Always There

Mr Andopolis gets Scolded

Melody sat on her bed staring at her closet. Everything she owned suddenly seemed hideous. Her nice clothes were too nice, and her casual clothes were too casual. After over an hour of trying on everything in her closet with every combination she could think of Melody finally decided on a simple black t shirt tucked into some nice fitting jeans. It wasn't fancy, but it looked good and she knew Bethany and her mom would be there any minute. She stood in the mirror over analyzing every bit of her appearance. She made sure that her hair was combed exactly the way she liked it. On her way out Melody passed Nick's room and stood in the doorway. His room was a mess, it reeked of pot, there were loose vinyls he didn't take care of littering the floor, along with scraps of sheet music he had written horrible love songs on, and his walls were covered with band posters. She looked around at all the scattered things she usually just equated with junk, and suddenly saw her brother's personality. Sure he was a goof ball, and an idiot at times, but he cared so much about everyone and every thing. Her brother's room usually repulsed her, but now it just made her sad. It seemed wrong without him in it. She knew it was a bad idea, but she went up to speak to her father anyway. She stood in the door way of his office waiting for him to look up but he never did.

"Nick is at the Weir's house." She said flatly.

He looked up and stared at his daughter blankly. "Excuse me?"

"I said Nick is at the Weir's house. You should go talk to him. Bring him home." She stood her ground even though now that her dad was looking at her she was terrified.

"And why would I do that?" He said sternly.

"Because he's your son, and this family's not complete without him here. And whether you want to admit it or not you messed up." She told him.

"Watch your tone young lady." He said angrily standing up from his desk.

She flinched reflexively but stood her ground. "No, I always watch my tone. Nick does a lot of stupid things, but those drums were his life. And you knew that."

"This is none of your business Melody. End of conversation." He scolded, approaching her angrily and towering over her.

"No, you don't get to do that. Stop talking to us like we're 5 year old's. I'm a human being, Nick's a human being, it's time you start talking to us like we're human beings, not children, or your pets. You drove Nick away, just like you drove Alex and Isaac away, you drove mom away when we were kids, and at the rate you're at you're going to drive me away too." She rushed through her words angrily.

"I said end of conversation!" He bellowed raising his hand.

"What, are you going to hit me again? Go ahead. That won't change the fact that you are a miserable old man who drives away every single person that you care about. Alex and Isaac aren't in the military because they want to be. They joined because they were scared of you, and knew it was their quickest ticket out of here. Alex was a great at basketball player, he could have gone pro. Isaac was an artist. Nick is a musician, sure he might be bad but he's working on it. And he cares about it. I don't know who I am yet, but I'm figuring it out and you will not bully me or Nick into becoming these picture perfect soldiers you have in your head. I'm sorry that you didn't get the four cookie cutter children you imagine, but that doesn't mean you just get to bury your head in the sand and expect that we become them. I hate to break it to you, but you have four children, and just because we're not the one's you wanted doesn't mean we're not still yours. We don't have to love you, you have to love us. That's how parents work. You have to earn our love by treating us correctly. Now I'm going out, which I never do, Nick is at the Weir's house. I'll see you tomorrow when I get home, hopefully I'll see Nick too. Now it's the end of the conversation. Bye." She stared him directly in the eyes as she snapped at him. Then she walked away.

He just started at her as she left not knowing how to respond. No one, not even Nick had ever spoken to him like that. Melody wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes as she yelled and let out a sigh of relief as she sat on the curb by their house. That felt good. The tears originally had started from sadness about Nick leaving, then fear at what she was saying, and anger at how her father had always treated them. But now she was quietly sobbing tears of happiness. She was so proud of herself, she didn't know she even had that in her. After a few minutes she composed herself and wiped her eyes completely. She knew her face was probably still red but at least it was dry. She didn't think anything she said to her father would actually sink in or drastically change him. But damn did it feel good to say out loud. After that she felt like she could conquer anything. Even telling Neal how she felt.

Bethany's mom pulled up the curb and Melody got in beside Kayla and Bethany. They drove to Mona's, Bethany's mom dropping them off around the corner so they wouldn't look lame piling out of a mini van. Melody thought this seemed unnecessary but Bethany insisted.

"Hey, so what happened before we picked you up? You looked like you'd been crying." Kayla asked as they walked around the corner and approached the house.

"I told my dad he was wrong for selling Nick's drums and he should go get Nick and apologies.. before he ends up loveless and alone because he's scared away every person who loves him." She said flatly like it wasn't a big deal.

"Whoa, heavy." Bethany replied.

"Are you okay?" Kayla asked concerned, looking her over for bruises. Melody's father wasn't exactly known for his temperament control.

"Yeah, I'm good. Really good actually. It felt good to finally say." Melody told them smiling.

"Good to see you let your hair down red, now go find that tiny geek and tell him you love him." Bethany laughed pushing her forward into the house.

They walked into the house and already Melody could see people making out in her peripheral vision. Their bodies just completely wrapped around each other. Her confidence faltered for a moment, as she tried not to think about how weird that was to be doing so publicly, but she tried to keep her spirits high. She could do this. They looked around the main floor a bit but it seemed like most of the action must have been going on down stairs. Melody, Kayla, and Bethany all stood in the stairway for a moment looking out at the party in front of them, and then Melody saw him walking with Bill to go join the spin the bottle circle in the corner.