Chapter 1: A Blunt Conversation
Melanie
I call my friend Mariah and tell her to meet us at the club we’re going to. She’s secretly a big fan of Mindless Behavior, and she freaked out when I told her I was friends with them. I so agreed to keep her around when they came into town ;)
The boys ride in Jacob’s car and Bella and I ride in my own. Christina didn’t want to come, she had “business to do.” Whatever. I don’t think she really likes me anymore… she gives me these ice cold stares all the time. But nothing can bring me down right now, and I do mean nothing.
We get there and we all walk in together. Somehow, me, Dan, and Chris end up standing by the bar together. I’m waiting for Mariah to get here, she’s late -_-. I see Chris looking girls up and down and I roll my eyes, but more so in a playful way. “So,” I say to him with a smile on my face. I was just so happy. “Tell me what it’s like to be the slut of the group.” Jacob told me alllll about Chris’ sexual behavior lately. Plus it was always on tv.
He turns toward me with a large smile. “I don’t know, you tell me.”
Chresanto
I immediately regret saying it after I do. It was an insult and I wasn’t sure if we were on good enough terms to start insulting each other. I brace myself for her reaction, but she only turns toward me and gives me a teasing look. When she turns her hair flips, and I get a whiff of her. “Did you take a shower before we came here?”
“Yea… why?” She raises an eyebrow while looking at her phone.
I lean over and whisper in her ear. “You still use the same body wash.” She looks at me and I wink.
Then, her eyes catch something. I follower her glance and there’s some dude coming towards us looking at Melanie like she’s a meal. I rolled my eyes and took a sip of my drink (no worries guys, my alcohol problem is well taken care of). “Hey.” He nods towards Melanie and she gives him a flirty smile. Oh come on.
“Sorry dude, we’re together.” I smile sarcastically and wrap my arm around Mel’s waist. He puts his hands up and backs away. “Oh sorry, my bad.”
She peels my arm off of her. “Chris!” She says, but she isn’t angry. She’s laughing. “What the hell!”
“That guy was a douche.” I shrug.
“He just said hey!” She shakes her head while laughing.
“He obviously just wanted to take you home with him tonight.”
“You sound like a jealous ex.” She smirks at me.
“Maybe I am a jealous ex.” I smirk back and flick my eyebrows up. Then I see a fine-ass girl coming our way. I lick my lips.
“HEY!” She says to Melanie while giving her a hug. Wait, is this Mariah!? “Sorry I’m late! Car troubles.” She’s wearing a tight black dress and it hits her curves just right. She’s thick in all the right places. Her hair is short and curled and it works for her. She is sexy. She looks at me. “Hi, you must be-“
“Chresanto.” I reach my hand out and she puts hers in it. “You can call me Chris.” I wink at her. I can hear Melanie scoff next to me.
“Mariah.” She smiles at me.
“Come on Dan, let’s dance.” Melanie says next to me and grabs Diggy by the arm and drags him out to the floor. I roll my eyes when she starts grinding on him and look at Mariah. “Uh so, would you like to..” I gesture towards the dance floor. Man I really hope this chick knows how to twerk….
“I’d love to.” She says and she leads the way.
Melanie
Jacob is so drunk by the time we leave the club, theres no way he can drive. I want to talk to Chresanto separately, so I try to get it to where me and him can ride back in my car alone, but it doesn’t work that way. I take Bella in my car and the boys ride back in their car. Mariah follows me home.
When we get in, Isabella drags Jacob to the room they are staying in, and Dan dismisses himself to go upstairs and shower, leaving me, Mariah, and Chris downstairs alone. I am giving Chresanto death stares but he doesn’t notice.
“So,” Mariah says. She’s been flirting with him all night, and it’s been getting on my nerves, but I can’t blame her. She doesn’t know that we used to date. “What did you say your name was again?” I roll my eyes. She knows his name, because she’s like obsessed with him. She told me she was gonna play this game when she met them though, so I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much.
Chris smiles, as if he knows what she’s doing. “Chresanto August.” He looks at me. “I’m surprised Melanie hasn’t talked shit about me to ya.”
She looks at me and then Chris again. “Why would she…” The look on my face tells all. She lets out a short laugh. “You two went together?”
Neither of us say anything. She looks back and forth at us with her eyes squinted. “Wait… Mel is he the guy that g-“
“Okay time for you to go home.” I interrupt, pushing her out the door before she can say anything else. She tries to talk again but I cut her off. “I’ll call you tomorrow ok?” I say and shut the door. It may have been cruel, but I could not let Chris know what she was about to say.
I stay facing the door for a while, not wanting to turn around and face him. I feel his presence behind me. “What was she talking about?” He whispers in an accusing tone on my neck, sending familiar chills down my back.
“Nothing..” I say quietly and shut my eyes. God I don’t wanna talk about this. I mean, I’m not the same person I was four years ago. I’m better with... talking about things. But this, this was the single thing I didn’t want to talk about ever again. I told Mariah about it to get it out but.. yea.
“Noooo.” He says in a teasing way. “What was it? Come on I thought we were cool.”
“We are.”
He grabs my shoulders and gently turns me around so that we’re facing each other and presses me against the door. He gets close and stares down at me, looking in my eyes. “Then tell me.”
“Chris…”
“You don’t have to tell me,” He says quietly with a hint of cockiness. “Just give me five minutes with your friend and I bet I can get it out of her.” He smirks. His lips are soooo close to mine right now, and I’m very tempted to be reminded of what they taste like. He knows this. He knows what he’s doing to me and it kind of makes me angry.
“No.”
“Then tell me.” He smiles. He doesn’t get how serious it is. “I won’t be offended, I promise. I just wanna know what you told her about us.”
“It’s not like that.” It literally takes all I have in me to not touch him.
He looks down for a long minute and then looks up at me again. His facial expression gets really serious. “This isn’t about that night four years ago before I left… is it?”
How.
Did.
He.
Know.
My silence gives it away and he backs away from me. “Just tell me, Melanie. I probably already know.”
Nothing.
“There was a baby, wasn’t there?”
Silence.
He takes a deep breath. “Where’s the kid now?”
I looked down at the ground and shook my head. I aborted it as soon as I found out I was pregnant.
He sighs. “You should have called me…”
“It wouldn’t have mattered.”
“Yes it would have.”
“No. I was gonna get rid of it no matter what.”
“But you could’ve called me. I would’ve come down here and-“
“Chris. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Ok.”
“Ok.”
“Goodnight.”
“Night.”
--
The next morning, by the time I wake up everyone is already downstairs. I mumble good mornings to them all. I make myself a bowl of cereal and sit down at my table next to Isabella. She gives me a smile. “Hey,”
“Hey.” I say shoveling cereal in my mouth. Jacob walks over and leans down and plants a long kiss on Isabella’s lips. Then he looks at me. “You remember our friend Dylan?”
“No.” I say with my mouth full.
“You know, Dylan! The one with the waves.”
“No Jacob, I don- Ohhhhhhhh.”
“Yeaaaaaaaaa.”
“What about him?”
“He’s having a thing tonight. Wanna come?”
“What kind of thing?”
“Just… a thing Melanie are you in or not?”
“Yea sure whatever. Aren’t you going to ask your girlfriend?” I say and nod towards Bella.
She shakes her head. “He knows I can’t stand Dylan.”
“Ah.”
I finish my cereal and go to the couch where Dan, Christina, and Chresanto are sitting. Christina’s on her ipad and Chris and Dan are watching tv. I sit next to Chris and he looks at me and smiles. “Good morning.” He says in a low voice.
“Hey.” I smile. It’s so freakin hard not to smile when I’m around him. Especially when he uses that quiet voice that makes it feel like we’re the only people in the room.
“What are your plans for today?” He asks.
“Umm, nothing I guess. At least not until whatever this thing Dylan’s having.
“Let me take you out.”
My stomach flips. “What?”
“Let’s hang out today. You know, until the party tonight.” His smile gets wider and I notice for the first time he no longer has a gap.
I stare at him for a long time, and then finally submit. “Ok. Where are we goin?”
He gets up. “Just get dressed.” He winks and heads towards the stairs.
--
It’s about an hour later, and I walk downstairs and Chris is waiting for me by the door, tossing his keys up and down. Before we exit, Jacob yells after us in a mocking tone. “Where you two goin’, hm?” And we both laugh and Chris shuts the door behind us. He rushes in front of me to open the car for me, and I give him a look. “What?” He says. “I’m just being a gentleman.” I shake my head as he closes it and walks around to the driver’s side. When he’s in the car, I turn towards him.
“Just to be clear… this isn’t a date.”
He smiles and cranks the car up. “Yea, I know.”
“So where are we going?”
“Well, first, to the movies to see that new horror movie you told me you wanted to see last week.”
I laugh, because I’m shocked he remembers. “Ok, but are we gonna be able to go without you getting attacked by your crazy fans?”
He frowns, as if he forgot he was famous. “Oh… well let’s hope so.”
About 15 minutes later we pull up to the theatre. Chris opens the glove department and grabs some sunglasses. He reaches in the back and grabs a snap back. “What d’ya think? Can you tell it’s me?” He says and I laugh.
“Let’s go boy.” I say and exit the car. He gets out and looks around, trying to see if anyone recognizes him. He lets me get the tickets so he doesn’t have to say anything, and we rush into the dark theatre and sit in a corner. We both laugh and he takes off his glasses.
--
After the movie (which was great by the way) we went to get some lunch. When we sat down, Chris was smiling. “What are you all smiley?”
“Nothing.” He said. “So.”
“So.” I say and my phone starts ringing. I look at the caller I.D and roll my eyes. It’s my most recent ex.
“Who is that? They’ve been calling you all day.” Chris says.
“Umm, just an old boyfriend I broke up with recently.”
“What’s his name?” He says as he grabs my phone off the table.
I hesitate. “Uh… haha.. it’s Chris.”
He nods and hits answer. “Hello? This is Melanie’s boyfriend, who’s this? Ohhh she is? Yea well, I’ll ask her as soon as we’re done fucking.” He says and hangs up and puts it back on the table, a smirk spread across his face. I laugh and shake my head. “The dude says you’re still in love with him.”
“Yea well,” I am still laughing. “I’m not. Never was to begin with.”
“Well, damn. So anyways, I was about to say uh… what was I about to say? Oh yea, I was gonna say over the phone you never told me about your… love life.”
I look at him. “You really wanna talk about my love life, Chresanto?”
“Yea sure I mean, I’m curious. Is that not what friends do?”
“Hah, okay. Well… um. Like I don’t know. I don’t really have one I guess. I date, but like no longer than one month. That’s my limit.”
“Your limit? Why do you have a limit?”
“Why have you been screwing anything with two legs?” I fire back.
He narrows his eyes at me for a minute, and then sits back in his chair. “Touche.”
“That’s why we shouldn’t talk about our love lives with each other.” I smile and shake my head.
“Well, not now, obviously. But maybe we’ll be able to… eventually.” He says the word eventually with uncertainty.
“Eventually.” I agree.
--
Chresanto
By the time we get back, it’s time to go to Dylan’s party. Usually, I’d be agitated from being out all day and having to go somewhere else right after getting home, but I enjoyed myself so much I don’t care. I really like spending time with Melanie, whether she’s my girlfriend or not.
Prince practically shoves us in the car. I don’t know why he’s so excited to go. I mean, the main purpose of Dylan’s parties are to get laid and smoke weed, and Jacob’s already got Isabella so I mean.. whatever. Melanie and I sit in the back seat together and talk the whole way there. I wonder if she knows what she’s getting into by agreeing to come. We get out (Diggy opens the door for her and it annoys me) and walk up to the front door, which is unlocked. When we walk in, Dylan sees us and comes to the front shouting “AYEEEEEEEE EVERYBODY THEYRE HERE” And everyone shouts and whatever. I’m immediately flocked by a bunch of fast looking girls who are all over me in less than 5 seconds.
--
Like I said, the purpose of Dylan’s parties are getting high and fucking, so you can imagine what we’re doing 10 minutes in to it. The party is buzzing around us as some of us sit on the couches. Melanie is sitting in between Dylan and I, and she looks nervous. I’m willing to bet she’s never smoked before, much less weed. Dylan asks her if she wants to and she hesitates. He teases her, and I interrupt while rolling my own. “Hey man, if she doesn’t want to she doesn’t want to. Leave her alone.” He’s high already so he just laughs. Melanie turns towards me.
“I didn’t know you…” She looks at the blunt in my hand and I laugh.
“California changes a man.” I say and take a hit. She watches me for a while and then takes it out of my hand. I’m already slipping into the high, so all I can do is laugh as I watch her try it. She starts coughing. “Woah, woah, woah” I say, taking it away from her and taking another hit myself. I pass it back to her and she tries again, this time with better results.
It isn’t long before we’re all high as shit. Melanie is in Dylan’s lap, laughing at every dumbass thing he says. There are girls all around me, Princeton, and Dig, but I can’t just choose one like I normally do. I keep getting distracted by Melanie’s laugh.
--
By the time we get back to the house, it’s like 3 a.m. I was in a good mood, but now I’m just… I feel gross. Watching Melanie and Dylan was foul. I mean, I still love her sure, and I know I don’t want to get back with her but still. That put a knot in my stomach. Diggy and Jacob immediately head up to their rooms, but Mel goes to the kitchen. I follow her and watch her as she gets some brownies out of the fridge. We stare at each other as she eats standing up while leaning against the counter. She puts it down. “Alright, what is it?”
“I wanna tell you something.”
“Alright.”
I start walking towards her. “I’m very happy that I get to spend time with you this summer, and I love you alright? I mean, that’s just the truth.” She backs up into the counter because I’m closer to her now. I lean down and rest of the counter so that I am eye level with her. “I know that you still love me, and that we still have a connection. It may not be as strong as it was four years ago, but it’s still there. You and I both know it.”
She nods and watches my lips as I speak.
“But we know that we can’t be together. We know bad things happen when we are, and that we work better when we’re apart. Right?”
“Hmm mm.”
“Okay. Just had to get that out. So anyways, I just want us to enjoy this time we have together, and in order to do that, we’re going to have to be very blunt with each other. Got it?”
“Ok..” She says quietly. She’s so close I just want to lean forward and devour her.
“I’m serious. Don’t hide anything from me. We’re both done hiding.”
“Okay.” She laughs. “Blunt, and straight forward. About everything.”
“Good. Good.” My little ‘speech’ or whatever is done, but I don’t move. “So… I’m just letting you know you aren’t allowed to date Dylan. That was the point of me telling you all this.”
She laughs. “I’m not allowed to date Dylan?”
“Nah. Seeing you two together makes me sick. Pick someone else.” I smirk, because she knows I’m serious.
She continues laughing for a good minute. When she’s done, she puts both of her hands on my cheeks which makes my body go tense, but I try hard to conceal it. “Okay. I won’t date Dylan.” She smiles.
“Ok then. Glad we had this talk.” I move away, but only because I’m afraid of what I might do if I didn’t. She shakes her head at me. “Unbelievable.” She says.
“What is?”
“The fact that you’ve only been here two days and you’re already getting whatever you want from me.”
We both laugh. “Mel,” I say as I start to walk out of the kitchen. “If I got whatever I wanted from you, you’d be my wife by now.”
And I mean it.
--
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