to him and held his hand the entire night.
The next day we woke up around noon. I didn’t remember ever sleeping so long.
“How are you feeling?” I asked David. It hurt looking at him like this, all bruised and swollen because
of me.
“I’m fine. I slept well, how about you?”
“I think you should stay in bed,” I said. “You still don’t look so good.”
“I need to take a piss so I have to get out of bed anyway,” he said dryly.
He walked in to the bathroom and while he was taking a shower I made us both breakfast. We watched
some TV together while we were eating. David insisted that he felt fine and wasn’t nauseated anymore. I
didn’t believe him. He could barely swallow the toast I made for him. I gave him two painkillers that he
swallowed down with a cup of black coffee before I drove to my own place to get dressed for my dad’s
party.
I took a shower at my place and started dressing. I’d bought a new suit especially for the occasion. I put
it on and looked in the mirror to fix my hair. My reflection was staring back at me. What did people see
when they looked at me? A nicely dressed guy in his twenties, who earns enough money to buy himself
expensive clothes. A guy who looks exactly like his handsome dad; sharp features, intense blue eyes, light
blond hair. A guy who can get anything he wants… When I looked at myself I could only see that horrible
jerk who punched the guy he loved. The guy who has to destroy everything. I hated myself.
I drove back to David’s place after I got dressed. My hands were trembling when I got to the car. I
really didn’t want to go to that stupid party, not after what I did.
I tried to convince David again that he should stay at home with his concussion, but it was futile. He
wanted to go and I couldn’t stop him. He’d bought a new suit too and shiny black shoes. I helped him to
knot his tie, which wasn’t really necessary and then escorted him to his own car. “You can drive, I don’t
really feel up to it yet,” he said and I got behind the wheel and drove us to my dad’s party.
30. Party time
When we arrived, there were already a couple of guests. My dad was looking impeccable; a rising
figure in his black Armani suit. He towered above Juliette, although she’s pretty tall too and was wearing
heels. She’d been to the hairdresser and was wearing a perfect shell-pink evening gown with little shiny
studs on it. She wore the earrings and the necklace that we’d bought for her birthday. Brad and Christine
were looking like movie stars too, especially Christine in her dark blue chiffon dress with her hair tied
up. Even the twins looked nice, in matching jackets although they had insisted on wearing white sneakers
instead of the shoes that Juliette had bought for them.
Then my dad notices us walking up to them. “My God David, you look terrible,” was the first thing he
said. “You look like someone punched you in the face!”
“I had a little accident,” David said and laughed. I knew it was a fake laugh, to make his mom and
Christine feel that there was nothing to worry about.
“What happened?” Christine asked while she examined his face.
“I tripped while we were hauling something out of the car and I fell really unlucky,” he lied.
“Did it hurt?” Christine asked with a worried face.
“What does it look like?” David said. “It hurt like hell, but I’ll be alright and it isn’t worth spoiling
mom and dad’s party.
More guests were coming in and Juliette and my dad were busy shaking hands and playing hosts. I
could see my dad glancing over at David once in a while, giving him a disapproving look.
Soon the whole lounge of the hotel was filled with people and everybody was drinking champagne and
waiters were bringing round finger food. It was a warm evening, especially for the time of year, and the
garden outside the hotel was lit with a thousand little lights.
Juliette was radiating with happiness the entire evening. Some people were dancing a little to the band
that David and I had arranged and the twins were swinging their mom round in turns. My dad was busy
talking to some of his partners before he strode over to me. “Everybody keeps asking me what happened
to David. The boy sure looks like a mess.”
“Yeah I know,” I said.
“I can’t believe that he chose this evening to do something stupid again,” my dad continued. A
photographer from the local newspaper, who wanted to do a little background story on my dad’s
anniversary at the firm, interrupted us. He told us it would be nice to show the story of the firm that was
established by my granddad and now had my dad and his son working there as well.
“I’d like to make a picture of the both of you and your family,” the reporter told us and then my dad had
us all assembled. Well, all of us except for David. Nobody gave it much thought. David was outside
talking to someone and not even Christine had thought about calling him inside. When David walked in to
get a drink we’d all just finished posing. I could see the hurt in his eyes while he walked up to dad and
me.
“What were you doing?” he asked dad.
“We were just taking a quick family picture for the local newspaper,” my dad said.
“Didn’t you want to call me so that I could be in it as well?”
“David, you look like you’ve been in a fight. You are in no state to be on a picture for the newspaper
now,” my dad said and then some people who wanted to talk to him interrupted him again.
“Can you believe that?” David asked me.
“It’s just a stupid picture for this dumb local newspaper. You shouldn’t get so worked up about this,” I
said, but I knew what it meant to him being left out.
“Do you want to go outside for a bit? It’s so stuffy in here,” he asked while he was loosening his tie. I
nodded and we walked to the patio with our drinks. David was drinking water because of his concussion
but I’d had a couple of glasses of champagne already and was starting to feel tipsy.
“I think we need to talk,” he told me in a low voice.
“Not now, not at this party,” I said. David reached to touch my hand but in a reflex I withdrew it. I was
still freaked out by showing some affection for him in front of everyone.
“So this is how it’s going to be?” he remarked and turned his back on me to walk inside.
We didn’t talk anymore during the entire evening. It was getting really late and people inside were still
dancing to some Sinatra tunes. My dad and Juliette must be very pleased with the party, it seemed like
everybody was having a good time. Everything had turned out great; the venue, the catering, the music. My
dad came up to me to thank me for helping him arrange everything. His face was red and his hair a bit
tousled from dancing with Juliette. I could see that he’d had a couple of glasses of champagne too many
but I didn’t care; it was his party after all.
We walked outside in the garden together until we found a relatively quiet spot to sit down, next to the
fountain. “I’m really happy how everything turned out Michael,” my dad told me. “Thank you for being
such a great son.” I padded him on his back.
“You’re welcome dad.”
“I wish that David could be a little more like you.”
“David’s a great guy,” I said.
“Yeah I know, it’s just that he always manages to do something stupid, like that accident he just had.”
“It wasn’t his fault.”
“It’s nice of you to defend your brother but this sort of thing would never have happened to you.”
“Really it wasn’t his fault. It was my fault actually,” I blurted out.
“Don’t be absurd, the boy is such a klutz. It’s just like him to be so careless the day before an important