Chapter 3

The Next Day

Gus

As much as I really do love my moms and jenny I can’t wait to spend time with my dad away from them. To be honest my dad is my favourite but I can’t live with him all the time but I will take as much time with him as I can, he’s more that just my dad, he’s my best friend. Just as i start to sit down to eat breakfast my phone goes. 

“Gus can we please not have phones at the table.” 

“Sorry mom, it’s just dad telling me that he’ll be here within the next 20 minutes.”

“okay, but in future that phone does not come within 2 metres of this table if anyone is eating, it’s rude.”

“Linds he knows it’s rude but he doesn’t have much time till Brian gets here. It’s the same every time he goes to stay with him. Maybe at this point we make an exception that he can use his phone at the table if he’s waiting for Brian.” 

I can’t help but smile that finally mama is using common sense and changing the rules a little.

Brian

When do I tell Gus that he has another sister, and that she’s here for a few months. If I tell him now will he be annoyed that he has relatives that he’s never met just suddenly appearing out of nowhere, Causing the rest of the weekend to be unbearably awkward. Will he be exited to have a sibling closer to his own age that he can relate to. 

I haven’t even finished parking my car when I see the front door open and see Gus stepping out, He looks up and gives me a huge smile and makes his way towards the car without even glancing back to see where jenny was watching him from the living room window. I know she always wants to tag along when I take Gus for any period of time, and sometimes I do bring her along for the day. She doesn’t get to spend much time with her dad because for some reason Michael isn’t interested in spending time with her as much as she was when she was a baby. It’s like he see’s her as a small puppy, fun and exiting to have at first but then you realise the responsibility involved in keeping another living being alive and it all becomes much too real, and he will always run from anything with the slightest bit of responsibility. 

Out of the two of us I always thought that I would be the dead beat dad because I didn’t exactly have much in the way of a role model in this department. The fact that Michael is the dead beat dad while I actually spend time with my kid as much as I can and provide for him where it’s needed has really been a huge surprise.

“Hey dad” he says as he gets in and reaches for his seat belt 

“Hey sonny boy, you got every thing you need?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you want to do today? Shopping? Movies? Just hang out?” I look over to him waiting for my answer when i see the smirk on his face.

“Dad last time you took me shopping I thought my legs were going to drop off from the amount of walking around from each shop. Nobody needs that many shoes.”

“Sonny boy you can never have too many shoes, or clothes before you put that into question either.” 

“Can we just hang out today at yours, maybe get a take away later too.”

“Whatever you want.”

I pull away and make my way back to the loft, still in the back of my mind is this ongoing argument do I tell him about Sophia now or do I wait until dinner at Debs so he can meet her first before he knows who she is.

Jenny

Looking out the window and seeing Gus leave with uncle Brian all I can think about right now is how much I hate my dad. He never wants to spend any time with me and anytime he does it’s only when he knows that uncle Brian is here and then he spends most of that time ignoring me. 

I wish uncle Brian was my dad instead, he always makes sure he’s paying attention to Gus and is doing whatever he can to make him happy. It’s not like he has ever treated me any different to how he treats Gus, but if he were my dad as well instead it would mean that I would have no reason at all to have to acknowledge my dad in any way at all.

“Mom can i ask you a serious question, since you’re a lawyer and you’ll know better than anyone.”

“Of course you can, you can always ask me anything.”

“Well it’s just that dad never pays any attention to me and whenever he is near me he’s only ever paying attention to uncle Brian..” I look up to see her reaction and see that she looks understanding but also confuse at where i’m going with this.

“I was just wondering if, since he doesn’t act like he is anything to me, we could stop him from being my dad somehow.”

“You want to have your fathers parental right’s removed?”

“yes, I know it’s probably a lot of trouble but i just don’t want him to be my dad anymore.”

Just as i Reach forward and give mom a hug i feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’ve wanted to ask about doing this for a while and now I have it feels like a start to a better life.

Lindsey

Overhearing the conversation between Mel and Jenny just now has put me in a much better mood than i’ve been in ages. Work has been very stressful trying to put together a show after one of the artists has dropped out and we still haven’t found anyone to take that place, and then coming home and having to deal with Michael yet again cancelling plans is not something I can put up with much longer. 

Mel and I have been trying to get Michael to come over for dinner and to spend some time with Jenny for ages but he always cancels within 24 hour of having to be here. It’s gotten to the point that we’ve stopped telling Jenny that Michael has been invited over. It will only lead to unnecessary hurt and disappointment for her that she doesn’t need or deserve.

But with her now wanting to strip him of his parental rights, something i’ve wanting to do for a very long time but never wanted to do without her permission or request, we no longer have to even bother with trying. We can just get along with our lives, I can only hope that he doesn’t kick off too much when he gets served the papers. Jenny has had enough of his bullshit and so have we, if he wants to fight this then so be it.