The Mute

14 | fourteen

Ace Black

Mel screamed. It was a scream of pure terror. All of us froze for a couple of seconds before any of us did anything. We were all too shocked.

"Melionë?!" Mrs. Brewer called. Mel came rushing back into the kitchen, sobbing and shaking. "Mel! What happened?!" She gasped. Mel just collapsed into her mom.

"Mel, what's wrong?" Dimitri asked, concern lacing his tone as he walked over to Mel and Mrs. Brewer.

A tall, broad, muscular figure entered the room. I don't recognize the man, neither did Isaiah, Selene, River, and Jay. But everyone else's mouths dropped.

"Who's that-" Isaiah eyed the man up and down like he was trying to place him.

"W-Why are you here?" Mrs. Brewer asked.

"A man can't wish his daughter a happy birthday on her birthday?" The man opened his arms as he chuckled lightly.

"You need to leave," Mrs. Brewer insisted.

"Wait, hold up," Jay waved his hand in dismissal. "This is Mel's dad?"

"That's Malcolm?" Isaiah raised a questioning eyebrow.

"The one and only," Malcolm bowed.

"Leave! Get out!" Mrs. Brewer yelled.

"I am trying to give my daughter a gift!" Malcolm yelled back. His yell made Mel flinch, and scurry away from her mom into a corner where the cabinets met. She slid down and brought her knees to her face and whimpered. I let out a deep breath and went to sit next to Mel. I didn't want to sit too close. After all, she was literally having a mental breakdown because her abusive dad literally just bombed her birthday party.

While Malcolm and Mrs. Brewer were arguing, Mel was crying quietly in the corner beside me. Her breathing was laboured. She was shaking relentlessly. Small hiccups escaped from her mouth as she was clinging onto her knees for dear life. And all I could do is sit there with her and make sure she doesn't hurt herself. For example, we had a test a couple of months ago that Mel was extremely nervous about. She kept picking at her fingers and no one thought much of it until she picked them to the point where they started bleeding. She had to go to the nurse's office to get bandaids and then she took the test at lunchtime in the principal's office.

"SHE'S PETRIFIED OF YOU!" Mrs. Brewer screamed, snapping me out of my thoughts. "HOW IS THAT NOT A GOOD ENOUGH REASON TO LEAVE?!"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY, WOMAN," Malcolm yelled as he bulldozed Mrs. Brewer over. Dimitri immediately jumped in front of him.

"Listen," Dimitri bent down to help Mrs. Brewer get up. "You can't waltz into people's homes, yell at them, demanding to see your daughter, who you hated since the day she was born, then push them onto the floor."

"Who the fu-" Malcolm swore.

"Language," Mel's grandma said.

"Fudge," Malcolm rolled his eyes, "are you?"

"I'm Sianna's husband, Dimitri," Dimitri said, surprisingly calmly. I glanced over at Mel who started to nervously scratch at her arm. I remembered she told me that was another bad habit of hers, so I gently placed my hand on hers and said, "Hey..... Let's not do that, ok?"

She nodded sadly and started to play with my fingers.

Isaiah walked over to us and smiled, "Mel, why don't we go upstairs? Where you can read something?"

She shook her head.

"Why not?" I frowned. She went through this already and seeing all this again is triggering her, and it hurts that I can't console her.