The Music Producer and the Teacher

Chapter 9: I don't think you realize what you mean to me, not the slightest clue

The rest of the day was dull and long. I spent most of the day feeling awful for everything that had happened between Marshall and me. I couldn't help but feel like everything I was going through was my fault.

The rest of the day went by without me hearing from him. Every email I got, and notification I received from this app or that app made my heart skip a beat until I looked down and saw it wasn't him. Why did I think he would bother? He did leave it up to me. I felt so hopeless when I thought of trying to fix it. I just had no clue whether it was repairable.

The next day, Tuesday, I received a call from a local but unknown number. "Hello?" I answered. "I need to speak to Ms. Weddington." the professional, yet cheery voice said. "Speaking." I replied. It was the hospital. "Ms. Weddington, I am calling you because I see you are listed as Melissa's emergency contact. She is being discharged from the hospital today and I am needing to confirm you will be picking her up in a few hours." All the worries of yesterday melted away and I felt a smile creep onto my face. I was getting my best friend back, and I was ecstatic. Just then I heard Melissa yell in the background, "Hell yeah she's coming to get me!" I heard her say, "and the bitch better have my money!" I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Yes, I'll definitely be there to get her. "I said happily. "Okay, great!" the lady said. "I'll give you the discharge instructions when you get here." I hung up the phone and attempted to get myself together, so I didn't look as depressed as I had been feeling before the phone call. I tried my hand at covering the rather large bruise covering the right side of my face with some makeup. I wanted to change clothes. But all I could bring myself to put on were some sweatpants. The sight of myself in my own sweats made me miss having Marshall's. I wished I had never thrown them at him, so I would still have them.

I got to the hospital and walked the familiar path to Melissa's room. When I walked in I was happy to find her wide awake, standing, and fully dressed. If she had been wearing makeup I never would have known she had been injured just a couple days before. I walked over to her, and without thinking I hugged her, tight. She hugged me back, groaning. I pulled away from her and apologized. "Sorry, I forgot you were still fragile." I said with a giggle. "Hey! I look a hell of a lot better than you do!" she shot back, also giggling. The nurse came in and began to go over some discharge instructions with both of us. Things like cleaning her wound, giving her medications, and following up in a week when it was time to get her stitches out. We both listened and nodded through everything, then it was time to go.

A transporter came in to wheel Melissa out to my car in a wheelchair. I ran ahead of them and made sure I pulled the car up to the front doors where they would be coming out. I grabbed my phone from its usual resting place on my dashboard and checked it to see if Marshall had attempted to reach me, but to my dismay he hadn't. I guess we were both good at shutting down. I looked up and saw Melissa was getting out of the wheelchair and into the car. I put the phone back in its spot and waited for the guy to close my car door.

"You two are bound to be in deep with each other by now, right?" she asked me as I put my car in gear. I sighed, "No, not even close." I said sadly. I made sure not to look away from the road in front of me. I felt her looking at me though, and I also felt it soften when I said this. She could tell I was upset. "So..." she began, "what did you do?" I immediately shot her a look, quickly returning my eyes to the road. "Why do you always assume it's me?!" I asked her. "Because 'Rissa, I know you." she replied. I sighed. I could never hide from her. "Okay," I confessed, "I may have messed everything up." "'Rissa, it's literally been eight days. How could you have possibly managed that?" she asked flatly. I told her everything that had happened after the horrendous events of Sunday. I detailed how sweet and attentive he was. How much concern he took for my feelings, even when I was being a complete bitch to him. I also told her about coming home Sunday night and yelling at him and throwing the clothes in his face...er at his feet. "You yelled at him?!" she exclaimed, "after he did all that stuff for you, you YELLED at him!?" "Yes." I replied to her. "I know I was wrong. I took advantage of him being there for me. I had a lot of emotions running through me. Not to mention I was in a lot of pain." I paused. I could hear how awful I sounded. Melissa shook her head, obviously hearing it too. "But you apologized right?" she asked me, sounding hopeful. "Yea," I continued "that's not where things got bad." "Oh Lord!" she yelled again. "There's more!?" I nodded. Then I began to tell her about yesterday. Thinking of the look on his face, the sheer pain in his eyes as he walked out the door, made me emotional. "All that and you haven't called him?" she asked me. I cleared my throat and shook my head. "No," I said, "what am I supposed to say? I'm pretty sure I blew it. He isn't gonna take a phone call from me." As I pulled into our parking lot at home I caught Melissa staring off into space as if she were thinking of what to say to me. "I wasn't supposed to tell you this." she said, looking at me finally. I put the car in park and turned it off, looking at her. "Tell me what exactly?" I asked her, completely curious. "Well," she began, "We had a bit of a conversation before you came out of your room the other night. He told me some stuff when I was grilling him about you." I glared at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. "Did he tell you about his ex?" she asked me. I nodded. "I mean, he didn't go into extreme detail, but I know enough." I said. "Well," she said "the reason why he said he was so drawn to you was because you seemed like the opposite of her. Judging by what he told me, and how you're describing you acted, you acted just like her." I felt sick. "You really need to reach out to him 'Rissa. If not that, go see him. I know you really care about him. You have to do something before it's too late." All I could do was nod in agreement. We got out of the car and I got her situated inside on the couch. Once she was settled, I went into my room for some quiet, so I could think.

I sat on my bed and began nervously turning my phone over in my hands. I had no idea what I would say to him. If, of course, he would even answer the phone. I opened my messages and read some of the ones between us. I noticed him call me 'babe' the other day. My stomach dropped even more. He really must have thought a lot of me if he approached me only on an impression of me. I swallowed my pride and dialed his number. It rang a few times then I heard silence. I could distinctly hear a TV in the background, playing Sports Center, so I knew he had answered. He stayed silent. "Hello? Marshall?" I asked, waiting for him to say something. He cleared his throat and said "Yeah? What?" It felt cold and uninviting. I didn't know what to say. "Umm, hey." I stumbled. I had no clue what I was doing. "I-, I didn't think you would answer." He paused for a second and said, "Yeah? Me either." I didn't feel like this was doing too much good for our situation. I took a deep breath and continued. "Well, I, umm, have a lot I want to say to you. Is it possible I could see you?" I bit my lip. I didn't know what he was going to say to me. He didn't answer so I added, "I promise no yelling or pushing you away. I just need to talk to you in person." I closed my eyes tightly and waited for his reply. I was scared he was going to reject me. But to my surprise he said "Alright, when did you have in mind?" I thought about this a second. I didn't want to waste any more time. "Umm, well, if you're not busy what about now?" I was hoping I wasn't asking too much or pressing my luck. "Nah," he said finally, "I'm not busy. Are you at home now?" "Yes," I answered, "but I was thinking maybe I could come to you this time." I held my breath in anticipation. "Okay, I'll let security know you're coming. Just stop at the gate on the way in." I smiled to myself. It seemed like there was some hope for us yet. "I'll see you soon." I said in my sweetest voice. He didn't respond, he just hung up.

I went back to Melissa in the living room and told her what I had done. She paused the movie she was watching and said, "Good for you." I went and tried to make myself decent. When I was finished, and received Melissa's approval of course, I got ready to leave. I stood over her on the couch causing her to pause her movie for the second time. "What?" she asked me. "Are you going to be okay here? I'm not sure what's going to happen, or if I'll be coming back tonight." I sure hoped I wouldn't. She smiled at me. "I heard all the instructions just like you did." she assured me. "I'm sure I'll be fine. Go get him back." she winked at me. I leaned down and hugged her, so she wouldn't have to get up. "Thank you for everything you've done today." I said to her. "Hey," she said, "that's what family is for 'Rissa." I smiled and walked out the front door.