A Story of Torn Trust (Chapter Four)
"Melissa, why don't you go listen to your music?"
Those were the words Alex spoke the second she opened the door to her family. She was tired of running away, everyone was. Pouting, the little girl hid behind the brunette's legs, peeking ever-so-slightly over at the family, "Who're they, Auntie?"
"Melissa." Alex said more firmly this time, "Please go upstairs and listen to your music."
"What're you doing with a kid anyway?" Jerry asked suspiciously, "She should be with her parents."
"Are they gonna take me away from you, Auntie? Are these bad people?" The little girl's voice cracked, "Are you sending me away? Don't send me away! I love you too much!"
"Gah! Dad, look what you did!" She gave him a hard glare before bending down and doing her best to soothe Melissa. Through her peripheral vision, Alex saw her brother watching the scene unfold with a certain gleam in his eye. Sighing, the brunette pulled her niece into a hug and planted a kiss atop her head, "It's okay, Lissa." She whispered, "I'm here, sweetie. I'm not going anywhere."
"I just have to talk to these people, it won't be long though, I promise. Just go upstairs and listen to your music, please? Headphones on."
"... Will you and Uncee (Her adorable version of "Uncle." It's pronounced Un-key.) be okay?"
"No worries, kiddo." Max assured, ruffling the girl's hair, "Just listen to your Aunt, okay? We love you."
"Okay…" The kid whispered, still sounding unsure. She managed to cast a somewhat adorable glare at the three strangers before walking upstairs.
"Okay, explain. Now." Jerry ordered.
Alex crossed her arms and gave him a hard look as if daring him to say that again. She wasn't his little girl anymore, and he had no right to boss her around. He stepped back a bit, surprised by her intimidating demeanor. Then again, he had never been on the receiving end of one of Alex's glares.
"That's my niece." Alex stated, "Her Mom likes dumping her on me without my consent." She said casually, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "Care to explain what you're doing here, though?"
"This is our home." Theresa responded, eyes furrowed in confusion, because what other reason could there possibly be? Alex merely scoffed and took a seat on the couch next to her little brother, "No, it's not." She said, "Harper moved into Mom and Dad's room and Melissa stays in Justin's room, which has been re-decorated and re-organized." She smiled, "But hey! If you need a place to stay, Justin could sleep in the top bunk of Max's bed, and Mom and Dad could move into the basement."
"You converted my room into a living space for a little girl?"
"Well… yeah." Alex shrugged, "What did you expect, Justin? You guys left us for years. We just sort of gave up any hope of you coming back."
"Who cares? Go change it back!"
"Wait, hold on-" Theresa interjected, "Is that seriously what you thought? That we abandoned you? Look, Mija, we just didn't expect you to want to come at all. We thought it would make you two happy."
"Well, that's the lamest excuse I've ever heard." The brunette chuckled, seeming unfazed. "If you wanted us to be happy, then you should have talked to us beforehand. Given us an option or just letting us know what was going on."
"I suppose you're right…" Theresa sighed, "I'm so sorry, sweetie. Can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?"
"Why are you apologizing to her? She should be apologizing to us!" Justin exclaimed, "She took our business away, she took our house away, the next thing she'll tell us is that the lair has disappeared!" He paused and turned to her, "The lair hasn't disappeared, has it?"
"Oh, no." Alex assured, "It's still there. It only disappears if the whole wizard family moves out, remember?"
"Good." Justin nodded, "I guess there is one good thing about this." He smiled,
"I'm in the lead since these two have been slacking off with their wizard training."
"Uh… I wouldn't go ahead and think that, Champ." Max interrupted, "Alex finished her Wizard Training last year and is working on her required independent study." He announced,
"And I'm close to finishing my training as well. Alex and I had to learn together since the three of you took off. She's actually a pretty good teacher."
"Oh, really? What's your independent study?" Jerry asked, intrigued.
"You believe her?" Justin gasped, "You can't be serious!"
"What? I'm just curious."
"I work for Professor Crumbs." Alex announced, "I'm actually his personal advisor. Now tell me, where do you stand in your wizard training, Justin?"
"... I just learned the invisibility spell." He answered.
"Oh, really? So that means-" She moved her finger around mid-air while she did some mental math, "You have 500 more spells to learn before you can finish your Wizard Lessons."
"That's not true!"
"Oh, really?" Alex snapped her fingers and the book of spells appeared in her hand, "You do the math then, Justin. How many pages are in this book?" She shoved it into his arms, "Tell me I'm wrong. I dare you."
"Fine." He flipped to the last page of the book, looking for the page number. As soon as he found it, he used the calculator app on his phone to confirm.
And Alex had been right.
"How many spells does Max have left to learn?"
"Lemme think…" She pondered, "Well, you just learned the Picture This spell, right? So I'd say about 100."
"You're joking."
"No. He's actually pretty good at magic!" She praised, "Anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about. Wait… what are we here to talk about?"
"Alex…" Jerry began slowly, "Why does everyone seem to hate us?"
"Because they do hate you." She announced bluntly, "As far as all of us knew, you abandoned us. And that affected our friends as well." She explained, "Plus, they were all concerned about me and Max, which was how Zeke and Harper ended up working here. In fact, I'd consider Zeke to be one of my closest friends. And more of a brother than you'll ever be." Alex stated, glaring at her older brother.
"Oh, shut up Alex." He spat, "I bet you're lying about this. None of what you are saying is true. I'm going to go up to my room, and it is going to be perfectly intact, nothing out of place. That stupid kid is probably a hologram or something to make us feel bad, and Harper does not live with you. The two of you suck at magic, and you're just saying all this to make us feel bad! Here, come on, I'll go prove it myself!"
He got up out of his chair and stomped upstairs, the Russos following him. Alex blocked the door, glaring at her older brother. He just pushed her to the side and kicked the door open, eyes widening at the sight of his bedroom. The child was sitting on the bed wearing cat-ear headphones, bopping her head along to the music. Max and Theresa helped Alex up, who had a bump on her head after being knocked to the ground. But then she saw Justin angrily marching towards her niece, and panicked.
Running into the bedroom, she was too late. He pushed her off the bed, eyes widening as he realized that Melissa was indeed very real. The girl started crying, and Alex was fuming. She ran over to Melissa and lifted her up onto the bed, checking her over with Max's help. Together, they pulled her into a group hug while Justin was standing there, his jaw to the floor.
"Auntie…?"
"It's okay, Blueberry." Alex assured, "Uncle Max and I are here."
"I really want to hit him right now." Alex growled, but Max quickly grabbed her hand, "Hey! No, no! Don't do that, just do your breathing exercises like your helper taught you to do."
"Helper?" Jerry asked, watching as his daughter did some breathing exercises.
"Yeah." Max nodded, "She's been taking some anger management classes."
"Anger management?" He stepped back in shock, "Honey, what happened?" Then he paused, "... Us."
She nodded her head, and now Max was breathing along with her.
"We'll finish this talk later." Jerry said in a more comforting tone, "And we won't bring Justin around until you're ready." He paused, "You are okay with us visiting now, aren't you?"
"... Yes." She nodded, her anger finally subsiding, "Where are you planning to stay, though? I could always loan you some money…"
"We'll find a place." Her father assured, walking over and gently kissing her on the crown of her head, "You stay safe, alright? Love you."
"Love you too, Daddy."
As soon as the group left, Alex crashed down onto the bed and started to cry.