Sing for Me

Author's Note: So I'll be honest, since I passed 100k words I've drastically slowed down on my writing. The story just doesn't really seem to flow anymore and I'm a little worried about being able to keep going or even finishing it. I currently have 9 chapters (published and in drafts), with the last one being a bit of a time jump to later in the year to Christmas. I have been going back and forth with myself on whether or not I should leave things like that, or if I should go back and tell more of what happens during that time. I'd really like to know what some of the readers think, so please let me know in the comments what you would prefer.

When I initially wrote it like that I just thought that it would be a lot of boring mini-drama with sex mixed in, but since then I thought it might be fun to visit some of the other holidays, as well as possibly throwing some new characters into the mix. If I did that would probably mean that if/when I reach that point that I would need to take some time to rearrange some of the story I have written already which could delay some of the chapters being published.

Ideally I would like to have the story wrap up after graduation and possibly going into everyone's lives a few years down the line. But like I said it's just an idea. Let me know your thoughts, and I hope you enjoy chapter 4.

~~~~~~~~~~

When I got out of bed I was not looking forward to the conversation I was about to have. I woke both of the girls up and told them that my mom would probably want to talk with them too. We all got dressed and made our way out to the living room. Mom was sitting on the couch reading when we walked in. She put her book down and stood up, gesturing for us to take a seat. We did and she took a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking.

"Richard, do you know what all I want to say to you right now?"

I thought for a moment. "I think I know some, but I imagine there's more."

"I don't even know where to begin." She sighed. "I suppose we should start with the obvious. I know you're all adults but I thought I raised you better than this. I mean to not only cheat on Bella, but with someone who's also in a relationship?"

I was about to speak up in my defense but Dani beat me to it. "He didn't cheat on Bella." Mom looked at her confused. "And I didn't cheat on Carter. We're both in situations where they're fine with us seeing other people."

"Is that true?" She asked Lucy and me.

"Yeah. Rich originally asked me out, but after I had gotten to know everyone I saw that I wasn't the only one who was interested in him. So we decided that we wouldn't be exclusive with each other. And Dani and Carter developed something similar a little while into their relationship."

Mom thought for a long time and then took a deep breath. "Okay. I can't pretend that I fully understand or approve of this, but if you're all happy then I suppose that's all that matters. But Richard, if I find out that you're lying to me, or that you hurt any of these girls then there will be hell to pay."

I nodded. "I know mom. I wouldn't do anything to hurt them."

"I need to go lay down. I could barely sleep last night. And I think you girls would probably do best to go home for now." They both nodded, and mom walked towards her room.

I sighed. "Well, that went about as well as I could have hoped." I rubbed my face. "Well, as much fun as I think we could have, you heard the lady. Unfortunately, you gotta skedaddle." I stood up off the couch, turning to face them. "Go ahead and get ready, I'll take you out and buy breakfast."

Lucy stood up first. "Actually, I should probably head home. I wasn't exactly planning to stay the night, and my parents are probably worried." She took my hand and walked me to the door. "Thank you for yesterday. I had a lot of fun." She gave me a kiss and opened the door. "Let me know if you're still going to the gym on Saturday, I'll come with you." I nodded and watched her walk down the steps before stopping. "Um, actually, can one of you give me a ride? I'm not exactly excited to ride my bike home, especially after last night."

Dani had stood up and walked to the door by now. "I'll take you Lucy." She turned to me. "I really appreciate you for everything Rich. You gave me exactly what I needed. Now I just need to go home and be with my family for a bit." I nodded. She pulled me in and kissed me. She smiled at me as she pulled back, before stepping out of the door, following Lucy. I watched them load her bike into Dani's hatchback, then with one final wave they got into the car and pulled out of the driveway.

With a sigh I walked back inside and towards my room. Looking at my phone I saw that I had missed quite a lot while spending time with Dani and Lucy. The first message came shortly after we took our trio to the bedroom. It was from Carter.

CC: Hey, thanks again for taking care of Dani. I talked to my dad and we're gonna head home early. We should be there by noon tomorrow.

A few hours later he messaged me again.

CC: Hey I haven't heard from Dani. Is everything okay? I'm still gonna respect what you said and wait for her but I'm getting a little worried

CC: Rich?

CC: Hello? Is everything alright?

Along with more increasingly worried texts, Carter had attempted to call me multiple times. I felt bad for unintentionally ignoring him, so I called him back before reading any more texts. He picked up on the first ring. "Jesus Christ Rich where the hell have you been? I've been worried sick."

"I'm sorry man, we all kinda got caught up with helping Dani that I guess we lost track of time and I forgot to have her call you."

He sighed. "Whatever man. How is she? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah. She stayed the night and she seemed like she was feeling a lot better today."

"Good. I hope you and Lucy didn't keep her up all night with your boning." He chuckled.

"Nah man we wore ourselves out pretty early. I will say my mom was more than a little surprised to find me in bed with someone besides Bella." We both laughed. "Oh damn man. I can't imagine that kind of morning-after conversation."

"No kidding. Well again, I'm sorry about leaving you hanging like that. Dani's taking Lucy home right now, but you should be good to call her if you wanna check in on her yourself."

"Will do. Thank you for taking care of her man. I don't know what would've happened if you weren't there for her."

"No problem man. Happy to do it. Talk to you later."

"Later."

The next text was also from yesterday, from my group chat with Donny and Henry.

DI: Hey, just checking in. Henry, have you done anything to stay active yet?

HY: Yeah I managed to do some pushups this morning and went for a walk a little while later

DI: That's good. Rich it might be good if you went for another run or tried some pushups like Henry.

I chuckled as I thought of a funny response and sent it

RF: Actually I had a pretty vigorous workout yesterday. Lots of core, arm, and some legs

I went back to the list and saw the next message was from Annie.

A: Hey, just got off the plane. Wanted to let you know that I'm fine, and also to make sure that you use that lube. You'll regret it if you rub yourself raw

A: What are you already over it now? You're no fun

The newest text was from around 6 this morning.

A: Hey, mom texted me something pretty interesting last night, can you give me a call when you have a second?

I held off on calling her, wanting to avoid two different awkward conversations with her. While reading her messages, I received a response from Donny.

DI: Nice job man. Try not to overdo it though, it's really easy to hurt yourself if you do too much while you're still recovering

I chuckled to myself and I moved on to the next text, which was from Bella at around 10 the night before. It was very short and to the point, which was very unlike her.

BP: My house, Sunday night, 7 PM

I felt my heartbeat quicken after reading it, the anticipation for what was to come already building in me. I responded saying that I would be there and checked my last text that I had waiting for me. To my surprise, it was from my uncle, dad's twin brother. I hadn't heard from him since we last spoke during the meeting with the executor of dad's will.

OF: Hey Rich, can we find a time to meet at some point? I need to talk to you. It's about your dad

I'd be lying if I said that part of me was choosing to avoid him so I wouldn't have to see my dad's face while I was in mourning. Now though, I felt that I had reached a point nearing acceptance where I could feel comfortable seeing him. Disregarding the ambiguous nature and ominous undertone of the message, I texted him back.

RF: Sure Ollie, I don't have any plans until the weekend. When would be good for you?

The rumbling of my stomach called me away from my phone. I got out of bed and went to make breakfast.

Though I wasn't nearly as good of a cook as mom was, I did feel like I could make a fairly good omelette. I certainly hadn't had any complaints from me, myself, and I about it. As I was cooking, the eggs sizzling in the pan, mom walked into the kitchen and gave an exaggerated sniff. "Smells good Richie. Why don't you make me one too?" I turned and gave her a mock surprised look.

"I think I need to get my hearing checked. Because it sounded like the sous chef of a 4 star restaurant just asked me to cook for her."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Yeah, yeah laugh it up mister. You owe me for being such a good mother to you."

I added in the fillings and folded the omelette, holding it down to let it cook itself closed. I moved it to the plate I had out, and after topping it with some salt and pepper, I handed it to mom. "Here, you can have this one."

She smiled at me as she took the plate. "Thank you Richie." I smiled back as I began to prepare another one. I joined mom at the table a few minutes later, and we ate in silence for a few minutes. I eventually decided to say something to try and ease the tension I felt with her.

"Uncle Ollie texted me."

She looked up at me. "Oh yeah? What did he say?"

I cut off another piece of my omelette. "He said he wanted to meet somewhere to talk." I paused for a moment before I added, "He said it was about dad."

Mom dropped her fork when I said this. "Well, I think whatever it's about you should go and talk to him."

I nodded. "Yeah, I already told him I would. I just thought you should know too."

She gave me a nod back, and looked down at her plate. She took a deep breath and raised her head, though she didn't look me in the eye as she spoke. "Did you know that I dated Oliver before your father?" I shook my head, my eyes wide in surprise.

"I didn't think so." She finally raised her eyes to mine. "I met the two of them after I graduated high school. I didn't go to college because I went straight into culinary school after graduation. But Debbie, you know Debbie," I nodded, "she did go to college. She invited me to a party that someone was having, and whether you believe it or not I did like to have fun back then." I chuckled and she gave me a smile. "While we were there I stepped outside to take a minute to cool off, and there sat on the grass outside of the house was OIiver."

~~~~~~~~~~

I thought it was strange that someone would choose to go to a party but not actually go in. But there he was, some guy sitting on the ground outside of a house party, strumming quietly on a guitar. I walked closer to him and just watched as he played. I recognized the tune, but couldn't think of the song. He was singing the lyrics quietly to himself as he played. He noticed me watching and gave me a smile. I smiled back and he nodded his head to the side, inviting me over. I cast a glance back to the house, wondering if I should just go back inside. Something inside me told me I should join him though.

I walked closer, holding my dress to my legs and sat down, not right beside him, just slightly across. He began to sing a little louder, not by much but enough that I could hear the words. It was Patience, by Guns N' Roses. I listened as he played, slowly rocking to the music. Eventually the song ended, and I smiled, lightly clapping for him. "Thank you." He said, bowing his head slightly to me.

"That was really good. Do you play a lot?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "No, not too much. I only know a couple songs. You should hear my brother, he's a lot better than me."

"No, you were great." He smiled at me. "So if you don't play a lot, why are you out here by yourself instead of enjoying the party?"

He shrugged. "It's not really my thing. But there's not a lot you can do when your roommates throw a party and you come home to find your room is occupied by people you don't know trying to get it on." We both shared a laugh at that.

"I'm sorry about that."

He gave a look of reluctant acceptance. "What can you do? I'm just sad I'll be up at 3 am washing my sheets instead of sleeping."

I hesitated, scratching my hand. "If you want, my apartment isn't very far away from here. It probably wouldn't be very comfortable, but I'm sure sleeping on my couch would be better than not sleeping at all."

"Are you sure?" He asked. I thought for a moment and nodded.

"Yes, I'm sure. The only thing is that I will have to be up early because I have to go to school in the morning."

He gave a chuckle. "Me too. Are you in college? I feel like I haven't ever seen you around."

I shook my head. "No, I'm actually in culinary school right now. And because of that I'll need to be getting ready at 5 in the morning. Which is why I warned you." I thought this might have scared him off, but he just nodded.

"No worries. I'm an early riser anyway. Uh," he glanced towards the house, "can you give me a minute to grab a change of clothes? I promise I'll be as fast as I can."

"Okay. I'll wait here for you." He smiled at me again, and I felt my heart flutter. He stood up, and ran into the house. About 5 minutes later he came back outside, holding a small bag, and a guitar case. "You're bringing that with you?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it's actually a gift for my brother. I don't trust any of the people in there to keep it from breaking. I hope that's okay."

I smiled. "That's perfectly fine." We walked down the sidewalk towards my apartment, making conversation as we did. "Kind of unfortunate that they wanted to have a party on a school night." I said.

"Right? Who throws a party on a Sunday? Everyone knows that it's the lord's day."

~~~~~~~~~~

"And after that we started dating. I would come home to find he left 5 messages on my answering machine some days, each one just telling me about some silly thing that happened during his day." She smiled, remembering this. "That first Christmas after we had met, he brought me home and introduced me to his family. And that was when I first met your father. He was the complete opposite of Oliver. He hadn't even applied to go to college. He had been planning to drop out of high school, but only finished because of his parents' insistence. He was living at home, spending his days going out, smoking pot, and playing music."

"Dad was a pothead?" She nodded with a look on her face that said, 'like you wouldn't believe.'

"Your father may have been a bit of a loser at the time, but he was still the same man you grew up with. Caring, witty, outgoing, and always smiling." She paused again, stopping to reminisce.

"So how did you end up with him?" I asked.

She took a deep breath. "The next summer, I came by their house for a surprise visit. I knocked on the door and your father answered it."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Natalie?" Andrew said as he opened the door.

"Hey Andy."

He rolled his eyes. "Please don't call me that. It makes me sound like a kid."

I giggled. "Is Oliver here?"

He looked at me suspiciously. "Yeah, why?"

"Well I wanted to surprise him. I got back from vacation early."

His look of suspicion changed to one of confusion. "Didn't you guys break up?"

My heart sank. "What?"

He stepped outside, shutting the door. "Oliver told us you guys broke up. Like 3 months ago."

I shook my head. "No, we didn't break up. We just had our 1 year anniversary 2 months ago."

Andrew went pale, and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh shit."

I looked at him, feeling my anger starting to build.

"Andrew, where is Oliver?" He opened his mouth but didn't speak. "Andrew!" I shouted, making him jump.

"He- he's upstairs but-" I pushed past him, slamming the door open and storming upstairs. "Natalie, wait, don't go up there!" He shouted, chasing after me. I slammed Oliver's door open and saw him on his bed, kissing a girl I had never seen before.

"You asshole!!" I screamed. He looked at me and his eyes went wide.

"Natalie? What are you doing here?"

Andrew came into the doorway behind me.

"Who's she?" The woman on his bed asked.

"You lying bastard! You lowly piece of human scum! How could you do this to me?!" Andrew grabbed my wrist trying to pull me out of the room.

"Natalie please, you-" I slapped his hand away, cutting him off.

"I trusted you! I was nothing but kind and loving and honest to you and you just threw it all away!"

The woman began to slide off the bed. "I'm gonna go."

"Don't you move an inch slut!" I screamed at her. By now Oliver's parents had made their way upstairs and were standing behind Andrew. "I wasted a year of my life on you! And for what?! Just to get tossed aside for some bimbo?! Why?!" I had begun to cry. "Why wasn't I enough?! Was my unwavering love and support outweighed by her giant chest?!"

I held a hand over my eyes, the tears flowing like a river. Oliver didn't say anything, only sitting there and watching me scream at him. I wiped my nose on my sleeve, taking a moment to breathe. "Well I hope it was worth it. And I hope the two of you have a happy time together before you leave her for the next bitch." I left the room and ran out of the house. I heard one of them calling after me, but I didn't know which, and I never stopped to look.

When I got back to my apartment my phone was ringing. I ignored it and went straight to my cabinet to get a bottle of wine. The phone continued to ring until I heard it turn over to the answering machine. "Hi, you've reached Natalie's phone!" I heard my own cheery voice say. "Sorry I missed you, leave me a message and I'll call you back!" I uncorked the bottle and took a drink, not even bothering to use a glass.

"Natalie, it's Andrew. I'm really sorry. If I had known that Oliver was cheating on you I would have told you immediately. I..." he trailed off. "I'm sorry." He said again, before the call ended. I saw that there were 3 more messages waiting, but I deleted them without listening. The phone began to ring again, but I unplugged it, not wanting to hear their voice.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mom and I sat there in silence for a moment. I hadn't even touched my food since she began telling me about her and Oliver. "Your father kept calling me," she finally began, "trying to make sure I was okay and offering help. I spent a few days just completely ignoring him. But eventually I called him back and told him I was fine and to please stop calling me. He didn't. He kept it to one call a day from then on, but he did keep calling me.

"I don't think he even had feelings for me yet, he just wanted to make sure I was okay." She smiled. "That was the kind of man he was. And I think that was why I eventually fell for him. Oliver only called me once. I could tell it was him because there was no emotion behind his voice. All he said was, 'I'm sorry Natalie.'" She shook her head. "Since then he and I haven't spoken more than 5 words to each other."

She fell silent again. "So that's why you got so upset when you saw me and Dani?" I asked.