Dad

"Proud of your taste in art, boy." As soon as that last word hit his ears, he knew who it was before he even finished turning around. The tension was instantly palpable. Out of all of the garage sales in the city, out of anybody that he could've ran into, it just had to be him. It doesn't help that Derek seems to instantly shrink in his presence. "I'm just waiting on a dolly. I already bought this fine lady here, I can't wait to get her home." He said, placing his hand over one of her marble breasts. "Classy as always, dad." was all that Derek could muster, not knowing how to respond. How do you respond to a guy who went from model dad to grade A asshole over your mom divorcing him? Dereks father didn't reply, instead just giving him a stern glare before silently walking away. Derek was finally able to breathe. That's not how he saw himself talking to his father again after everything. "Fuck."

After gathering himself for a moment, Derek was finally able to look around the rest of the lawn and see the scattered display of oddities. Sketched slabs of clay depicting horror-like scenes lay over the ground, accompanied by metal goblets and amulets that would fit in perfectly with any heavy metal band. Large paintings of mysterious and unknown entities with the word Baphomet inscribed. Approaching the main table of the garage sale, Derek was surprised to see the person who was running everything.

"How's the day been, ma'am?" Derek asked warmly, approaching an elderly lady who seemed to be in charge, positioned behind a makeshift antique cash register. "Oh, just lovely hun. I just wish it was for better reasons, we're cleaning out the house after my dear Gorgo passed away." She replied, stopping a second to calm her shaking voice. "We just couldn't bare to see all the things he cared about sitting around anymore. Have you seen anything you like, dear?" She meekly asked, kindly smiling up at Derek like a grandmother from a baking commercial.

Derek panicked internally as everything he had came across so far had been way out of his comfort zone, but he didn't want to disappoint this sweet woman, whose already lost a lot. He dashed his eyes around one more time quickly around the lawn, looking for anything he could settle on, before it hit him. "I forgot! Books!" He thought to himself. Voila! Turning back to her, he spoke up, "Ma'am, would you happen to have any books for sale? I don't think I saw any."

The elderly lady tapped her glasses down onto her nose and looked up at Derek, before chuckling to herself. "No books? Did you happen to check -" and as she stood up out of her chair to point him in there direction, she noticed her selection of books were gone. She must've sold them and not remembered. "Oh.." she said quietly, before continuing. "I guess I must've parted with them already.." she said, not sounding confident as to what had actually happened. "It's no worries," Derek started, trying to lift the conversation up, "I can always stop at the library." Determined, the elderly lady waved Derek off as he was speaking and said "Nonsense, I'll find something for you. You can't leave empty handed!" before rustling through miscellaneous boxes she had under her table. Not wanting to argue, Derek agreed and turned around to look around to give her some time.