The Second Catch

Chapter 1: Confessions

After some time, Melanie began to stir around again, and jolted awake from the dream.  After she had felt herself collapse and heard the sound of her phone dropping in the distance.  But it wasn't a dream, it had been real.  She found herself laying on Anthony's bed.  She opened her eyes and made a small glance around to see Anthony sitting on the ledge and watching her with a worried expression.  "Are you alright?"  He asked gently resting his hand against her cheek.  He could see that she looked a little pale, and when he touched her cheek with his hand, he could feel she felt fairly warm.  Melanie took a deep breath, nodding before she slowly sat up.  She noticed that Anthony seemed to be a bit more calm.  "Y..  Yeah, yeah I'm fine."  She stayed quiet for some time before speaking.  "I'm sorry."  She whispered.

Anthony shook his head.  "I should be the one apologizing."  He seemed hesitant before saying his next words.  "Perhaps I should bring you to the doctor's."  Melanie shook her head.  "There's no need.  Once I get some rest, I will be okay."  Anthony sighed.  "I'm worried about you.  You were out for about an hour."  She kept her eye on Anthony before deciding to speak.  "I..  Was dreaming about something..  Something that had happened.  It felt like I was being stuck, trapped, in that dream, I felt like I couldn't wake up and get out of it.  It isn't something..  I've really wanted to remember.  It is something, I've been trying my hardest to forget.  But for some reason..  These memories keep popping up.  As if they're trying to remind me of something..  And now I think..  I know what that is.."  She began to ramble.

Anthony looked at Mel curiously.  Confused by what she was all saying.  But he chose to remain quiet and let her continue.  Hoping that she wouldn't suddenly be afraid and continue explaining to him everything.  He pulled his hand away, folding them in his lap and glancing at her.  Studying her closely.  Perhaps this was it..  Perhaps she was finally going to tell him what was going on.  When Melanie had remained quiet however, almost as if she was still hesitant to continue on, Anthony chose to speak.  "What would that be?'

He suddenly felt rather nervous.  He was really unsure of what she was going to tell him.  He had no idea what she was about to say.  Melanie stayed quiet for quite awhile in order to gather her thoughts.  She wasn't sure still how she was going to tell him everything.  "I'm..  Not sure how to."  She shook her head feeling everything starting to get jumbled up.  Anthony slowly reached his hand placing it over hers to keep her calmed.  "Take your time.."

Melanie nodded before finally starting to explain.  "I was with someone.  We had met in school."  She fidgeted a little before continuing.  As she felt all the memories rushing back in.  She hadn't really talked about Paul's accident since it happened.  She hadn't talked about it at all.  Not even to Victoria and Levi.

"We..  We had started to hang out quite a bit during our eighth grade year of high school.  But we never made ourselves officially a couple.  But a lot of people began to assume.  I sort of just shrugged it off at the time.  Because since we had been together, just hanging out those last three years, I only saw him as a good friend.  But he saw me as something more.  He just didn't say anything, because he knew how I felt.  But he wanted to."  She began to ramble feeling nervous about it all.  She wasn't sure how he would take the news.  "We of course had gone to prom together.  After graduating, there was a small gap because we went to separate colleges.  But something got messed up in his schedule, so he ended up coming to my college, and we met up again.  We started to hang out more like we did in school, we made it more official of us being together once we met up with each other in college.  I am not sure why or how, but something seemed different then, when we met again.  I knew of his feelings for me.  And for some reason, somehow, I began to develop some feelings for him once we ran into each other and began hanging out again.  It had been a few months since we had hung out with having gone to different schools.  We both had a busy summer so we didn't get to see each other much before we had to go off to school.  But when we crossed paths again, it was like we had never parted.  I saw something different in him, I decided to give him a chance.  And we had been together ever since.  At least until.."  Melanie stopped speaking for a while, letting the memories that she had chosen to block out, finally let their way back in.  She closed her eyes as some images that she had been describing rushed in her mind.

She jumped feeling Anthony give her hand a small squeeze.  "Where is he now?"  Anthony asked.  He was planning to let her take her time.  But after hearing the information, he suddenly became a bit impatient to hear the rest.  He was hoping that whoever Melanie had been with before him, he wasn't going to have to worry about him too much coming back for her.  But perhaps that was why she was shoving him aside.  Perhaps the two of them had split up and she was waiting for him to change his mind and come back for her.

"About a year ago.  He was coming home from work.  He wasn't supposed to be there that day that late.  He was supposed to be able to come home early.  But he was a surgeon.  Something came up at the last minute where they needed him for surgery.." 

Melanie pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her hands.  She wasn't sure if she could continue through with telling him.  She wasn't sure if she could finish speaking.  Anthony took a deep breath watching her.  Feeling guilty of his previous thoughts, as he had a feeling he knew which direction this was heading.  He hesitated before slowly wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him.  He wasn't sure if Melanie wanted the comforting or not, but he wanted to show her he was there for her.  He could feel her starting to shake as she began to cry.  He stayed quiet not quite sure what to say to her.  "I'm sorry.."  He whispered.  It was the only words he could think of to say.

Once Melanie was able to calm down, she slowly lifted her head up to look him in the eyes.  "There..  There is more..."  She said quietly.  Anthony glanced at her curious to what else there was.  He could see the fear once again creeping back into her eyes.  Anthony could feel his heart start to pound a little.  "More?"  He asked.  Melanie bit her lip.  "I, I'm so sorry.  I know I should've told you sooner."  Anthony held her tighter.  "Hey, it's okay.  Tell me whenever you're ready."  Melanie swallowed keeping her watch on him.  "It's what I was dreaming.  The night of his accident.  That night..  I planned on telling Paul I was pregnant.."