Some things deserved to stay ours a little longer before the whole internet got to have an opinion about them.
A guy in my chemistry class, Dev, cornered me at my locker, phone still half raised like he’d been mid-scroll through the clip himself.
“Dude, is that your real dad? The car guy?”
“Depends what you mean by real,” I said.
Dev blinked at that, clearly expecting a simpler answer, then just nodded like he’d decided the follow-up questions weren’t worth whatever trouble they might stir up.
Dev didn’t push it further, which I appreciated more than he probably knew.
A few other kids asked in the days that followed, most of them more careful about it than Dev had been, sensing correctly that this wasn’t the kind of thing you joked about at a locker between classes. My English teacher, Mrs. Falcone, pulled me aside after class one day, no explanation needed on either side.