The whole car ride home I was beaming from ear to ear.

  "College! Me! Can you believe it Uncle Dre?" I said shaking him on the leg.

  "Yeah girl you know I can! I always knew that you were a bright kid! None of us ever doubted you. Ain't that right P!"

Uncle Dre had a smile that could be seen from three traffic lights down the block but my dad was very different. He was as elated as I thought he would be.

"P? What's gotten you down man? This is a joyous moment! You survived your first teenager!" Morris Jones as he reached over and shook him by the shoulders.

"Yeah daddy come on you should be happy that I'm finally leaving the nest. Your little dove is about to fly away and experience campus life! Go to parties.....long nights at the library.....campus food no matter how gross it is. OOH OOH AND RAMEN! And not Top Ramen in the plastic package. Like actual ramen made from scratch! Living in a dorm with a roommate! Joining a fraternity. Getting the usual freshman hazing! I know it might suck but at least I'll get to say I lived it! It's all so exciting!"

"So when you leave can I get your room?" Joey piped up from the front seat.

"Eww no! You can't have my room!"

"Why not? I don't have a bathroom and you do. And your room is bigger than mine so I can put all my old toys in there....or maybe a skatepark."

"A skatepark? In my room? The room I told you you can't have?" I sneered.

"I'll let you use it sometime!" Joey giggled.

"Dad. Control your son." I scoffed as I pulled out my phone from my pocket.

"Alright you two that's enough. No more bickering until you get home." Daddy said as he twiddled his thumbs.

Something is very off with this man. He's been acting funky all day and I wanna get to the bottom of this....thing that he's in. The car finally pulled into the gates and came to a slow stop in front of the door. Joey quickly got out and raced to the entrance. The door buzzed and Joey ran inside.

"Joseph! Boy! Slow your roll! I heard Uncle Jerome call to him.

"Oh let that child be! He ain't hurting you!" Uncle Morris yelled making his way out of the car after him.

"I swear if y'all aren't the ones acting like children." Dez scoffed.

"Since when did you care about those two fools anyway?" Uncle Dre laughed.

"He doesn't he just wanted to be nosy!" Tony replied.

I made my way out of the car and as fast as this dress could get me to the door I hopped out of my heels at the curb and made my way inside. I hate dresses. I did promise daddy he could have my dress custom made for graduation since I bailed on both my junior and senior prom. Tre didn't want to go and to be honest I didn't either. All that flash for one night? What's the point? I can do all that hooplah when I get married. I don't care to party one more time with people who will forget who I am after today and even if they do remember who I am they have no clue that I was adopted by the most popular man in all of Minnesota I was still treated like I was invisible and daddy was so good at keeping a tight lid on everything that goes on in his life that when I did get adopted it never made the papers that Prince had kids. Popularity was never my strong suit anyway. As I climbed my way up to the the second floor I could hear my dad in his office on the phone going on about his next show and how he wants it perfect. Now knowing how my dad is so much of a perfectionist he would be yelling and screaming until his face was tomato paste red and barely breathing. But his tone was very somber and sad. So many alarms were going off in my head that I could barely hear myself think.

  "What is wrong with him today?!?!?" I griped to myself still clenching my dress in my hands.

I didn't want to go in and disturb him and I was also getting more annoyed with every second I'm stuck in this god awful straight jacket so I took the elevator up to the living quarters and went to my room. It was super quiet around here today. I thought that people would be flocking the place today.  Something is definitely wrong and I can feel it in the air. My dad being so quiet is scary alone.  I got out of my dress faster than you could say raspberry beret and took a hot shower then threw on some pjs. I sat down at my desk and stared at my makeup mirror that Regan bought me as an early graduation gift with every possible reason of what could be wrong with my dad running through my mind. Eventually I thought about it so much that I ended up falling asleep at my desk and by the time I woke up it was almost 2am.

  "Oh god I missed dinner. Again." I mumbled to myself looking over at my alarm clock on my night stand.

I stood up and stretched letting out a low groan and shuffled my feet over to my bed when I could hear just down the hall a deep low sound of a bass playing. I turned my head to the side a little questioning if my mind was playing tricks on me.

  "My room is soundproof how can I-"

Noticing that my door was open that only means that Joey came to use the bathroom at some point during the night. I went to my door and was about to close it but the slow sad sound that the bass was playing let my curiosity get the best of me.  I left my bedroom and followed the sound out of my room and down the hall. Tip toeing all the way down the hall and towards the stair the melody was getting closer. It was breaking my heart in an odd way that I've never felt before. Taking the stairs down to the second floor I made my way to the studio where I found a dim light peeking out of a cracked doorway. From the very same doorway I heard that sad song. When I got to the door I took a look inside but I didn't see anything or anybody. Pushing the door open slowly I walked inside being as cautious as I could hoping not to scare anyone.

  "Hmm." I said to myself.

As I scanned the room I saw that there was some sheet music sitting over on the piano. It looked as if it was unfinished. I went over to take a look and see what new project my dad was working on. Usually daddy would take all of his sheet music with him. Why would he leave it out like this? Going over the papers none of them had titles. All except......one.

  "My baby is gone and I'm all alone. She won't come see me or pick up the phone. The little girl I knew is no longer mine. She's doing alright but deep down I'm not fine. I hope she gets my messages and returns at least one call. Her sun I watch it rise but my star will fall."

This song is super sad and I can feel myself breaking down.

  "This song......it's about Regan." I said out loud not paying attention to the fact that the bass playing had stopped.

  "That's not about Regan my dove." I heard a deep sad voice say from behind me.

I startled and ended up dropping the sheet music on the piano bench and spun about to see my dad in silk black pajamas with his bass guitar still strapped to his body. I could tell from the redness in his eyes that he'd definitely been crying.

  "Daddy? What's going on with you? You've been weird all day and I feel like your keeping something from me. You promise to never keep another secret from me what is it?!?!?" I said showing my frustration.

  "You're not my little girl anymore. You're a young woman now. It's......it's time I have to let my little dove fly." He said.

His voice began to break and tears fell from his eyes once again.

  "Dad.....you know.....I'm always gonna be your little girl. What are you so hurt by me going to college?"

  "I'm not ready to let you go."

That was when I lost it. I burst into tears like a newborn baby and ran into my fathers arms. Daddy quickly flew his bass on his back and embraced me. The two of us somehow made it to the floor as we cried together. It hurts me to see my dad like this. It's not like I'm dying it's just college. However I do understand. We never had that kind of time together like him and Joey. He was enjoying me so much is such little time that he felt like he had to abandon it. He doesn't have to. I'm always going to be here no matter what. At the end of it all he's still my dad.