Ryan’s P.O.V:
I sit in the rental car, drumming impatiently on the steering wheel. After my talk with Zach earlier today, I decided to go see Melina. It might not change things, but I need to see if she is all right, and I need to talk to her. I run my hand through my hair and close my eyes, I immediately get vision from my nightmares of Melina being abused and killed by Mitch. I hear her scream and my eyes flutters open again, I try to shake the sensation off me.
It is almost 5pm now, and I can see Melina’s front door from the car. I have been to her apartment, but she was not there. I decided to wait for a while, and see if she comes home.
It has been one hour now and just as I decided to drive around a bit and come back later, I see her. She comes walking with a pile of books in her arms. I gasps for air, and my heart starts to race.
My memories of her have not done her justice, she is even more beautiful, than I remember. She is wearing black leggings and a long white shirt with a belt. Her blond hair has the same length, it is normally slightly curly, but she has straighten it today.
I look at her left hand, and see that she has gotten the bandages off. She is wearing glasses, I don’t know why and I immediately gets concerned, as far as I know she has no trouble with her eyes and have never worn glasses before.
It is easy to see that she has lost weight, she is still beautiful, but looks even more fragile than before. I have seen her like this once before, it was after Seattle and our time apart before we started dating for real. It took almost five month for her to gain the weight that she has lost during our four weeks away from each other. I wonder how long it will take this time, and realize that my brain is already planning for us to be together again. It too soon it scold at myself.
I get out of the car and walk towards her, she has not seen me “Melina” She jumps with scare, and drops the books.
I quickly bend down to pick them up and say “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you”
She looks at me and says “R-Ryan, what are you doing here?”
“It’s nice to see you too” I say and try to smile at her.
She smiles back leaving me breathless, but then she looks concerned saying “It’s nice to see you, come in” She opens the door and look over her shoulders before walking inn.
“How was Europe?” She ask and put her keys and purse on the table
“It was fine, the tour went really great, some cool venues and the crowd was awesome” I try to sound as normal as possible, and fright the urge to toss the books and wrap my arms around her.
“That is great…let me take those” She says and nods towards her books. As I reach out to give them to her, our hands touch and I feel a spark like the first time we touched, at the hotel room in Seattle.
She gasps and quickly pulls her hands back and say “J-Just … put them on the table” I do as she says and look at her examining her expression, but she looks away and refuse to meet my eyes. I walk a little bit closer towards her, but she shies away from me.
“How have you been?” I ask carefully, and she meets my eyes for a second, without answering. I can’t see her eyes properly because of the reflection in her glasses
“Why are you wearing glasses?” I ask her, and she hesitates but then takes them off and put them on the counter, she looks at me. I sighs her eyes are dark grey and the shadows underneath her eyes shows the significant traces of insomnia.
“That’s why” She says
“Baby” I move at little closer to her, but she shies away from me again. I stop and ask “Have you seen him……Mitch?”
“No” she says shaking her head, I can’t help but to sigh relieved.
“Anymore threats?” I ask and she shakes her head again. She looks me in the eyes and my heart stops, I can’t take this anymore, I need her in my arms.
I walks towards her again and plead “Melina….. Please.”
She steps back, and press her back against the wall. She looks at me and hold her hands up in defends,
“P-please Ryan…..please don’t touch me.” I stop a few steps from her and look at her, the pain in her eyes are indisputable.
“Why, can’t I touch you?” She starts to shake, and I can see the tears in her eyes.
“Baby” I plead again, she wipes the tears away with her left hand and as she does that the sleeve on her shirt pulls back and reveals a tattoo on her wrist.
My heart jumps and I ask “W-what’s that?” She looks at her hand and quickly hides it, but I reach out and grab her arm. She winces by my touch, but I hold on. She feels ice cold, like she is freezing deep down inside. I gently pull the sleeve back, and look at the tattoo. It is a complete copy of the bracelet I gave her. The only difference is instead of the three diamonds in the heart, she has three letters R.B.T - it is my initials and I know for sure that she still loves me.
“Melina….I..” I don’t know what to say. I let go of her hand and look into her eyes, the tears are still running down her cheeks and she is shaking. I don’t know if it from emotions or because she is cold.
I ask again “Baby, why can’t I touch you”
She takes a deep breath and whisper “B-because I can’t …..I can’t handle it, I’ll just breakdown and collapse”
“Baby” I say, and take a step closer. I now stand as close to her as I can, without touching her. She doesn’t move away, just closes her eyes. I put my hand on the wall beside her head and rest my head on it, still without touching her.
We just stands there, both of us with our eyes closed. I can hear her rapid breath, it is a complete reflection of mine. I inhale her smell, the smell I have been missing for so many weeks and I can almost feel her skin towards my hands, even though I do not touch her. I tremble like crazy and so does she, but it is like none of us can break the spell between us or pull away, we are just captured there.
I finally manage to open my eyes, I lift my right hand to her forehead. I do not touch her. Just close enough to her skin, so she can sense the movement, I let my hand very slowly run from her forehead, down her cheek across her lips and down her neck. Then I move my hand to her forehead to do it again. This time she leans just an inch towards my hand and my fingertips are just, but only just slightly touching her skin, my heart beat is racing and as I reach her lips the both of us are trembling and the emotions inside my body are the strongest, I have ever experienced. If I wasn’t still leaning against the wall with my other hand, I would for sure be send to the ground.
I say to her “Baby, You’re killing me”
The blood in my veins freeze, as I hear a cold hoarse voice saying
“No, Mr. hotshot Rockstar, she is not killing you, but I am!!!!!!!!!”
