"There's always going to be something more important," he pointed out. That was the lesson he'd had to learn. "If you wait for them, something will always come up because this is what's important to them. If keeping in practice is important to you, why not find someone else to be your bases? Find your own way." He shrugged. "I mean, yeah, it's nothing like playing at Lincoln Center, not much like a club gig either, I'll bet. But, if playing here is the most I can get, I'll take it. I'm still playing, still making music. That's what matters. And, if they tell me I can't do that, then I'll find another way. You can do the same. You know what you're giving up. There has to be a way to hold onto a little piece of it."
Sean would let them kill him first before he gave up his music entirely. He wasn't anything without that and they could try to turn him into his dad's mini-me all they liked. He'd find a way not to give it up.
"I've got a better ear than to need papers to remember music," he laughed. "But, I'm damn good as a composer without stealing someone else's stuff, thank you very much." He was only part teasing. The rest was a complete brag. Sean knew he was good. He'd worked his butt off to get this good and anyone who thought otherwise could choke on it.
Then they were talking about his dad again and he had to fight to only shrug without concern instead of sighing again. "Yeah, don't worry about it." His dad paying for things wasn't high on his list of wants or needs. Sean had to wonder if he was even going to be allowed to walk across the street without a chaperon. He was neither a kid nor a girl -- although he'd never say that last part in front of his sister. She'd have his head for it. Locking him in a tower was ridiculous. He raised an eyebrow, then got up to clean his plate. She was right. It wasn't her place. "You don't get it," he said, scrubbing the plate under the water. "It's not that I didn't choose this. I didn't choose to play football, either. But, I never actively worked to keep my distance from football at all costs. This? This I did. This is the one thing in life I have always sworn I wanted no part of and he can't fix that. There is nothing he can do to make this any better." Especially when he was the reason for it in the first place and was probably off somewhere doing back-flips of joy that Sean had to learn this stuff now.