Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 31: Their Pain

Melanie finds herself in a small town in Georgia. She finds a hotel, too tired to continue on. Her plan was to drive to Florida, but this place seemed well enough to take her mind off things. When she gets checked in, she calls Sal right away "hey Melanie, how you doing?"

She replies honestly "not so good, I'm really pissed at Brian right now, which I'm guessing you already know since I'm not fired even though I didn't come to work today."

"I'm not worried about that, is there anything I can do?" He questions back.

"Just being understanding through this is enough. I actually feel bad. You're being so nice." She returns, starting to regret running away from her problems and leaving all her responsibilities behind.

Sal tried to assure her it's fine "look, I don't want to get in between whatever is going on with you and Q. I just want you to know this doesn't change things for me. You're the best assistant and if you need time off, take it. Your job will be here for you when you're ready."

"You're the best Sal, thanks so much. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I will not miss Murray's punishment on the 13th!" She remembers what they have planned, and knows she will need to be there to make sure Sal's part is all prepared.

"Great, take care of whatever you need and remember that I'm here for you, as a friend." Sal clarifies before Melanie thanks him and they hang up. Melanie plops down into the large king bed and stares at the ceiling.

She imagines Brian doing something similar, laying around moping about how things ended. Her mind quickly changes though, and then she see's Brian out in the city, not a care in the world and enjoying single life again. She rolls over, trying to push the thought out of her head. Brian loved me, she says to herself, he wouldn't move on that quickly. She eventually falls asleep as she ponders, and wakes up at 3 in the morning, "shit, I slept for 16 hours." She rubs her eyes to officially help wake herself up and heads to the bathroom. After her shower, she grabs her phone and see's 3 missed calls and 2 messages. All are from either Brian or Caroline. She decides to read Caroline's text first, being the least mad at her at this moment.

Caroline: I know what I did was wrong, but what you're doing now is not the greatest thing either. You know what you have with Brian is special. You literally have everything you've ever wanted in him and you're throwing it away, why? Because he opened a letter? Really? After everything your ex's have done to you, this is what you draw the line at? I know you're angry, but you're going to lose a great thing if you push him away like this. Call me when you're ready to talk. Love you.

Melanie rolls her eyes multiple times as she reads what her best friend typed out. She's not ready to forgive her yet for her part in this, so she's certainty not ready to listen to what she has to say. She then moves to read Brian's texts, the three missed calls being from him but he left no voicemails.

Brian: Melanie, please call me back. Sal said you went out of town and I just want to make sure you're alright."

Brian: Is this really how you want things to be between us? I'm sorry I invaded your privacy, I know it was wrong but I did it with good intentions, please let's talk about this.

Brian: I love you.

Melanie types back "I love you, too" but before she can hit send, she quickly erases what she typed and throws her phone down on the bed. Brian knows she loves him, but he knows what he did wasn't okay, and she just can't let herself forgive him that easily.

Brian didn't sleep at all that night after she left. He couldn't help but wonder what she was doing. She never answered her phone and he just needed to hear her voice. Since Brian is still recovering from his accident and Melanie left, Sal decided to help him whenever he needed it, so he worked it out with the other guys to help him throughout the week with whatever he needed. Joe was the first one able to come by, and he informed Brian what Sal told him, that she was out of town but okay. Brian thought hearing that she was okay would help him, but it didn't help. It wasn't him she told, it was Sal. Brian sent what he could, not wanting to type a huge text to her that should be said in person. He ended it with an I love you, hoping she'd at least say it back to him. After two days of not hearing from her, he felt like that was it. She was done. Murray came over to take him to his first physical therapy appointment, but Brian was passed out on the couch. When Murray managed to wake him up, he just grumbled he was in too much pain to go and popped a pain pill, washing it down with a warm beer. Murray wants to call him out on his behavior, but he knows that'll just anger him more, push him further into a spiral of self-destruction. He decides to hang out at his house for the hour instead, trying to cheer him up anyway he could think of. Meanwhile, Melanie was also numbing her pain with drugs and alcohol. She went out for three nights straight drinking, being offered some weed and enjoying the familiar high of not giving a shit she used to have in college.