Baby Clifford

Videos and Papers

The house began to look like it did sixteen years ago in early August and into September and some of October. Bear bottles and cans and other trash  scattered amongst the floor. The fridge was bared beside the alcohol. Michael was a mess, his hair pointing every direction, his eyes were red from being so tired, his breath stench from beer, and he had no idea the last time he took a shower.

He sat on the couch, a beer in hand, and watched old videos that he recorded. "Daddy's going to be there for every little thing you do. When you begin to walk, when you start to sing, play the guitar and piano, your first concert. Everything." Michael cooed to a pregnant belly.

"Liar." The present Michael mumbled.

"I think Baby Clifford enjoys that thought, Mikey." Haylie's voice said and her hand ruffled his, at the time, red hair. Michael smiled and kissed her stomach. "Daddy loves you, Baby Clifford." Michael cooed again.

"I should've treated her better." Michael grumbled and skipped the scene, since this disc was a combination of the pregnancy.

"For something so small, you're so strong." Haylie's voice sang sadly as she rocked on the rocking chair.

Michael stopped the disc and opened the tray for another disc. He put in the one where Melody was under six months.

The guys were in a circle on the floor, Melody crawling to each of them. Then her attention was caught by something in the corner of the room. She started to crawl to whatever she was seeing. "Melody, baby girl, what you staring at?" Michael questioned and his baby turnes around and crawled over to him. "Melody make a Daddy face." Mikey remarked. Melody sat up and stuck her tongue out with her mouth open. Michael laughed at her. "You're my little girl, aren't you?  We have a little punk rock girl on our hands." Michael remarked and picked her up by her armpits and kissed her all over her face. Melody giggled and put her tiny hands on his cheeks. "You silly little girl." Michael laughed. "Can you say Daddy? Huh?  Say Daddy." Michael requested. "Da!" Melody exclaimed. "That's me. Say Daddy." Michael smiled. "Da-da!" Melody added. Michael lightly giggled and kissed her nose and forehead. "Your my precious baby girl, Melody. My precious baby." He told her. Melody laid her head on his shoulder. "Wanna cuddle? Hmm?" Michael sweetly said and cuddled her.

*Tour Disc*

Michael smiled at the TV as Melody jumped in the puddles, humming to Airplanes. "Melody do you like tour?" Michael asked. "Eh." She answered and hopped down to the puddle, having water splash into her. "What's your favorite part about it?" Michael inquired. "Puddles." She smiled. "What do you think about the fans?" Michael asked. "Some good, some no." She simply answered before she stopped and held her hand out. "Daddy," she started and Michael took her hand. "What baby girl?" He asked. "I love you." She smiled and leaned her head on his hip. "I love you more." Michael replied to his little girl. "Nope. You don't love me as much as I love you." Melody remarked.

"I wish it was still like that." He mumbled. "I had to fuck that up by staying in the band for too long, didn't I, Melody?" Michael angrily spoke to himself. He sighed and couldn't handle the thought of what him and his daughter's relationship used to be like. He needed to stop with the past. He was wonderful in the past, but not the recent past. "Melody," He breathed and fixed his hair. Michael walked into her room and ignored the suicide letter again. Michael didn't have enough strength to read it yet. It hadn't moved from its spot on the end table.

He took a spot on her mattress and took a hold of her backpack and took out her notebook. The white covered with quotes from songs that inspired her, non of which were 5SOS related. Michael opened it. He skiped thorough the math and science notes in the five-subject notebook. He reached her English class section. In the mini folder section was a paper titled, Related to Book Paper. Michael took it out of the folder and turned to the next page.

A nobody. A person that wants to go away. A famous father figure. Percy Jackson and I share those qualities. I hate to write the fact that I'm jealous that he has his mother who had attempted to protect him from the world that his father belongs to. I want that. I am vulnerable to my father's world like when Percy realizes that he is a Demigod. The difference for us is that the mist protects him, I don't.

Michael felt his heart break a bit. He sighed heavily and put it back in the folder. He took a look at the other titles of the printed papers. Heros and Inspirations. He founded the title interesting and grabbed it.

Practically every little kid can answer this question with a snap. "Mummy," "Daddy," or another relative. Sometimes they'll answer with a super hero. "Spider-man!" "Superman!" "Batman!" Then as the child grows older, they have more people to look up to and those people are added into the mix. As a child turns into a teenager, their heros and inspirations aren't as likely to be a parent, super hero, or whatever they once called a hero. If people could go either go back in time or watch old home videos of me, I would've automatically answered with either, "Daddy!" or "Spider-man!" Sometimes both if my dad dressed as Spider-man and pretend that I was Mary Jane and needed to be saved. I struggle being my sixteen year old self to say who my hero is. I could almost say that I didn't even have one. Michael felt his eyes tear up at the words in Times New Roman font. He put that one back too.

He put it back in the backpack and looked around her room. There was a few pictures of her and Ryan and Vince hung on the wall. There a Sleeping with Sirens, Pierce the Veil, and Falling in Reverse posters, one of each band. There was picture of her and Danny, in their Grease costumes, kissing on her night stand. Next to it was a prom picture of the group with their dates on the bleachers. Melody and Danny in the middle, Ryan and his date next to Melody as Vince was with date next to Danny. He couldn't help but chuckled as Ryan was flipping off the camera and had his stuck out. Melody had her arm wrapped around his shoulders. Danny's hand at her hip. "You were happy, weren't you Melody? No cameras that didn't ask for your approval, no fans, just you and your friends. I promise, it'll get better."

*Does anyone have ideas for little Melody?--On the Inside?*