They laughed, even Macy.

"I hate you all." I told them, as I flopped on the couch.

"No you don't." Melody told me.

"Yeah, you love us." Alice teased.

"Some more than others." Max added.

"I really hate you all right now." I told them again.

"Come on Hoodie Boy, let's go make some food." Melody told me, right before she started dragging me out of the room without another word. "Sit." Melody commanded when we walked in the kitchen.

"What am I some sort of dog?" I asked Melody.

"No, dogs are cute and fluffy. You aren't cute and fluffy." Melody told me. "You have to stay off that foot of yours, so it gets better quickly so we can get to New York in better shape." Melody added. I sat down. Melody moved around the kitchen, while I pulled out my phone and played some sort of game. After a long time, maybe five minutes, I got bored.

"I'm bored. I'm helping." I told Melody.

"No, you have to stay off that foot." Melody told me.

"But I'm bored." I complained.

"You have the attention spam of a gold fish." Melody told me.

"Hey!" I complained.

"Here, sit down and stir this." Melody told me. I sat down on the table and started mixing what ever Melody handed me.

"I like pasta better, pasta is easy to make." I told Melody.

"Your dad taught you right?" Melody asked.

"Yeah." I said. "How bout you, were did you learn to cook from?" I asked her. Melody seemed to pounder that for a moment.

"YouTube mostly, some websites." Melody told me.

"Your parents never taught you anything in the kitchen?" I asked her. Melody snickered at that thought.

"I'm not even allowed in the kitchen at home." Melody told me. "Fairly I can't really think of anything that my parents really taught me that sticks out to me. There's things like brushing your teeth, and reading a book, but never anything as a hobby." Melody told me as she chopped up some tomatoes.

"How about how to ride a horse, you know how to ride a horse right?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I know how to ride one." Melody told me.

"Your parents taught you that didn't they?" I asked.

"No, Mina taught me that." Melody told me.

"Where did Mina learn?" I asked.

"A summer camp." Melody told me. Melody took the bowl from me. She started mixing it around with her hands. She added a few more things, and slowly the dough began to form.

"I'm sorry." I told her.

"It's not your fault, and it's not like I should be complaining. I have my parents. Your mom is in Florida, and your dad..." Melody trailed off. She didn't finish the sentence, and I didn't finish it for her. We both knew what she was talking about. My dad was dead.

"Yeah but Alice is basically like an adult towards me." I told Melody.

"Yeah but, I don't know. I think that it's different when you have your parents raising you. Like your real parents. Sorry. That sounded mean." Melody said quickly.

"It's ok, sometimes I think how things could have been different, but my mom made her choice and Alice and I made ours." I told Melody.

"Have you ever thought of going to visit her in Florida? Meet your step brothers?" Melody asked.

"To be honest, I don't even know what is going on there. I don't know if my mom even got married yet." I said. "I'm not even sure if I care. If I go back there, I'll be going back to the drama, maybe the bullying too. I don't know. I'm not sure I want to find out."

"I get it, but she's still your mom." Melody told me.

"Maybe." I told Melody, lying right through my teeth. I don't think I would be able to forgive my mom anytime soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

This chapter seems long because it mostly only dialogue. It's really not that long. I felt like Melody and Kyle needed to have a long talk about, well life.

Everyone needs that sometimes.

Word Count: 696