"I'm actually so nervous," I bring a hand up to my face, trying to calm myself down.
"It's Josh and Hayley. They'll like you," Jack chuckles and pulls my hand down away from my face.
I look at him, "I don't make friends easy."
"They're the nicest people ever," Jack grabs ahold of my hand, and I don't care to let go, "Josh is like my brother. And they have a baby, who is adorable by the way."
"I just don't want them to see me as like, I don't know, superficial," I ask, sounding more like it was a question.
"They're not like that," he laughs.
"Jack," I stop walking, "I literally flew you to LA in my dads private plane. Even I think that's a little shallow."
"They don't need to know that," he pulls my hand along.
"Just, if it gets awkward, save me," I look up at him, squinting from the sun.
He smiles and shakes his head, "You won't need saving."
I just give him a look, saying 'you better save me or I will kill you in your sleep'.
We approach the small cafe and he finds them immediately, pulling me over there. There are two people in the booth, a brunette man and a blonde woman, and a baby sitting in a high chair.
"Hey Jack," the guy says and then looks at me, "You must be Mellie. He talks about you a lot."
We scoot into the booth, and I look over at Jack, whose face is slowly turning red, "Oh really. Well it's nice to meet you..."
"I'm Josh and this is my wife Hayley," Josh motions to the woman sitting next to him.
"It's nice to meet you," Hayley says, offering me a polite smile that seemed genuine.
"You too," I smile back, "so, how old is she?"
Hayley perks up and looks to the baby girl in the chair, "She's 15 months. Her name is Rogue."
"That's a really unique name, I like it," I lean forward and offer my finger to the baby and she grabs it, smiling at me.
"Hi honey," I say in a high pitched voice, while Jack and Josh talk about something else.
Rogue sequels in excitement when I tickle her on her belly.
"She's adorable," my eyebrows raise and my face turns into a sad smile.
"Thank you," Hayley says from across the table.
"Jacks been telling us that you got a record deal, are you excited?" Josh sets his face in his hand and looks at me.
"I mean," I shrug, "I'm excited, but I'm nervous for people to hear me. Sometimes people don't like certain sounds and songs."
"Don't listen to her, she literally has the best voice, and she writes all of her songs," Jack comes to my defense.
I bite my lip and turn my attention back to baby Rogue, "Thank you."
"I bet you sound amazing," Hayley reassures me.
"Thanks," I give her a lipped smile.
Hayley and I keep talking about random stuff while Jack and Josh are laughing over something. The waiter comes over and takes our orders.
"How many kids do you want?" Hayley asks, pulling Rogue up out of the high chair and onto her lap.
I smile at the baby who's smiling at me, "Maybe 2 or 3. A boy and a girl or two boys and a girl."
"That's kind of what we want," she nods, "baby Rogue and then one more."
"It seems like you got pretty lucky with her, she's been really good," I nod.
Hayley agrees, "She's perfect. She barely cries at night, easy to put down, and she's the cutest."
"She is," I giggle, "I've always wanted a little girl. Her name would be Charlotte, after my grandma. And we'd call her Lottie."
"That's a cute name," Hayley nods and smiles at me, "how old do you want to be when you have kids?"
I shrug, "I guess whenever I'm satisfied with my music. Probably when I'm 27 ish. I'm still super young though, so I've got time."
"We didn't really plan on having her," Hayley sighs, "well, we weren't trying. But she wasn't an accident either."
"Serendipity," I look to her and smile.
"I actually know what that means," Jack butts in.
I lol at him and nod, "I'm so proud of you. I think it might be time to push you to a 3rd grade reading level."
"As long as the books have pictures," he nods and puts his lips into a line.
"Maybe you're not ready," I jokingly wince and he rolls his eyes.
Hayley and Josh share an amused look just as the waiter came with our food.
The rest of the lunch went by a lot better than I expected. Josh and Hayley were really cool people and I never needed rescuing from Jack.
Hayley wanted to get pictures by some trees and I agreed with her. This moment was special to me, no matter how insignificant it was to them.
melaniecollins
Liked by jackchampion, gracieabrams, and 101,372 others
melaniecollins can't wait to be a mom @hayleyamber
username1 stop that's adorable!
hayleyamber From now on you will be called aunt Mellie
username2 wait they're jacks friends aren't they?
jackchampion 2nd grade reading level my butt
➤melaniecollins reply to @jackchampion maybe when you're ready for chapter books😘
username3 omg pregnancy announcement????
➤melaniecollins reply to @username3 haha no
grantcampbell You'd be a great mom❤️
gracieabrams wifey material🫶
➤melaniecollins reply to @gracieabrams getting married rn
username4 omg she turned her comments on😭🫶
Liked by melaniecollins
I chuckled to my phone as I answered as many comments as I could. They used to make me anxious, but after I realized there were so many more people that liked me than hated me, and with a little convincing from Jack, I turned them back on.
"You're being very loud," Jack joked and turned the music down, "elaborate."
"My comments are just making me laugh," I chuckle and scroll through some more.
He nods, "Exactly what I said would happen."
"Shut up," I glance at him and scowl.
He smiles and focuses back on the road, "What did you think about Josh and Hayley?"
"They're actually really nice," I sigh, not wanting to prove him right, "and their baby was cute."
"Hate to say 'I told you so' but I-" he starts but I cut him off.
"Okay fine you were right," I say loudly, "I wasn't nervous once we started talking. And I didn't need saving."
He doesn't say anything, just nods with a slight smile and turns the music back up.
It was one of Gracie's songs. One that I'd written with her.
"I helped write this song," I whisper.
"Really?" He asks, glancing at me for a second but then back to the road, "I looked at the writers and producers and your name wasn't on there. I'm not saying you're lying or anything, but don't you want a little credit."
"I'm on there," I smile, thinking about the alias Gracie and I had come up with, "Polly Royal."
"Oh," he sighs in surprise, "that's kind of a weird name."
"Polly as in Polly Pockets and Royal as in my first dog," I lean my chin on my hand, on the center console. For some reason, I felt really comfortable.
"That's funny," he chuckles, "you guys just came up with that? And don't you want some recognition?"
"Yes and no," I nod, "I knew I helped her, and that's good enough for me. She told me she didn't want this effecting my music career, which was non-existent at the time. So I was a little confused."
"She obviously sees the future," Jack jokes, provoking a laugh out of me.
"I guess," I say, just as he's pulling up to my apartment parking garage.
We make it back to my apartment and we both sign and lay on the couch, him on one end and me on the other. Our legs intertwined in the middle.
"Do you wanna watch a movie?" I lean my head up and motion toward the tv.
He tilts his head, "Aren't you supposed to be rehearsing or whatever?"
"Yes," I nod and shrug, "but no one's here to make me right now."
"Fair enough," he sighs, sitting up, "what should we watch?"
I think about it for a second, "You pick. I'm gonna clean up a little."
"I can't decide," he groans, "what are you in the mood for?"
"Comedy," I say, standing up and gathering all the empty boxes and bubble wrap from my packages. There were still a few left to open, but I didn't even want to bother with them.
"You know," he starts, flipping through the movies on the tv, "I don't think I could live by myself."
"What do you mean?" I ask, throwing away the last of the trash.
He shrugs, "I hate cleaning, I hate being by myself, and I hate dishes. All valid reasons."
"My mom always made sure I would be the perfect little trophy wife someday," I sigh, "but obviously things change."
"Why do you say that?" He asks, finally deciding on a movie.
I join him back in the living room and grab a blanket, "She didn't think I had any talent. Unlike Asher. He was literally the best child actor I'd ever seen. Sarcasm like no other."
"He was in that movie," Jack looks down and thinks for a second, "with Ryan Reynolds. The Adam Project."
"Yeah," I smile fondly at the memory of his first acting gig. He filmed a tv show for a while until he passed and it ended up being cancelled because he was the main character.
"And you do have talent, Mellie," he scooted toward the middle of the couch and patted next to him.
I smile with my lips and sit down next to him, draping the blanket over the both of us, "Thank you."
The more we talked about my mom, the more I started to realize that maybe she wasn't the perfect mother I had always imagined.
My attention gets pulled back to the screen and I see Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly on the screen, "Step Brothers?"
"Yup," he smiles and looks at the screen, "I love it."
"Huh," I shrug my shoulders, "I didn't expect that out of you."
"Do I not look like the type of guy to watch Step Brothers?" He sits back, and I look him up and down.
"Hmm," I nod, "yeah actually you fit the bill. Teenage boy."
"I'm a gentleman, thank you," he puts his hand to his chest like he was proper and spoke in a British accent.
"And we're back with the accent," I sigh, "you're such a dork."
"You said you wanted to perfect your accent, here we go," he nods and I shake my head.
"Not today, Jack."
He shrugs, "Alright fine."
I hadn't even realized how close we got when I sat down. Our legs were touching, and I caught myself leaning into him. But I didn't move. I waited for him to do something.
Come on, Jack. An arm around the shoulder. Anything.
I thought for a few minutes, until he finally did slowly put his arm around me.
On the outside, I snuggled right into him, quietly and calmly like we'd done it before.
But on the inside...I was screaming. My face was beet red as I leaned it into his chest.
We both chuckled a few times throughout the movie and when he did, I could feel the vibration throughout his chest. It was a good feeling.
The further we got into the movie, the more tired my eyes were.
Before I knew it, I was asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N- I've never done that Instagram stuff before so if it looks like shit, be nice. Constructive criticism is what I'm looking for!