Melanie wasn’t entirely sure how she could describe everything that was going on in their lives at the moment. It was definitely different from how she had imagined her life with Patrick would have gone. They had had plans for their own future, plans that had been dismantled the moment they had had to come back to Patrick’s home town and help with the mess that had been left in his parents’ wake. Melanie loved Patrick, more than she could put into words, which meant that having to see him go through this was just as painful for her as it was for him. There was too much to do for one person who’s parents had been the epitome of terrible and he was, in a way, doing it alone. Melanie helped whenever and wherever she could. There was a lot of legal matter she helped decipher and deal with but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Patrick should have been getting help from his brother, his brother who had seemingly disappeared off of the face of the Earth. Melanie had been an ear for Patrick to talk to, he’d let her know that he was worried about his brother, and that this really wasn’t the way things should have been. The latter Melanie could agree with, things should have been different between them but it wasn’t, it wasn’t because Patrick hadn’t come back home to the eight year old he’d left and they had both gotten to witness, first hand, exactly what happened when someone had terrible parents. She wouldn’t tell him about it, but Melanie had stayed up a little too late some nights and had thought about how Patrick could have become the same. She couldn’t see her Patrick turning in some vile monster but she wasn’t naive, she knew he could have ended up like that too. She was just relieved that he hadn’t.
But Patrick always seemed to be on some other planet, they were on different pages of different books. He was hopeful, in a way, that his brother would return to him and Melanie didn’t want to tell him that it could be a lost cause, learned actions were always hard to break out of and Finley didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would admit his mistakes and work on his behaviour. There was so many times that Melanie wanted to suggest that they just leave, they had no reason to stay here and if Finley kept refusing Patrick’s help, then Patrick shouldn’t have been breaking his back to try and help his brother. She didn’t, however, because she knew how much his brother meant to Patrick and she knew running away wouldn’t solve anything. They would stay here, work this out, and then figure out their lives from that. She didn’t mind having to rework everything, she wasn’t the kind of person who stuck to a plan and then refused to break it. She’d do that for Patrick. She’d do it for Patrick who had been out of the house for a few hours now, searching the streets for his brother who had been long gone by the time the week had started. She could only imagine what Patrick would find if he ever did find his brother. She, herself, had been at work for a majority at the day but had somehow managed to get off early and she had returned to the house they now called home. It didn’t feel like home to her but it did feel nice to see the place Patrick had grown up in, it felt like she was learning a part of him she never would have got to. The problem was, she didn’t like this place. It couldn’t have been a good place for Patrick to be right now and it broke her heart to think of the neglect that had taken place. Neglect it was still seeing at the hands of his brother.
Melanie would have been lying to herself if she said she hadn’t been thinking about Finley’s girlfriend, Libby. She’d seen her once before, at the funeral, but had never actually gotten the chance to talk to her. She did seem like a nice girl, far too nice for a person like Finley. It would have been another lie if Melanie said she hadn’t thought about the way Finley had yelled at her and how Libby had accepted it, as if she were used to. And she probably was. That alone made Melanie angry and perhaps she did want to talk to Libby about it, to try and get her to open up to her about it, but every time Melanie had seen Libby, she had been glued to Finley’s side. Melanie had accepted the fact that she might never get the chance to talk to her, albeit reluctantly. For now, however, she was focused on her current task at hand that was attempting to sort out the mess the house had become. It wasn’t as bad when they had first moved in; she’d managed to get rid of the awful smell the house carried and she wondered why the neighbours had never complained. Perhaps they had but no one cared enough to actually do anything. That just seemed to be how the world worked now. The house was somewhat clean and Melanie had grown tired of still finding remnants of the people who had once lived here, so she was on the brink of giving up. Whatever higher force there was seemed to hear her mental complaints because she heard a knock on the door, a light sound that could have gone unheard had she not been paying close attention. She raised an eyebrow because she knew that neither Patrick or Finley would knock and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to open the door to the police right now, she knew the trouble that could come from this family. She went over to the door anyway, dusting her hands on her black jeans and shaking her hair out, just in case it was some official and she had to look somewhat presentable. Looking decent on the fly was something she was good at. When she did open the door, however, she saw that it wasn’t the kind of people she had been worried about but Libby. It was a pleasant surprise and Melanie leaned against the door, smiling slightly. “Hey,” she said, hoping her demeanour was friendly enough that Libby wouldn’t be too worried about talking to her. She did seem kind of timid. “He’s not here.” Melanie said, second guessing why Libby had shown up here. Why else would she be here if not for Finley? “I also have no idea where he is, Patrick left to go look for him an hour ago. If you ask me, I say that it’s a good thing.” Melanie had momentarily forgotten that this girl was Finley’s girlfriend and she might not take too kindly to her words. She opened the door wider then, giving her enough room to come in. “Do you want to come in and wait? I’m sure Patrick will drag his ass home at some point today.”
The morning after Libby and Finley had spent that romantic night alone in her empty house had been a big shock to Libby - but she was angry with herself for letting it be a surprise to her in the first place. She should have known, she shouldn’t have been so dumb and so naive to assume that suddenly out of no where, after months, after a year of cruelty and dominance Finley would return to the loving way he’d been previous years - her Finley. He had made Libby feel dumb and small for assuming him to do the simplest of tasks for her - being kind, staying around the morning after, doing really anything that would be considered normal in any other relationship. But Libby should have known better. It had been however many months since she’d seen any resemblance of that type of old Finley behavior, how could she truly think anything had just changed over night? But in the blonde’s defense, he had acted differently the night before. It had been weeks - no - months since he’d even given her a choice to pick really, well, anything. What they did that night, what food they ordered, what movie to watch. They were four simple decisions but they were four decisions that she had not been given the privilege to pick in a long, long time. And at the end of the night the most important thing to Libby was that was happy. She felt like he was finally coming to terms with how things were, that his parents were gone, that he was almost, in the most possible way, free. Free from the abuse of his parents, free from their constant putting him down. He could be himself again, not the person they’ve molded him to be. She should have known it was all too good to be true.
The rest of the day Libby felt useless. She felt played and stupid for falling for it, but did she even second guess that feeling stupid and played by her own boyfriend might not be okay? No, she did not. For Libby being made out to feel that way was normal. It happened on a near daily basis. If she accidentally said something wrong - said something in even the slightest manner that might warrant a ‘dumb blonde’ remark, Finley had every one laughing at her. Not with her, but at her. Libby knew it wasn’t right but yet she never did anything to stop it. So that day, after she let Finley ‘put her in her place’, make her feel stupid for assuming that her boyfriend of nearly four years might stay the night without having to sneak out the next morning, without having to berate her for simply wanting him to be sweet with her for the first time in too long, Libby spent the rest of the day laying in bed, re-writing her college essay over and over. She needed something to distract her although even that couldn’t truly take her mind off of the boy she loved dearly, and the amount of worry she had for him at all times - but especially then. She had tried to text him multiple times a few hours later, apologizing, telling him that she loved him. That she was sorry. As much as Libby knew deep down that she had nothing at all to apologize for, on the surface and in her conscience she felt otherwise. For whatever reason Libby felt like she had been the one in the wrong. She had pushed him away this morning, she’d been too clingy, too needy the night before. She didn’t blame him for wanting to leave.
But he didn’t reply, not to one single text. She’d pissed him off far too much. So the next day when she went into school she thought she’d surprise him, write a rough draft for the assignment they had due in history that she knew he hadn’t written, and wear the shirt he always loved on her so much. But he wasn’t there, yet again. Her boyfriend had begun skipping school more often now than ever before. His weekends were becoming longer than the school week itself - to nobody’s surprise. She’d texted him multiple times throughout the day, gave him a few calls, left a few voicemail but still nothing in return. She was almost worried even though deep down she knew that he was just ignoring her. After the final school bell rang Libby found herself sitting at the wheel of her car, dialing his phone one last time to see if she could finally get him. She wanted to see him and make up, see him and apologize for being so clingy and overbearing and offer to make it up to him somehow. But still, after two more calls, no answer. Sighing heavily, Libby turned the keys in her ignition and drove straight past her house towards Finley’s. Upon pulling into the driveway the girl swallowed nervously before letting out a heavy exhale and grabbing her keys, walking up to the door. The young blonde knocked on the door a few soft times before wrapping her arms over her body, pulling her cardigan sweater tight over her as the chilly wind blew around her. After a few moments of nothing Libby lifted her hand to knock a second time but her mouth parted, cheeks instantly brightening a shade of pink when the door opened to reveal Finley’s older brother’s girlfriend. Melanie, was it? Nervously, Libby lifted her already lifted hand and brought it to her blonde mess, brushing a wind-blown strand of hair behind her ear. “Oh,” she greeted, surprised to see her. Without her needing to even say anything Melanie answered the question that Libby really didn’t want to ask. She felt awkward, not knowing her at all, not really having ever said more than a few words to her at the memorial service.
Libby nodded her head as if to agree, or say thank you for answering the question she didn’t even need to ask. She mused a light nod, acknowledging what the older female was saying while kind of adverting her eyes, too timid to keep looking her straight in the eyes. What Libby knew of Melanie was minimal as Finn himself seemed not to know very much. She knew that Melanie was a lawyer and that apparently things with her and Patrick were pretty serious, but that was about it. She also knew that Melanie didn’t care for Finley, that much was obvious. “Umm,” she hummed nervously as she glanced around, as if Finn might be somewhere watching, testing to see if she’d align with the other side. Did she want to go in and wait? Wouldn’t Finley just be pissed to see her there, saying something about how ‘she was hanging out with them now’ or something of the sort. But he was ignoring her and she was worried. “Yeah, okay,” she nodded softly with a hushed down, her voice always being more on the quiet side. Keeping her arms crossed, Libby slowly stepped past Melanie and into the house. She lingered awkwardly in the foyer. Should she just go up and wait in his room or should she stay down her with Melanie. She was almost too embarrassed to do the latter. She figured someone like Melanie - a lawyer, or one in the making - would probably judge her for being with someone like Finn. Most people did. But most people were wrong and most people just didn’t get it. Swallowing as she cleared her throat lightly Libby turned a bit on her heels to look at Melanie. “Thanks,” she offered meekly in regards to letting her come in and wait. “I can just go up to his room if you’d like. I don’t want to be in your way,” she offered, motioning towards towards the stairs with her finger. She glanced around anxiously trying to come up with things to say, her anxiety causing her to feel the need to talk to fill up time and space in the room around them. “I um - I’m sorry that you have to deal with this. Finley taking Patrick’s time away from you. He’s just going through a rough time..”
