Girl I Know

In the morning when Melody opened her eyes she saw her father sitting in the chair beside her bed. “It’s so early, what are you doing here?” She tried sitting up and winced at the pain her in her ribs.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came here”

“Are you nervous about court?” she asked knowing that in two days she could be a sister and he could be the father to another woman’s child.

“No” he shook his head.

“What are you going to do if the baby is yours?”

“I suppose I’ll pay child support” he shrugged.

“Will you be part of its life?”

“Probably” he nodded. “It isn’t the baby’s fault, no reason for it to suffer”

Melody rolled her eyes as the nurse came in to take more blood. She extended her arm to the nurse and turned her face to the side so she didn’t have to watch. For her father’s benefit she faked a smile.

“You must be the toughest girl I know” he smiled trying to take her mind off what the nurse was doing to her arm.

“No. I think my mother wears that title better than me”

Brian sighed and leaned forward in his chair. “I guess you got me there”

“Dad, What happened after you left here last night?”

“What do you mean?” he turned his gaze to the nurse as she picked up the vials of blood and walked out of the room.

“Did you and Uncle Matt go after Dante?”

“No” he lowered his gaze to the floor knowing that she had no idea what happened. “We didn’t have to”

She turned her face up at him with a confused expression “What happened?”

“Melody, it’s not something you need to worry about right now”

“but I ..”

“ Melody I don’t want you to think about anything except for getting better”

“Ok” she sighed a defeated sigh.

Brian turned back when he noticed his daughter turn her face to the door. Blade had walked through the door not expecting Brian to be there so early.

“I was just bringing Melody some coffee. I know she likes her Starbucks” he said nervously feeling like a child standing in front of the principal after getting caught pulling the fire alarm.

Brian nodded. “She can be quiet crabby when she doesn’t get her Starbucks” not the most welcoming of answers, but it was a start.

“yeah” Blade nodded and faked a smile.

“Uh hello? She can hear the both of you”

Blade walked over to Melody and handed her the coffee. Granted the little exchange between him and Brian was somewhat pleasant he still felt uncomfortable.

“I have to be going, I have an appointment” Brian lied and got up from the chair where he sat to walk over to his daughter and kiss her goodbye. “I’ll come see you later ok?”

“Ok” she nodded. “Can you bring my sketchbook?”

“Sure” he smiled and with that turned and left the room.

Blade grabbed the chair that Brian was sitting in and moved it closer to the bed before sitting down in it. “How do you feel?” he asked.

“Oh like I got hit by a truck” she smiled

“You look like you got hit by a truck so I guess it fits” he teased.

“Thanks a lot” she laughed and put her hand on her ribs as her laughter caused her pain. “Don’t make me laugh”

“Well at least I’m not making you cry”

“For once” she threw the dig in there accidentally on purpose.

He put his hand over his heart and faked a hurt expression.” I don’t make girls cry”

“Blade, you’ve made my cry nearly everyday since I was five” She wasn’t teasing this time. She was serious and he knew when her eyes started to glass over.

He sighed and got up off the chair and moved over to her bed where he sat down beside her. After reaching for her hand he took it and held it in his. “I wont make you cry ever again, Mel”

“Say I promise”

He laughed and squeezed her hand. “I promise”

“What’s going to happen when I leave here?” she asked as she held on to his hand.

“I’m not sure I know what you mean? I guess you’ll go home with your mom for a while”

“I plan on moving back home anyway, but that’s not what I mean. What’s going to happen if Dante finds me?”

It was then that he though to himself that apparently, no one has told Melody what happened to Dante and he assumed that given her condition, no one wanted her to know either.

“Dude, do you really think we’d let anything happen to you after this?”

“You just called me dude,” she giggled.

“I’m just trying to lighten the mood, dude.” He said with a silly grin on his face. “I don’t want to leave, but I have to go meet my father”

“It’s ok”

“I’ll come back later, if you want me too”

“mmm no, I think I’d rather sit here and stare at the ugly gray walls and listen to the machines beep until I’m bordering on insanity.” She laughed “Of course I would like it if you came back later”

“Ok” he laughed. “I’ll see you later then”

When he left she had a smile on her face that would last the rest of the afternoon.

--

The meeting

So there they sat around a table in the studio. Matt, Zacky, Brian and Jimmy along with Blade, Legend and Lyric. The three boys knew why they were there and all three of them had already decided that they were in this together no matter what the outcome.

Matt started the conversation off.

“I know we all know now what has been going on with Melody. I think we also know that she lied and made excuses out of fear, but what the four of use don’t know is how you three managed to find out the truth”

The three of them all looked at each other and shrugged. Neither of them was going to be the one to spill it. So, Brian took matters into his own hands and directed a question specifically to Blade.

“What happened when you got to my daughter’s place?”

Blade picked up his soda can and took a sip before answering. “I knocked on the door, but she didn’t answer. So, we broke the door down and went inside.”

Blade’s hands were shaking and Brian knew it was partly his fault for warning him that he had a gun so many times when he saw him around Melody.

“Then what happened?”

“We walked into the living room and called out her name, but she didn’t answer. There was blood on the rug, so we knew something happened and that we needed to find her fast. We checked the kitchen and the deck, but they were empty too. The last place we tried looked was the bedroom”

“and she was there?” Brian assumed.

“No. The bedroom seemed empty. There was more blood in the bedroom; it was all over the rug and on the walls, but no Melody. After Legend checked the bathroom and came up empty we decided to leave.”

“So, where did you find my daughter?”

“Lyric saw her hiding in her closet just as we were about to leave. So, I rushed over to her and picked her up and took her to the hospital”

“Is that all that happened?” Matt took his sunglasses off and looked back and forth between the three of them.

“Yes” they all nodded.

“So, where did you two go, while Blade was taking Melody to the hospital?”

“We went back to the mansion to get Lyric’s car and then went to the hospital” Legend lied right in front of Jimmy, and his father sat there disappointed knowing full well he wasn’t telling the truth.

“So, it was purely coincidental that Dante was beaten within an inch of his life and brought to the hospital only to die less than an hour after he was admitted?” Matt clearly wasn’t in the mood to be lied to right now.

“Yeah” Lyric nodded.

“Don’t lie to me” he spoke through gritted teeth at his son. “This situation is more serious than you think it is and none of you are leaving until we get the truth. So, we can either stay here all night or you can start talking right now, but let me warn you. I have plans with your mother later and if I have to break those plans, I’ll show you a side of me that you have been spared from ever seeing. So, start talking.”

Lyric let out a huff knowing he had no choice. His father wasn’t one to be crossed.

“We dragged him out to his car and took him out to the woods behind the highway”

“And then?”

“And then we beat him and left him there. That’s it”

Matt nodded, but he knew the truth and he knew that they were still hiding something.
“What happened after Dante got to the hospital?”

“Uh he died?” Legend answered Matt’s question trying to take the heat off Lyric.

“I know he died, but he didn’t die from his injuries so how did he manage to end up dead?”

The three of them sat there quietly for a minute. All three knowing how Dante died and all three knowing that if they told the truth Lyric could be facing 25 years to life. What happened next, none of them saw coming.

“I did it”

Matt, Brian, Jimmy and Zacky sat there with stunned expressions on their faces. They knew a confession was going to come, but none expected it to be from Legend.

“I killed him. I went to his room and suffocated him.”

“That’s not what happened, shut up” Lyric nudged his friend, but he wasn’t going to change his story.

“That is what happened” Legend folded his arms across his chest and looked Matt right in the eye daring him to contest his word. Jimmy, not able to believe what he was hearing got up and walked out.