Chapter 16

**Megan**

“Which house is Melanie’s?” he asks after several minutes.

“The big one,” I mumbled.

“They’re all big,”he says.

“The one that’s got the wraparound porch,” I snapped.

“Ok, what do her parents do?”

“Her mom is a psychologist and her dad’s a doctor,” I said and unbuckled my seat belt and quickly got out of the car. I hated silences like that, every time there was silence it meant I had done something wrong.

We walked up the garden path to her door; I looked around to see her mother had been very busy planting in the garden which meant things weren’t too good at home. Melanie always said her mom would garden when there were arguments in the house. I took a deep breath and knocked on the front door.

“Get your arse to bed Melanie!” her dad yelled as he opened the door and then turned while frowning. I gulped and stepped back from him. Her father was a big man, quite tall, wasn't fat and wasn’t too thin. He had dark brown hair and light brown eyes and was wearing dark blue jeans with a pale blue shirt. “Megan,”he said, shocked to see me. “H-how are you?” he asks.

“Urm...ok I guess,” I said looking away from him.

“Good,” and I could hear the sympathy in his voice as he said it.

“Urm is Melanie in?” I already know the answer.

“Urm yeah,”he said “come in,”he said as he walked into the house. I slowly walked in with Logan close behind me.

The first thing we hit is the hallway and the staircase. Melanie’s house was big. There were five bedrooms, four bathrooms, one for Melanie and her sister to share, one for her brother to share with whoever was in the guest room, her parents had one and there was one downstairs. There were two living rooms, a dining and kitchen, her moms work room and in the cellar a gym and a play room and also a fun room and I mean a fun room.

“Melanie,” he dad shouted, still with a hint of anger to his voice. I heard her door swing open.

“WHAT!” she screamed.

“There’s someone here to see you,”

“Yeah well tell them to piss off,” she snapped “and you can as well,”

He sighs and rubs his temples while walking to the left towards the main living room “Kellie go get your sister,” I heard him say.

Then Kellie walked out of the living room muttering to herself then she saw me. Within seconds her arms were wrapped around my waist and she was hugging me.

“Hey Kellie,” I said, patting her head.

“Kellie now,” her father demanded. She sighs and mutters something you wouldn’t expect a 13 year old to come out with and walks up the staircase to her sister’s room. After several minutes I heard the door open and then I saw her standing in her usual black skinnies and a paramour tour top.

“Hey,” she said once she was at the bottom of the stairs.

“She’s been in a mood for about two weeks,” Kellie said as she walked past her sister “and mum and dad have found out she’s got her lips done and got a tattoo,” I blinked a couple of times and then looked at her.

“Piss off you vile demonic creature,” she hissed. Kellie rolled her eyes and walked into the living room. Melanie looked at me “I’m getting my tongue done next, I’ve decided,”

“Oh,” I replied “have I done something to upset you? Because you blocked me on IM and I don’t understand why?” I paused. “Also Tyler said you’ve been off a lately while in school.” She sighs and shrugs.

I sigh too and look down and then up when I hear a door open. I looked to my right to see her mom walking out of the room with a guy with black spiky hair and dressed in all black. He looked towards me and then smiled.

“Alright Megan?” he asks while walking towards me. I frowned confused as to how he knew my name but then again a lot of people knew who I was nowadays. “You don’t remember me,”he states “I’m hurt Megan I really am,”he said moving his hands to his heart.

“Brendan stop pissing about,” Melanie snapped. My eyes widened, no way was that Brendan he was a full on jock now he was a Goth it just did not make sense.

“Jeez are you sure you’re not on,”he states as he walks past her.

“I thought you were at University?”

“I was kicked out at Christmas,” he states.

His mom walked over to us and her eyes wandered to Logan, she gave him a small smile and Logan just looked down a little. “How are you Logan?” she asks.

“Been better,”he states and then looks at me. “C’mon because we need to go soon,”he says. I sigh and rolled my eyes knowing what he was on about as I had the nurse at seven pm.

“We’re going upstairs,” Melanie said and started to walk off. I followed her to her room.

There was only one word to describe Melanie’s room and that was dark. Her walls were black and covered with posters and her bedding was black. The only light came from a lamp by her bed. She always had the curtains closed and no light made it into the black thick drapes.

“When did Brendon turn into whatever he is?” I ask

“I know he’s a bigger Goth than me,” she said sitting on her bed.

“You’re hardly a Goth,” I say. “Now are you going to tell me why you’ve been so off and why you blocked me?” I ask . She took a deep breath and started to explain.

**Logan**

I watched Megan follow her best friend up the stairs and then turned my attention to Melanie’s mother. I was surprised that Melanie’s mother was my psychologist when I was young. She gave me a small smile and then looked at her son.

“Don’t be annoying the girls Melanie seems to have enough on her mind,” she said to him.

“I’ll say hi to Megan and that is it,”he said as he walked up the stairs.

“No smoking in your room and just said hi nothing more do you understand Brendan,”

“You act like I’m going to start an argument with her,”

“I know you won’t start an argument with her, it’s the complete opposite to that, that I am worried about,” she said and then looked at me “don’t ever have children Logan,” she says. I smiled a little “Do you fancy a chat?” she asks me “seen as it’s been a while since we last had a chat,”

“I guess it can’t hurt,” I said, following her to the right and into the room she came out of with her son. I looked around to see it was quite cosy, a two person couch and a chair were in the middle of the room with a brown coffee table in between them. The walls were a light grey colour and the room had light wood and white accents creating a light and calm atmosphere. “I’m guessing this is your work room?” I ask.

“I don’t like to think of it as that,” she said sitting in the chair. I smiled a little and sat down on the couch “I like to think of it as part of home and another living room for me and my separate family,” she said with a smile.

“You’re still going on about that crap,” I mutter “I’m not part of this ‘family’ of yours,” I said looking down at my feet “I sometimes think you should be the one seeing a shrink,” I said to myself. She laughed and got comfy.

“So how are things?” she asks

“Ok,”

“I heard about Stephanie,” she states. I looked at her “Eric phoned me and told me about what you did that day and asked for my advice,”

“I’m not going to relapse,” I state.

“I never said you were going to,” she paused. “Does Megan know about Stephanie?” she asks

“No and I don’t really intend to tell her,”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it doesn’t concern her,”

“Tell me and this has been bugging me ever since I heard Melanie talking about it with her friend, what interest do you have in Megan,” I frowned as she said that and looked at her “what I’m more asking is why do you have an interest in her?” she asks.

“I don’t have an interest her,”

“Oh really,” she said almost as if it was fake, as if she didn’t believe me. I nodded “ok,” she said with a small smile. “So what did you do that day?”

“I went for a drink and had a bit of a pick me up and got into a fight and then got taken away in a police van,” I explained briefly.

“Is that what the bruises are from? The police or the man you got into a fight with?” she asks.

I smirked a little, “The guy hit me round the head with a chair, didn’t half hurt and I think he tried to glass me I’m not too sure either way he was the one in hospital,” I say.

“Did you not think about Megan while you got yourself hammered and got into a fight and in jail?”

“Yeah I did when she came to see me,” I mutter.

“How did you react because if I remember you told me you’re a very truthful drunk?” she asks.

“No different from normal,” I muttered and looked down at my feet.

“Hmm, it seems you’re lying to me,” she said to herself out loud and looked at me.

“This is not a session so whatever I said is not confidential,” I said looking at her “so I can lie to you,”

“Do you want it to be a session?”

“Dunno,” I say, shrugging and laying back.

“Well let’s make it a session, it can be free,” she said, getting up and walking to a filing cabinet and looking through her files.

After several seconds she stopped looking in the drawer and went down to the bottom draw and unlocked it. She pulled it open and the metal clanking together was the only sound and then she took out an over bulked folder. I watched her shut the draw and then lock it all back up again and then place the fat file on the coffee table.

“That’s your file,” she said, sitting back in her seat while opening it up.

“Nice you don’t make me seem dysfunctional at all,” I said looking at it. She laughed and shook her head while searching through it.