Butterflies

"Will you guys please, shut up?" I shouted through the chaos. My two sisters, Freesia and Annika were running around the living room, screaming due to a pillow fight. This had been constant since my parents had left close to an hour ago.

"Melacia, why you gotta be so uptight?" Freesia, the older of the two, turned to challenge me while, in the process, earned a knock upside the head with a pillow from Annika. I couldn't help but smirk.

"I am not uptight. I just get tired of the screaming all the time."

"Psh, whatever." She rolled her eyes, cocked her head, and went back to her screaming pillow fight. Just moments later the doorbell rang. I paused the DVR and hopped up from the couch. I opened the door to reveal my best friend, Michael. "Hey!" A smile made its way onto my face as I greeted him.

"Hey, Mel." He smiled and my heart fluttered. He was the only one who called me by the casual nick name.

"Come in." I stepped aside holding the door open for him. "Sorry about all the noise, the girls are in a pillow fight." He laughed lightly and shrugged with his hands shoved in his pockets.

"It's alright." He smiled as he watched them chase each other around the coffee table.

"I'm gonna get you for that, Annika!" Freesia's voice could probably be heard ten blocks down the street.

"Michael!" Annika's run from her younger sister came to an abrupt halt as she nearly ran right smack into Michael. She steadied herself with the help of Michael before wrapping her arms tight around his torso. As soon as Freesia caught wind that Michael was here, she, too, dropped her pillow and ran to hug him.

"Hey, how are you girls?" He laughed lightly at the scene.

"Good!" They replied simultaneously with huge smiles spread across what looked to be angelic faces.

"They're only good because they're having the time of their lives causing disruption." I smirked while rolling my eyes and crossing my arms. Michael decided to play along.

"Is it true? You girls are the chaotic members of the family?"

"No!" Annika whined.

"She just don't know how to have fun." Freesia remarked, which I gaped at in return.

"I'm sure that's not true." Michael smiled. "She's lots of fun when I'm around her."

"She's lame when you're not around." Freesia remarked.

"I most certainly am not lame!" I stomped my foot.

"Who says most certainly any more?" She argued.

"Don't go there with me."

"Hey! Guys," Michael laughed. "This is silly. You two are sisters for one. Now hug and say your sorry." I stared at him like he had some dysfunctional alienized thing on his head. He simply stood still in his stance and nodded towards Freesia gesturing for me to hug her and apologize. I gaped for a few more seconds before I sighed and caved. I slowly, probably over exaggeratedly, walked to the shorter girl and wrapped her in my arms.

"I'm sorry. You know I love you right?" She nodded.

"And I'll always love you. Even if you are boring." She giggled and ran away with Annika faster than I could blink.

"You see," I nodded towards the giggling girls, "you see why I don't care to apologize? Because they don't mean it." He laughed and led the way to my back door.

"Yes, but aren't you much older if I do recall?" I rolled my eyes and took a seat in a lawn chair next to him.

"So why are you here anyway?" I was in a less cheerful mood than I was when he first showed up. And to think it was because of a pillow fight between my little sisters. He looked at me strangely for a moment.

"I just came to hang out with you, is that not okay?" I thought I caught a glimpse of hurt in his features so I quickly changed my attitude.

"No, no it's fine. I'm sorry." I smiled at him and he seemed to lighten up.

"Good. Now Melacia, I want to talk to you about something." Great, I sighed. When ever he said this, especially when he used my real name like that, we were going to get into something serious.

"What is it?" I asked, not being able to completely hide the agitation in my voice.

"You're twenty one, now, and you're still living at home. You can't get a job, so therefore, you can't get your own place." I rolled my eyes at his lectures.

"Michael, I really don't feel like being lectu-"

"Will you listen to me please?" His voice always stayed calm and gentle even when my tone was annoying. "As I was saying, I've been thinking about some things since I'm off tour for the summer. And seeing what went on today, between your sisters and you, has only made me more confident in this decision." I raised a brow at him in curiosity.

"What decision of yours is this, exactly?" I asked.

"I'm buying you you're own place." I wide smile spread across his face as he said this.

"No." His face dropped. "No, no, no, no. I won't have you spending nearly that much money on me, no."

"Melacia, it's no problem for me, we both no this."

"But it is for me. I'll always feel bad, like a bum. You're my friend, Michael, not my Sugar Daddy, I don't need you buying things for me just because I can't get them myself right now." He took the comment more offensively than I thought he would.

"All I'm trying to do is help out my bet friend here, Mel. I see you going through things, stress, worries, and it's hard on me. I don't like to see you like this and it's because you're under so much pressure wondering how you're ever gonna get your own place, or get a job. And when I try to help you, because I care, not because I'm trying to be your 'Sugar Daddy' you turn me away." He was really hurt over this.

"Michael, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah? Well that sure is how it sounded." He turned away from me then, facing the other direction. I stood up from my seat in the lawn chair and moved to his squeezing in his chair with him, wrapping my arms around his middle, and resting my head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry that I offended you Michael. I really didn't mean to." My voice was much more gentle and softer now as I spoke to him, but he continued to look the other way. "I just meant that you shouldn't be taking out the money that you earn and spending such great amounts on me."

"You don't get it." He shook his head, still turned. "Money isn't a big deal to me, at all. Because it'll never last, one way or another, it'll always be spent. One way or another, I'll always make more. But why spend it on something useless when it could go toward you?" My heart actually fluttered when he said this. I mean, I knew he didn't think I was useless, but he was always so wrapped up in Billie Jean it seemed I barely existed anymore. So it was good to hear him say it.

Silence fell over us for what seemed like hours, but in reality, it had only been just a mere few minutes.

"You can buy me a house." I whispered finally. "But you have to let me choose."

"You're not just saying it to get me off your case?" I shook my head, but spoke up when I realized he was still looking the opposite direction.

"No, I'm not." He then turned his head toward me and smiled. "Thank you."

"Thank you." I kissed his cheek and lay my head to rest on his shoulder again. Before I knew it, I felt my eye lids falling and the hot summer sun beating down on them.