Out of Tune

Chapter Three

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything– Plato

The celebration of Brad's birthday that weekend was a bright, thunderous affair at the Ackerman household. All of his family came to celebrate, including his elder siblings Harry – who was loud, boisterous, and irritating – and Lauren – who Lennon shockingly liked. Perhaps it was the way that Lauren had no time for her Brad's bullshit and called him out on it every moment she could. She voiced almost everything that Lennon couldn't say.

But the rest of Brad's family...

Lennon hated them. Hated his nieces and nephews who were running around and screaming constantly and throwing things at her when they got the chance. The ones who were a little bit older just stared and whispered as if she were an animal at the zoo. And it wasn't like Lennon hated kids – in fact most of the time she rather enjoyed being around them.

These weren't kids, though. No these...These were demons.

And one of them was her half-brother.

Colby was a cute kid. He would grow up to be a heartbreaker, Lennon was sure. But the kid had no manners. He threw temper tantrums over the smallest things, crying and screeching at the top of his lungs until her mother or Brad paid him any kind of attention. Which, Lennon noticed as the night wore on, was only when he began screaming.

And to top it all off were Brad's parents.

His mother – tight faced with a small nose and pursed lips. And his father, tall and round. The only thing he could talk about was football and bragging about his children...Never about Brad's law career though, Lennon had noted distantly. It didn't seem to matter that Brad was one of the top defenders in the state. Not with Harry's career as a Michelin-starred chef and Lauren's acclaim as a renowned neurosurgeon.

Lennon watched Brad all afternoon – saw the muscle in his jaw jump every time Harry and Lauren were offered and scrap of praise from their father while he was served nothing.

Her mother's parents were missing. Not entirely surprising given that they lived on the other side of the country in Florida but Lennon wished that they had been there. She had always liked her maternal grandparents. She had never understood how two warm and loving people had raised her mother.

For most of the event, it seemed as if Paige Ackerman forgot that her daughter was even there. She was so focused on the rest of her new family...

There was some part of Lennon that resented her mother. Resented the happy family she'd built by forgetting about her late ex-husband.

It was why Lennon didn't feel bad about slipping out and away from the house. No one called her back as she opened the front door. Not a soul realized she'd even left.

The sun was still resting fairly high in the sky when Lennon began walking down her street but there was a slight briskness to the air. She didn't have a direction. She just needed to get out.

Celebrating birthdays with her father had always been a much different affair. Less formal. There were no lavishly set tables at their apartment. No need to dress in fine clothing with expensive jewelry and heels. It was usually just the two of them, though some years her friends from school or her father's buddies from The Vault would join them if they had nothing else going on.

Pizza and chicken wings. Sometimes going to a movie or a sporting event – though neither of them were really huge sports fans and never cared about who won. It was mostly just about being together. Laughing and joking around. Lighthearted. Fun. Thankful for every moment that they had together.