*Tracie waited in her office for everyone to show up for the discussion. They seemed to have some family issues, and she wasn't going to let them try and solve them on their own. Sometimes all people needed was a little bit of guidance, and she hoped that the case would be the same now.*

*Kiley walked in and leaned against the back wall, not really wanting to sit near Ian or alex or mel*

Weston walked in after Kiley and stood next to her against the wall. He was there only because Kiley wanted him there.

*Kiley sighed and looked over at weston* "If you don't want to come you don't have to..." *She said, giving him the option to leave, but really hoping he would stay with her*

Weston grinned and held out his hand for her, to show he wasn't going anywhere

*Kiley smiled and took his hand, glad he was staying with her* "Thank you, love."

"No problem, Babe" he said kissing the back of her hand

OOC: Meanie. lol.

*Melanie came in with Alex by her side, but Ian had told her that he was going to come 'on his own time'. She wasn't at all in the mood to fight with him, so she said that it was okay. They both sat down and greeted everyone.*



~Mel

Tracie:"Where's Ian?" *she asked*"We can't start without him."

Alex:"He's probably- never mind." *Alex was going to say 'he's probably smoking somewhere because he knows he's going to get caught after this', but he stopped himself short.*

Melanie:"Probably what?" *Mel asked, in a slightly panicked tone.*

Alex:"He's probably cleaning or something. He does girly things whenever he's nervous."

Melanie:"Cleaning isn't girly."

Alex:"Yeah it is."


*Melanie sighed*

Melanie:"Fine."



~Mel

Weston stood there, watching Alex and Mel, simply wondering what was going on with Ian.

*Kiley sighed and looked away from everyone, absently running herthumb over the back of weston's hand. She knew she should tell Mel about Ian and his smoking....but she also knew that if she did, he would tell Mel about how he'd found her shooting up once in the dungeon. She looked down at the ground, waiting for someone else to speak. She just wanted to go home, to the appartment, and lay on the couch and talk to weston, or read, or cook him something or clean.....anything. She just wanted to be out of the room, away from this whole situation.*

*Ian walked into the room, of course looking rather upset. He knew he was going to go through hell both now and over the next few months. He was trying to prepare himself for it.*

Melanie:"Let's just start. Ian, why are you acting like this? You've never done it before, even after mum died."

Ian:"I'm different."

Melanie:"Depressed or different?"

Ian:"I'm not depressed, Mel. I still smile."

Melanie:"You can be depressed and smile. I think I'd know, Ian."

Ian:"Whatever."

*Melanie waited a few seconds*

Melanie:"Give me an honest answer."

Ian:"That was the honest answer."

Melanie:"Then why are you different?"

Ian:"You're different, too. Ever since mum died you've be changing daily. I never know what to expect out of you.

Melanie:"That's not the point, Ian. Why are YOU different?"

Ian:"Because I'm growing up. I'm not always going to be a little kid, and you need to get over it."

Melanie:"I know that, but just because you're not a little kid anymore doesn't mean that you're going to act like this."


*Alex was growing steadily more uncomfortable throughout this. He got an idea. Ian's coat. If he still had any cigarettes, they'd be in there. Alex stood up and walked over to the coat rack, where Ian had placed his coat. He started looking at all of the coats in turn, trying to make it seem as if he was merely trying to escape the conversation by doing anything else but listening to it.

Ian:"Well I am, okay?"

*Alex found Ian's coat and felt around the pockets. Yup, there was a pack in there. He took it off the rack and went to put it on.*

Ian:"Alex, take my coat off."

Alex:"No."

Melanie:"Alex, just take it off."

Alex:"Alright." *he took it off and tossed Ian's coat onto the floor. There was a little pattering sort of noise as the cigarette pack hit the floor.*"What the heck was that?"

*Alex was playing stupid while Ian paled*

Ian:"Don't look through my stuff!"

Alex:"Alright." *he said, shrugging. That was either Mel's queue to get up and see what was in his pocket, or Kiley's queue to say what it was. It didn't matter to him, but he knew that they would get no where if he hadn't done that, because Mel would ramble for hours without listening to what anyone else was saying, and this was the only way to get her attention.*


~Mel

"Mel, maybe you should look...." *She mumbled, knowing that now Ian had the right to go ahead and not hold up his end of the deal. She looked down at her feet, suddenly wishing that weston wasn't there, not wanting him to know if Ian decided to talk...*

Ian:"Mel, don't look. It's nothing." *he told her, knowing it was useless, though.*

Melanie:"Why shouldn't I look if everyone else seems to think it's important and you're so worried about it?"

*Ian didn't say anything. He looked away and was suddenly anxious. This was going to be worse than he thought it would be.


Melanie got up and picked up his coat. She pulled out the pack and stared at it for a few seconds. She dropped his coat and opened the box up just to make sure that it wasn't just a box that he was keeping other stuff in. She took out one of the cigarettes and just looked at it. She nodded a few times, as if she was telling herself mentally 'okay, that makes sense'.*

Melanie:"Right."

*Ian looked down at the floor. He knew Mel was trying her hardest not to cry, and he felt guilty. She had gone through a lot lately....He didn't say anything, though.

Mel started to pace around the room. When she knew that there was no way on earth that she could stop herself from crying, she went to one of the corners and faced it, sort of like someone who was bad in class might do, and she started to cry. Crying would be an understatement, sobbing was more like it. Ian sunk further down in his chair when Alex glared at him. Imagine that- it was Alex's turn to glare at Ian. It was his turn to be the 'good' brother. Alex got up and walked over to Mel. He awkardly patted her on the back, since he had never really been one to do the whole 'hug' thing. Of course, Mel did. She turned around and attacked him in a hug. He had a mildly shocked and confused expression on his face for a while, but then went back to being the comforter and patted her awkwardly some more.*



~Mel

*Kiley shrugged away from the wall, letting go of weston's hand and moving over to Mel. She was trying to get mel off alex, knowing alex was like, dying. She rubbed her back in a comforting way (you know that annoying thing people do sometimes that they think helps but's really just like 'ok' lol)* "Mel, it's ok...." *She said quietly* "It's not a big deal......." *She said, still hoping Ian wouldn't spill the dirt on her*

*Kiley had managed to get Mel to let go of Alex, so he backed away a little bit, but he was still standing close so that Mel would know that he cared.*

Melanie:"I should've known, Ki...." *she choked out*"I should've known before now. I should've been able to tell!"

Ian:"You also should've noticed something about Kiley, but you haven't."

*Melanie froze*

Melanie:"What?'

Ian:"Are you going to tell her or do I have to?" *Ian asked Kiley*



~Mel

*Kiley paled a little* "I don't know what you're talking about, Ian...." *She said softly, looking over at him. She looked back at mel* "Don't worry about me right now...just....worry about Ian..."

*Melanie looked around at Ian*
Melanie:"Tell me."

Ian:"She's known about me smoking as long as I've known about her doing drugs. I caught her in the dungeons one day and she caught me, too."

*Melanie forced herself out of Kiley's hug*

Melanie:"That's not true. She's been clean for almost a year."

Ian:"Are you saying that I don't know what I'm talking about?"

Melanie:"Yes, because Kiley would never do something as stupid as that again."




~Mel

*Kiley froze and looked at Ian, not saying anything, waiting for his responce.*

Ian:"Mel, I saw her just like she saw me down there, and that's how she knew that you needed to look in my coat pocket.

Melanie:"Kiley, tell me it's not true." *she said weakly as she turned to look at Kiley again*



~Mel

Weston froze, staring off into space but still listening to their conversation. Unable, ney, not wanting to believe that Kiley had still been doing drugs after she promised him. He didn't even know how to react. Mixed emotions were rapidly flowing through him, none of them were good ones. He swallowed the invisible clump of nothing in his throat, and in a hushed and pleading voice he said, "Kiley....no" He brought his hand up to the side of his face, as if to hold his head up, like a helpless newborn.
He took a deep breath and slightly relaxed. He moved his hand from his face and let them hang by his sides. He turned his head to not look at her, but continued to look out of the corner of his eye.

*Kiley stopped and looked from Ian to Mel, then turned her head to look at weston as he spoke to her. She took a deep breath and tried to find her voice looking at mel* "I'm not using drugs." *She said, her voice soft but strong at the same time. It wasn't a total lie....at the moment, she wwasn't using drugs. And she knew she wasn't addicted physically, so she didn't think it was a problem. It just bothered her how easily she was able to lie to mel's face about it*

"That's a lie." he said now facing her, staring at her. "You said you'd quit, Promised"

*Kiley turned to him* "Yeah, Ian did catch me in the hall that day....ok? He did. I had a moment of weakness........I was really stressed out and I felt trapped. But I've stopped since then. That was the last time, I swear....I made up my mind down there that that was it, and I was done with that stuff......" *She took a step closer to weston* "Please...believe me on this......" *She said, pleading with her eyes*

*Ian almost laughed at her*
Ian:"Just like all of those times that I said that it would be my last cigarette, right?"


Melanie:"Ian, don't." *she told him desperately*"Just...don't." *She walked to the only other empty corner in the room where no one was and sat down. She needed time to think...and time to process what was going on. She hated drugs. She hated them. They had never done anything for her, only made her life worse. With Liam and Kiley, now Ian, and Kiley again. Her dad had taken up smoking after he became a death eater, too. They were evil in so many more ways than they were good.

She wished it would stop. She wished life could be happy again, like when it was before October of last year. That would be nice.

She wished that she could take better care of Alex and Ian. What they needed was someone who gave them a lot of attention and helped them and cared about them, and she cared about them, but she never had time to do the other things. She was always making them watch Mark, too. They shouldn't have to do that. She thought.They have other things to do, just like me. He's not even theirs.

A million other thoughts of all of the things that she had done wrong swam through her mind, and each one made her more and more convinced that she was a terrible person. She was letting everyone down, she wasn't being what she should be, she wasn't making smart choices- she couldn't even think of something she had done right.

And I'll get Mark's test results back tomorrow and I'll find out that he's HIV positive, too. There's another thing I did wrong.

It wasn't certain that Mark would test positive, but to Mel, it was. She'd done everything else wrong, how could she have done that right?*




~Mel

Weston slightly laughed, "I believed you before when you said you'd never do it again....Do you see how I have trouble believing you really did stop" He said looking into her eyes. Weston turned and shook his head, "I, I don't know" he said and took a step back

"Weston...." *She said hesitantly after a long pause* "Weston, please...." *She stopped and sat down, holding her head in her hands. She closed her eyes* "I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise..." *She said softly and sincerely*

"And you should be" he said. Weston knelt down in front of her and placed his hand on her knee. "I'm just....disappointed." he said softly, looking at her closed eyes, waiting for her eyelids to lift, so he could look into her beautiful greens he was so fond of.

*A moment after she felt his hand on her knee, Kiley opened her eyes and looked into his eyes. It made her want to cry, that she had dissapointed him* "I don't want to dissapoint you.........It's just...hard....I'm sorry...." *She didn't know what else to say. She was truely sorry. Kiley was suprised how much it ripped her apart inside, knowing that she was a dissapointment to him. She despertly wanted him to hold her in his arms, because she knew if he did, she would feel like everything was going to be alright, but she was afraid to be the one to reach out and hug him, afraid he would pull away.*

Weston stood up and held his hand out for her to take, to get her standing up

*Kiley stood and took his hand, standing up with him, looking down at her feet*

Weston placed his index finger under her chin and tilted her upwards, "We'll work this out, don't worry" he said in a secure voice. He leaned inward, moved his hand from her chin and wrapped them around her.

*Kiley burried her face in the crook of his neck, closing her eyes again, feeling the relief wash over her.* "Ok......thank you...." *She said quietly, her voice muffled slightly from speaking into his neck. ((that sounds weird...lol)) Kiley lightly held him, not wanting to let go and have to deal with the current situation*

Weston let go and slowly moved away. This wasn't the problem at hand, they could deal with it at another time, it was about Ian now. He took Kiley's hand in his and stood once more against the wall.

*Kiley, still holding onto his hand, backed up against the wall and leaned her head back, looking over to Mel*

*Mel didn't really respond considering the fact that she was sitting in a corner sobbing. She didn't notice what was going on at all.*



OOC: :D She's been there for quite a while, since my last post. lol.




~Mel

*Kiley sighed* "Mel....it's ok...." *She said quietly*

Melanie:"I can't do anything right, Kiley, so how could everything be okay?"



~Mel

"What are you talking about? What do you mean you don't do anything right?" *Normally, Kiley would have walked over and bent down next to her, but she couldn't bring herself to leave weston's side*