alright, I'll be back." I tell them and I go up to Clementine and kissed her cheek and I froze a bit at this.
"S-sorry." I mutter and head out quickly to my car and start driving just as I hear Hazel singing a song. I shake my head as I drive off to the store. It took a while but I finally got there and I parked the car. I then helped Chuck for a while till we closed up the store and went to meet up with the clients. I take us to Atlanta and Chuck tells me where to go, and I park in the restaurant parking and we head inside and I see.
"Mr. and Mrs. Leigh." I say and they look up.
"Oh, you know them already?" Chuck asked.
"Yes, he's the father of our grandchild." Mr. Leigh says and I rubbed my head and mutter.
"I'll be right back." I say and head to the restroom and washed my face a bit in the sink. Once I was calmed down, I looked in the mirror and grabbed a paper towel and patted my face then headed out to the table.
"So, what is this meeting about?" I asked.
"Let's order dinner before we talk business?" Mrs. Leigh says and I nod a bit and we do just that.
"So how is Hazel shouldn't she be home right now?" Mr. Leigh asked as the waiter left.
"She is, she is with Clementine right now."
"Ah yes, your wife, right?" Mrs. Leigh asked and I nod at this.
"Yea, um so about what we-."
"We want Hazel to come over tomorrow, we know she doesn't have school tomorrow." She says and I look at her.
"I uh… thought this was to-."
"Yes, we still need to talk to Chuck and you about what we need but I think we should talk about Hazel right now." She says and I look to Chuck who was just as confused as I was.
"Look, I don't think we should talk about Hazel when this meeting has nothing to do with her." Chuck says and I look to him and then looked to Mr. Leigh.
"I get it but I would like to know about my grandchild once in a while." He says to me and I keep quiet.
"Alright, I'll just ask Minerva." He says and I nod. Once our food came to the table we ate for a bit before we finally talked about what they needed. Seemed like they had this new group of classical musicians that needed some violins and a custom-made grand piano.
"They want it to be pink?" I asked as I wrote it down.
"Yes, that is what they want." Mrs. Leigh says and I raise a brow at them.
"Seems a bit weird seeing as this is for a classical orchestra…. Not an upcoming pop star." I joke and they didn't laugh and I sigh and rubbed my neck.
"The girl is a talented artist and we just want to make her happy, and so that people would know the girl with the pink piano." Mrs. Leigh says and I nod at this. Still a bit confused at all of this but regardless it was for the shop not for me. Once we finished up, I paid for the food and we all walked out and headed to our cars, I let chuck get in and I opened the door and grabbed my cigarettes.
"Mind sharing?" Chuck asked and I chuckled and handed him one then my lighter as he stepped out the car and came over to my side and handed me the lighter back. I lit my cigarette and took a breath.
"I didn't know it was those Leighs." He says and I wave my hand.
"Chuck even if you did know I'm not mad… not at all." I say and take another hit of my cigarette.
"Well… rip it off like a band-aid." He says and I chuckled.
"That band-aid was large and was being ripped slowly." I joke and we finished up and I drove him to the shop. He had to stay a bit longer and he told me to go home so I handed him the list and he nods as I drive out the lot. I keep to the road and I was patting my hands to some music before I get a call so I answer it.
"Hey Clem." I say as I drive.
"It's me daddy."
"Hey Princess are you and Clem, ok?" I asked.
"Yea, when will you be home?" She asked.
"It'll be a few don't worry." I say to her as I make a stop at the light.
"Ok, I got the popcorn." She tells me as I sit and wait.
"Oh, we going to do magic mix?" I asked.
"Mama has the chocolate." She says and I chuckled as the light turns green and I pull forward. As I get to the center to make my turn, I didn't hear the horn blast until after my car had been hit and flipped onto its hood. I hear something but can't make it out as I look around for a bit before I closed my eyes tightly.
"Oh my god." I hear and turn my head a bit but it hurt so I kept still and tried to keep calm.