by Zoicite

His father wept the last time he heard Kevin play the piano, the only time Kevin ever saw him cry. It was a few weeks before Kevin left home for good, a little over a year before the end of his father's days. The only time Kevin ever saw him cry. His father was a follow your dreams kind of guy, but that wasn't what he told Kevin when Kevin announced that he wanted to pursue a career in music. When Kevin picked up and moved to Florida because a high school buddy had told him that there were better odds there than there were in New York or Los Angeles. He said it later, after the initial announcement when Kevin's brothers had hugged him and his mother had promised she would throw a big party with all of the family's friends and relatives the night before Kevin left for Orlando. Then he pulled Kevin aside and told him that he was proud, told him not to let anything stand in his way, told him that he deserved the world. Those were things Kevin knew before they were said. Those were things Kevin's father didn't have to say. But that wasn't what he told Kevin when Kevin announced that he wanted to perform. Instead he sat Kevin down, scratched his chin and sighed one of those heavy sighs he used when he was worried, when he was apprehensive in some way. It was similar to the sigh he used when his sons had disappointed him, but this one held more sadness, a touch of melancholy that clashed with the thrill Kevin was feeling after finally choosing a direction. A direction that was only slightly more obtainable than professional football had been, which was what Kevin had announced he planned to do directly out of high school. But this time it was real. Kevin was going and his father scratched his chin and gripped Kevin's knee and said that the first time you were betrayed hurt the most. It crept up on you, right under your radar, until there you were. Stabbed in the back, ripped apart, strewn all over a cement floor and then stomped on for good measure. And then to top it all off, you alone had to piece yourself back together. The second time you were betrayed you blamed yourself because you should have seen it coming. And by the third time you started to expect it. Kevin never asked his father how he knew, what had happened to him years earlier that this was what he would think to warn Kevin about, and now Kevin would never have the chance. Kevin was alone. But he remembered it. He held it close. Next