we took it too far (but if you aim, aim for the heart...)

Touya always knew her dad was a dick, but she'd never really realized his full potential. At least... not until now.

You're no son of mine.

It all seemed so sudden. She'd gone to school in the morning and everything was fine! He'd even seemed sort of proud of her for testing into the advanced music theory class the day before. He'd given her a firm pat on the back before she left. As she walked to her bus stop, she was glowing.

I won't have those kind under my roof.

And then she came back from her bus stop, still peppy, planning to show him the piece she'd taught herself in orchestra, but she'd come home and he hadn't even give her time to set her things down before laying into her. Still, she'd read about this in books, and it felt like she was severely underreacting. She didn't cry. She didn't panic. That horrible all-encompassing burning she was supposed to feel, as if she was being torn in two, was more of a... dull, slightly annoying ache, deep in her chest. She didn't feel like falling to the ground and cursing God or running into oncoming traffic. She mostly felt like going to sleep.

Maybe she wouldn't complain if she happened not to wake up.

Her dad's voice rang through her mind, the snapping of a CD echoing in the background. It's those freaks you've befriended. Messing up your mind and you don't even see it. I told you they were horrible influences. I warned you this would happen one day.

Honestly, her dad was just like that. She'd never really known anything else. Nothing she did ever seemed good for him. It was like he had this image in his head of a perfect child, all As, top of the class, the kind of musical prodigy that made newspaper headlines for performing at Carnegie Hall while they were still in diapers. Touya could practice until her bow frayed and all her violin's strings snapped and blood seeped between the keys of her piano, but she wasn't dedicated enough. She could get the highest marks in the class on a hundred papers, but a 94 on one and she wasn't smart enough. She didn't apply herself enough. She didn't work hard enough. She would never make him proud.

She didn't hang around with the right people, either. She was supposed to associate with intellectuals, scholars of high regard. Instead she spent all her time with jokes and sorry excuses for musicians and I would be ashamed if that was my child.

Still, she refused to let her dad sway her. Joy glowed in An's family's eyes every time they watched them perform— Touya tried not to be bitter when Shiraishi-san looked down at his daughter with the kind of pride she could only ever dream of receiving. Kohane worked herself to the bone every day to be a better singer, just because she wanted to. Akito was... well. Akito was probably the best person Touya had ever known. And they would help her. She knew they would help her. Even just a week would be enough. A day to get back on her feet. An hour to talk it over. A minute to get out of the rain.

However. The last thing Touya wanted was to cause trouble, and then she'd have to explain, and that was...

Anyone with half a mind knows what you really are.

There was no way, Touya was nearly certain, that her friends would be anything less than loving. Kohane would probably give her one of her hour-long hugs, and An would jump to her feet and pull Touya upstairs to look through her closet for dresses, and Akito would hold her until the morning and then some. Still. Nearly certain wasn't certain enough. Slowly, she imagined Kohane's sweet smile morphing into her dad's disgusted scowl. She couldn't risk losing them. No.

Touya could handle a life without her dad, but a life without her friends? Not an option. She squinted into the shadows as the outline of a bus stop began to form beneath a streetlight. Well. It wouldn't be the first time she'd slept on the sidewalk. With a sigh, she made her way towards it, tucking her phone in her pocket without even glancing at the incoming messages. Even a bench to protect her from the rain was better than nothing.