Chapter 5
On my twenty-first birthday me and my friends went to Las Vegas. We were old enough to drink and go into casinos. Except Linda and Maya since they're only twenty.
I looked into the mirror and noticed how much I have changed since I was seventeen. My hair was longer and my chest got bigger for some reason, I thought girls stopped growing those after turning eighteen, but that wasn't the case for me.
I was a bit taller. I looked more mature.
Time to go to a party.
"Choke! Choke! Choke!" People at a party told me as I drank beer.
I stopped when I reached my limit.
"WHOO!!!" I said already drunk.
Next morning I woke up in my hotel room with a headache. Same shit happens every weekend. I get drunk and have a headache, but only on Saturdays.
Like always, I called John even with a headache.
"John!" I said as I wiped off the smeared makeup off of my face.
"Melinda, how was your birthday?"
Flashes of drinking and dancing flashed through my eyes.
"Great, how's he doing?"
"The same." He sighed. It must be so hard on him.
"Oh, well tell him the same thing and that Muse is going to come to Los Angeles and I'm going to see them."
"I'll be sure to tell him, Melinda."
"Bye John." I said.
"Good bye Melinda."
Knock! Knock!
"What?" I asked I knew who it was.
"Did you bring Advil?" Rodrigo asked on the other side of the door.
"No, let's call room service." I said opening my door. He came in and crashed on my bed. "Rodrigo!" I whined. "Not on my bed."
"But I'm so tired!" He groaned.
"You should've thought about that before drinking."
"Hey!" He pointed at me even though he couldn't see me. "I wouldn't be talking Ms. Choke-Choke-Choke!"
I punched him in the arm. He whined.
"I forgot you hit like a guy, damn it!"
"We should pack and go back home."
"No! I love Las Vegas!" He said.
"We have school to finish."
"Ugh! You know--" He gets up from bed. "For a future nurse, you should really stop drinking so much."
I called room service and asked for Advil and two glasses of water.
I turned to Rodrigo.
"Why?"
"How are you going to tell a guy that comes in with liver problem because of drinking to stop drinking when you drink yourself?"
"When did you become such a smart-ass?" I spat back.
"You know you wuv me, you want touch me." He touched himself in a real weird way.
"Rodrigo, even hung-over you're a pain."
"Look, I'm just saying." Rodrigo said. "I really care about you Melinda." He took my hands and looked me in the eyes. "I don't want this drinking to become something more and more until I have to call an intervention."
"It's not that bad, Rodrigo." I said taking my hands back.
"I'm just warning you now." Rodrigo took my face in his hands. "I don't want anything to happen to you. You're my best friend... and more than that to me."
I smiled at him.
"I would hate to see anything happening to you."
I placed my hands over his that were on my face cupping it.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not. I know you've been trying to hide it by dancing and partying, but I know you're not fine, Melinda. I know you better than anyone does."
He kissed me. My eyes went wide. I was so shocked that I didn't do anything. When he noticed I wasn't kissing back he stops.
He chuckles as he takes a step back.
"I've wanted to that since I was fourteen."
I was absolutely shocked. My best-guy-friend just kissed me. This was Rodrigo, the guy I skate boarded with since I was able to walk. The guy that defended me from so many things. The guy that was there for me when Kevin--an ex-boyfriend--cheated on me. He was the shoulder I cried on whenever I needed to let something out.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.
I saw as he blushed. "What can I say? I was afraid of your rejection. You only saw me as your best-guy-friend that's all I was to you."
I couldn't deny that.
"Then, when you got kidnapped, I felt like I was going to die. Day after day I had no idea what was happening to you. Then... you come back and you get with Jeff. I couldn't believe, and then Nathan." He stopped there and looked at me. I had a blank face. "Then you arranged marriage to Cesar and the rest of the events that followed. I regret never telling you how I felt."
"What exactly do you feel?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious after my little speech? I love you, Melinda and not in the sense of a friend loving another. In the sense of a man loving a woman." He brought me to another kiss.
This time I responded. I kissed him back. It was a bit weird at first, but I slowly melted into the kiss. It wasn't like Nathan's, but it was special in its own way.
Knock! Knock!
"Room service."
We broke the kiss. I couldn't believe I just did that. Did I just kiss my best-guy-friend of all of my life?
Before you start thinking that something happened between me and Rodrigo, let me stop you there. Nothing happened. Yes we kissed, but I only saw him as my friend. When we went back to Los Angeles we didn't talk for a week, until I called him. We put the kiss behind us.
I graduated from the nursing program on June 10th. I was top of my class. I dedicated myself to nursing. In fact something incredible has come. A hospital at England has asked for me. I said yes.
