SIDE A - LOU

The week dragged on. Dareth had spent it at home and at school, while Lou spent it at his mother's house, dancing and singing with his quartet. Despite the divide that it caused between her and her ex, she loved seeing her son full of joy and pride doing the thing he loves.

"I'm so glad you found someone willing to help you manage the reservations, Lou," His mother pinched his cheek, pulling him in for a hug,"I was afraid you would start growing grey hairs from all the stress!" She chuckled, joking. Lou couldn't help but smile, hugging her back.
"Yeah, and then I would really be taking my dad's place!" They both laughed.
"Let me guess, you were all by yourself at your father's house?" Letting Lou go, she went back to stirring the soup in the pot. Glancing back, she caught Lou nodding. "I figured as such, that man is as rambunctious as a wild horse." His mother never seemed bothered talking about Lou's father, In fact, there were very few things that visibly bothered her. She was strongly independent, but there were times she missed him dearly. She didn't hate him, but she was sick of constantly waiting for him to come back to help support the family. "Your sister should be coming over today,, and when your brother comes home from school in an hour everyone will be together as a family again for dinner."
Almost. Lou, unlike his mother, was sad that his parents weren't together. He was 6 when the split happened, and vividly remembered the conversation that broke into an argument. His older sister seemed the most affected by it, making a fuss and screaming when it happened. His brother had yet to be born.
Going over to the piano and taking a seat, he began to play a gentle tune to fill the ambiance. His mother hummed along to the tune; her voice was heavenly, one that could lull a child to sleep. Lou joined in, and the two sang.

The table was set neatly, each of the 4 chairs had a plate, napkin, glass of water, and proper utensils all set in the proper order. After everyone had settled down and gotten their plates full, conversation ensued. It was light-hearted for the most part, younger brother talking about school and older sister talking about work. Mother chiming in to keep conversation going. Lou tried his best not to but heads with his sister, in turn not saying much at all.
"So, about your manager Lou, who is he like?" His mother finally directed the attention to him. "My manager? He's," He leaned back in his chair, thinking, "Not someone you'd expect- definitely not someone I suspected to be well at organizing." Lou took a bite of his dinner, "His name is Dareth."
"Dareth? Dark brown hair, blue eyes, usually wears leather?" Lou looked at his brother, surprised. His brother continued, "I know him. He always makes a dramatic entrance whenever he's late to class." Lou's younger brother was a freshmen, grade 9, while Lou was already graduated. He poked around at his plate. "Rumor has it he sleeps in the back of the stage all afternoon…"
"I didn't know you two were friends." Lou looked surprised, in which his brother shook his head.
"No, I try to avoid him, as does a lot of other students. He's weird." The peppy atmosphere at the table died as it fell silent. Lou knit his eyebrows down being upset at his little brother, but part of him agreed, which made him more upset at himself. The rest of dinner pursued in silence.

The rest of the week went as planned. Lou had asked his brother to talk to Dareth at school, while he went to go practice with his quartet. His dad even came over to visit his mom, which became more of a forced apology for not being home when Lou was around on weekends. Lou even wrote a letter to Dareth about plans and seeing if they could meet up sometime during the week, but had never gotten a letter back. It got even more strange when his brother told him that Dareth seemed off, and wasn't so peppy as he usually was the day after the letter was sent.
Questions swirled in his head, but Lou knew the weekend would reveal answers.

SIDE B - DARETH

The week dragged on. Lou had spent it practicing with his quartet at his moms house, while Dareth had spent it at school and at home, not like he had much of a choice, he didn't want to make his mother upset.

"Your father is coming home tomorrow," His mother watched him clean dishes, lazily leaning back on the chair, "Said that he got a promotion at work and thought it'd be nice to come home to celebrate."
"Mh." Dareth nodded. 'Do you mean lecture me on how to be a real estate agent?' he wanted to say. His mother sighed, folding her arms.
"What? Are you not happy? Isn't there anything that makes you happy?" She was annoyed, but her tone hadn't reached yelling levels yet. Dareth tucked his head into his shoulders, expecting so. "Deary, your father works long hours to be able to support us, and one day you're going to marry and do the same. At least pay attention to him this time when he talks to you."
Marry and do the same. He didn't like that. His parents expected him to follow the same footsteps as his father, but he didn't want to waste the whole rest of his life sitting in an office. He wanted to dance- to sing, to play guitar even. It didn't help that his mother saw those things as rebellious behavior, and hated the idea with every fiber of her being. Her mind was set; 'if your passion doesn't make the most money, don't do it'. Dareth wanted to argue against that, 'what's the point of having a family if you can't enjoy even being there for them?', arguing the same for work, but he knew better. He didn't want to get his stuff taken away again- especially not his fish.
Dareth wouldn't dare talk about his ties with the royal blacksmiths. The last time he mentioned them was when he watched them perform on TV a year ago. His mother had gone on a tangent on how 'they're throwing their life away' and how 'There's no money given to them for performing', lecturing how she'd be beyond disappointed if her 'perfect son' turned out that way. It terrified him. He didn't want to upset his mom.
He didn't get much sleep. The guilt and excitement for doing something he liked, walking on a thin line with his mom, and now his dad was coming home. His dad scared him a lot, he's stern, serious, and has a quick temper. Most times his father didn't acknowledge his existence unless his mother was present(which wasn't a bad thing, Dareth didn't want anything to do with him).

Walking down the hall of the school, he did finger-guns to a group of girls that passed by, scoffing and rolling their eyes. Dareth loved doing that, the reactions he gets gives him reason to laugh to himself. 'Today was going to be another perfect school day' he almost said aloud, sliding into class early and propping his feet on the desk, relaxing.
"Uh, Dareth?" Woah, a student said his name right? Dareth played it cool and opened one eye, staring at the kid in the doorway.
"Mhm?" He pretended to not care, slouching his shoulders and tilting his head.
"My older brother said that you are helping him?" The boy stepped into the classroom, sitting down next to him. Dareth took his feet off the desk and leaned in, smiling.
"Thought you looked familiar. 'Little Lou', huh? You a dancer too?"
The kid chuckled, "no, I leave performing to my brother…. I don't know what I want to do yet." he sighed. Dareth gave him a light slap on the shoulder.
"Hey, that's alright. Life isn't something set in stone, you'll know what you want to do when it comes around. And if you don't like it, you can go do something else." Dareth laughed, "besides, you're still a 'freshie', you have plenty of time!"

He didn't expect to warm up to Dareth so quickly, but with a personality so radiant, it's hard not to. The day went smoothly, both of them sat together at lunch, and even walked part-way home together. After waving goodbye, Dareth jumped up to the front door and entered in his house, smiling. "Hey Ma! I'm home! Today was great, I made a new frie–"
None of the windows were open, the blinds closed, lights were off, except for in the kitchen, where both of his parents stood. They were waiting for him. Dareth set his books down and walked over, noticing the open letter on the table. It was from Lou. A knot formed in his gut.
"Son, sit down." Dareth obeyed his father's instruction immediately. "What the hell is this?" His father picked up the letter, wavering it in his face. His mother looked furious. Dareth looked down and away. "Answer me." His father slammed his hand on the table.
"He's just a friend-" Dareth tried.
"DON'T LIE TO ME LIKE I DON'T KNOW. You're working with those Damned blacksmiths and you thought you could get away without us knowing?!" His father boomed. Dareth slumped down in the chair, holding back tears. "How dare you. Your mother and I, we do EVERYTHING for you to be successful in life and THIS is what you spit back out to us?"
"I-I'm sorry Pa-"
"Bullshit." He slammed the letter onto the table. There was a moment of tense silence, as Dareth looked down at the grain on the wooden table. His fear had come true, and he was scared.. But it didn't last. 'This wasn't right' he thought to himself, 'shouldn't parents support their kids decisions?', it fueled a building anger. His father continued, "And to think you were the one to live instead of your twin brother. He wouldn't be chasing damned dreams like some sort of fairy tale."
"How dare you." Dareth squinted, his father looked taken aback. "How would you know what he would and wouldn't do, he didn't even get a chance to live. HOW DARE YOU!" Dareth shot up, tipping the chair over. His mother sunk down, fear flashing in her eyes. "What about me, huh?! I don't want to become a damned office boy, I want to live! See the world for myself, not stare at vacation postcards stapled in a cubicle! It's always 'do what gives you money', 'do what your father does'- What about what I want?!" His mother looked down, tears in her eyes streaming down her face. Dareth kicked the chair, having it slide and slam against a wall. His father breathed heavily, glaring back.

"Young man, pick up that damn chair right now."
"Or what-" Dareth stumbled and leaned against a wall. Fear shot in his eyes as he looked at his father, who had landed a hard slap across his cheek. Tears swelled ran down his face, the sting aiding the now enormous knot-feeling in his stomach. His father swiftly waked up to him, wrapping a hand around his jaw. His father leaned in close.
"Pack your things and get out of my damn house."