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Post by Melanie Benson on Oct 21, 2015 20:46:37 GMT
Melanie Benson had spent the start of the charity function at the bar, flirting with a few businessmen - some of whom she knew, some of whom she didn't, some of whom wore wedding rings, some of whom were single. She hadn't even intended on seeking out Brody, finding that without his little redheaded friend there to pout and get weepy over it, it was much less entertaining. Her eyes lit up, though, when she saw them standing together. When he tried to put her off, she frowned a bit, tilting her head to the side. "But this little pow wow seemed so interesting, I just couldn't resist coming over."
She turned her attention to Amber, flashing her a brief smile. "Amber, you look fantastic. You simply must tell me what your secret is. After all, soon enough I'll be getting to the point where I have to worry about whether or not I look my age too," she nodded. "How's Brandon?"
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 21, 2015 20:55:36 GMT
Morgan's eyebrow ticked up at the exchange between Brody and Melanie and then the way the brunette addressed Amber. She turned her attention back to Brody for a moment, "I was about to say if you had a free minute tonight to talk but..." she trailed off her gaze flicked to Melanie. She felt her face get red and she suddenly was remembering how she'd felt on Halloween. She hadn't realized that it had become such a recurring thing and suddenly her chest constricted and she felt like her heart was breaking all over again.
Amber's eyebrow rose at Melanie's greeting. She took a sip from her martini. "Melanie," she greeted evenly. "Brandon's wonderful, actually. Thank you for asking." Amber wasn't sure quite when Melanie had changed, she had a suspicion it had arisen once Melanie had decided of her own accord to spend part of her time with her mother and step-father, a pair that Amber only knew by name but didn't think too highly of. Still, she was none to keen of the way Melanie had taken up being involved with her son, nor was she ever fond of the way she'd looked at Brandon since she was about sixteen or so.
Everett smiled at Ellie. "Yeah, no, listen your parents seem really great. Like - really great. But I have a feeling they don't like me much," he said to her before leaning over and asking a waitress for a glass of water. "So, I heard your sister's traveling for a bit." And while Everett had traveled he hadn't left a sibling behind. He'd left behind his mother, which had proven to have its own repercussions, but he knew this was different. "How are you doing with that? Excited to see what it feels like being an only child?" he teased.
Riley frowned a bit, wrapping her arms around Adam and looking up at him. "I could kill him," she said gently, realizing now that perhaps her old feelings of dislike towards Eliot Quinn ran deeper than she realized. "I just think we should keep an eye on them."
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 21, 2015 23:27:36 GMT
Brody looked between his mother and Melanie, feeling as though they were quickly becoming dangerously close to some sort of uncomfortable confrontation. Having all three of these women standing in front of him made him feel as though three very different sides of his personality were all trying to play nice with one another. He wanted to defend his mother against the sly remark that Melanie had made, but he had a small part of him that didn't seem to be able to look at the dark-haired young woman without feeling as though they should have just been in a bedroom somewhere. And then there was Morgan, he wanted to turn to her and tell her that he, of course, had time to speak with her later, but he was afraid that saying it out loud might have spawned some sort of reaction from Melanie. "Melanie, I'll come find you later," he reiterated.
Ellie looked at Everett curiously, wondering if he knew why her parents seemed so skeptical. "Why wouldn't they like you? They don't even know you." But at the question of her sister leaving soon, she felt her stomach sink. She hated the idea of Morgan leaving, but she knew that with everything that had happened over the last several months, she was trying to come to terms with the fact that her twin needed this. "It's very weird," she admitted. "I'm so happy for Morgan and I know that she needs a chance to explore, but I'm going to miss her terribly. I've never been an only child before, I don't even know how that works."
Adam leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to Riley's lips. "Okay," he agreed. "If that would make you feel more comfortable, then that's what we'll do. But I wouldn't worry about it just yet, we don't even know that Ellie's interested in him in any way. This might be a short-lived friendship."
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 22, 2015 1:48:56 GMT
Amber eyed Melanie carefully when the brunette seemed to pout. "Melanie, why don't we let Brody and Morgan finish talking. You and I can catch up and I can try to figure out what happened to that sweet little girl that used to ask my husband to play games and draw pictures," she suggested cheerfully, trying to distract the brunette and also remind her subtly that they'd known each other for many years and Melanie's attitude wasn't welcome here.
Melanie gave Amber a withering look, taking a sip of her drink and taking a breath. "As if I was supposed to stay four forever. Honestly, acting so dramatic after a certain age just makes people seem crazy," she asked with a tilt of her head. "I can't believe you haven't given it a rest yet. I mean, I haven't yet but I've got a lot more viable years in me for that." She pursed her lips thoughtfully, shrugging a shoulder up. "One would think that at this point now that Brody is in such good hands, you'd sort of start clinging to that crown of yours and finally let in a new regime change. And if you're husband needs someone to play games with I would say that's more of a problem on your end of that bargain, darling."
Amber pinched the bridge of her nose, muttering gently under her breath and trying to think of what she should say. Not that she didn't have a clear idea in mind of what she wanted to say, but she was far too old to start a scene with a twenty two year old girl in the middle of a public event. Surprisingly she didn't have to, instead finding a petite redhead standing between them.
"Melanie, that's enough," Morgan said sternly, frowning at the brunette. Morgan had always been fond of Amber growing up and didn't think it was right at all for Melanie to speak to anyone that way, let alone someone who had been such a huge part of her childhood. "I don't know where you get off talking to anyone like that, let alone Mrs. Finn, but that's unacceptable."
Melanie peered down at Morgan and scoffed. "Thanks for the after school PSA, I'm sure the rest of the Mickey Mouse Club is really proud of you." She rolled her eyes and looked at Brody, "I'm bored and I'm leaving. Are you staying or are you coming?"
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 22, 2015 17:18:07 GMT
Sure, things with his mother hadn't necessarily been on the best terms recently, but it didn't mean that he enjoyed the way that Melanie was speaking to her. Brody and Amber had never truly fought, which was what made their recent altercation so uncomfortable. But instead of charging Brody with the desire to mend it and move on in their lives, it only seemed to fuel him into this downward spiral of being moody and upset with her. Though truthfully, he knew that it wasn't his mother that he was really angry with. He just hadn't been able to pinpoint who it was, whether it was Melanie for all of this, Morgan for leaving, or himself for being the catalyst of all of the problems that he seemed to be having.
"Melanie, you've crossed a line," he said, warning her off of saying anything else about his mother. But even before he had a chance to elaborate, Morgan had stepped in quickly and just told Melanie that it was enough. Brody looked between the two younger women for a minute, sighing at the predicament that he now found himself in. Though literal lines hadn't been drawn, he now knew that his mother and Morgan were on one side and Melanie was on the other. The question was just where he felt that he belonged in the entire scheme of things. He knew that it shouldn't have been a question, that he should have dismissed Melanie and gone back to his conversation with Morgan, but with her leaving in just a few days, he knew that there was a good chance that he was going to want to turn to Melanie in her absence.
He wouldn't have called it a fear of being alone, but the reality was that he had never really been alone before. Morgan had always been there, first as his best friend and study buddy, and then as something much different. And while Melanie had been there for large portions of his life too, she had never been part of his life in the way that Morgan had. Ultimately his mother was really the person he should have been siding with, but siding with her now was going to mean that he was siding with Morgan too and he wasn't sure that he was in a position to do so. He was angry at her if he was being entirely honest. As much as he loved her in his own way and loved having her in his life, he was mad at her for feeling like she needed to run away from him, from her family, from school. For days after she had said that she was leaving, he had waited to hear that she had changed her mind. Brody had even banked on the fact that her parents wouldn't let her go. But they were, and he was angry with them for that too.
And the more he thought about how angry he was at her and how much he was going to need to fill some sort of void in his life once she was gone, the more appealing it seemed to just go with Melanie after all. But he still wasn't fond of the way that she had spoken to his mother. "Melanie, don't ever talk to my mother like that again," he warned before turning to Morgan, he gave her a small smile, "We'll talk before you go?" For whatever reason, he felt like he needed to hear her confirmation before he made a decision.
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 22, 2015 19:06:28 GMT
Morgan wasn’t sure what she had been thinking would happen. She knew that things between her and Brody had been strained for some time now, but she felt like this was different. Even without Morgan stepping in to tell Melanie to stop, Morgan had thought perhaps Brody would have dismissed Melanie purely for the way she’d spoken to Amber Finn. She was starting to wonder if things were so strained between them now and the result was her not quite knowing what to expect of her once-best friend anymore. When he spoke to her, she contemplated what to say for a moment. But she thought that, if there were going to be lines drawn and choices made she was not going to be the one picking fights and causing problems. Brody was able to make his own choices and she had to come to terms with the fact that the choice might not involve her anymore. “Yeah, sure,” she said softly, looking away from him and shrugging a shoulder. “I’ll come by soon.”
Amber, while too old to resort to petty back and forth with a twenty-something year old, was none to fond of her son even entertaining the idea of leaving an event they’d come to as a family with the young woman who’d just disrespected her. She glanced at Morgan for a moment, giving her a small smile of appreciation for what she’d done before looking at her son. With their recent disagreements, Amber had been increasingly concerned about their relationship, but she still didn’t want to cause a public scene, so she glanced over her shoulder at her husband and took a sip of her drink. They really, after all of these years, should have developed some sort of signal for when extraction from a situation was necessary.
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Post by Everett Quinn on Oct 23, 2015 2:19:04 GMT
Everett looked down, shrugging his shoulder briefly. "Well, you're their daughter. They're not going to like any guy that you talk to, I'm sure." He looked up at her though when she mentioned how she felt about her sister leaving. He nodded at her and smiled a bit, "Being an only child is...interesting." he admitted. "It's not bad," he told her. "If you ever need any pointers on it," he joked. "I'm your guy."
He was about to say more when he spotted Will Blye approaching. He gratefully took a sip from his newly delivered water and occupied himself by looking around and observing the crowd.
Will's nose had healed well. And he'd, at his parents urging, apologized to the Tyler girls. In fact, he'd even gone as far as to try to tell the school it was unnecessary that Morgan leave all together. But Morgan's mind was seemingly made up. Still, he walked hesitantly up to Ellie, greeting her with a small grin. "Ellie, you look great," he nodded, taking a sip of the champagne he'd stolen off of a passing tray. He glanced over in the direction of her sister, standing with Brody and Melanie and winced. "Oi, should someone warn Mel to guard her face?"
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 23, 2015 2:37:59 GMT
Brody looked at his mother for a second, knowing that she was disappointed in him for the decision that he had made to potentially leave her and Morgan to side with Melanie at this moment. It was uncomfortable and saddening to think that he was just deepening the rift between the two of them, but he wasn't sure what other options he had. He could side with his mother and Morgan and have that shake out in whatever which way that it did, or he could side with Melanie and potentially have something to keep him occupied while he figured out who he wanted to be and what he wanted to do in his life. So he nodded at Morgan, agreeing to the fact that she was going to meet up with him soon. "Great, just let me know when you plan on stopping by."
Turning to his mother, he pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I'll call you to let you know if I'll be late." Finally stepping toward Melanie, he gave her a brief nod. "Shall we?"
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Post by Ellie Tyler on Oct 23, 2015 2:45:36 GMT
Ellie hated to admit how right Everett probably was, all things considered. She had seen the way that her mother and father had responded when Morgan had slept with Brody, and then not too much later when they had gone out on a date. With Morgan leaving, she figured that it was only fair that they were now moving on to being overprotective of her as well. It was both a blessing and a curse, she decided before giving Everett a small smile. "Well, if I ever need some advice on how to make it through, I'll be sure to give you a call. Or maybe I'll just run into you at the park again," her grin widened at the thought of it, realizing how much she actually had enjoyed their encounter the last time. Yes, she decided, he was going to be a good friend for her to have.
She spotted Will approaching and braced herself a little. Though he had already apologized, she was still havin a hard time looking at him in quite the same way as she had before. It was just everything combined that kept her from feeling completely at ease with him now. "Thank you," she said, looking down just briefly. But when he looked over at her sister, Ellie couldn't help but turn her attention back to him. "You're the only one I know of with experience, maybe you should tell her?"
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 23, 2015 3:02:16 GMT
Morgan couldn't hide her disappointment when Brody seemed prepared to leave with Melanie yet again. If anything about finding herself face to face with him had her considering that leaving was a mistake, she found those doubts dissipating. She nodded, without looking at him. "Yeah, wouldn't want to interrupt if you were busy," she bit out gently. "Excuse me, I should go find my parents," she muttered before turning to Amber. "I'll forward you my itinerary, Mrs. F, thanks," she said before quickly extracting herself from the situation.
Amber watched Morgan as she shuffled off before glancing up at her son. Taking a long sip of her drink, ticking her eyebrow up. She opened her mouth to say something before snapping in shut again. Her gaze shifted to Melanie for a moment and, taking a step closer to the brunette her eyes narrowed for a moment. "Be very careful, Melanie," she muttered gently. "You've been a very big fish in a very small pond for a long time now. But if you drag my son into your petty little games and cross a line, I will pull you into deeper waters and we'll see how you deal with the sharks." Glancing up at her son, she frowned, "You owe your father and I a night a family time later this week," she said sternly. "Merry Christmas, Melanie," she nodded, turning around swiftly and making her way back to her husband.
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Post by Will Blye on Oct 23, 2015 3:15:17 GMT
Will smiled a bit at Ellie, trying to keep things between them easy going "Well, you know, it's kind of more fun to let other people be surprised too." He took another sip of his drink and looked at her. "Any good plans for the holidays?" he asked her curiously. "Ask Santa for anything specific?" he added with a teasing grin.
Everett observed Will and Ellie for a moment, taking another sip of his water and taking in their conversation. He'd heard, through the grapevine, about Morgan hitting Will Blye in the face as well as conflicting explanations on why it had happened. It wasn't really his business though, so he remained quiet, keeping himself busy as he observed the crowd and Melanie tugging on Brody's hand to lead him out of the party.
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Post by Ellie Tyler on Oct 24, 2015 20:38:52 GMT
Brody nodded at his mother in agreement before turning and walking away with Melanie. He felt bad about leaving Morgan and his mother under these circumstances, but he was trying to think about what it was going to be like long-term, and right now it seemed to make more sense to side with Melanie at the moment.
Ellie gave a small shrug. If she was being entirely honest, she would have much rather preferred to have continued her conversation with Everett, but there was still part of her that inexplicably enjoyed Will's company. She blamed it entirely on the fact that they had shared a rather private moment together, but she kept trying to distance herself from it. "No," she answered rather shortly. She didn't mean to be angry with him, but she just felt like it was going to take some time before she knew what her next step was. All she could keep thinking was that she could maybe show him the error of his ways and get him to change his attitude toward her. "Did you have any plans?" Part of her asked out of politeness, the other part hated to admit that she was honestly curious if he was going to be around. Turning to Everett, she gave him a small smile, "What about you?" she asked, trying to make it seem like she was asking everyone out of politeness.
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Post by Everett Quinn on Oct 26, 2015 3:34:31 GMT
Everett smiled at Ellie, shrugging his shoulders. "This year Eliot's going to be out of down for the holidays, so my mom and I are going to order Chinese food and watch Christmas movies," he told her sheepishly. "Nothing all that exciting, really," he told her, though it had been their tradition when he was a little boy. He eyed Will and Ellie carefully, realizing that the younger boy's typical flirtatious and smug act seemed somewhat forgotten. It made him curious, but Everett was never really one to pry.
Will shoved his hands into his pockets. He knew, especially after a decent enough conversation with his mother, that he'd made a mistake with the way he'd treated Ellie after sleeping with her. And while he still wasn't looking for any serious kind of relationship, he wasn't too keen on Everett's presence. He recalled the way Everett Quinn had been the one to occupy Ellie's time at Brody Finn's back to school party, and now here her was again. When Ellie turned the conversation in Everett's direction, he frowned, downing the rest of his champagne and shaking his head. "Not exciting? Sounds just a bit horrid," he chuckled. "My parents and I are spending the holidays in New York, though there was talk about going away for New Year's," he nodded.
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Post by Ellie Tyler on Oct 26, 2015 18:31:33 GMT
Ellie had heard the phrase "stuck between a rock and a hard place" before, she's probably even used it too, but she wasn't sure that she ever truly understood it. At least not as much as she understood it now. It was probably because of the newness of her friendship with Everett, but all of the things that she wanted to say to Will just seemed to be inappropriate and loud considering the circumstances. It wasn't even that she was still really angry with him, she had just had plenty of time to think about what had happened now and with the advice of her sister and Kensi under her belt, she knew exactly what her next move was going to be. She didn't want him to think that he could just continue to toy with her and get away with it and she was starting to feel the compulsion to let him know that. But, at the same point, whatever it was that she felt for him made it difficult for her to truly relax around Everett either. It was very much as though she was being torn down the middle to try and be two completely different sides of her personality.
"I think it sounds sweet," she told Everett. "I'm sure you'll both have a lot of fun." Turning her attention to Will briefly, she gave a small nod, "I hope that you have a great trip."
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Post by Will Blye on Oct 26, 2015 19:57:06 GMT
Will sighed, not at all loving the fact that Everett seemed to have been befriended Ellie. Not that he didn’t understand why she was being colder to him – he admitted that he deserved it. But the truth was that he found himself a little jealous. And while he did still have an interest in Ellie, one that was probably unfair to her as it wasn’t one that resulted in a serious relationship, that interest intensified with some sort of odd alpha male sense of territorialism. “Well, I was thinking that if we did stay in town that maybe if you were thinking of attending a party that we could go…together,” he nodded.
Everett lifted his eyebrows, wondering if he should have taken the waitress up on an alcoholic drink as he watched Will Blye fumble to command Ellie’s attention. He drummed his fingers gently against the countertops and shifted awkwardly, wondering if at this point he was invading on what should have been a private moment. In the brief time he’d known Will, he had come to the opinion that he was a little shit. But he thought, maybe he just didn’t know him the way Ellie did.
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