Speechless.

Several minutes passed and still Mia couldn’t find the strength to move. John was gone; she’d done it, she had finally succeeded in pushing him away after all this time, only now Amelia realized just how desperately she needed the lanky singer.

“Mia,” The voice was indifferent and it was another moment before she could find the strength to even turn her head and face the voice.

Lietty was standing on her bus steps dispassionately. She showed no level of concern for the girl who was falling to pieces several feet away—and she wouldn’t. Lietty had already been dragged through the mud, she’d already nursed her wounds—she was a veteran to the battle Amelia would now have to fight and Lietty wasn’t about to jump back in on it.

“You’ve learned the same lesson I have—that secrets will get you nowhere except hurt.”

“Wh-what do I-I do?”

“Figure you’re life out Amelia,” There was an exasperated tone to her voice. The years passed had made Lietty hard and impatient. “You can’t burn the people you love, leave them in the dust, and then run back to them when things get hard; trust me I’d know. They love you Amelia, you have a stronger support system than I ever had. You have to accept them, let them love you and support and smother you with care.”

“I-I-“

“For fucks sake,” Lietty spat impatiently, her eyes the coldest thing on Warped Tour. “They aren’t going to hate you for having Logan’s baby—they won’t be happy at first sure, but they wont hate you. Their unhappiness is only because you never told them earlier, but you’ve given Alex back a piece of Logan.” She closed her eyes and locked her jaw, her fists clenching at her side. “Please,” The words came out from between her teeth. “give Alex that. He deserves that much.”

It jarred Amelia slightly to be struck by Lietty’s attitude. Sure she was used to it on the streets but for the most part with the safe haven of the tour she’d found comfort and support.

Lietty seemed to understand as much.

“I’m not going to coddle you.” She stated flatly. “I’m not buying into your ‘woe is me’ bullshit either. You’ve got everything you need so stop feeling sorry for yourself and stop making excuses. Just because you have scares, because you’ve seen ugliness doesn’t mean you can’t experience the good things.”

“What are you talking about?” Annoyance was beginning to leak into Amelia’s voice; she didn’t appreciate Lietty’s attitude toward her when Amelia herself had done nothing to her.

Lietty’s eyes darkened and her lips creased down into a thin frown. “Jonathan Cornelius O’Callaghan is in love with you.” She snapped in the same aggravated impatient tone. “He loves you. He’s put up with more shit from you then most guys ever would I think, yet you push him away. You keep the poor kid at arms length even though he’s done nothing but support you even when no one would blame him for walking away. You have a brother who loves you despite your faults, you have friends in Jack, Zack, and Alex.” At the mention of their names something in Lietty’s tone changed. “yet you still walk around as though you have no one to help you, as though you are on your own and can rely on no one but yourself. Quit acting like a brooding teenager, ‘oh no one understands me, my life sucks.’ Let me tell you something, Life is going to throw a hell of a lot of shit at you but those events can’t dictate you’re entire life. You dictate it.”

“I spent-“

“I don’t care how long you spent on the streets.” Lietty took a step toward her. “Get over it! You aren’t there any longer. Living on the streets is a choice you made so fucking deal with it and move on. Stop acting like any of these choices you’ve made have been inflicted upon you without any influence of your own doing. You don’t know what it means to be on your own. You have no idea what it feels like to truly be drowning in the hand you’ve been dealt in life.” Lietty fell silent for a moment then scuffed, eyeing Amelia as though she were something she scrapped off her shoe. “You don’t deserve any of them.”

Lietty turned toward her bus and threw open the door before Amelia could even summon a retort and just as she had opened her mouth the door had slammed shut behind Lietty and Amelia was left utterly alone to digest the woman’s harsh words.

She didn’t have the comfort of John’s arms, the distraction of Mickey’s smile, only the words playing on a loop in her mind criticizing her decisions.

____________________________________________________________________

“You’re kidding!”

John sat in the small booth emotionlessly as he waited for Cassadee to finish digesting the information.

“Logan Gaskarth is Mickey’s father,” she echoed the information she’d just been told.

John closed his eyes and shrugged. He couldn’t deal with it anymore. He could deal with all the baggage Amelia had thrown at him, he could deal with dangers of Viper, he could handle her issues—but this? Somehow finding out after all the other monumental shit he’d heard, that one of his best friend’s dead brother had fathered the child he cared deeply for by the woman he loved.

He had to draw a line somewhere.

“Shit,” Cassadee mumbled more to herself than John. She was way to upbeat about the whole thing for John’s liking. “Whose going to be the lucky ducky that tells Alex?”

John slumped forward, his head smacking against the table. “You are not helping—at all.” He groaned.

“Well, someone has to tell him.”

“Since you’re Miss. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy this morning why don’t you do it?” John suggested knowing fully well it would be left in only his hands to tell Alex the news.

“I’m not all happy, happy, joy, joy,” Cassadee retorted indignantly. “But I mean, after hearing about the hell she went through on the streets, the crap she went through with a gang, is finding out that Mickey’s uncle just happens to be a friend of yours such a big deal?”

John lifted his head tiredly, his gaze drifting out the window. “I don’t know,” He mumbled. “In the scheme of things maybe not. But Cass, it’s so much shit—it’s not even my shit it’s Amelia’s shit and she keeps dragging me into it.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Cassadee scolded her eyes narrowing as she pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Do not act like you’ve been nothing but a victim in this whole thing. You put yourself beside her Mister. You made the decision to fight through her walls and get her to let you in, and she did. You knew Mia had baggage, we all did—okay so maybe no one saw the whole Viper and Mickey thing coming but still…”

Silence fell over the bus as John tried to sift through his thoughts and come to some sort of decision. Cassadee gazed at him quietly, her fingers absently playing with her bracelets.

“I don’t know what to do, Cass.”

She smiled sympathetically at him and patted his hand. “I believe this is what some call an impasse my friend.”