David Miller’s House
David Miller’s house was one of the biggest in the town of Arkadia. The Millers had initially planned to have lots of kids and fill their house, but that plan had been abandoned when Mrs. Miller had gotten sick. Nathan was barely a year old at the time, and was a handful already. Mrs. Miller’s passing left her husband David with a rambunctious one year old boy and a big, empty house.
As Nate grew up, he would sometimes bring friends from school or boyfriends over to visit. Never enough friends to fill the house, but just enough to add some noise. David enjoyed the noise of others being around the house. It reminded him of what he and his wife had wanted.
It was not until high school that David Miller’s dream of a full house of kids came true. It began with Nate bringing home some of his highschool friends, Monty, Harper, and Jasper. They came over nearly every night. Though there were only four of them, they went through an outrageous amount of food and made a lot of noise. By the end of the year, the group had grown to add Clarke, Finn, Raven, Octavia and Murphy. Murphy was definitely the outsider of the group, but he still hung around nearly daily. David did not mind. In fact, he enjoyed the constant company. At the end of the night, they all cleaned up, said thank you, and headed home.
Summer is when the house started to fill up permanently. After a quiet day in the house, one where the kids had decided to go to the movies, Nate returned home with company. Jasper Jordan stood in the doorway, dark bruises littering visible skin and blood seeping from his nose and lip.
“Dad,” Nate said quietly. “Is it okay if Jasper spends the night?”
With a glance back to Jasper, who stood stiffly in the doorway, Nate revised his statement. “Or maybe a few nights”
“Of course,” David said with a smile. “Nate, show Jasper the shower and give him some of your clothes to borrow. Jasper, you are welcome to stay as long as you want. We have plenty of spare rooms. I’ll have dinner ready in a bit”
When Jasper and Nate came back downstairs, bowls of pasta were set out for them. Nate chatted away while they ate. Jasper ate like someone was about to take his food away at any time. Once they had all finished Nate volunteered to take the plates, giving his dad a pointed look.
Once Nate was out of earshot, David turned to Jasper. “Jasper, do you want to talk about what happened?”
“I came home late and my mom got angry. She started yelling and throwing things. I tried to calm her down, but she would not listen.” Jasper pulled in a shaky breath. “Then, when I tried to leave, she hit me. Every time I tried to get away she would hit me again. She just wouldn’t stop after a while, so I waited for her to stop, then called Nate. Monty and Harper both got new phone number, so his was the only number that I knew”
“Well, Jasper, you are free to spend as much time here as you would like,” David said. “We have plenty of spare beds and rooms”
Jasper smiled. “I think I’ll stay for a while”
“As long as you need.” David switched to a more serious topic. “Would you like to talk to anybody about what happened? I can call the police or a doctor or a social worker”
“Can we call Sheriff Kane tomorrow morning? I don’t feel up to it tonight,” Jasper said.
And they did. The next morning they called Sheriff Marcus Kane, an old friend of David’s, together, which led to the opening of an investigation. The investigation led to charges and, before anyone knew it, Jasper was a permanent member of the Miller household. David laid the same ground rules for Jasper as for his son and Jasper adapted quickly to their routine.
Jasper moving in with the Millers changed something in Nate’s friend group as well. Along with adding Bryan, Nate’s new boyfriend, they started sleeping over at the MIller’s house. The sleepovers kept the house fuller for longer. David had some rules about sleepovers, but they were not outrageous demands by any means and the kids had all promised to follow them. Nate and Bryan sharing a bed peeved David a little, but as long as everything that happened was safe and consensual he did not pay it too much attention.
The end of summer and the beginning of tenth grade brought change. Sleepovers became a weekend thing and the house changed from a hangout to a study space. They were all still welcome at any time and the password for the WiFi was always on display, but the general nature of schoolwork plus a few of them getting part-time jobs meant there was less time to hang. The first big change came a month into the year.
One Saturday, Nate’s friends came over earlier than usual. David offered them all breakfast which they all refused. That was the first warning sign. The second came when Harper asked if Octavia could use his shower. He did not ask any questions, offering her some toiletries and showing her to the clean towels. The final warning sign came pulling up into his driveway in the form of an unfamiliar SUV. A man a few years older than the teenagers hopped out and came to the door.
David opened it with caution. “Can I help you?”
“Is Octavia in there?” The man asked.
“Can I ask who you are?” David said, blocking the door. “You have to understand, I promised these kids a safe place and I can’t just let anyone in”
The man softened. “I’m Bellamy Blake. I’m Octavia’s brother. She’s had a rough week and I need to know if she’s okay”
Upon further inspection, Bellamy looked worn down. His eyes were rimmed with red and his shoulders sagged. David let him in. Bellamy barely moved past the doorway.
“Care to tell me what happened?” David asked.
“Our mother died in a car crash on Wednesday. The next day, I lost my job. Then last night, our landlord informed us that we had to leave,” Bellamy sighed, rubbing his face.
“Bell?” Octavia stood, freshly showered, halfway down the stairs. She rushed to her brother, wrapping him in a hug. “Why are you here?”
“Your note said where you would be and nothing else. I got really worried about you, O” Bellamy said. “I talked to Shumway this morning”
“And?” Octavia said nervously.
“We have to be out by Tuesday.” Octavia deflated at the statement. “Look, O, I’ll find us a place as soon as I can. And we still have the car. That works for now”
Octavia nodded sadly. David felt his mind whirling. He had room in his big house and would not mind the extra company.
“Octavia, how about you hang out with the others while I make your brother some breakfast? He looks like he could use some food,” David led Bellamy to the kitchen. He got to work cooking up some eggs and bacon and turned the coffee machine on. Once the food was cooked, he placed a full plate in front of Bellamy.
“Sir, you didn’t need to,” Bellamy said.
“Eat. We need to talk,” David said, pulling out a chair for himself. Bellamy tucked into the food in front of him “I have plenty of spare room in this house and I wouldn’t mind having a few more people around. You can stay here for the time being. Or for however long you two need to get back on your feet”
Bellamy’s head shot up. “We would never want to intrude on you like that, And we can't afford rent right now, so we couldn’t pay you. The car works fine”
“Listen, Bellamy. You and your sister are more than welcome to stay here without rent. If you really want to pay rent, I can find some things for you to do around the house instead. It's an old house.” Bellamy looked relieved. David moved on to the other pressing issue. “As for your job, I have a few connections in town that I could hook you up with. I have a friend in the auto shop who’s always looking for a pair of hands to help. Or I could talk to Sheriff Kane, see if he’s taking new recruits”
“That would be amazing, sir,” Bellamy said.
David smiled, “Call me David”.
And so Bellamy and Octavia came to stay at David Miller’s house. Octavia seemed to enjoy always having others around. She certainly had not recovered from the death of her mother, but having others around her seemed to help. Bellamy secured a job as a sheriff’s deputy in training, which meant he was home at odd hours. He still cooked and went grocery shopping when he could. The moment he was able to pay rent, he sat David down and insisted on paying some sort of rent for the two rooms that he and Octavia were taking up in his house. After plenty of debating, they settled on a low but fair price for the two rooms. David stashed the money away, saving it for when either of them needed something.
As the school year continued, the house became livelier and livelier. Sleepovers returned to the weekdays, along with the weekends. There were periods of time where a member of the little group would stay for a while. David was always there to talk if someone needed it. He was almost pleased to see Bryan and Nate break up at the end of tenth grade. They had been good for each other, but they had both known that it would never quite work out. During finals week, the house became a designated study space. David helped where he could, but was lost most of the time. All the kids passed their classes with flying colors and he insisted on hosting an ice cream party in celebration.
The next person to join the house came a week after finals week. David answered the door in the middle of the night to find Marcus Kane standing with a very angry Murphy. David led Murphy to a bedroom and got him situated, then returned to the kitchen to chad with Marcus.
“What happened?”
“His dad was arrested robbing a pharmacy. He’s got no relatives in town. He asked to be brought here,” Kane said. “David, I can find him a permanent place to live. I just need some time”
“He’s fine here, Marcus,” David said. “I don’t mind”
So Murphy came to live with them in the middle of the night. Paperwork was filled out and Murphy became a permanent resident of the household. He was more challenging than the others. He seemed angry all the time. It took all summer to eventually get him back to where he was before his father had been arrested.
The end of summer marked one year of people coming to join the Miller household. Bellamy had started on the little projects around the house that David had never gotten to, recruiting the others to help him. Bellamy, Nate, Jasper, and Finn coerced Murphy into helping them fix the fence around the house. Monty and Harper planned out the landscaping, designing a little garden for the backyard. Raven managed to fix the pesky light switch that had been bothering David since the house had become his. Even Clarke and Octavia pitched into the home improvement, modifying the interior design of the house to make it homier. It took plenty of trips to the home improvement store, but the end result was more than worth it in David’s mind.
Eleventh grade got off to a great start. There was not as much of a drop off in activity as the year before. It seemed like the more people that came to his house, the more time everyone else spent at the house. He enjoyed it anyhow. He attended back to school events for all of them and was always there if they needed a place to crash or some free advice.
The next person to joining the house, albeit temporary, was Clarke. A few weeks before Christmas she called Octavia out of the blue, crying to be picked up from her house. Octavia had gone straight to Bellamy, who had then gone to David. He took Octavia to the Griffins’ house, where Abby Griffin was waiting for them. He sent Octavia upstairs to help Clarke pack while Abby explained that she and her husband, Jake, were going through a messy divorce. She thought it best that Clarke stay at the Millers’ for a few weeks and David agreed. He and Octavia loaded Clarke’s bags into the car and watched a tearful goodbye between mother and daughter.
Clarke stayed with them almost until Valentine's day. She shared a room with Octavia, not wanting to take up the one spare room in the house in case another person might need it. She celebrated Christmas at the Millers’ house with the rest of the teenagers and residents of the house. David let her invite one or both of her parents if she wanted, and she invited her mother. It was nice to be together as a big group and Nate had stood up during dinner and declared the gathering to be a tradition worth continuing. Nobody objected.
Two weeks before Clarke returned home, Finn came to stay for a weekend. He showed up on a Friday, after missing school, with all of his stuff packed into bags and offered no explanation. Finn brought his car with him and insisted on sleeping on the couch in the living room. He stayed Saturday and Sunday, but left sometime in the night. All he left was a note. David had called Sheriff Kane, who launched an investigation. All they were able to determine was that Finn had left after a particularly aggressive argument between him and his parents. They never saw him again.
The end of Nate’s eleventh grade year was when David realized that Raven was actually a year older than her friends. She graduated from high school that year, top of her class, and got accepted to MIT. She asked to have her graduation party at the Millers’ house and David eagerly accepted. At the party he met Raven’s boss, Sinclair, who was a MIT graduate himself and had written the recommendation letter that Raven credited with getting her into the school. The party had been a blast, and David then realized that in a year it would be his kids he was saying goodbye to.
By the second month of school, everyone except for Octavia and Nate had turned eighteen. There were obligatory eighteenth birthday celebrations. David did what he could to get them all gifts that meant something. He knew they would soon all be going off to college, so he savored every moment he could get with them. He was not prepared for what was about to happen.
The day after Halloween, Monty and Harper showed up after school with bags. He let them in like normal and said nothing about the bags. Unless David felt it was urgent, he would not push. Monty and Harper pulled him aside later in the afternoon.
“We have something very exciting to tell you,” Harper started. She and Monty were practically bursting with excitement. “We’re pregnant and we’re going to get married”
David’s mouth fell open. “Wow”
“We were hoping to maybe have the wedding here. Just us and a few other close friends in the backyard,” Monty said.
“Of course,” David shook off his shock. “May I ask what the bags are for?”
Both of their faces fell. Monty wrapped an arm around Harper.
“Our parents didn’t take the news so well. Both sets of parents told us they wanted nothing to do with us and that they wanted us out of the house. We didn’t know where to go” Monty said.
And so, the final empty bedroom became the property of Monty and Harper. They got married in January, Harper’s baby bump barely starting to show. David watched as college acceptances poured in. Nate had decided he would be attending community college until he could figure out what he wanted to do. Jasper had been accepted to an out of state private school, which had provided him with a very generous scholarship to study biology. Clarke had opened her acceptance letter to a prestigious pre-med program in his house, surrounded by her friends, her mother, and her soon to be step-father, Kane, by her side. Octavia was accepted at the big state school to study classic literature. Murphy had decided to work before going to college. Monty decided to take a gap year and be there for his wife and son, who was still on the way. Harper was still not sure what her plan for the future was, with her baby due in May, but she knew it involved Monty. Whatever they planned, David supported them.
Graduation is what really stung for David Miller. He attended and cheered at the top of his lungs along with Bellamy, Raven, Sinclair, Abby, and Kane, but deep down he felt the kick at his gut that graduation meant his kids were moving on. Most of his kids would not be leaving the house, but it still hurt to see them walk across the stage. He took as many pictures as he could and posted them around the house.
The end of senior year also brought Jackson into their lives. Nate had brought Jackson home one night to join in on game night. He fit right into the group. David had been given no prior warning that Nate had a new boyfriend or that the new boyfriend would be joining them for dinner. He scrambled to set another place and keep his head on straight whenever he was around Jackson. When the others had gone out to the yard to play soccer, Jackson had hung back under the pretense of a long day at work. This had given him and David time to talk and get to know each other. Even though Jackson was a few years older than Nate, he seemed like a good fit. David had made it clear that he was hesitant, but for now Jackson had his blessing.
Time passed from there. Harper had her baby days after graduating. They named him Jordan, which Jasper teased them relentlessly about. The boy was healthy and adored attention, which he got plenty of living in a crowded house. The summer came and went faster than anyone could keep track of. They had filled every moment of it with as much as they could.
The house got emptier come August. Octavia and Jasper were gone to college. Murphy found a good job and a sweet girlfriend named Emori. He spent most nights at her place. Harper and Monty began looking for their own place to live, along with securing full-time jobs for themselves. They wanted to have a home to raise their son in, which David understood and supported wholeheartedly. Monty was taking classes part time to get what he could out of the way. There was barely a time where it was more than just David, Nate, Jackson, and Bellamy. The Griffin-Kane family would occasionally join them for dinner, but it was not the same.
School breaks were a relief to the quiet, but he savored them knowing they were not permanent. Sometimes, someone would stay at school or go on a trip during break and it almost made things worse. It left things off in the social dynamic, like an empty chair at the dinner table or an unused piece in the board game.
He found himself alone in the living room with Bellamy one night. They were chatting about life and the world and how everything had changed. Bellamy assured him that he was not the only one who missed the noise and chaos of other people running around the house. But moving on was natural and inevitable.
So David Miller moved on. He opened his house to anyone of any age or status who needed a place to hang out or some advice. He let it be known that there was always room for someone who needed a place to sleep for however long. He somehow eventually ended up with a dog named Picasso, whose owner had not been able to keep due to apartment rules and guardian to a young girl named Madi, who immediately attached herself to the dog. Madi brought her friends around and the cycle began anew.
David Miller’s house was one of the biggest in the town of Arkadia and he would not let it be quiet for as long as he lived.