Frustration -SERIES- [Part 1] [boyxboy]

Chapter Twenty-One

It was the last date of the tour and as usual the Name Withheld tour bus pulled up at the hotel hours after The Tiny Manatees', meaning they were all snugly ensconced in their rooms while we all smelled and were slightly grumpy. The band were a little depressed about the tour ending but at least Jackson and Sally seemed to have made up after Jackson's revelation that he'd thought she'd been about to dump him - for Tarquin of all people, who had turned out to be not as much of a loser as I had thought, having managed to somehow land a girlfriend six years years his senior.

Despite the fact that Name Withheld were pretty dejected at having to drop the rockstar lifestyle for a while to go back to school, there didn't seem to be anything that could ruin Conor's good mood; I swear he hadn't stopped smiling since we'd gotten back together, not even in his sleep. As we traipsed off the bus he happily took care of removing everybody's luggage from the undercarriage, joking and laughing and cheering everybody up. I stood to the side to watch him for a second, feeling that infectious happiness get to me too.

'Conor!'

I recognised that voice, not taking my eyes off Conor as he registered who was shouting his name.

There went that smile.

He looked around and I saw his shoulders tense as he froze; I followed his gaze to see Cian Archibald standing across the parking lot and waving like he expected to be greeted warmly by his youngest son. I knew they'd organised to meet up again before Conor went back to Ireland but I think we'd all figured he just wouldn't bother to show up after getting his fifteen minutes of fame on Carrie Chilcott's show.

We were surrounded by the whole group now and as Conor turned around and stared at his father with an inscrutable expression, everyone jumped to action. Sally and Rachel both got a firm hold on each of Conor's arms, stopping him from either attacking his dad or collapsing - it wasn't clear which was more likely.

Sarah took care of grabbing Tarquin while Josh took Philip and Jackson grabbed Daniel; all three of whom were struggling against their captors to try and get to Mr Archibald, and all three of them looked equally murderous.

Given the fray, nobody was paying much attention to me, which made it easy to slip away from the group, unnoticed until it was too late. I darted across the parking lot and right up to Conor's dad, who looked, inconceivably, confused. I paused for a split second right in front of him, one eternal second where I took in his expression and his bewildered eyes and his mouth starting to form around a question; and then I curled my hand into a fist and punched him straight in the face.

I heard the noise behind me stop very suddenly, and I could see from the corner of my eye that everyone was frozen, just watching.

Mr Archibald brought a hand to his face and stared at me in shock, like he couldn't believe what I'd just done. I wasn't sure I believed it either, so just to be sure, I punched him again. This time I felt the cartilage of his nose give way under my fist and blood started seeping down the lower half of his face.

The shock must have worn off because this one seemed to hurt a lot more, and he brought both hands to his face and started swearing at me. Blood was oozing between his fingers and he was threatening to hit me back, to kill me, but I guess I was running on raw energy because I didn't take a step back, didn't flinch. I just waited and when he finally stopped talking I said, 'If you ever contact him again, we'll find you, and we'll kill you.' I jerked my head towards the others, and yeah, we may just have been a group of teenage boys, but I knew that at that moment Conor's friends looked like they could follow through on my threat.

Cursing me a couple of more times, Conor's dad finally took a few steps back, then turned and stumbled towards his car, getting in and driving away.