ᴍᴇʟ | ᴇ. ᴍᴜɴsᴏɴ

ix.

SUNDAY, MARCH 23RD 1986 | FOREST HILLS TRAILER PARK

sean fletcher woke up by a knock on his door. he jumped up and hurried to it, hoping it was his daughter, but sadly, it was not.

"hi, my name's max. i'm your neighbour from across", the redhead greeted him.

sean looked suspiciously at the girl and hesitated whether or not to invite her inside. as max realised he wasn't going to say anything else, she took the letter melissa wrote from her back pocket and handed it to him.

"uh, melissa, your daughter, asked me to give this to you. she only asks you to not show it to the police and since eddie wrote something on there too, she wanted you to read it with wayne next to you", max explained.

"come inside", sean demanded.

max did what she was asked and walked into the living room and the minute she turned around, she felt sean's hand around her neck and was being pushed against the wall. the look on sean's face told her how he hasn't slept in days, how he doesn't trust the girl and his scent gave away that he's drunk way too much.

"my daughter doesn't even know you!" sean yelled, "she only made friends with eddie friday and then yesterday police come knocking on my door suspecting my daughter killed someone!"

the anger in his voice increased and max not only noticed it in sound, but his fingers tightened around max's throat too.

"why would i trust you? the only person i can trust is my daughter because i know for a fact she didn't murder that girl. and eddie didn't either, i talked to wayne about it! my melissa would never ever kill anyone!" sean yelled.

"w... w- wa- wat..." max tried to speak, but the fact that sean's fingers were so tightly placed around her throat kept her from doing so.

"what's that?" sean shouted.

instead of trying to say anything else, max pointed to her pocket, signalling to sean he had to take something out of it. when his hand reacher her pocket and picked the watch out of it.

"how do you have this?! did you take this from her?!" sean yelled as he released his grip from max's throat so she could talk.

the girl immediately gasped for air and reached for her throat, rubbing it to try still the hard sting she felt around it.

"melis- melissa, she... she gave it to me in case you were to react like this. i talked to her yesterday, that's when she gave me the letter and the watch. she knew you wouldn't trust me that easily, so she gave me her watch to show that you can trust me. she wears the watch all the time, she loves it, so automatically, you should trust me, because she refuses to take it off, only for showers or swimming. she doesn't even take it off when she goes to sleep", max explained.

sean looked at the girl, still not trusting her completely. he decided to ask her a question anyway.

"is the letter urgent?"

"i haven't read it, but she told me she explained everything from friday night to the moment she wrote it, that was before we came to her and eddie's hiding place and tried to help them. i wouldn't wait too long reading it, though", max explained, "anyway, i've got to go. actually, i'm going to your daughter and eddie. do you want me to pass something on?"

"actually, could you bring her her walkman? music is sort of her therapy and being in the situation she is now, she might really need it", sean spoke, "and tell her i love her and that no matter what, i'll always believe her over anyone else."

max nodded and told sean goodbye. the girl walked out of the house and sean went to sit on his sofa, wanting to read the letter. he opened the folded paper and began reading the letter, recognising his daughter's handwriting immediately.