A Rose by Any Other Name (7/?)
Title: A Rose by Any Other Name
Chapter: 7/?
Pairing: Kradam
Rating: R maybe? This one is G.
Summary: High school AU. What happens when Kris is kidnapped, and the police have given up the search after 2 years? And how do Adam Lambert and American Idol play into all of it?
Beta: My BFF Alex, who unforunately is not on LJ.
Disclamer: Unfortunately, I do not own Kris, Adam, or anyone else in this story. Nor do I own any of the songs, or anything recognizable from American Idol or Ford. I barely own the plotline, as its based on the show. Adam and Kris belong completely to themselves, and each other.
The next few weeks passed in a whirlwind. By some miracle of fate, I’d managed to stay in the competition, avoid Adam for the most part, and I escaped Frank’s nightly beatings, since we were sharing a hotel room with one of the other contestants. Everything was going perfectly, except for one point: I still didn’t know what to do. I was so close. I could taste it.
Literally. I could already taste my mom’s homemade white chocolate chip cookies. She never made them with macadamia nuts like everyone else did, cause I can’t stand them. I could hear Daniel’s laugh as he hit me on the shoulder and teased me to cover his concern. But I could already see the care masked in his eyes. I could feel Katy’s arms around me, her tear filled eyes pressed against my neck.
“James,” Frank’s voice jerked me from my thoughts.
I had clear my throat several times, forcing back tears that hadn’t touched my cheeks in nearly two months. “Yeah?”
“Come on, grab your suitcase,” he said roughly, jerking his own suitcase towards the door.
A grin touched my lips. We were moving into the Idol mansion today. Thursdays had become my favorite days lately. Frank was too busy wallowing in anger about being stuck here another week to even care if I went out with some of the other guys. We didn’t do much. We mostly just went to some café to eat, since me and Chaise were too young to go to a bar, then wandered around aimlessly.
Unless Adam was with us. He’d only come along once, as he was usually with Ali (that’s the fiery-redheaded) but when he came along, he took us to a few of his favorite G-rated hangouts, then complained about not being able to take us to bars or clubs. Other than throwing a disgruntled look at me and Chaise, he ignored me completely, which was fine by me. Sometimes it almost bothered me, but I contented myself with believing that he was ignoring James, not Kris. To my chagrin, I realized that I was starting to have difficulties telling the two identities apart after so long.
But this Thursday was definitely the best. Until we got our room assignments, anyways. Frank and I got to the room first, and I immediately claimed the bed by the window. I had to keep from sighing in relief when I saw a third bed in the room. Someone else would be in here, so the beatings wouldn’t resume anytime soon. I silently prayed that the person who took the other bed was an amazing singer, and destined to stay around for a long time.
My wish came true. But I wished it hadn’t. Adam grinned broadly at us as he came into the room, tossing his suitcase onto the bed opposite mine. “James, right?” he asked, glancing at me.
“Yeah. And this is my-” I winced inwardly. I had never referred to him as my father, but I didn’t know how else I was supposed to introduce him. “This is Frank.” Maybe Adam would just assume he was a step dad that I called by his first name.
“I’m Adam,” he said, nodding politely to Frank.
Frank glanced over him for a moment, barely hiding a sneer. “Pleasure,” he muttered with all the disdain that ruined milk earned.
Adam raised his eyebrows curiously at Frank, but otherwise ignored the attitude. He shot me an odd look, and I just gave him an apologetic smile, carefully focused on some spot over his shoulder to keep from catching his eye. We spent the next hour or so unpacking, until Frank finally broke the silence. “James, I’m going to get something to eat. You want to come?”
I glanced briefly at Adam, who looked like he wasn’t paying attention, but I knew better. He always acted like he wasn’t paying attention to conversations, but then would jump into the conversation at odd moments and know exactly what was going on. It was slightly comforting to know that I still remembered these pointless tidbits of information. Like maybe my life before Frank and Lindsay really had happened. Like it wasn’t just a dream of a life that I wanted. It was real. And so close.
“James?” Frank’s voice brought me back to the present and I looked at him.
“Um, could you just bring me something back?” I asked, knowing I was pushing him more than I should, but also knowing he wouldn’t do anything with Adam in the room.
Frank’s fist clenched at his side, but he just nodded. “Alright,” he muttered, then turned and left.
“That’s your dad?” Adam asked after Frank had left. I shrugged and gave a noncommittal grunt. Adam just laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think I’d claim him either.
I just laughed. “What’s that?” I asked, gesturing to the book before the conversation turned to dangerous territory.
“Senior Yearbook,” Adam said wistfully, looking back down at the book. “Wish I could go back to that year.”
My heart did a flip in my chest, but I pushed it down. He didn’t mean that he missed me. Just cause he hadn’t seen me since his senior year. Hell, Adam’s senior year must’ve been amazing. He was probably prom king, got the lead in both plays. I knew he’d gotten it in the fall play. Another wave of emotion hit me, as I realized how much I’d wanted to be there. For my freshman year of high school, Adam’s senior. Going to Adam’s graduation under the pretense of seeing Daniel graduate, though I wouldn’t have cared much to see him walk across the stage. Having Katy hit me on the arm and tell me to go talk to him. Telling Katy to shut up, no matter how much I wanted to listen to her. Seeing Mom fuss over Daniel’s graduation cap to make sure it was straight.
“Can I look at it?” I asked quietly, telling myself that if I could hold in the tears when Frank was beating me, I sure as hell could hold them in when I was looking at pictures of my friends.
“Sure,” Adam said, sitting on the edge of his bed and waving me over. I swallowed hard, then sat down beside him, keeping a safe foot or two of distance between us. He laughed and moved closer, holding the yearbook between us. I smiled weakly, my eyes focused on the pages in front of me, and definitely not on the way his leg was pressed against mine. “This was my graduating class,” he said, gesturing to the pictures. He pointed to one of the first pictures, and my breath caught in my throat. “That’s Daniel. We grew up together since elementary school. He’s still one of my best friends. He’s the one who convinced me to try out,” he added with a laugh.
I silently cursed my brother. Of course. Even when I’ve been kidnapped for two years, he’s still a pain in my ass. “Was he in theatre with you?” I asked without thinking.
“How’d you know I was in theatre?” Adam asked, looking at me curiously.
Thankfully, after two years, I’d learned to cover any slips of my tongue pretty easily. “Just a guess,” I said, shrugging. “The eyeliner, hair, that voice. You just scream ‘theatre boy!’” I said, laughing.
Adam laughed with me for a moment. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said. He flipped a few more pages, pausing to point out other friends and theatre people that I barely recognized. “This is me,” he said, finally pointing to one picture.
Though he’d recognized the face as soon as Adam flipped the page, he let his eyes widen, and he looked from the picture back to Adam. “Seriously?” He asked, faking a surprised look.
Adam laugh and nodded. “Yeah. I was a nerdy little guy.”
“Not really,” I said. I bit my lip once my brain caught up to my mouth. Adam just grinned at me, but didn’t say anything. He went back to flipping through the book, my heart shattering every time I saw the face of a long-lost friend.
“Wait,” Adam said quietly when he’d flipped the page to the freshmen. He stared at the page closely, then looked up at me.
“What?” I asked, acting nonchalant, though I could see the connection he was making.
“I told you I thought you looked familiar,” Adam said, pointing at my picture in the book. “That’s Daniel’s little brother, Kris. You look a lot like him.”
I looked at the picture, pretending to study it carefully while I prepared myself to lie like I never had before. “You think so? His hair’s a lot longer than mine. Besides, I‘m a lot cuter than that kid,” I said with a playful smirk.
Adam laughed. “Now who was it that told me you were the shy, modest kid from Conway?” he asked jokingly. I bit my tongue against pointing out that I wasn’t a kid. But Adam just shrugged and flipped to the next page, turning slightly more serious. “Of course, everyone back home kept seeing him in other people too,” he said, and I was pretty sure he didn’t mean to say it out loud.
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully, knowing I was treading in dangerous waters, but desperate to know about what everyone at home did after I disappeared. How long did it take for them to realize I was missing? How long did they search for me? Were they still looking?
Adam sighed, closing the book on the picture of Katy and turning to look at me, more sadness in his eyes than I’d expected. “Kris went out to ride his bike one day, and he never came back.” He looked back at the opposite wall and continued in a monotone voice. “Daniel had promised to let him come shopping with us that day to make up for some stuff he’d said the day before. Kris’ friend, um, I think her name was Katrina.” I bit my lip to keep from correcting him. “She was supposed to come with us too. Her and Kris were supposed to meet up at her house, apparently, and we were going to go by there to pick them up on our way to the mall. Kris wasn’t there when we got there, and Katrina was panicking.
“She said she’d tried to call him a hundred times, but he never answered. Parents said he’d gone to ride his bike. Never found his bike. Never found him.” He looked back at me with a sad smile.
“You miss him?” I asked quietly before I could stop myself. “I mean, his family and friends must’ve been worried sick,” I quickly amended.
Adam nodded. “His mom cried for days. Daniel was a wreck too. Never seen him that worked up about anything the whole fifteen years I knew him. Katrina was worse than him, though. Just kept to herself. Even after we graduated, we tried to invite her to hang out with us, but even when we dragged her along, she’d just sit in the group and stay quiet. I kept catching her staring at me, too. Almost like she blamed me. Like I should’ve done to stop it from happening.”
“You couldn’t have,” I said quietly.
“Maybe I could’ve,” Adam said, shrugging. “We all kinda blamed ourselves for the longest time. His mom for letting him go out. His brother for promising to let him come with us. Said Kris wouldn’t have gotten up so early that morning if he hadn’t let him come with us. Katrina said she should’ve told him to come to her house earlier. Neighbors’ kids said that Kris helped them get back home that morning. Think those kids were the last that saw him. We all went crazy for a while, trying to find him. Me and Daniel led search parties to go out around the area. The kid’s mom about had a fit when the police gave up the search after a year. They said Kris was as good as dead if they hadn’t found him yet anyways.”
Yet again, Adam’s sentiments were ruined by the word ‘kid.’ Why did he still think of me as a kid? I’m sixteen! Granted, he hasn’t seen me since I was fourteen, but still. Even so, I had to force back the tears at the thought of my family and friends so worried about me. I wanted more than anything to tell them that I was alright. Alive and well. I swallowed the lump in my throat and gestured back to the yearbook. “We gonna finish going through that?” I asked, now desperate to change the subject.
Adam smiled a bit and flipped back open to the page we’d ended on. He flipped a few more pages, pausing to point out pictures of Daniel playing basketball, and one of me at track team try-outs. I hadn’t made the team, but according to Adam, Daniel said that I’d put up one hell of an effort for the team. Granted, I had started getting up at four every morning so I could run for an hour before I had to get ready for school, but I never thought I had a chance of actually making the team.
Pausing for a moment, Adam smiled as he looked at the page of theatre pictures. He pointed out himself in the pictures, and named off a few others. “And that’s Kris and Katrina working on one of the backdrops. They did a lot of backstage stuff in the theatre, especially Kris. He was really into it,” Adam said, pointing out one of the pictures at the bottom of the page.
Really into you more like, I thought, though didn’t dare voice it aloud, even if I had the mask of James White on. That would be a difficult line to cover for if I let it slip. “What about this one?” I asked, pointing to a picture of Adam, his face turned upwards during a scene of some play. Must’ve been the spring play, I thought, not recognizing the costume he had on.
“That was in the last play I did in high school,” Adam said, smiling at the memory. “Romeo and Juliet. Glad I was able to finish with a classic, though Juliet’s lines were more fun than Romeo’s.” I smiled, remembering how Adam had always liked the girl’s lines better for some reason. Said they were more dramatic or something. He would always put on a melodramatic voice and quote the lines backstage, just to earn laughs from everyone. Adam cleared his throat, and from the look on his face, I knew he was about to remind me of those times backstage. Except, that backstage, his eyes never found mine, boring into mine with an intensity that held my gaze, never releasing me to look away. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called-”
His voice cut off sharply when the door opened. Adam looked away first, and I closed my eyes tightly, taking a deep breath to gain my composure before opening them again. “Brought you a burger,” Frank muttered under his breath, walking into the room and dropping the paper bag onto the bed beside me. He glanced at Adam and gave a weak smile. “There’s some food in there for you too, if you’re hungry.”
“Thank you,” Adam said. He sounded surprised, but I wasn’t caught off guard at all. Frank did this a lot. Act like an ass, then do something small and pointless to make up for it. Because everyone else had to see him as a saint. It was part of the image he upheld. He acted annoyed about the entire competition to me, but acted the part of the ecstatic father if anyone else was around. It was all just part of the game that I had unfortunately been forced to play for over two years.
Chapter: 7/?
Pairing: Kradam
Rating: R maybe? This one is G.
Summary: High school AU. What happens when Kris is kidnapped, and the police have given up the search after 2 years? And how do Adam Lambert and American Idol play into all of it?
Beta: My BFF Alex, who unforunately is not on LJ.
Disclamer: Unfortunately, I do not own Kris, Adam, or anyone else in this story. Nor do I own any of the songs, or anything recognizable from American Idol or Ford. I barely own the plotline, as its based on the show. Adam and Kris belong completely to themselves, and each other.
The next few weeks passed in a whirlwind. By some miracle of fate, I’d managed to stay in the competition, avoid Adam for the most part, and I escaped Frank’s nightly beatings, since we were sharing a hotel room with one of the other contestants. Everything was going perfectly, except for one point: I still didn’t know what to do. I was so close. I could taste it.
Literally. I could already taste my mom’s homemade white chocolate chip cookies. She never made them with macadamia nuts like everyone else did, cause I can’t stand them. I could hear Daniel’s laugh as he hit me on the shoulder and teased me to cover his concern. But I could already see the care masked in his eyes. I could feel Katy’s arms around me, her tear filled eyes pressed against my neck.
“James,” Frank’s voice jerked me from my thoughts.
I had clear my throat several times, forcing back tears that hadn’t touched my cheeks in nearly two months. “Yeah?”
“Come on, grab your suitcase,” he said roughly, jerking his own suitcase towards the door.
A grin touched my lips. We were moving into the Idol mansion today. Thursdays had become my favorite days lately. Frank was too busy wallowing in anger about being stuck here another week to even care if I went out with some of the other guys. We didn’t do much. We mostly just went to some café to eat, since me and Chaise were too young to go to a bar, then wandered around aimlessly.
Unless Adam was with us. He’d only come along once, as he was usually with Ali (that’s the fiery-redheaded) but when he came along, he took us to a few of his favorite G-rated hangouts, then complained about not being able to take us to bars or clubs. Other than throwing a disgruntled look at me and Chaise, he ignored me completely, which was fine by me. Sometimes it almost bothered me, but I contented myself with believing that he was ignoring James, not Kris. To my chagrin, I realized that I was starting to have difficulties telling the two identities apart after so long.
But this Thursday was definitely the best. Until we got our room assignments, anyways. Frank and I got to the room first, and I immediately claimed the bed by the window. I had to keep from sighing in relief when I saw a third bed in the room. Someone else would be in here, so the beatings wouldn’t resume anytime soon. I silently prayed that the person who took the other bed was an amazing singer, and destined to stay around for a long time.
My wish came true. But I wished it hadn’t. Adam grinned broadly at us as he came into the room, tossing his suitcase onto the bed opposite mine. “James, right?” he asked, glancing at me.
“Yeah. And this is my-” I winced inwardly. I had never referred to him as my father, but I didn’t know how else I was supposed to introduce him. “This is Frank.” Maybe Adam would just assume he was a step dad that I called by his first name.
“I’m Adam,” he said, nodding politely to Frank.
Frank glanced over him for a moment, barely hiding a sneer. “Pleasure,” he muttered with all the disdain that ruined milk earned.
Adam raised his eyebrows curiously at Frank, but otherwise ignored the attitude. He shot me an odd look, and I just gave him an apologetic smile, carefully focused on some spot over his shoulder to keep from catching his eye. We spent the next hour or so unpacking, until Frank finally broke the silence. “James, I’m going to get something to eat. You want to come?”
I glanced briefly at Adam, who looked like he wasn’t paying attention, but I knew better. He always acted like he wasn’t paying attention to conversations, but then would jump into the conversation at odd moments and know exactly what was going on. It was slightly comforting to know that I still remembered these pointless tidbits of information. Like maybe my life before Frank and Lindsay really had happened. Like it wasn’t just a dream of a life that I wanted. It was real. And so close.
“James?” Frank’s voice brought me back to the present and I looked at him.
“Um, could you just bring me something back?” I asked, knowing I was pushing him more than I should, but also knowing he wouldn’t do anything with Adam in the room.
Frank’s fist clenched at his side, but he just nodded. “Alright,” he muttered, then turned and left.
“That’s your dad?” Adam asked after Frank had left. I shrugged and gave a noncommittal grunt. Adam just laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think I’d claim him either.
I just laughed. “What’s that?” I asked, gesturing to the book before the conversation turned to dangerous territory.
“Senior Yearbook,” Adam said wistfully, looking back down at the book. “Wish I could go back to that year.”
My heart did a flip in my chest, but I pushed it down. He didn’t mean that he missed me. Just cause he hadn’t seen me since his senior year. Hell, Adam’s senior year must’ve been amazing. He was probably prom king, got the lead in both plays. I knew he’d gotten it in the fall play. Another wave of emotion hit me, as I realized how much I’d wanted to be there. For my freshman year of high school, Adam’s senior. Going to Adam’s graduation under the pretense of seeing Daniel graduate, though I wouldn’t have cared much to see him walk across the stage. Having Katy hit me on the arm and tell me to go talk to him. Telling Katy to shut up, no matter how much I wanted to listen to her. Seeing Mom fuss over Daniel’s graduation cap to make sure it was straight.
“Can I look at it?” I asked quietly, telling myself that if I could hold in the tears when Frank was beating me, I sure as hell could hold them in when I was looking at pictures of my friends.
“Sure,” Adam said, sitting on the edge of his bed and waving me over. I swallowed hard, then sat down beside him, keeping a safe foot or two of distance between us. He laughed and moved closer, holding the yearbook between us. I smiled weakly, my eyes focused on the pages in front of me, and definitely not on the way his leg was pressed against mine. “This was my graduating class,” he said, gesturing to the pictures. He pointed to one of the first pictures, and my breath caught in my throat. “That’s Daniel. We grew up together since elementary school. He’s still one of my best friends. He’s the one who convinced me to try out,” he added with a laugh.
I silently cursed my brother. Of course. Even when I’ve been kidnapped for two years, he’s still a pain in my ass. “Was he in theatre with you?” I asked without thinking.
“How’d you know I was in theatre?” Adam asked, looking at me curiously.
Thankfully, after two years, I’d learned to cover any slips of my tongue pretty easily. “Just a guess,” I said, shrugging. “The eyeliner, hair, that voice. You just scream ‘theatre boy!’” I said, laughing.
Adam laughed with me for a moment. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said. He flipped a few more pages, pausing to point out other friends and theatre people that I barely recognized. “This is me,” he said, finally pointing to one picture.
Though he’d recognized the face as soon as Adam flipped the page, he let his eyes widen, and he looked from the picture back to Adam. “Seriously?” He asked, faking a surprised look.
Adam laugh and nodded. “Yeah. I was a nerdy little guy.”
“Not really,” I said. I bit my lip once my brain caught up to my mouth. Adam just grinned at me, but didn’t say anything. He went back to flipping through the book, my heart shattering every time I saw the face of a long-lost friend.
“Wait,” Adam said quietly when he’d flipped the page to the freshmen. He stared at the page closely, then looked up at me.
“What?” I asked, acting nonchalant, though I could see the connection he was making.
“I told you I thought you looked familiar,” Adam said, pointing at my picture in the book. “That’s Daniel’s little brother, Kris. You look a lot like him.”
I looked at the picture, pretending to study it carefully while I prepared myself to lie like I never had before. “You think so? His hair’s a lot longer than mine. Besides, I‘m a lot cuter than that kid,” I said with a playful smirk.
Adam laughed. “Now who was it that told me you were the shy, modest kid from Conway?” he asked jokingly. I bit my tongue against pointing out that I wasn’t a kid. But Adam just shrugged and flipped to the next page, turning slightly more serious. “Of course, everyone back home kept seeing him in other people too,” he said, and I was pretty sure he didn’t mean to say it out loud.
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully, knowing I was treading in dangerous waters, but desperate to know about what everyone at home did after I disappeared. How long did it take for them to realize I was missing? How long did they search for me? Were they still looking?
Adam sighed, closing the book on the picture of Katy and turning to look at me, more sadness in his eyes than I’d expected. “Kris went out to ride his bike one day, and he never came back.” He looked back at the opposite wall and continued in a monotone voice. “Daniel had promised to let him come shopping with us that day to make up for some stuff he’d said the day before. Kris’ friend, um, I think her name was Katrina.” I bit my lip to keep from correcting him. “She was supposed to come with us too. Her and Kris were supposed to meet up at her house, apparently, and we were going to go by there to pick them up on our way to the mall. Kris wasn’t there when we got there, and Katrina was panicking.
“She said she’d tried to call him a hundred times, but he never answered. Parents said he’d gone to ride his bike. Never found his bike. Never found him.” He looked back at me with a sad smile.
“You miss him?” I asked quietly before I could stop myself. “I mean, his family and friends must’ve been worried sick,” I quickly amended.
Adam nodded. “His mom cried for days. Daniel was a wreck too. Never seen him that worked up about anything the whole fifteen years I knew him. Katrina was worse than him, though. Just kept to herself. Even after we graduated, we tried to invite her to hang out with us, but even when we dragged her along, she’d just sit in the group and stay quiet. I kept catching her staring at me, too. Almost like she blamed me. Like I should’ve done to stop it from happening.”
“You couldn’t have,” I said quietly.
“Maybe I could’ve,” Adam said, shrugging. “We all kinda blamed ourselves for the longest time. His mom for letting him go out. His brother for promising to let him come with us. Said Kris wouldn’t have gotten up so early that morning if he hadn’t let him come with us. Katrina said she should’ve told him to come to her house earlier. Neighbors’ kids said that Kris helped them get back home that morning. Think those kids were the last that saw him. We all went crazy for a while, trying to find him. Me and Daniel led search parties to go out around the area. The kid’s mom about had a fit when the police gave up the search after a year. They said Kris was as good as dead if they hadn’t found him yet anyways.”
Yet again, Adam’s sentiments were ruined by the word ‘kid.’ Why did he still think of me as a kid? I’m sixteen! Granted, he hasn’t seen me since I was fourteen, but still. Even so, I had to force back the tears at the thought of my family and friends so worried about me. I wanted more than anything to tell them that I was alright. Alive and well. I swallowed the lump in my throat and gestured back to the yearbook. “We gonna finish going through that?” I asked, now desperate to change the subject.
Adam smiled a bit and flipped back open to the page we’d ended on. He flipped a few more pages, pausing to point out pictures of Daniel playing basketball, and one of me at track team try-outs. I hadn’t made the team, but according to Adam, Daniel said that I’d put up one hell of an effort for the team. Granted, I had started getting up at four every morning so I could run for an hour before I had to get ready for school, but I never thought I had a chance of actually making the team.
Pausing for a moment, Adam smiled as he looked at the page of theatre pictures. He pointed out himself in the pictures, and named off a few others. “And that’s Kris and Katrina working on one of the backdrops. They did a lot of backstage stuff in the theatre, especially Kris. He was really into it,” Adam said, pointing out one of the pictures at the bottom of the page.
Really into you more like, I thought, though didn’t dare voice it aloud, even if I had the mask of James White on. That would be a difficult line to cover for if I let it slip. “What about this one?” I asked, pointing to a picture of Adam, his face turned upwards during a scene of some play. Must’ve been the spring play, I thought, not recognizing the costume he had on.
“That was in the last play I did in high school,” Adam said, smiling at the memory. “Romeo and Juliet. Glad I was able to finish with a classic, though Juliet’s lines were more fun than Romeo’s.” I smiled, remembering how Adam had always liked the girl’s lines better for some reason. Said they were more dramatic or something. He would always put on a melodramatic voice and quote the lines backstage, just to earn laughs from everyone. Adam cleared his throat, and from the look on his face, I knew he was about to remind me of those times backstage. Except, that backstage, his eyes never found mine, boring into mine with an intensity that held my gaze, never releasing me to look away. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called-”
His voice cut off sharply when the door opened. Adam looked away first, and I closed my eyes tightly, taking a deep breath to gain my composure before opening them again. “Brought you a burger,” Frank muttered under his breath, walking into the room and dropping the paper bag onto the bed beside me. He glanced at Adam and gave a weak smile. “There’s some food in there for you too, if you’re hungry.”
“Thank you,” Adam said. He sounded surprised, but I wasn’t caught off guard at all. Frank did this a lot. Act like an ass, then do something small and pointless to make up for it. Because everyone else had to see him as a saint. It was part of the image he upheld. He acted annoyed about the entire competition to me, but acted the part of the ecstatic father if anyone else was around. It was all just part of the game that I had unfortunately been forced to play for over two years.