High Treason

Kasey


"So basically…I'm just gonna get plastered."

"Okay." Josh shrugged and smiled.

"Really. I just…I'm just gonna get plastered."

"Donna can drive you home, it's fine."

"Yeah," she volunteered. "It's not a problem or anything."

"Good. Because I'm gonna be drunker than a college frat boy by the time we leave this fine establishment."

"Okay, Sam, right there, the fact that you said 'fine establishment'…you gotta get some liquor in your system." Josh hid a smirk.

"I couldn't agree more," Sam said as Josh handed him a beer. "…See…" he said, after a long drink. "…it would've been different if he would've, y'know, showed remorse or something."

"He wasn't sorry?"

"Just sorry he was more of an idiot than the Spanish drug guy. Y'know, I honestly don't know what he was expecting."

"What'd'ya mean?"

"He's upset because Mom threw him out."

"What'd he expect to happen?"

"See, that's my point." Another long drink. "Y'know how my mom found out about it?"

"How?"

"It's not like you think."

"You mean she didn't walk in on him having sex with -"

"No, Josh, but thank you for bringing up the visual of my father doing that at all, let alone with someone who I only know as being SatanWoman."

"No problem."

"…So it wasn't anything…y'know, dramatic…it was basically just…my father being an idiot, see, he-…" Sam laughed as he shook his head. "He told her."

"He told her?"

"My father told my mother he'd been having an affair with another woman for 28 years, that all the times he'd say he was going out of town on business he'd be up banging her in Santa Monica at their apartment, which he bought her, by the way."

"And he's…surprised she kicked him out?"

"Apparently."

"You talked to him?"

"Yeah. Right before I got here."

"Is he a moron?"

"I think that's where I get it from, really. Which poses the question of how the hell he hid it for twenty-eight years."

"I…honestly couldn't tell ya."

Sam stared intently off into space. "Y'know, I put my father on a pedestal when I was little…He was this-…this great lawyer, and I wanted to be just like him…"

"…Yeah, I know the feeling…"

"…He worked so hard, I thought…that's why we always had money, why I had more things than most of my friends did in terms of toys and clothes and…and why we moved into the big house when I was five…Little did I realize he bought us those things out of guilt."

"…Sam…"

"He bought us a lot of nice things not because we had so much more money and he wanted to flaunt it, and not even just because he felt bad for being gone all the time like some parents do it, was-…it was so he could feel better for the fact that we weren't his only family."

"Did he have-"

"Kids? A daughter half my age."

"Ouch."

"Yeah." Sam laughed ruefully. "He's paying for her to go to Harvard next year. She's graduating early."

"He paid for you-"

"Yeah. Y'know the irony, though? In all this…the most ironic part is…he was telling me about Kristin - that's her name. …She wants to be a lawyer…she said she wants to be just like him…"

"She wants to be like him?"

"Yeah!" Sam began to laugh so hard tears came to his eyes. "I wonder if she realizes how incredibly stupid he is, this man she wants to be so much like, that he's a traitor and an idiot and possibly one of the worst people to aspire to be like."

"Sam, don't go-"

"Don't go doing what, Josh? Saying bad things about my father? Because lemme tell you something, I think I have the right right now."

"…I'm just sayin-"

"…He lied to us, Josh, he lied to us for 28 years, all but four years of my LIFE…all but six years of their marriage, I…" he fell silent. "…I don't know…"

"You don't have to."

"What?"

"You don't have to know the answers. I don't' know all the answers about my dad and he's been gone 3 years, I don't know the answers about Joanie and she's been dead since I was 8."

"That's different."

"Is it?"

"…not really…"

"Right." Josh nodded decisively. "So y'know what we do now?"

"Get plastered?"

"Damn straight."

"Josh." Josh paused, mid-gulp. "…he committed…high treason on a…a sacred institution…"

"…So maybe you should give 'im a pardon." Sam nodded, deep in thought, then continued to drink his beer.

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