He woke me up before my alarm had the chance to go off. I heard loud knocks at my room's door followed by angry yells of an unhappy male voice.
"Melissa! Open the fucking door already, I don't want to break it, aight? But I will if you don't open it up!" He went on.
I rolled my eyes as I jumped out of bed, darkness surrounding me.
"It's okay Scott, hold up," I answered yawning while unlocking the door, when he opened it, I was already back in bed.
"Fuck it," He walked in mumbling under his breath, "I was worried."
"What time is it?" Was all I could think about, feeling the heavy weight of my eyelids and noticing it was still dark.
"3:48AM," he answered breathlessly.
"Why would you be worried about me at three in the morning? I was sleeping, you know? Like any other human being," I said covering myself up with the sheets.
"I heard a noise, I thought something happened to you but... now I —" He stopped talking. I watched him from the corner of my eye, he walked to the window and slightly opened the curtain. "— know it was just a thunder."
I furrowed my eyebrows, it was raining? I followed his steps and made my way to the window. But it wasn't raining. A huge black cloud was approaching our town. It looked scary, you could see the white Lightnings appear every now and then around the cloud, always followed by a loud thunder.
"That storm looks dangerous." I pointed out.
"It'll get here around four, and god knows when it'll stop. These sort of storms usually last about ten to twenty hours," He sighed loudly.
"Oh jeez," I cursed remembering I was far from my house without my parents knowing. What would I tell them once they figured out I was not home? And with a huge storm going on outside...
"What's wrong?"
"My parents. They think I'm still at home." I muttered massaging my temple with my fingers, trying to find a good excuse to tell them.
"Gina was home alone and heard about the storm, didn't want to spend the night by herself cause she has thunder-phobia."
I stared directly into Scott's eyes.
"Excuse me?" I snapped.
He answered by looking at the floor and taking a step backwards, I can be scary sometimes.
"Who said you could talk to me? I'm still mad at you—" I crossed my arms. "Still... that was a pretty good excuse. I might use it."
I felt how he smiled happily in the distance, which made me immediately furious. I wanted him to suffer, just a bit, but it seemed like my coldness was not working out.
"Now please, get out. I need to rest for my test tomorrow." I pointed at the room's door.
He looked at me with ironical confusion. "You think you'll take that test tomorrow? Have you seen the cloud? The school will close, trust me."
"I don't care. I still want to sleep. Just get out, okay?" I finally exclaimed, I wanted him out, out of the room, out of my mind.
He opened his mouth startled at my sudden yell. "Sorry." He mouthed as he walked out of the room.
I sighed and closed the door behind him, without locking it this time, I would not be awaken by anymore loud screaming tonight.
I walked towards the window once again and opened it slightly, I like to listen to the sound of the rain, and even though it wasn't raining yet I knew it would eventually. I wanted to be ready. A soft cold winter breeze sneaked inside the room, it gave me chills so I opened the closet and got out some blankets.
As I was starting to fall asleep the first raindrops started falling, and they wouldn't stop. Not until the announcement.
—
I woke up to my phone ringing, my hand slowly made its way to the night table. The rain was hitting hard against the windows, a few drops had entered the room through the little crack I left opened last night.
"Yeah?" I muttered before letting out a yawn.
"Honey, are you okay?" My mom asked me worriedly.
I sat properly in the bed before answering her question, nervously adjusting my pyjama as if she could see me.
"Yep, you read my message right? It's crazy outside..." I replied taking peeking through the window.
"They cancelled school for the day. When will you be back? Can I talk to Gina for a moment?" I grabbed my phone roughly as I heard her last question.
"Moooom!" I complained. "We're doing fine. She's still sleeping. I'll be back as soon as it stops raining this hard. You wouldn't want me to drive in this weather conditions now would you?"
I hopefully waited for a positive answer.
"Alright..." she sighed. I closed my eyes in relief. "Be careful, love."
"I will be, you too, Mom. Love you."
"Love you too." She said right before hanging up.
I checked the time in my phone, 9AM, I had turned off my alarm when Scott told me we wouldn't have school the following day. Still, I had only slept for five hours approximately. I let myself fall on top of the king sized bed once again, but I wasn't tired anymore.
I decided to go for a walk around the house, still in my pyjamas. I already knew the way to the kitchen so I went there, hopefully waiting for Scott to be there so I could ask him for something to eat, my stomach was growling like crazy.
I walked downstairs and all I could hear was silence in the house except the loud noise of raindrops hitting the ceiling. I walked around the living room until I distinguished a familiar figure outside in the backyard.
Scott was breathlessly punching a boxing bag out under the rain, the white sleeveless shirt he was wearing was completely soaked making the fabric to paste onto his skin leaving me to admire his muscular appearance. As good as he looked under the rain, it was the middle of the winter, and staying under the rain for more than a few minutes was not wise at all.
I rolled my eyes at his stupid idea as I made my way to the crystal door.
"What do you think you're doing?" I yelled once I got outside, covering my head with my hands.
"Working out!" He yelled back, the sound of the rain was loud against my ears.
"Get back inside or else you'll get a cold!" I snapped angrily.
"Not happening, mom," He stuck out his tongue playfully.
I rolled my eyes in annoyance, getting him to feel bad for what he'd done to me was being harder than I expected. I wanted him to notice my attitude, but I also wanted him not to get sick.
"Scott!" I caught his attention. "Come inside I need to talk to you."
As soon as he heard those last six words he immediately walked towards me with a worried look plastered to his face, always gets them.
I opened the door for him and watched as he carefully walked inside trying not to slip on the now wet floor.
"Let's get you a towel, first," I whined arching my eyebrows.
He grinned childishly and guided me to the laundry room. He grabbed a clean white towel and started drying his hair with it as we walked back to the living room.
"So..." He started. "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"
"Huh?" I mumbled forgetting about the purpose of his workout break.
"You said you wanted to—"
"Talk!" I remembered. He eyed me amusingly. "Right. Yeah, talk."
"About what happened last night or...?" He started.
I shook my head energetically as he started formulating his question.
"Nope. You see, I just wanted you to get out of under the rain."
He chuckled and threw the humid towel straight to my face.
"Ew! Stop it!" I yelled in disgust with my eyes closed as I grabbed the nasty towel with my fingertips. But as soon as I looked up to him again, it seemed like there had been some sort of mythological miracle and Adonis himself was standing right in front of me.
I threw the towel back at him instinctively.
"Where did your shirt go?" I muttered without taking my eyes off his body.
"I was getting cold, the fabric wouldn't stop itching my skin. I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable..." He tried to hide a smirk.
I pressed my lips angrily at his answer.
"Why would I feel uncomfortable? Plus, you don't even have abs." I lied, making it too obvious that I just wanted to tease him. Bad decision.
"I don't?" I noticed how his body tensed slightly making his toned body... even more toned, if possible. I gasped suddenly at the sight of Greek god worthy abs, the fact that there were some water drops still falling from his skin didn't help me look away. Still, I tried restlessly not to look interested at all.
"That's enough." I begged silently, putting a lot of effort on looking asides.
"Look," he started. "I'm gonna go put on a shirt now, because you're clearly not into this."
My acting skills must've finally kicked in as he had believed the whole scene. I smiled for myself and locked gazes with him once again just to find him cracking up silently.
"What?" I crossed my arms.
"Undeniably, you're the worst actress ever," He muttered in between laughs.
I felt my cheeks betraying me by turning completely red. Damnit.
"But seriously, Mel. What I said last night, I meant it."
I rolled my eyes, aaaaand we're back.
"If I acted like that was because I didn't know you were different before knowing me. If I had known at the time that you—"
"—If you had known with how many girls I've slept you wouldn't have had the same feelings for me? C'mon, Mel, you're better than that."
His words surprised me. "No, you're better than that."
"So you're just crossing me out because I've dated other girls?" He snapped.
"It's not like that Scott. I've also dated other guys, that's the thing. I don't want to date another guy just to waste a few months of my life with him and them let him throw me away like he did with the others."
"I'm not that guy. At least not anymore!" He complained.
"See? But you were not that long ago! I've seen my friends cry for guys like you thousands of times, I made a promise to myself not to fall for one of them ever. I guess I broke it without even knowing." I confessed.
We locked gazes for a moment before I dropped his. His eyes hiding surprise, and guilt, lots of guilt.
"But Mel. You got to know me intimately, more than anyone has ever done, you know more than anyone I'm not like that. I promise not to break your heart." He reached for my hand but teared it away as soon as he saw me hiding mine inside my sleeve.
"Give me a chance."
I didn't know what to say. It was true that before knowing the truth I had never even thought of him being a player of that sort. He seemed so pure, maybe he had changed. But still, the idea of him with other girls made me sick, I wasn't jealous, I was deceived.
"It's not a great time to play dates, Scott. Your parents are missing, we have priorities."
But in the bottom of my heart I was just asking for time. And I knew that when the time was right, if my feelings for him were still alive and in crescendo, then I would definitely give him another chance. Because, honestly, it was with him when I felt more comfortable, protected and most importantly, loved.
The day passed by quickly, he helped me study for my History exam and I, in exchanged helped him with his Roman Law essay, as I had been taking latin for three years now.
It was already lunchtime, it seemed like the storm was starting to slow down, if Scott's calculations were right, he would be able to drive me home in about half an hour.
As we were half way through watching an episode of the show Perception, Scott got a call and left me alone to drool over Daniel Pierce.
When he came back his face had changed completely, I became worried instantly, his skin was as pale as paper and he wouldn't blink, the phone still plastered to his ear, but there was no one on the other side, just an audible beep.
"Scott." I whispered. His eyes were fixed on the horizon, he was starting to scare me, I had never seen a sharper jaw.
"It's Liza—" He whispered back with a husky, broken voice.
I was expecting the worse judging by how he was acting. I turned off the tv and rose, I carefully walked towards him and embraced him in a hug, trying to make him feel better. It had been a few months since my grandmother passed away, I knew how a loss felt like, even though I still didn't know what exactly had happened to her I wanted to be there for Scott anytime.
"—She's pregnant."