michael.

✖ ✖ ✖

I was an idiot.

How anyone could forget their own daughter was stupid as a gopher riding a unicycle-- actually no, that's pretty awesome. Unlike me, who stupidly didn't remember to grab Melody out of the bus before I climbed into the car. I'm so glad that social services weren't doing a routine checkup today because my ass would surely be on the line and Melody would surely be gone. Granted, that's kind of what I wanted-- for Melody to be out of my long list of responsibilities, but only if I allowed it. The idea of strangers forcibly taking Melody away from people she grew comfort with was an idea I never liked to think about.

Long story short: I can give her up, but no one can take her away.

As soon as the car stopped, I jumped out of my seat and raced back onto the tour bus. I scanned my eyes across the entirety of the vehicle, landing on the bathroom door where Melody last was. In a haste, I ran towards the small room, praying that my little diva was in one piece. However, when I peered inside, she wasn't there.

"Melody!" I called out, turning my head in all directions, hoping to catch glimpse of the dark haired child. I looked in her bunk, in the back room and even checked the cupboards but she was no where to be found.

"Shit. Shit. Shit," I cursed at myself, panicking and thinking about all the possibilities of where she could be. I was a damn awesome dad, wasn't I? I was careless for two seconds and BAM, Melody could be halfway to God knows where with creepy kidnappers! I had to calm myself down. Thinking about worse case scenarios weren't doing anything but stressing me out. Stress could lead to hair fallout and everyone knows I don't have much of it left.

Just as I was about to grab Jude and tell him that Melody was missing, I heard a very familiar giggle fill my ears. I lifted my head to find my little diva grasping the finger of an even bigger diva.

"Forget something Clifford?" Annette stood by the entrance of the bus with a displeased look on her face.

As I opened up my mouth to retort a snarky comment, my vision landed on a seemingly harmless, cream colored biscuit in Melody's tiny hand. My eyes widened and I gasped, catapulting myself towards her. I snatched the cookie out of her hand and threw it dramatically out the open bus door, causing Melody to burst into tears.

"What the heck Michael? What's your problem?" Annette questioned. Instead of answering right away, I dropped to my knees and examined Melody for any sign of trauma. "Hello?! Aren't you gonna answer me? You act like I gave her a loaded gun."

"You might as well have!" I yelled at Annette, angrily glaring at her.

"What are you talking about? You're a lunatic," she rolled her eyes.

"She's allergic to peanuts," I told her and with that, Annette's face softened. "You can't just give her snacks without letting me read the ingredients first. She could go into shock."

I picked up Melody who was still crying and rested her against my hip. I opened up one of the kitchen cupboards and pulled out an individually wrapped package of mini cookies that were peanut-free and Mama Clifford approved. I opened up the silver package and held it out to Melody, whose crying eased as she stuck her hand into the collection of tiny biscuits.

"I'm sorry," Annette apologized, looking down at her feet. "I didn't know. If it helps, there weren't any peanuts in the cookie, so she would've been safe anyway."

"Yea well, next time don't distribute snacks to children. It makes you look like a creeper," I stated, shooting an irritated glare at the girl.

"Dude, I'm sorry!" Annette repeated, sudden anger in her tone. She shouldn't even be angry; she could've killed my kid. "If you weren't being careless in the first place then I wouldn't have found her crying in the bus and therefore wouldn't have given her a damn cookie to help calm her down!"

"Hey!" I pointed at her, marching up to my stupid stylist in ire, "don't make this all about--"

"Is everything okay? Is Melody good?" Jude interrupted, walking into the bus with a concerned face. When his eyes landed on Melody, he gave a smile. "There's the 5SOS princess. Ready to go?"

"Yea," I groaned, walking past Annette and brushing my shoulder against hers.

Once Melody was all strapped in, the car once again drove off. I sat in the car silently listening to music while the boys entertained Melody-- taking videos of her and posting it on their Instagram pages. At the radio station, we were greeted by several fans. It always made me happy to see them queue outside of places in hopes of meeting us. It still bewilders me that actual people like our music and want to take photos with us. We possibly can't be that cool, right?

The lads all jumped out of the car first and the screaming ensued. The high-pitched shrieks worried Melody and I could tell because she always had this look that was a mixture of both fear and holy shit. I didn't have any of her toys to keep her calm so I prayed that she wouldn't freak. I sat her down on the ground, holding her tiny hand in mine.

"Come on little diva," I said, taking a step forward.

Melody wouldn't budge however. I frowned, looking down at the little girl whose height barely made it at my knees and noticed that her eyes were glued to the screaming fans standing behind a few barricades.

"Sweetheart, let's go," I insisted, pulling at her arm.

"No," she protested, shaking her head, causing her hair to waver in all directions. I made a mental note to tie her hair up, even though I had no f-cking idea how.

I groaned, crouching down and picking her up. As I walked towards the crowd, I could sense Melody grow more nervous by the second. Large crowds weren't her thing and I only could imagine how she'd be at our gigs with thousands more people.

"Awe, you guys are twinning," a fan pointed out, gesturing at the both of us. I looked down and the really cute fan was right, Melody and I were in fact twinning with our matching flannels. I made another mental note to buy a flannel in every color for Melody to wear-- they were the holy grail in clothing articles, duh.

"Thanks," I smiled at the girl. I wanted to flirt around like the other lads but it was kinda hard when I had a child keychained to me at all times.

I finally exited the commotion of the loud crowd & entered the radio station where we waited behind a glass wall, watching the radio hosts do their thing. Through a speaker on the wall, I could hear what was being broadcasted live on the air.

"And in 5 minutes we have very special guests: an Australian band that's sweeping the American air waves. 5 Seconds of Summer will be joining us so stay tuned and make sure you listen in for the cue call because we're giving away VIP tickets to their sold out show tonight!"

The blinking on-air marquee faded out and the show host pulled off his headphones. He scooted away from his desk and walked towards the door, pulling it open with a smile.

"Hey guys! How are you? Nice to meet you! I'm Hubert or Huey on the air," he brandished out his hand for us to shake.

We each took it and I deemed that this interview would be a good one. Huey was enthusiastic and seemed really nice so I was excited for what was to come.

"Why don't you guys come in and get settled in," Huey gestured for the studio. The boys all filtered in and I turned to Jude.

"Could you..." I looked down at Melody who was quietly looking around in my arms.

"Of course," Jude grinned and held out his hands towards Melody, "come here princess. Daddy is gonna work and we can go play."

Melody easily grabbed ahold of Jude's hands and when I knew she was okay without me, I went into the studio. I took a seat on a cushioned rolling chair and placed a pair of headphones atop my head. The on-air marquee turned on just as Meghan Trainor's "All About that Bass" ended.

"You're listening to Huey on the air here on Philly's number one station. We got some special guests here today," he grinned, our cue that we may start speaking.

"Hey Huey. Thanks for having us," Luke spoke first.

"For the point 2 people listening who don't know who you are, can you all introduce yourselves?" Huey asked.

"Sure. I'm Dr. Phil," Ashton giggled and we all laughed alongside him. "Kidding. I'm Ashton."

"I'm Luke,"

"I'm Calum,"

"And I'm he cute one, Michael,"

"I actually beg to differ," Calum interjected with a mischievous smile planted on his face, "I think Melody Joyce is the cute one."

He wasn't lying there and everyone else agreed because they laughed and nodded their heads. Bringing up Melody wasn't normally a problem but something about her name seemed to spark a cynical interest in Huey.

"Speaking of Melody, Michael will you tell us what it's like?" Huey asked. "Being responsible at 19, I mean."

"I was always responsible," I told him, slightly taken aback by his choice of words. "We didn't come this far by being irresponsible and crazy all the time."

"But surely you're not ready to be a dad. You're 19, you wanna have fun. Party, hook up with hot girls, maybe experiment around! You can't do that with a kid," Huey was getting on my nerves. Why are we even discussing this? There are other things to talk about. Like our tour?

"Yea I wanna have fun; we all do. But our main priority is the music and our fans," I declared, trying to sway the subject, "our second album comes out at the end of next month so we're excited."

"How is Melody adjusting with all the change? There was an incident at the Sydney airport. She didn't seem too happy," Huey continued and I wanted to smack the shit out of him. I had to keep my lips sealed because I didn't want to say anything that I'll regret later.

"She wasn't used to all the screaming fans, that's all. We're barely used to it ourselves. Melody is perfectly happy in our care," Ashton chimed in. Thank God. "She's healthy, she's surrounded by people who care about her and everything is awesome."

Ashton shot me a sympathetic look and I mouthed a thank you in his direction. The rest of the interview went on without anymore mention of Melody. We gave away VIP tickets to a lucky fan and after we were free to go. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Huey was a dick.

Once we were back in the car, I was finally able to take a breather. That was only one interview out of a series of a hundred-plus. I hated that all anyone cared about was the gossip. We're musicians, making music-- let's discuss that instead.

As we headed back to the venue for sound check, with Melody fast asleep, Jude was on the phone taking about something that seemed important. It wasn't until he turned around and handed me his phone did that important matter mean Melody.

"Hello?" I said, the phone pressed up to my ear.

"Mister Clifford, hi this is Michelle Carter from social services. I work in adjacent with Miss Emily Riordan from our Sydney offices. How have you been?"

"Um, okay, I guess," I answered haphazardly. Like I was seriously going to tell her how irritated I was.

"I'm calling to inform you about the bi-weekly checkups. According to your schedule, you will be in Baltimore in a couple of days and we will have representatives come by your location to check up on Melody," Michelle informed from the other end and I internally groaned.

This would be the first checkup without the help of my mum. The last few checkups were perfectly fine. My mum cleaned the house, she showed social services Melody's room and was able to show that my little diva was in good hands. This time, I wasn't so sure.

"Do you have a specific date?" I asked.

"These are supposed to be surprise checks so you won't be informed of your checkup until the day of. But I just personally wanted to give you a heads up. Please call me if you have any questions Mister Clifford. Thank you," and with that, Michelle hung up her phone.

I sighed, slipping my phone into my jean pocket. I turned my head to look over at Melody who was peacefully sleeping, unknowing that one slip up could send her into foster care.

"Let's not make any mistakes, okay?"

✖ ✖ ✖

Update! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Good thing Melody is safe despite Michael's dumb mistake.

Thanks so much for reading! I really appreciate it. Please vote, comment and share my story with your friends! Love you! <33