18 Prove him wrong
1646 Words
“So what brings you to this rooftop this fine evening?” Charlie asked, taking another long drag from his cigarette.
“I came lookin’ for you man,” Trae replied, walking over and leaning on the fence next to Charlie.
“Oh yeah? Wonder why,” he said, letting out a small chuckle.
The two looked off into the horizon and watched as the sky started to turn from a vibrant orange into a deeper red.
“So… havin’ a hard time deciding to join us?” Trae asked, fanning away some of the smoke that flew by him.
Catching onto this, Charlie transferred his cigarette to his other hand.
“Thanks,” Trae said in response.
“Actually, Max really is something else. And all of you guys, are really onto something with this endeavor,” Charlie said. “It’s just not something that I can get behind knowing what my father is capable of.”
“Oh yeah? Well… I wouldn’t know what it’s like… having a CEO for a father.”
“Yeah, I guess. Where are you from, Trae?”
“Oh, I’m from the Bronx.”
“Really? Any parents?” Charlie asked.
“Just my ma’. My dad left the picture when I was probably a year old.”
“Sounds rough. Sorry to hear about that,” Charlie said, looking solemnly at Trae.
“Nah, don’t be, man. That was a long time ago,” Trae replied.
There was a silence between the two for a moment, as they kept their eyes on the horizon.
“Your dad is really pushin’ you to be the next CEO to your company huh?” Trae asked, suddenly shifting the topic back to Charlie.
He gulped down, and took another drag as if stalling to find time to figure out what to say.
“Yeah… he does,”
“Why doesn’t he wanna let you do your own thing?”
Charlie hung his head.
“I guess it’s because he thinks that I can do better as a CEO rather than as a person working in Tech.”
Trae looked at him skeptically.
“Is that really it?” he asked.
“Yeah...”
Charlie tried to avert his eyes from meeting Trae’s. Somehow, he knew that if someone caught a glimpse of his eyes, everything would be given away.
“I don’t buy it, man,” Trae said, crossing his arms. “We got skill, we got a plan for finding capital. We got connections with high up VIPs, and we got a potential product. Everything is in line for us to jump into the water. So I don’t know how you can logically pass up this amazing potential to succeed,”
Charlie grit his teeth.
“You don’t understand Trae...”
“Understand what?” Trae pushed.
“My father...”
“What don’t I understand about him?”
Charlie began to let his temper flare. All he wanted was for this conversation to end.
“He isn’t the kind of man who takes no for an answer! He has lived his life always being the one who is followed. He will never let me do what I truly want, just because it means that somebody defied him,” Charlie said in a raised tone.
He felt a burning on his fingertips. The reflex made him drop the cigarette, which at this point had burned down all the way to the small foam filter close to the end.
“s**t!”
He sucked on his burned finger and inspected it for any serious wounds. As he did so, he continued talking to Trae.
“Anyway… My father is a really powerful man, and will go to any means to make what he wants to happen.”
“I knew there was more to it than just him wanting what was best for you,” Trae said.
“Oh yeah? You think I don’t want to just be happy and go do my whole tech life thing and find a hot girl to marry, and then everything will be rainbows and butterflies?!”
Charlie slammed his hands onto the railings in frustration and hung his head.
“I want to do what I want to do… But… I’m terrified of what my dad might do.”
His hands trembled, as he kept his head low and eyes pointed to the floor. There was a moment of silence between the two, as Trae had lost all of his words in that one moment.
“Hey Trae…”
“Yeah?”
“What is your mother like?”
Trae widened his eyes a little in curiosity, but then softened his demeanor almost immediately. He leaned on the railing again and looked to the horizon once more.
“My ma’... Is a really tough woman,” he said in a chuckle. “She hit me with a slipper if my room was messy. She would berate me in front of friends if I did something bad. She made me do my homework on weekends before I was allowed to go outside to play ball. She made me do so much reading, even if I didn’t really like it that much.”
“Is that so different from my own father?” Charlie asked.
“I think it is...” Trae replied.
Charlie’s head shot up and looked at Trae in slight surprise.
“Really?”
“It’s aight man, I get it. She sounds real tough… But she also made the best pizza. She made sure I ate ‘til I was bloated, sayin’ I had to grow. She made sure I had protection whenever I played basketball. She made sure I slept well and did everything she could to get me a bed. She would sleep on the couch. She would go serious hours working overtime, just to get me something for my birthdays. She never let me get into any gangs sayin’ ‘Momma is worse than all them gang boys, so don’t even think about it’.” And that’s where I think there’s a difference.”
Charlie looked on at Trae, who still had his eyes on the horizon. A huge smile crossed his face, as he remembered everything his mom had done to get him to where he was today.
“I’m sorry, I still don’t get it,” Charlie said.
“It’s aight. Basically, my ma’ was only brutal towards me just so I could grow up to be a good person. In the end, when I moved out, I looked at her like the person who took care of me all these years, makin’ sure that I never became a bad person.”
Charlie let out a sigh and a slight chuckle.
“You’re really lucky, you know that?”
“Yeah I know,”
“Must be nice knowing that you could do whatever you want, just because you have a supportive parent,”
Trae chuckled, and looked back at Charlie.
“That’s where you’re wrong again, man.”
The confusion was evident in Charlie’s face, as he waited for Trae to continue.
“Wrong?”
“Yeah… you’re wrong.”
“Why do you say that?”
“That’s because my plan, once I got out of college, was to take care of my ma’. All my money, all my resources, would go to my ma’. So when I called her one night on the payphone and told her about it… she laughed at me. ‘What are you talkin’ about sugar, you ain’t gotta worry about me no more,’ she said. She told me to follow my own path,”
Charlie scrunched his face up.
“Wait, what you’re describing is exactly what I just said. You can do things because your parent supports you,”
“Wrong again Charlie...”
Trae put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder, as he looked right into his eyes.
“I’m doin’ things just because I damn well want to.”
Charlie looked at Trae, shaken by the words that he uttered.
“It just so happens that she supports me,” Trae added, as he showed a bright smile. “That’s why even if she said it was ok for me to just leave her be… I won’t. I’m still gonna take care of her as best as I can. Because that’s my choice. Not hers.”
Charlie felt a sharp pain in his chest, as tears started to well in his eyes. He looked down immediately and tried to hide his face. However, that only made the droplets fall faster.
“I’m not allowed to choose, man...”
“Yeah, you are,” Trae replied.
“He is gonna try and stop me,” Charlie argued, vigorously wiping his tears.
“Then you got us to back you up,” Trae countered.
“I… I feel like I might let him down. I just… I just want-”
“You want him to be proud of you?”
At this point, Charlie broke down to his knees and sobbed quietly on the floor. He nodded his head and tried to calm himself down. However, nothing was working, as the tears just ran down his cheek without showing any signs of stopping. Years of not being enough for his father rushed back to him in an instant. His life was spent merely following and obeying to make his father happy, which had cost him the chance to find something that he desperately wanted. A simple “good job, son”. A simple pat on the back. A simple thumbs-up. Charlie had given up on all of that, and rebelled, hoping to find some sort of recognition. His heart had been broken slowly over many years of not being enough, that all of it had come back at the trigger of one simple question. After calming down, he looked back up at Trae, who at this point had knelt down to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah… I wanna show him that, I can make something of myself too,” Charlie said.
“And with us by your side, we can show him how badass you can be,” Trae replied.
Charlie smiled as hope had seeped back into his eyes ever so slightly. He pondered for a moment and then nodded his head.
“Ok… ok! I’ll join you guys. I have a few ideas, and I hope they’ll help,”
Trae helped him to his feet, and together, they walked back to the room. This would soon be the start of many more meetings among the four of them.
- Writer
