To Keep Her Safe is All I Know

Chapter 2

"Look under your bed!"

"She still sleeps with that stuffed elephant?" John asks, standing up again.

"She's seven, John, it's not abnormal for her to sleep with a comfort object still. Besides, Chris gave it to her; it's special to her."

"Yeah, is he the one you were making that slashing motion to?"

"What?"

"I know your friendship with Chris too well. He stop by?"

"He was going to, but he didn't want to intrude on us."

"So, can I bet he's just driving around the block now, waiting for me to leave?"

"It's likely." Melanie states.

Sadie then walks down the stairs with a backpack on her shoulders and smiles, "Hi, Daddy!"

John smiles and hugs Sadie, "Hi, sugar plum." He says before kissing her cheek, "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, Daddy."

John stands, "Well, we should get going. It appears your mother has some other business to tend to."

"You make it sound like my friend coming over is something out of the ordinary."

John just sighs, "C'mon, Sadie."

Sadie nods, then hugs Melanie, "Bye, Mommy."

"Bye, sweetie. Be good, okay? I love you."

"Love you too." Sadie says before going over to Fred, who was triple her size, and hugging him too, "Bye, Fred."

Sadie then walks back over to John. He and Melanie simply nod to each other, then John and Sadie walk out of the house.

Once the door shuts, Melanie sighs. She goes over to the couch, grabs one of the pillows and puts one of them over her face before flopping backwards down onto the couch with a long and exhausted groan. Fred notices Melanie's distress. He slowly climbs up onto the couch and lays on top of Melanie in attempt to comfort her. Melanie snorts and removes the pillow from her face and stares at the large dog, whose face was two inches in front of hers.

"Thanks, Fred." Melanie states.

Chris then walks in without knocking, "Hey, bitch."

Fred leaps off of Melanie at the sight of Chris and rushes over to him. Melanie sits up and manages a smile as Chris pets Fred.

"'Sup, asshole?" She asks.

"I figured you wouldn't be in the best mood tonight, so I brought you wine and chocolate."

"How great are you?"

"I try."

Fred then starts barking again as John walks back inside.

"Melanie, I almost forgot to give you the - " John then cuts himself off at the sight of Chris.

Chris and John stare at each other for a few seconds.

"Child support check." John finishes, "Hello, Chris."

Chris just nods, "Hey."

Chris and John actually used to be great friends before the whole divorce ordeal. John and Melanie met in high school and Chris and Melanie had been good friends long before then, so Chris was good friends with the boyfriend of his best female friend. John got the big picture of what Chris and Melanie's friendship was like right of the bat. He was completely okay with how close they were and how sometimes Melanie just needed to be with Chris, and Chris understood how sometimes she just needed to be with John. John was often invited to whatever "guys' night" that Motionless and friends of theirs had and John and Chris had a good friendship for a while. In fact, when first wanting to propose to Melanie, John asked Chris' "blessing".