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I felt like I’d been knocking Johnny’s front door for ages before he finally answered.
My anger had just grown by the second. I couldn’t believe there was something my dad was keeping from me. Especially after all the things my mother had kept from me. I thought all of that was out of the way.
Obviously not.
I knocked again, growling to myself in frustration. From where I was stood at the front door, I could faintly hear the sound of music and laughter coming from the garden, which was obviously the explanation as to why no one could hear my incessant knocking.
It was starting to seem like no one would ever answer, but I was determined to stay until someone did. It took me about five minutes to remember that I had my phone with me, meaning I could call Johnny, seeing as I’d recently gotten everyone’s numbers put in my phone.
I dialled his number and waited, staring through the frosted glass of the front door to see if anyone was coming. Of course, they weren’t.
“Midge!” Johnny eventually answered his phone. “What’s up? You wanna speak to your dad?”
“I’m outside your front door. I’ve been knocking for ages.” I bluntly replied.
“Shit, sorry, we’ve got music playing, didn’t hear you.” He apologised. “I’ll come let you in right now.”
I huffed as the phone cut off and shoved it back into my pocket. Johnny’s figure became more and more visible behind the glass as he approached the door and finally opened it for me.
“Sorry.” He apologised again, ruffling my hair. “Your dad’s in the garden.”
I was too annoyed to even reply to that, and I think Johnny could tell, as he followed quickly after me. I was practically storming through the house, my anger probably radiating off of every inch of me. I knew it was certainly showing in my face.
In the garden sat my dad, MB and Jimmy. Typically, my dad was the only one with his back to me, so he didn’t see me coming straight away. MB and Jimmy both grinned at me, but I was literally too aggravated to acknowledge it.
My dad also grinned a wide grin when I stopped in front of him. It soon faltered when he saw my expression, though. The thunderous look on my face and the way my hands were placed on my hips in such a manner was enough to tell him that something was wrong, and I was beyond pissed.
“What is it...what’s the matter?” He asked me worriedly. “Are you okay?”
“Not really.” I snapped back.
He glanced at MB and Jimmy in confusion, the both of them merely shrugging. Johnny was watching in confusion from the patio doors.
“Well, what’s wrong?” Jason questioned again.
“I don’t suppose you had any idea that your parents would be showing up at the house today?” I narrowed my eyes, as his widened.
“My...” He murmured, looking at MB again. “My parents? Are you sure?”
“Oh yeah, I’m positive.” I scowled. “They couldn’t have gotten away quick enough when they found out who I was. Anything you wanna tell me, dad?”
“Wait a minute,” MB cut in, directing his words at Jason, “Why would mom and dad go to your house? Have you spoken to them recently?”
“No.” Jason shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to them once, since...”
MB furrowed his eyebrows as I continued to stand there, my anger and confusion increasing more and more. My dad obviously didn’t have the slightest clue what to say, and all I could think about was the time in my garden back in England a couple of weeks back, when I was interrogating my mother and trying to find out who Jason was.
“Are you going to say anything?” I frantically asked, as silence continued to roam around the garden, apart from the music that had been turned down to a low volume.
“Not here, Midge.” Jason replied edgily. “We’re not talking about it here.”
“I don’t care where the fuck we go, dad, I just want you to tell me what’s going on!” I fought back.
It was the first time I’d lost my temper in front of any of the others, and I honestly didn’t care. It was hurting me that my dad hadn’t told me about his parents, as I’d thought he’d been completely honest with me about everything.
“Come on.” He said, standing up. “We can go back to ours.”
He sent an apologetic look towards the others as he stood up, brushing past Johnny and walking through the house. I didn’t even glance at the others as I followed. I wasn’t the slightest bit sorry for interrupting their evening when I was this angry.
My dad was waiting for me in his car. I slid into the passenger seat, slamming the door behind me and silently staring ahead as my dad began to drive. He also stayed quiet for a moment, but it didn’t last long.
“I had no idea they were going to turn up, Midge.” He stated with a sigh, glancing at me slightly. “Those two are the last people I’d expect to come round to the house, that’s for sure.”
“Why?” I questioned, my tone still harsh and annoyed.
He hesitated to answer. Obviously, it was some sort of a sensitive subject to him, but that was the least of my worries at that point.
“I...I don’t exactly get along with my mom and dad.” He finally managed to say.
If I’d not suspected that already by the reaction he’d had when I’d told him about his parents showing up, that probably would’ve surprised me. My dad was such a family-oriented person, even though the Avenged family weren’t blood relations—except MB of course—he’d do absolutely anything for them. I knew he valued every single one of us, so the idea of him not getting along with his parents just seemed weird.
Before I could question it, he pulled into the driveway of our house. The front door was open, and Zacky was sat on the doorstep, his jacket in his hand as he typed away at his phone. He instantly looked up as Jason and I got out of the car and slammed the doors shut behind us.
“Vengeance, what are you doing here?” My dad asked curiously.
“I came to get my jacket.” Zacky replied, standing up. “But Midge just cleared off. Is everything okay?”
“Uh...we have some things to talk about.” Jason then glanced at me, and back at Zacky.
Catching on that we needed to be left alone, Zacky simply nodded and sent me a reassuring smile.
“See you both later.” He said, brushing past me on the driveway and ruffling my hair. Even that didn’t dim my anger.
When my dad made no movement, I stormed into the house, kicking my shoes off and going to sit in the living room. He immediately followed, of course, and shut the front door behind him, not bothering to take his shoes off as he hesitantly entered the living room and placed his car keys on the coffee table.
It was silent.
I refused to look at him. After a moment of just standing there, he sat down.
“Don’t be mad at me, Midge.” He sighed.
“Don’t be mad at you?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m sick of people hiding things from me.”
And again, he sighed. It was all he seemed to be doing, which just added to my irritation.
“I didn’t like keeping it from you.” He said. “But it’s a difficult situation.”
“How?” I snapped. “How difficult can it be?”
“I just got you back and I didn’t want you to be put off by the family problems here!”
“What family problems?” I scowled. “Just tell me!”
He ran hand over his face, obviously stressed out by the situation. Whatever it was seemed to bother him as much as it bothered me.
“I stopped talking to my parents ages ago.” He started. “And when I say ages, I mean...years. That’s why I was so shocked when you said they were round here.”
Of course, I was surprised by that, but I didn’t want to interrupt him, so I just waited for him to continue.
“When your mom took off with you all those years ago, I kind of went downhill. Bear in mind I was only your age, so I was still living with my parents.” He said. “And obviously my parents weren’t exactly thrilled about the fact that I had a kid at the age of sixteen, but they were much more supportive than your mom’s parents were.” He paused then, staring into space as he thought. “I spent about four or five years just acting like a dick, drinking all the time, not wanting to face reality—I was beating myself up over how I’d let you go away so easily, and I had no way of getting you back.”
My irritation was fading ever so slightly as he explained, but it was definitely still there. I still couldn’t say anything, and I refused to do so until he’d finished explaining everything.
“Then, Avenged went on tour for the first time. I thought maybe it would take my mind off things, make life seem a little better. It didn’t, though. I was still annoyed with myself that I’d not yet done anything at all about your mom leaving with you.” Again, he paused to think, but continued to speak quickly. “Somewhere in the middle of that tour, I decided that as soon as I got home, I’d start on tracking you down. You would’ve been about five or six by this point, and I hated that I’d missed out on so much already. So I finally got home and told my parents that I was going to do everything I could to get you back. Their reaction to that wasn’t one I particularly liked.”
He actually looked angry as he said that, and I became intrigued. It was becoming apparent that this wasn’t a period of his life that he tended to think about all that often.
“How did they react?” I decided to ask, when he said no more.
“They were completely unsupportive.” He looked at me. “They told me that I’d be wasting my time. That with a mother like yours, you’d either be dead or in foster care by now. After my mom told me it was actually a blessing that I no longer had you around, I told them both to never speak to me again and to stay out of my life. They moved out of town not long after and I just got on with things and continued trying to find you.”
It was quiet as I took all of that in. I understood why my dad was so angry at them, but it didn’t change the fact that he’d kept it from me.
“So why would they have randomly turned up like they did today?” I questioned.
“I honestly don’t know.” He shrugged. “But I’m intrigued.”
“And why didn’t you tell me all of this before? Like back in New York maybe?” I obviously had no control over my anger as of right now. Only a moment ago, I thought it was beginning to lessen, but apparently not.
“Like I said, Midge...I didn’t want to put you off. I’d just got you back and I thought that if I put all of that shit on you, you might not want to stay. I wasn’t going to keep it a secret forever, I jus—‘’
“Oh, that makes it alright then, does it?” I interrupted, standing up. “Whatever, dad. I’m going to my room.
“Midge, wait!” He called after me.
But by that point, I was too upset to care.