Band's Best Friend | 5SOS

Chapter 15

Uncle Darryl's POV

I close and lock the door as Julie runs upstairs on her way up and piece of paper drops out of her bag, it's all crumpled up and worn out so I could probably throw it away, but before I can the doorbell rings. I answer the door to a medium sized box sitting on the porch, and a big delivery truck driving down the street. I pull the box inside, it's pretty heavy, but Julie should be able to lift it.

"Julie!" I call upstairs, telling her she got another package for her room. I grab the crumpled up paper and open it quickly to make sure it's nothing important. I was expecting either homework, a drawing, or just an empty piece of paper. But I read words that I'm hoping aren't meant for her. 'This can't be' I whisper to myself. I hear her coming down the stairs with the now empty box, I don't bother to hide the paper in my hands.

"Julie....what's this" careful to say, in case she'll throw a fit and grab it out of my hands. But Julie's not like that. Her eyes widen when she sees the paper ball in my hands, rolled out so she can see the words.

"Just a piece of paper....I-I found" I may be way past high school years, but I'm still a dad, and I can easily tell that she was lying.

"Honey, you can talk to me. I haven't seen you since you were a baby, don't you think this would be a great way to bond?" I insist she open up to me.

I want her to feel comfortable telling me how she feels. She is a teenager after all, I'll be in charge of all that drama, during these years to come. She sighs and we both take a seat on the couch. She sits cross legged, across from me. I look at her with a concerned expression, but also a soft one.

"So tell me what going on, I want the whole story, no matter how long it takes"

"Well when I was in seventh grade, me and one of my best friends got in a fight. A HUGE FIGHT. We would always have mini fights every now and then, but she was never reasonable. So I'd always let her win those fights cause I didn't wanna lose her a friend. But this after this fight, we were no longer friends. It didn't talk for months, JENNA and I hated her. The only people that sided with her are the people that believed Lidia's stories. I had many friends, I never asked them to side with me, they just knew Lidia like I did. She made school a living hell. She could hurt me by just a single text, and so much stress came from her. Then out of nowhere I became depressed, I thought everybody thought of me through Lidia's eyes. I would shut people out and cry alone. I don't know what my parents were thinking. They thought I was just being sassy, and my attitude was getting worse. I would lock myself in rooms at parties. My cousins thought I was just on my phone the whole time. But that wasn't the case. I felt like I lost everything, but everything was still there. It came to the point I didn't want to come to school. But that day JENNA came over and introduced me to these bands that I like till this day. Their music was all I needed to get me strong again. That's what happened, I was no longer upset. I just blocked Lidia out of my life totally." She paused for a bit to look at me. I didn't say anything, I just urged for her to continue. "Now I feel like it's happening all over again. Yesterday people shot me disapproving stares, judgmental looks, and dirty glares. Today, came all of that, but with words. All these words that were pounding in my head. I found myself a place to be alone in the school. A couple people that I met before school started showed me around." She shrugged.

"At least you made some friends" I say, trying to look on the bright side of things.

"Yeah, but their all boys. I know what you're thinking! No they weren't hitting on me, they were just being friendly. I promise, we're all pretty lonely at school. They're the closest things I have to friends." She lets go of a breath she held while saying that. I actually wasn't thinking they were hitting on her, but I understand why she was trying to reason with me.

"So you're parents never knew what happened with you" I slowly say everything, letting her sink in every word. She's not crying, which surprises me.

"That part is confusing, they knew about my fight with Lidia, and they totally understood why I shouldn't be talking to her. But when I started being more anti-social than I already was. Who knows what they were thinking? I'm not even sure if they noticed my tear- stained face all the time. But they'd always keep quiet, and I never purposely tried to make them noticed. Like I said, I just wanted to be alone all the time." I wrap my arm around her, trying to comfort her.

"But you were so I happy when I picked you up?" I knew it wasn't a fake smile, she was genuinely happy.

"That's because while I was alone, crying, this guy found me. He made me feel better, and I forgot about everything that was happening. He was playing his guitar and we were singing together an-"

"You can sing?" I interrupt, wow my niece has a lot going for her. She laughs a bit and shifts in her seat.

"Yeah, a little, and I can play piano too. But that's just for fun. Anyway so he just made me feel a lot better. His name is Luke, we can kind of relate because we both went to the same place when we didn't have anywhere else to go." She pauses for a minute. "I guess we're friends now" I see a blush creeping up on her cheeks. 'Awww she probably likes the guy' I don't say anything though.

"Are you feeling better?" I question, rubbing her back as she starts to get up.

"Yeah, thank you so much, I don't tell many people"

"You're welcome" I smile back.

-A/N-
Sorry about the short chapter, but this was the first time I used Uncle Darryl's POV, so maybe that'll help with the details. Anyway thank you so so much for reading! ILYSM...look out for the next chapter!