Disclaimer: See last chapter

~ Chapter Two ~

"I know Mum, but still..."

"Look Sonny, there is no way out of this. You're going to your dad's for the weekend and that's the end of it." Sonny sighs as the looks at her mum,

"But that's not fair, I have plans..."

"You haven't seen him in ages."

"And who's fault is that?" Sonny mutters, as she starts walking out of the door,

"And where do you think you're going?"

"To tell Tawni that I am being sent away for the whole weekend." She screams back at her, slamming the door behind her as she carried on walking, ignoring her calls from behind her. It wasn't fair, he goes travelling for a whole year, and as soon as he comes back he thinks he can walk back into her life again.

She hated him so much sometimes, he walked out on Sonny when he divorced her mum ten years ago. And she really believed she would have been fine just leaving it at that, but then he had to get contact with Sonny after four years, and then just when she was getting close to him all over again, he decided to go off with his new wife and daughter, travelling for a whole year. And now he wanted Sonny back in his life, she sighed loudly as she carried on walking to Tawni's house. They were going to have another sleepover, they had everything planned but now she was stuck spending three whole days with someone she don't even get on with.

"Hey." Sonny grinned as Tawni opened the door, staring at her with a confused look on her face,

"What you doing here so early?"

"I can't come tonight." Sonny sighed, looking up at Tawni as she bit down on her lower lip,

"Why not?"

"Mum wants me to spend time with my dad. I am stuck there for the whole weekend." Sonny walked into the kitchen, jumping up on the kitchen counter as Tawni started to make them both a drink. Sonny heaved a deep sigh as she handed it to her,

"I don't even get on with him Tawni, she knows that, I don't see why she is so intent on me spending time with him."

"Maybe she wants you to have a father in your life." Tawni understood more than anyone, her dad had left a long time ago but unlike Sonny's, he had never got back in contact with her or her mother since.

"I guess, I know she didn't when she was my age, I can see why she would want me to. But still.." She wrinkles her nose in disgust, looking down at the drink she held tight in her hands as she thought about her dad,

"He left us, he didn't care about me for ages after he left and then out of nowhere he suddenly wanted to see me again." She sighed as Tawni looks at Sonny strangely,

"What?"

"You never talk about your dad."

"I know, it's not an easy thing to talk about sometimes. I always used to blame myself for him leaving when I was younger, he never phoned or anything for four whole years, my mum would cry all the time. He ruined everything, we were happy until he left, it seemed like we were never good enough for him. You know?" Tawni nods and then puts her arms around Sonny, who gratefully accepted the sudden act of comfort from the person she least expected it from, wrapping her own arms around her best friend.

"I don't know if I should hate him, or love him..."

"Just make an effort this weekend, try and get on, and see how it goes." She smiles at Sonny, she always gave the best advice, even if the answer seemed so simple and even if it did come from Tawni.

"I should get going." She jumps off the counter quickly,

"He is picking me up in about an hour. Wish me luck." She muttered, rolling her eyes,

"Good luck, will miss you tonight."

"Yeah, yeah." Sonny grinned at her as she quickly ran out of the house, feeling a lot better about the visit now. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would, maybe he had changed, and maybe Sonny had grown up a little so there won't be that many arguments – not like there usually was anyway.

She smiled to herself as she walked down the road, mum would be happy about it all.

"Mum?"

"Sonny?"

"Who else would it be?" She smiled at her and kissed her gently on the cheek before walking to her bedroom to pack a suitcase.

"You're in a better mood." Connie raised an eyebrow at her daughter, following her into the bedroom,

"I know, I had a discussion about everything with Tawni, she helped a lot."

"That's good, so you're okay with going now?"

"Yeah I guess, it can't be that bad. Can it?" She wrinkled her nose, thinking of the worst for a moment, but then she shook her head, it would be okay, they both had a long time to grow up a little more than the last time she spent time with him.

"No, of course it won't be bad, you're going to have a good time."

"I hope so." Sonny carried on packing clothes as her mum walked up behind her,

"How long do you think you're going for?" She laughed at her daughter, as she picked up a black and red T-shirt from her open suitcase.

"I don't know where he is going to take me or anything do I? I need clothes for every possible occasion." She grin at her, as she kissed her lightly on the cheek,

"Whatever you say darling." Sonny nodded and then carried on packing, turning around to look at her when she was done, laughing when Connie just shook her head.

"Finally." She rolls her eyes as she walks out of her room, Sonny laughed at her mum as she walked out behind her.

"Your father will be here soon."

"Cool." Sonny said, sitting down on the settee as Connie started to make coffee,

"Do you still love him?"

"I don't think I do," She set down the mug in front of her and looked as though she was thinking for a moment,

"I used to love him more than anything, but I guess as time goes on I started to realize just how unhappy we both were together."

"It wouldn't have worked out then? No matter what you did?"

"I don't think so, it just would have got a lot worse." Sonny paused for a moment, trying to think of more questions, she always had so many, just never had a good enough reason to ask them.

"Why did you get full custody mum?" Sonny looked at Connie, to see her face, she had never really asked it before, but had always wondered why her dad didn't get any custody rights at all.

"He wanted to do stuff... that didn't include children.."

"Like?"

"Travelling for one, he wanted to work a lot. Social Services didn't think he would be capable of looking after you much because he was out a lot, drinking and working all the time. He has changed now though, a lot. As you know, he is married with a child... he's finally settled down, so it's time you started spending time with him."

"Oh... that's something then." Sonny smiled at Connie, turning back to look at the door, tears glazed her huge, brown eyes as she thought about it. Her own father wasn't capable of looking after his own daughter, he had left them behind because Sonny had been too much of a burden to him. She was the thing holding him back from doing everything he wanted to do, and he had given them both up in a second – only for ten years later to be completely settled down, with a whole new wife and daughter to keep him company.

She sighed as she held back the tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She wouldn't let him make her cry again, she had given up on her dad ages ago. She wasn't about to start letting him make her feel like this all over again.

It wasn't long until he picked her up, thankfully on his own, she hadn't even met the wife but she wasn't sure about her yet. She seemed decent enough, but still. She listened as her dad told her how he had moved house. He talked non stop about his travelling and everything he had done. Sonny was glad for the conversation, she didn't really have much to tell on her part. But she was glad that her dad seemed a lot happier than the last time she seen him, he looked better as well. She smiled and nodded when it seemed appropriate, and laughed when he did. All the while looking around at the new life her dad ha made for himself, the life she wanted when she was older. She sighed, now that he had got everything he wanted, surely he could start acting like a real dad to her soon, surely she was somewhere on his list of things to do.

That evening they all sat around the table, dad, Emma (his wonderful replacement wife) and their nine year old daughter, Cassie.

"So, how do you find school Allison?"

"It's okay, it's a lot easier than I ever thought it would be. I am only on a C average at the moment, but Zora wants to get it up to a B."

"You're having help?" Her dad looked up at his daughter, gulping down his food as Sonny nodded,

"Not loads of help, just having small study sessions at Tawni's or during breaks in rehearsal. And sometimes Chad's house." Sonny smiled at her dad, and then looked at Cassie as she spoke,

"Who is Zane? And Tawni?" Sonny looked at her and then back down at her food.

"Tawni is one of my best friends and Chad is my boyfriend..." Her dad looks shocked when she says this, making Sonny frown at his surprise,

"I don't look that bad do I?" She muttered to herself,

"How long have you been dating?" Cassie carries on, distracting Sonny from her dad for a second.

"Just over a year, he is amazing." Sonny smiled widely as she thought about him. He was the best thing that had ever happened to Sonny, he got on with her mum, he kind of got on with her friend and Chad Dylan Cooper was amazing in general.

"Wow. Long time then. Do you have a photograph?" Dad finally said, Sonny nod at him as she dug into her Jean pockets, pulling out a small photograph of the both of them at the beach.

"You go out with Chad Dylan Cooper?" Cassie grabbed the photograph off Sonny and looked at it, a look of shock on her face. Sonny's dad looked at the photograph as well, his mouth almost dropping in shock as he looked from his wife to Sonny.

"He is a good actor." Emma said, nodding her head as she smiled at Sonny,

"Yeah, he is amazing. We met on set on my first day at So Random, and I guess we hit it off right away."

"Look I am really sorry about this but we have to go." Sonny looked up at them both for a moment, was it something she had said?

"Why?" She muttered,

"We have a prior engagement we couldn't get out of to get to, I am really sorry but it's important." She nodded at them as they both got up to leave,

"Sure. I will clean all this up."

"Thank you so much darling. We will only be a few hours. Love you." She watched as he ran after Emma, smiling at Cassie as she got up,

"I am going for a swim," Cassie got up off the table, Sonny grinned and nodded at her, starting to pick up all the plates,

"Do you want to come?"

"No, I will just do the dishes and then probably go to bed."

"Oh okay then, see you later." She sighed, walking over to the kitchen. She looked around quickly, noticing the bottle of wine on the counter. Setting the plates down, she took one more look around. Who would notice anyway?

She picked up the bottle and smiled to herself, it's just a little something, just to take away all of the pain and loneliness. It couldn't do any harm, could it?

Sonny gulped down the warm liquid, burning the back of her throat after the first taste, but then it felt fine. She smiled to herself as she drunk some more.

It was exactly what she wanted, she wanted to feel nothing. She wanted to be free from all the pain that she felt for the first time. The alcohol has given her everything she had wanted.