Chasing Dreams

As I lay in the bed trying to get back to sleep I wonder how Dodge actually puts up with me sometimes... I get trashed off my nut just about every single night yet he’s always taking care of me... I mean it’s been over a year... I shouldn’t still be going through the depression should I? It seemed like nearly everyone who meant something to me in my life died... mum, dad, Priya, Taj... it seemed like only a matter of time before it would be Dodge, then maybe even Kellan if he wasn’t careful, then what? I’d be left alone in this world. I so wished I could join Taj, and my parents and my sister and even his mother, even through the brief time I knew her, she was still like a second mother to me.
Kellan drives the following day, we are heading down to the capital, Wellington, I miss this place, it was always so much fun... I manage to drift into sleep, just too bad it wasn’t dreamless.

We’re sixteen; living in Dodge’s house Taj and I have been up most of the night when we finally decide to crash. We are woken at what seems like a few minutes later... it’s Taj’s father, Johnny Lewis, the infamous drunk as of the last few years. Now that Taj was older and able look after himself, good old Johnny took to the bottles, he bursts through the door, he wasn’t drunk, I don’t even think he had even started yet... which was weird seeing as it was four in the morning.
“Memphis!” his father screams, Taj jumps at the sound of his first name, as did I, no one had called him that in a long time... the last time I’d actually heard anyone call him that was his mother, when she was on her death bed, her dying words were Taj’s full name (All four of them), I saw Dodge sit sleepily on the bottom few steps in his boxers, I’m guessing the noise woke him and he wanted to see what the action was.
“Memphis, where the hell have you been?” Johnny snaps. Gees not even his mother called him by his first name when he was in the shits.
“Dad I told you that Lauran and I were having a movie night” he growls, probably annoyed that he’d been woken up, he hated that, unless it was me, I use to do it all the time and blame it on Dodge, that was fun.
“It’s four in the fucking morning, get home” Johnny growls back.
“Why so I can clean up after you’ve has another night on the booze, no dad I’m not gonna be your little bitch and pick up after you anymore, mum died thirteen years ago, deal with it! I am” he snaps.
“From this day on I have no son!” Johnny snaps back and heads for the door.
“Mr. Lewis” I call after him, “Mr. Lewis you don’t want to do that” but he has already slammed the door in my face, I sigh in defeat and drop to the couch.
“So, the question is: what now?” Dodge says casually getting up from the stairs, I sigh again, Taj just shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans, I can feel Dodge’s eyes on me. “I’ve been looking over places in Hawaii” he says. So he actually meant it when he said we could move there for me?
“Let’s go” Taj says as he ran up the stairs slamming a door, I’m guessing to my room, he liked it in there; it seemed to be his haven. Dodge’s eyes turn back to me.
“Well?” he shrugs.
“Yeah, sure” I agree. At least Taj had been dealing with his mother’s death, whereas I was putting it all on hold.

I snap awake as I feel the car slowing down, we are on the motor way stuck in peak traffic, oops, I forgot about that. “Hey Kellan” I say turning to him.
“Yeah” he replies.
“Do you know what happened to Taj’s dad, Johnny Lewis?” I ask.
“The drunk?” Kellan laughs, I nod in reply. “He got into a bar fight with some people from the mob about five months ago, got himself killed, blaming it all on someone named Memphis Michael” Kellan explains, the name seeming to confuse him.
I chuckle to myself, nobody besides myself, Taj’s parents, my parents and Dodge know Taj’s full name, now it’s only Dodge and myself. But I wonder... Did Johnny even know what had become of his son? Even though he’d disowned him five years ago, did he know? Did Dodge find some way to contact him about it? I doubt even if Johnny did know that he would have turned up to the bodiless service we had in honour of Taj. Would anyone even have gone to Johnny’s funeral? I sure as hell wouldn’t have, not after the way he’d been. Kellan pulls into a motel in Welly’s, after getting a room he heads out to get a fed, I pull my phone out to call Dodge, curious if he knew about Johnny.

“Hello?” shit I think I woke him.
“Hey Dodge, it’s me” I smile.
“ Lauren” I can hear the smile in his voice, it’s almost as if I was his daughter, he loved me more than anything.
“I was wondering something” I say slowly.
“What can I do for ya baby cuzzie” he says cheerfully.
“I was wondering if anyone had tried to contact you about Johnny getting killed in a bar fight” I am surprised at how easily I am able to ask the question.
“O-oh” he says, his tone changing, oh yeah he knew something alright, I hear a sigh, “Yeah, I was contacted”
“Why didn’t you tell me Dodge” I almost growl.
“I didn't think it mattered, ever since Taj turned ten you’ve hated Johnny” he sighs again.
“What’d they want when they called anyways?” my voice is claimer now.
“They wanted to speak to Taj”
“What’d you tell them?” I didn’t care about the 21 one questions, I wanted to know.
“I told them that Taj had died months before and that we won’t be going out of our way for Johnny cause he’s a cunt” Dodge says casually. And I can’t help but laugh.
“You actually said that?” I am almost cracking up by this point; I can hear Dodge chuckling too.
“Yeah I did” the smile was back in his voice, I sigh contently.
“Go back to sleep Dodge, I’ll call you another day”
“Hey Chase” he hadn’t called me that in a long time, not since before Taj disappeared, maybe because it was Taj who gave me the nickname.
“Yeah cuz?” I reply.
“Where are you anyway?”
“Wellington, I finally got here after peak traffic” I roll my eyes, not wanting to let him know I’d found someone to travel with.