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

Black to Gray

"Love left me here tonight, drowning down beneath the lies. All has gone away and faded black to gray." Black to Gray, Kari Kimmel.

MJ

The past week has been surprisingly normal for me, aside from the fact that my mother and I still barely say two words to each other, for the first time in my life I feel relatively happy. Holland and I have grown even closer, walking out of school together everyday. I can feel people questioning why someone like him would hang around with someone like me but I really don't care. Ardena really loves hearing about all my gossip, we get frozen yogurt after school every Tuesday so that leaves plenty of time for her to drool over my father. My dad and I have become closer than I ever imagined, as a child I used to dream about him walking into my life and doing all the dad things every other little girl got to do with her father. Now my dreams are reality. All that's left for me is for Holland to fall in love with me and Notre Dame to accept me.

The only bad part of all this is that for the longest time all I ever had was my mom and Andie. Now I have tons of people to go to, but not them. I think things would be easier if I talked to Andie first. She's always been there for me, making me laugh at inappropriate times, keeping me company while my mother was working, telling me stories about Millie and my mom before I was born. Their friendship was what I was raised on, both of their determinations to make Millie proud and there love for me was what kept them going after the loss of their friend. I don't know much about Andie's or my mom's life before they all met. They only told me about the good things and now I'm 17 and I want to know more.

I haven't been home much these past few weeks. As much as I hate to admit it, that probably hasn't helped the situation with my mom. Andie is sitting on the couch when I get home.

"No work today?" I ask her hoping to start a conversation.

"No. Why the sudden interest in my life Lil Mil? You haven't spoken to me in over a week," she says using the nickname she and Millie gave me when I was born. They hadn't quite figured out what to call me instead of Millie, so Andie came up with Lil Mil. I don't know who came up with MJ which I kind of hate. Millie Junior is such a stupid name.

"I didn't mean for it to get like this," I say as my emotions start to get to me. My face is burning, which means I'm going to cry soon.

"Lil Mil, I understand you want to know your father, but you can't shut out me or your mom because of it."

"Everything's going so perfectly right now." I take a deep breath, "Why do I feel like I'm just waiting for it to go wrong?"

"Because it will go wrong, it will go wrong so many times. You just to to smile and make the best of it."

"Andie how come you never talk about things that have gone wrong for you?"

"MJ it might take years for me to tell you the truth. Your mom and I both have a lot of issues from our past, I promise someday you'll know."

"Did you fall in love in high school?"

"Yes, and I don't advise it."

"Why not?"

"Another time Lil Mil."

We both sit in silence before I speak again, "All your broken hearts have healed right?"

"Some cracks never fully heal, but I'm stronger than I was before I had them."