He was home.
The first couple of days home from tour were always kind of like a big exhale. He got to sleep in his own bed, shower in his own shower; it was nice for a while. However, the big exhale that came with being home was often short lived. It was great to see his family and his friends again after being away from them for so long, but after a while, the "itch" to get back on tour managed to creep its way back into him.
However, in recent months, that had become a bit different. The "itch" to get back on tour never went away, but there were a lot of things going on in Chris' life at the moment that managed to keep him occupied and go a little less crazy while he was home from tour. Almost every day he had something to do now, which was nice. When Chris got home from tour, he did usually like to have a couple of days at home to unwind and relax a bit, but it didn't take long for the cabin fever to set in. Over the course of the past year and a half though, home life had actually been a little bit chaotic, in ways both good and bad. Right now though, Chris actually felt pretty relaxed.
Summer was ending. It was the beginning of September and fall would be here soon. The leaves were still green, but you could see the slightest hints of yellow beginning to appear on some of them. The weather was still warm, and there was a lovely breeze in the air. Chris had the windows of his car rolled down and music blasting as he drove home. He was bored today - as per usual during his off time - and decided to do something productive by running some of the errands he needed to run. He stocked up on some more makeup, and he got a nice, new leather jacket since his other one had gotten ripped up at a show. Of course. Chris already had a lot of ideas on how to modify the jacket to make it a little more "Chris Motionless" as he did with a lot of his other stage outfits.
A song that Chris doesn't recognize comes on. Chris skips to the next song. Chris had the Bluetooth from his phone connected to the stereo playing on random, and half of the songs that had played were ones he didn't know. He'd have to tell her to stop downloading music onto his phone the next time he saw her, which probably would be in the near future.
Chris had also gotten a new pair of sunglasses that he was liking very much. He was also looking forward to trying some of the new makeup he'd gotten. Chris didn't wear makeup as often when he was home as he did on tour, but he did do it at home sometimes, just as a way to pass the time. She sometimes asked him if she could do his makeup some time. Chris wasn't sure how much he trusted her with makeup brushes and pencils near his eyes. He'd trust Melanie with it though, since she'd been doing his makeup since they were fourteen or fifteen.
Chris felt accomplished, and he felt like he'd gotten a lot of things done. It was still early in the afternoon, and Chris was actually kind of looking forward to getting home and relaxing. He would be home in just a couple minutes...
And then his phone began to ring.
Chris sighs, then looks at the caller ID. He then looks at the time. 3:20 on the dot.
Chris presses the button to connects the call to the Bluetooth and speaks, "Hey, Sadie. Do you need me?"
"Yeah. Mom isn't here and she won't answer any of my calls or texts." Sadie's little voice says through the speakers of Chris' car.
"I'll be there in a few." Chris says.
"Okay. Thanks, Chris."
"No problem, kiddo."
They hang up.
This was pretty common. Sadie's mom worked on-call, so this happened often.
Just two blocks from home, Chris makes a u-turn and heads in the opposite direction towards the elementary school.
x
Chris drives into the back area of the school where the kids could be picked up. There sat Sadie on the curb, her elbows on her knees and her hands on either side of her face, looking bored. Her bright, red curls flew about in the breeze, and her blue eyes looked off in the distance. They then land on Chris' car, and her freckled cheeks curl up in a smile. Sadie wore a green T-shirt with a butterfly on it, blue jeans, and light-up sneakers. She also had a New Years Day backpack that Chris had gotten her. She was the last of the kids here, looking extremely happy to finally be leaving.
The aide that was standing there with Sadie looked a bit hesitant at the sight of Chris.
Chris rolls down the window and smiles, "Hop in, kiddo."
"And you are?" The aide asks.
"It's okay, my mom said it's okay for him to come get me." Sadie tells her.
"Are you sure?" The aide ask, with a raised eyebrow.
Chris raises his sunglasses and sets them on top of his head, "Call Melanie and ask. Tell her that Chris Cerulli is picking up her kid and she'll probably just be relieved. If you can get her to pick up the phone, that is."
"Ah, we were informed of this when Melanie and her husband separated. You're Chris Cerulli?"
"Do I need to prove it to you?"
"No, I suppose that won't be necessary." The aide deadpans.
Chris shakes his head to himself. Every damn time. There was always a different teacher or aide whenever Chris came to get Sadie, and every one of them thought he was a freak.
"Hop in, Sadie."
Sadie gets in the front passenger seat, sets her backpack on the floor in front of her and buckles herself in. Chris then drives off.
"Gettin' real tired of all your teachers thinking I'm a pedophile or something." Chris mutters.
"A what?"
"Nothing." Chris says.
Sadie pulls out her phone.
"What are you doing?" Chris asks.
"Texting Mom to tell her I'm with you."
"I still cannot believe your mother gave you a phone. You're seven."
"It's not even a real phone. It's Mom's old flip-phone. I can't even play games or get Internet. All I can do is text and call people and my only contacts are Mom, Dad, and you."
"That makes it a little better, I guess."
Sadie puts her phone away.
"Do you have any homework?"
"Just spelling." Sadie says before gasping, "Ooh, guess what?! I made it all the way across the monkey bars at recess today!"
Chris smiles, "Wow, you've been working on that one for a while now."
"I know!"
Chris chuckles.
Sadie smiles and looks out the windshield, "I like it when you pick me up. I get to sit in the front seat."
"Yeah, uh, let's not tell your mom that."
"Why not?"
"She doesn't like it when I let you sit up front."
"Why?"
"It could be dangerous. Your mom actually wants me to get a booster seat for you. Shit, I was out shopping today; I could've done that."
Sadie then reaches up and lightly smacks Chris' mouth.
"Hey! What was that for?"
"Mom told me to start doing that every time you say a cuss word around me. You said the 's' word."
Chris sighs, "I swear, your mother is going to be the death of me."
A car then drives out in front of them. Chris slams on the breaks and puts an arm over Sadie, shielding her. He then honks the horn of the car.
"Watch it, asshole! I have a kid in here!" He shouts out the window.
Sadie reaches up and smacks his mouth again.
Chris locks his jaw, then exhales, relaxing, "Is that really necessary?" He asks, driving off again.
"You're always telling me to do what my mom tells me to; I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do."
"Sometime I hate how much of a goodie-goodie you are."
"Mom says goodie-goodies get into good colleges."
"You're seven! You do not need to be worrying about college!"
"Was my mom thinking about college when she was seven?"
"I'm not sure, I don't really remember. I know she knew she wanted to be a doctor by then though. She's always known she's wanted to be a doctor."
"She's a dead people doctor, right?"
Chris smiles, "Yup. She examines dead bodies to find out how and when that person died. Whenever she can't pick you up on time, it's usually because she got beeped into the hospital because they found a new dead body somewhere and they need her to look at. They find a surprising amount of dead bodies around here. Or sometimes it's just someone that died in the hospital."
Sadie wrinkles her nose, "Gross."
Chris chuckles.
Sadie then changes the subject, "Are we going to your house?"
"That's where I was headed. Although, I should probably get some more snacks because I don't think I have any that you'd like. How's a quick trip to Walmart sound?"
"Okay. But what if we run into some of your fans again?"
"If they follow me on Instagram, they'll know what's up. I've made you and your mom famous."
Sadie nods, "Cool."
Chris glances over at Sadie and smiles.
Sadie notices this, "What?"
"You've gotten so big."
Sadie giggles.
"I'm gonna have to start thinking of more grown up things for us to do."
Sadie furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "But I'm only seven."
Chris sighs, "You won't always be..." He says before changing the subject, "Has your mom responded to you yet?"
"No."
"She must be looking at one Hell of a dead body."
Sadie smacks his mouth again.
"Oh, come on!"
Sadie giggles.
There was still music playing from Chris' phone through the stereo. The reason why he didn't know half the songs were because they were songs that Sadie had downloaded onto his phone. A Demi Lovato song that Sadie had downloaded then started to play - although, Chris would admit that he actually kind of liked Demi Lovato. Chris looks over at Sadie out of the corner of his eye. Both of them slowly get smiles on their faces as the song progresses.
They then both burst into loud, soulful, and purposely off-key singing.
"WEEEE DON'T KNOW WHEEEEEEEERE TO GOOOOOO!" They sing, "SO IIIII'LLLLL JUUUUST GET LOOOOOST WITH YOOOOOOUUUU!"
Sadie continues to sing and dance and bounce in her seat. Chris smiles. He was happy to help Melanie out with Sadie whenever help was needed. Sadie was a good kid and was really easy. What was happening with Melanie and her now ex-husband, John, was depressing, but Chris actually really liked all of the extra time he got to spend with Sadie now. He was just happy that this was all happening now rather than earlier. No way would he have been able to help Mel when Sadie was littler. He was always there, but never really helping until now. He got made fun of for it at times by his friends, but they all loved Melanie and Sadie too and, despite the joking, they understood.
They pull up to Walmart and get out of the car. Chris walks through the parking lot, while Sadie skips beside him, singing still, a different song now.
"WHY DOES IT FEEL SO GOOD BUT HURT SO BAD?! WOOOOAAAAHHH!"
"What the Hell kind of music does your mom have you listening to?"
Sadie smacks Chris' arm since she couldn't reach his mouth as they walked.
"Okay, that one actually hurt." Chris says.
"Mom lets me listen to all kinds of music."
"Nothing bad though, right?"
"She says some of your songs are bad."
Chris scoffs, "Oh, does she now?"
"Mhm. She says some of your songs have cuss words and some of them are about killing people and some of them are about that one grown up thing that no one will tell me about no matter how much I ask."
Chris blinks, "Dammit I hate when she's right."
Sadie smacks him again, then continues.
"My mom is always right." She says.
"Believe me, I know. I've got almost twenty-five years of evidence to support it."
Chris then notices how fast Sadie is moving beside him and slows down. Due to the fact that Chris was so tall and Sadie was so small, Chris' normal walking pace often had little Sadie sprinting to keep up with him. They go to cross the lot to get to Walmart, when Sadie stops him.
"Wait, Mom says we have to look both ways before we cross the street."
"Parenting has made your mother go soft." Chris deadpans.
Sadie looks both ways, then nods, "Okay, we can go." She confirms.
"Thanks for the clarification."
"You have to hold my hand too, Mom said so."
"I know." Chris says, taking Sadie's hand as they cross. They walk into Walmart and Sadie releases Chris' hand.
Chris then gets a cart - not that they needed much, but because he knew that Sadie liked to stand on the end of the carts and ride on them, and Melanie never let her do that, so she always did it with him. Sadie stands on the end of the cart, then Chris pushes the cart forward, Sadie going backwards. Sadie then giggles.
Chris smiles, "What?"
"I just remembered a funny dream I had last night."
"Yeah? About what?"
"You and Mom."
"What was funny about it?"
"Well, you and Mom lived together and me and Fred lived with you guys."
Chris could hear Melanie's voice saying "Fred and I" in a correcting manner.
"And you and Mom were all mushy and lovey; you held hands and even kissed."
Chris snorts, "That is a funny dream."
"How long have you known my mom?"
"A long time. We were younger than you are now when we met."
"So, like, a long time."
"Yup. I usually try not to think about how long it's been in an attempt to not feel old."
"Why? Being an adult looks like fun."
"What's happening to your parents looks like fun?"
"Well, no, but that doesn't happen to all adults, does it?"
Chris softens, "No, of course not."
Sadie smiles, "Then it won't happen to me! Nope nope nope! When I get married, my husband and I will live happily ever after and we won't ever get divorced."
Chris smiles, "Yeah? Any boys catching your eye on the playground?"
"No, not really. I'm friends with a few boys, but I don't like-like any of them."
They go into the snack isle and Chris stops the cart.
"Good, you're too young for that shit anyway."
Sadie hops off the cart and reaches up to Chris.
"I know, I know." Chris deadpans before smacking his own mouth.
Sadie giggles, "You're silly."
"I'm glad I amuse you." Chris says, "Okay, you can pick out what you want; just no more Monster. Your mom got really pissed - mad at me when she found out I'd been giving you that."
Sadie huffs, "Fine. Ooh, where are the Oreos?"
Chris smiles, "I knew I raised you right."
"You didn't raise me."
"Well, I was still usually in the room. Now, let's find those Oreos."
They find the Oreos easily and get them as well as a few other things. Sadie then hops back on the cart.
"You wanna go look at the toys before we leave?" Chris asks, already knowing the answer.
"Yes!"
Chris pushes the cart off. They walk by more food, cleaning supplies and furniture as they head to the toy isle. They pass by clothes too, and Sadie then grows silent.
"You okay?" Chris asks.
Chris stops the cart and Sadie hops down.
"Hey, what's up?" Chris asks.
"I'm fine, I'm just thinking."
"About what?"
"Remember that thing I told you last week? About me wanting to do things that boys do?"
"Yeah. Your mom and I had a grown-up talk about it."
"She said it's okay."
"I know."
This was when Chris realized that they were near the boys' clothing isle.
"But what if I get made fun of?" Sadie asks.
"Hey, you don't need to worry about any of that. You wanna know a secret?"
Sadie nods.
"I used to get made fun of as a kid." Chris says, "I still get made fun of. A lot, actually."
"For what?"
"Because of how I dress or how I act or the fact that I wear makeup or that I'm so tattooed. I don't let any of those jerks get to me though because I'm happy with who I am."
Chris kneels down next to Sadie, "Look, kiddo, I know that the past few months have been really hard on you with everything happening to your parents and adding this whole thing to all of it probably isn't helping, but I want you to know that I'm here to help you, okay? I love you very much, Sadie, and things are gonna be okay soon, I promise."
Sadie smiles, "I love you too, Chris." She says before hugging him.
She got bigger every time Chris hugged her, it seemed. Chris remembered when things with Melanie and John first started getting bad and he'd first offered to step in and help Melanie. It took a lot of convincing - especially since Chris had at the time never been alone with Sadie for longer than a few minutes - but eventually, Chris convinced Melanie that he was capable. Which certainly became helpful in the long run...
One day in the beginning of when things were starting to get bad, Sadie was five and was over at Chris' house. She'd been going there her entire life with Melanie, but as previously stated, had never been alone with Chris for more than maybe fifteen minutes. Chris had basically volunteered to be the one to distract Sadie whenever Melanie and John were fighting and didn't want Sadie to witness it.
Sadie had actually managed to keep herself pretty entertained that day with a My Little Pony coloring book, crayons and her Spiderman and Iron Man action figures that she'd brought with her. Her knack for self-entertainment must have been something that she'd picked up from being an only child. Chris had been doing some work on his laptop for the band, and the two of them would chat a little bit in between. For the most part, however, Sadie was very lost in her coloring book and Chris was very lost in his work. After a while though, little Sadie flopped back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling.
Chris looked up from his laptop and his eyes went to Sadie, "You bored?"
Sadie looked to Chris, "A little." She admitted.
Chris thought a moment, then smiled, "I know what might be fun." He said, standing up, "Have your parents ever played Rock Band or Guitar Hero with you?"
"No."
Chris' smile grew, "Your mother's slacking. I'll show you. It's not hard, and it's pretty fun. You want guitar, drums or singing?"
Sadie thought, then answered, "Drums."
"Alrighty."
Chris got the video game drum set hooked up and fired up the Xbox. He then sat back down and looked to Sadie.
"Okay, c'mere."
Sadie went over to Chris and crawled into his lap. Whenever Sadie was with Chris, it wasn't often that she wasn't in his lap or snuggled into him in some way.
"That's actually a pretty good idea. Let's do this: I'll hit the foot pedal and you do the drums, okay? I'll show you how to do it."
Sadie smiled, looking excited, "Okay."
By the time Melanie returned to pick Sadie up, Sadie was doing the foot pedal and the drums all by herself and picking out songs that she knew to play. She'd even convinced Chris to stop being a workaholic for a little while and get on the guitar to play with her.
Needless to say, Melanie was impressed.
It was from that day on that when Chris was home from tour, he was always offering to "help out" Melanie in whatever way he could during this difficult time she was going through. Sometimes it was something as small as running to Melanie's house to feed her dog, a Newfoundland named Fred (Sadie had named him) or something as big as getting Sadie away from the bad things that were happening at home.
He remembered getting a call from Melanie at eleven o'clock at night one night a few weeks after Sadie turned six that Melanie and John were fighting - he could hear John yelling at Mel in the background - asking if there was any way Chris could "help out" because Sadie was sitting at the top of the stairs, listening to the fight and crying. Chris agreed immediately and Melanie was at his door with Sadie ten minutes later. She then left to go home and resume her fight with her husband.
After having spent so much extra time with Sadie during this time, Sadie completely trusted Chris and they just sat for a bit while Sadie cried and told Chris about everything that was going on through her point of view. It was extremely late for Sadie though and she fell asleep on Chris within half an hour. Chris carried her up to the guest bedroom and laid her down, not having any idea what he was doing and the entire time wondering what the Hell he'd gotten himself into by volunteering to "help" Melanie with Sadie. Chris got almost no sleep that night, as every single possible background noise woke him up, having him worried that it was Sadie waking up afraid or needing something.
Ironically, when Sadie actually did get up the next morning, Chris didn't hear her.
When Chris walked downstairs the next morning around nine o'clock, he found Sadie sitting on the living room floor in front of the coffee table with a bowl of Captain Crunch on the table and SpongeBob on the TV.
"Good morning." Sadie said to Chris, her mouth full of cereal.
Chris blinked and furrowed his eyebrows, beyond confused. With all of the questions he possibly could have asked - 'how long have you been up?' 'how did you get yourself breakfast?' 'how did I not hear you do any of this?' - all he could get out was a very confused "What?"
Sadie raised her eyebrows at him, "I do this at my house all the time. You always tell me to make myself at home whenever I come over here, so I did." She said before returning her focus to the television and taking another bite of her cereal, once in a while brushing some of her wild, red curls out of her face as she did so.
Chris blinked, then decided to shrug it off and head to the kitchen where the coffee could be made, phone already in hand as he began to dial Melanie.
x
Chris and Sadie break their hug in the middle of the clothing isle at Walmart.
Chris stands and looks at some of the things in the boys' clothing isle, "Well, at the risk of your mother yelling at me for buying you even more shi - stuff, do you want me to get you anything from over there? I saw you looking at some of the things."
"But you just got me a bunch of band merch."
"All of which is still way too big on you. Would you like something that actually fits?"
Sadie thinks, looking unsure.
"Or, we can just go over there to look for now." Chris says.
Sadie thinks a moment more, then nods, "Okay."
Sadie hops back onto the cart and Chris pushes it further into the isle.
Sadie smiles, "I like hanging out with you, Chris."
Chris smiles, "Thanks, kiddo. I like hanging out with you too; we're buddies."
"Yeah. You're kind of like an uncle. Or an older brother."
"Did your mother tell you to say that?"
"No."
Except Melanie did tell Sadie to say that. Whenever Sadie mentioned to Mel that Chris was almost like another dad to her, Melanie told her that under no circumstances was Sadie allowed to tell Chris that, knowing that Chris would freak out about Sadie thinking that.
"Mom did tell me to tell you 'thank you' though. She's really thankful that you like taking care of me and she loves you."
Chris smiles, "I love your mom too, she's awesome. Now, do you see anything you like?"
A/N: Woo hoo! Prologue complete! Let's talk about this.
So far, we've only met Chris and Sadie. There have been mentions of a Melanie and a John, but we don't know who they are yet. Come to think of it, we don't exactly know who Sadie is either. Who is she to Chris? Who is Chris to Sadie? There were enough clues that I think you guys can get a proper idea, but there's still so much up in the air that I'm hoping you'll have enough curiosity to want to keep reading ;)
ALSO remember this story will not have an update schedule. I WILL update regularly and I'm actually almost finished with writing this story so it won't be too difficult to update often, but I won't be updating every Monday, Wednesday and Friday anymore.
ALSO! In my cast list thing, it days that Sadie is played by Sarah Jean Eberling only because that was the name that came up with the picture, but I realized that may actually be the name of the photographer, I'm not sure. If by any chance anyone knows, please tell me.
Let me know what you think!
xoxo, Scissorhands