Page 30 of Finding a Melody

“Do it!” We cheered, and he grumbled and began singing.

He didn’t even sound that bad though his expression was stuck in a scowl as he sang. It was a little off beat, definitely not professional, but good for karaoke. It was an Adele song, making it all the more hilarious. He definitely didn’t have the chops to match the queen. Bryan continued on through the song and we all called for an encore when he finished. He just scowled at us as he put the mic down. It was hard to stop laughing. I tried, I really did but he was so disgruntled at having to sing that song.

The rest of the afternoon quickly passed as I made them all sing more than once. A few times I performed a duet or we even did group songs. It was fun and relaxing. I never realized how fun this could be with a group of friends. A new first for me.

I couldn’t stop grinning as we did more and more songs. And when it was all over, I was tempted to pay for more time to keep going. I didn’t want this moment to end.

But it did.

Everyone separated into Seth’s truck, Paxon’s car, and mine as we headed back to Seth’s house. When we got inside, I volunteered to make dinner while Paxon called his dad to check up on things and Toby called to talk with his aunt, who apparently left a voicemail.

Toby did it in the kitchen while I was preparing food and I got to bear witness to the dangers of Aunt Laura as she yelled at her nephew. All while trying to not chop my fingers off as I cut vegetables.

“...drag your ass back home.”

“Auntie, there’s no reason to leave work early. I promise.”

“After that stunt you pulled, what makes you think you’re allowed to have fun? You do realize both you boys are in trouble, right? You’ll be lucky if you’ll see any daylight until your ass can go back to school.”

Toby looked over at me and fought a smile. He thought this was hilarious.

“You better not be smiling,” she said icily through the phone, enough to make it feel like ice was falling down my back. Toby’s smile dropped right off and he grew sober. “Once I’m home from work, your asses better be there to give me an explanation I can accept.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“Eat dinner there, but head home once you’re done.” She hung up.

“Wow,” I finally said once I realized the conversation was over.

“Yeah.” Toby actually looked nervous now. “No regrets, but damn.” He sighed.

“Will everything be okay?” I couldn’t help the worry I felt.

“We’ll smooth it out,” Justin said from the doorway. “She’ll have time to calm down and once she hears why we did it, we’ll be okay. It wasn’t like we were purposely doing stupid shit just to do it. She knows that’s not how we are.”

“You guys aren’t troublemakers?” I asked.

Toby snorted and leaned over the counter. “Want us to be?”

“I just want you to be safe,” I admitted.

That seemed to take Toby by surprise, and slowly a smile stretched across his face. “It’s a two-way street, Cadence. We haven’t talked about it, but you need to be safe too.”

I glanced away, not expecting the topic to go in this direction. “She can’t hurt me anymore.”

“She doesn’t need to physically abuse you to hurt you,” Toby said in a more sober voice. “You know...” He glanced briefly at Justin. “It took me some time to realize this, but mental wellness is important too. Did you know my brother is a quadriplegic?”

I swallowed hard, realizing he was revealing a deep part of himself. “No.”

“Yeah. When we were young, when I was around nine, him seven, he was at a playground, decided to climb a tree.” As Toby talked, his voice grew distant, eyes going unfocused. “I guess he fell. Either way, it suddenly became a lot for our parents. He was so young at the time. Me too. None of us took it well enough, and I started lashing out, hating him for getting so much attention from our parents, at them for ignoring me so often. I had to suddenly deal with canceled birthdays or parents not showing up at any of my games or events. I don’t know. Now that I look back at it, I can’t help but hate the kid that I became.”

“You can’t hate yourself for being a nine year old,” I said.

Toby snickered, finally some light coming back to his eyes. “That’s what my therapist said. Laura said it too. The guys. Seth would whack me across the head and tell me to cut my shit out, that I was hurting those around me as I self-destructed. I never understood it until, well, the last couple of years. I was in a really bad head space, my mentality was destroyed. I had truly believed that my mom and dad no longer loved me, that the only time I could get any kind of reaction from them was when I did something to get into trouble. And that’s because of Aunt Laura.”

“Your song,” I whispered, thinking about the song he sang in music class for one of our assignments. I sang about my dad, he sang about his aunt.

“Exactly.”