Broken Branches (Bleed Me Dry/Drown Me In Sequel)

Get it Right

"What can you do when your good isn't good enough and all that you touch tumbles down? Cause my best intentions keep making a mess of things, I just want to fix it somehow." Get it Right, Glee Cast.

Gia

Seeing Tanner's face in that doorway is like seeing the ghost of my past. I've tried so hard to run from him but he just keeps coming back. I thought all this on and off was over. Andie sits in the diner while I work, she comes here sometimes after she gets off work. I'm on break so I go sit down with her.

"Andie what am I gonna do?" I ask her as I groan.

"Gi is think the best thing to do is just let Lil Mil make her own decisions," she tells me. "She's almost 18 and you've spent all those years trying to make sure she's okay. Now it's time to see if she can do the right thing without any push from us."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"You can Gi, I know you can."

"When did you get so good at advice?"

"I just try to say what I think Millie would say. Sometimes I really feel like she's standing behind me guiding my way."

"I miss her so much."

"Me too."

We both sit there for a minute with her hand on mine, just letting our friendship hold us together. I look down at my phone and see that it's 4:00 pm. MJ should have been at the diner a long time ago to meet us here. She knows we have things to discuss. I try to call her but she declines. What in the world.

MJ has always listened to me and never disobeyed me, but even before Tanner came back she's been acting strange. I know she likes Holland Carter but she always has that shouldn't change her behavior. Maybe if I talk to Tanner about things and try to bridge the gap it will all get better.

The diner bell rings and MJ walks in.

"Honey where were you?" I ask.

Before she can answer Tanner comes in. This was not what I planned, I was supposed to be the one who brought them together. For the first time in my life I've felt a pang of anger towards my daughter. Everyone I've ever known has abandoned me, but not MJ. Now that she brought Tanner here I feel like she's abandoning me for the first time. I don't trust people but that little girl came from me, I've taught her to stay by my side.

"Gianna, let me explain before you kill her," Tanner pleas.

"I don't have anything to say to you Tanner and I don't want to hear what you have to say. And don't call me Gianna," I spit back at him.

"Mom, don't be like this," MJ says quietly.

"MJ you don't get to tell me what to feel," I say. I'm acting like a child but I can't control my words. The truth spills out and there's tears in both of our eyes as it unfolds.

I run out of the diner towards my car and I hear Andie come after me.

"Gi," she says.

"If you came out here to reprimand me-"

"I didn't," she interrupts me mid sentence and wraps me in her arms.

"I'm losing her."

"No you aren't. She just wants to know her father without your control. She'll come around."

"When am I ever going to get this whole life thing right?"

"Never, nobody ever will." she says now looking me dead in his eyes. At first they're hard but then they soften. "Why does every dramatic confrontation happen in that diner?"

We both laugh.

"It just keeps bringing us back I guess."

"Or maybe Millie is."

"I like the thought of that," I say as I watch my only daughter bond with her father inside the diner I've built my life in.