ERICK'S POV
The hospital isn't very far away from my place, so I decide to walk, today. It's quite early in the morning and a soft golden glow is painting the sky. I shut the door behind me and step out.
I walk out, onto the footpath and see a packet of Doritos fallen in front of Angela's gate.
What is this girl?
I laugh softly to myself and pick it up so that I can give it back to her. The moment I stand up straight, I'm knocked back down by a petite figure whose face is not visible because there's a huge bag in front. The impact causes the figure to fall backwards, too and I hear a feminine voice groan, "What the hell?"
"Why do we keep meeting like this?" I get to my knees and pick up the items that have fallen from the bag.
"Well, we'd meet like normal humans if you weren't blind!" Angela yells.
"Excuse me? You're the one who is blind. You didn't use your rear view mirrors yesterday and you were carrying a bag that's bigger than yourself, twenty seconds ago." I roll my eyes and help her up.
I glance at her shirt which reads, 'It's a Monday morning, go away.' I giggle a little because that perfectly describes her mood right now.
She grunts, "Damn, I didn't know that my favourite singer was blind and couldn't see a girl walk out to pick up a packet of chips that had fallen down."
"I was picking it up for you."
"No, you weren't."
"Why do you need to yell so much, early in the morning?"
"I'm not yelling!" She yells.
"Sure, you're crazy." I shove the bags into her hands and turn to walk away. She wobbles, obviously unable to sustain the weight, so she falls down again with a small, "Oof."
Don't look back, don't pick her up.
"That's just rude!" She squeals.
I roll my eyes, "I would've been much nicer if somebody wasn't cranky on this fine Monday morning."
"Okay, I'm sorry. Happy?" She looks into my eyes as she's still sitting on the ground.
I just sigh and help her up. I grip her hand tightly and pull her up with a more than sufficient force. Not on purpose, I'm not accustomed to helping girls get up, from the ground. She literally falls forward, bringing her body flush against mine. She blushes a deep shade of crimson and pulls away immediately.
"I'm s-sorry." She blushes.
I shrug, "My fault, I'm sorry."
"Really sorry for everything."
"You really need to stop saying sorry so often."
"Okay, sorry." She blurts.
"You're doing it again."
"Ugh, fine."
"See? That's easy." I say and she rolls her eyes.
"Where are you going?" She asks me.
"I'm heading to the hospital."
"How's Alexa, now?"
"Other than having a broken body and memory loss, I think she's just fine." I sigh.
"Oh, wait. I got something for her, on my way to the grocery store." She turns and walks to her shining black car and comes back with a bouquet of flowers in her hands.
"You didn't need to-"
"I wanted to. Please give it to her? Tell her that it's from a fan."
"Okay, sure." I smile.
I turn to leave, "I should get going, I can keep these flowers next to her while she's still asleep."
"Okay." She nods.
I whisper a soft, "Goodbye." and walk down the road. I reach the hospital in ten minutes and when I go to the ward, I see that Alexa is still asleep.
I place the flowers in the corner which was flooding with flowers and gifts for her. I see a pretty bouquet, full of blue flowers, only and I squat to read the little blue note attached to the flowers.
You probably don't remember me anymore, but I got you this because I think blue is still your favourite colour, right? Get well soon, Lexi, I miss you.
Love, Jake.
Jake? That Jacob Preston guy? He really needs to leave my girlfriend alone.
I scan the other gifts from her friends and family. Flowers from Sebastian, Caleb, Abigail, a many others who I haven't even heard of. I spot a bouquet with yellow flowers kept with a bouquet of purple flowers, separately. Flowers sent from Spain and Cuba by Tyler and Aiden, respectively.
"Erick?" Alexa whispers.
"You're awake, Mami?" I say, not turning to face her.
"Yeah, everything hurts too much, I woke up."
"My heart hurts to hear you say that." I mumble.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, I met a fan who got you flowers. I've kept them with the rest of the flowers and gifts."
"Oh my goodness, those are a lot of flowers." She gasps.
I really want to look at her face.
"Yeah. Anyway, now that you're awake, I should go-" I turn to leave.
"No, wait!" She stops me. "You can stay if you want."
"It'll just hurt you, I'll go."
"Erick, por favor, I feel like I just ruined everything."
"You haven't ruined anything." I grind my teeth. The accident ruined everything.
"I'm sorry, Erick. I can't bring myself to remember anything about you. It's like my memory has been stolen. I can tell that we had a connection because Melanie doesn't stop talking about that but I feel like I've ruined everything-"
"Alexa-" I whisper but she cuts me off.
"I'm so sorry, Erick."
I want to touch her.
"It's okay, probably we weren't meant to be." I croak out and bite my tongue to hold back a tear.
I can hear her cry now, "It's not like that, oh, I'm so sorry-"
"It's okay, let's hope that some miracle happens and you get your memory back." I sigh.
"Let's start over? I'm Alexandra Santiago, nice to meet you."
The day I met her in the flight - My heart can't take this.
"Erick Brian Colon, pleasure to meet you, too."
I'm going to lose self control.
Erick, breathe.
"You're not going to turn around?" She asks softly.
"I don't want to hurt you."
The door opens and Melanie enters with more flowers. When she sees me talking, she turns to leave but I stop her, "No, it's okay, come in."
She places the flowers in the same corner and says, "So many people love you, look at the number of flowers, in here."
"The weird part is that I don't remember half of the people." Alex groans.
"Let's see." Melanie whispers and picks up a bouquet of flowers. "Caleb Sanders?"
"Nope, never heard of him."
"Sebastian Walker?"
"I guess, not."
"Abigail Springfield?"
"Who's that?"
Melanie takes a deep breath. She places the bouquet down and I think I know why.
"What happened?" Alexa notices.
"Ethan?" I ask Mel and she shakes her head.
"He didn't come, not even for a friend." Her jaw clenches. "He didn't care about his girlfriend, I wonder why he'd care about a friend-"
A soft knock at the door interrupts Melanie and it opens slightly to reveal a guy with messy blonde hair.
Ethan Cole.
"Hey, Erick." He whispers.
Melanie is standing on the other side and so she can't see the person. She grunts, "Who is it?"
"Melanie's here?" He asks and flings the door open and Mel's expression hardens.
"Are you kidding me right now?" She rolls her eyes.
"Give me a moment, stay right here." Ethan tells Melanie and she rolls her eyes again.
He gives the flowers to Alexa who accepts them, cluelessly. I've turned around now, and Alexa is avoiding my gaze because of obvious reasons.
"What happened to the guy who was driving? The guy who hit my girlfriend?" I spit.
"Oh, I beat him up and then he was taken away by the cops because of multiple reasons. He was drunk and was driving at a speed much higher than the speed limit. Then, he hit Alexandra and although she didn't die, he's put behind bars because she lost her memory because of the impact."
"Whoa, what?" Alexa pipes in.
"Well, that's good. If I ever see him again, I swear, I'll cut his throat, pull his windpipe out-" I start but I abruptly cut myself off because I'm using Alexa's words. My eyes meet Melanie's eyes which are slightly watery. She gives me a helpless look before wiping a tear that escapes her eyes.
"And shove it up his butt?" Alexa finishes and it crushes my entire willpower to not look at her.
CAN I PLEASE JUST HUG HER?
"Yes, exactly." I laugh softly.
Ethan turns around, leaves the room and comes back within three seconds. He has another bouquet of flowers in his hand and I think everyone in the room, except Lexi, obviously, know what they're for.
Melanie's jaw clenches, "Oh, hell no." She throws the door open and storms out of the room and Ethan calls out and runs after her.
"What was that about?" Alexa quickly meets my gaze.
"Why are you looking at me, Princesa? I'll turn around? I don't want you to get hurt-"
"No, it's okay, I'm mostly avoiding your face but a quick glance doesn't hurt that bad." She giggles.
"Loca."
"What happened to Melanie? Who is Ethan? Please explain." She looks away again.
"Ethan was Melanie's boyfriend. He cheated on her and she found out."
"Just like Aiden did."
"I guess."
"Aiden didn't try to make amends, unlike Ethan." She sighs.
"He did, but it was too late for that, I guess."
"He might have, but I honestly have no clue." She shrugs.
"That's great because he's still in love with you." I mutter under my breath.
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing at all." I brush it off. "You should take rest, Mami." I turn to leave.
"Erick?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for being here with me, even though I can't remember anything I had with you."
"Well, I'm going to be extremely honest. There's nothing in the world that can prevent me from being in love with the prettiest, kindest and craziest girl ever." I laugh softly.
"Pretty? I'm covered in unattractive and filthy bandages." She laughs.
"You're beautiful, no matter what, sweetheart." I breathe. "Do you mind if I do something? It's killing me, a little bit."
"What?"
"Shut your eyes." I whisper.
She laughs softly and shuts her eyes, "If you're going to kill me, I swear that my ghost will haunt you for the rest of eternity, Erick."
I walk up to her and he breathing hitches slightly because she can feel the close proximity. I lightly kiss her forehead and the line for her heartbeat on one of the screens, changes suddenly and the machine starts beeping. I kiss both her cheeks and my lips hover over hers for a moment.
Don't do it, she's not the same, she doesn't remember you.
"I miss you, love." I whisper and leave the room in a few long strides.
-x-
MELANIE'S POV
"Mel! Wait!" Ethan runs after me.
Nope, don't wait, move faster.
I'm in the parking lot of the hospital now. I spot my car and I pick up my pace a little bit because Ethan is just a few meters behind me. I unlock my car, sit inside and lock it immediately.
"Melanie, hear me out, baby!" He screams outside.
My eyes are watery already and I don't want to talk to him. I ignore him and drive off, towards my place. I see his car following mine, from the rear view mirror and increase my speed. He follows me for a while, but then takes a turn and goes down a different road.
"Oh really, Ethan? You think you'll reach home before I do just because you thought I'd slow down if you took a different route?" I mutter to myself.
"Hell no." I slam my foot on the accelerator.
I drive for a few minutes and see Ethan's car in the distance, approaching my house from the other side. I quickly pull over in the driveway and jump out of the car. Ethan and I run towards to door at once. I unlock the door and open it but his strong arm doesn't let me open it.
"Aha! Gotcha!" He grins.
I yell, "Ethan leave me alone, I'll slap you."
"Slap me, I deserve it anyway." He shrugs.
"You deserve worse than a slap, Ethan Cole." I spit and try to push the door open.
"Baby, stop." He pulls me away from the door and corners me places his hands on either side of me, on the cold wall behind.
"Stop calling me that."
"Listen, I'm sorry." He says, trying to plead.
"Listen, I don't care." I say in the same tone.
"You do care."
"I don't."
"I know that you care. I could see it in your eyes when you yelled at me that day. I don't know, the look in your eyes made me feel so guilty." His blue eyes look into mine.
"That's because you meant the world to me and I meant nothing to you." I bite my tongue to prevent the tears from spilling.
"It's not like that, Mel."
"Why did you do it? What did I not do for you? Why Jessica Stanley?"
"I wasn't thinking properly, Mellie."
"You think you played me, but who ended up losing? What did I lose? A guy that didn't care, didn't even love me and didn't ever appreciate what I did for him." I shrug, pushing him away.
"Melanie, it's not like that! I love you!"
"Yeah, right. I can literally hear those lies dripping off your words." I scoff.
"Mel-"
"No, shut up. What did you lose? A girl who would go out of her way to try to please you, love you, take care of you in your thick and thin, regardless of your flaws." I sigh. "I'm not perfect, Ethan, but I was definitely the best you could get. You can be replaced easily, but I can't, and you know that."
"Exactly why I want to apologise."
"Oh, so, apologising to me will automatically make me forget that you've been sucking Jessica's face off for the last month or even before that?"
"No, please give me one last chance, I promise that I won't ruin it, this time." He holds my hand.
"I'm done, Ethan, it's over. Good luck trying to find a girl who will put up with you like I did. Sorry, you played your damn self, not me. Leave me alone, I don't want to see your ugly face again."
I break his grip on my hand and reach to open the door. Ethan tries to stop me but he's stopped by a guy with brown eyes, curly hair and a clenched jaw.
Joel Pimentel.
"I think Melanie said something." Joel shoots Ethan a hard expression.
"Excuse me, pretty boy, don't get into this. This is between me and my girlfriend, go away." Ethan says, anger lacing his tone.
"You mean, ex girlfriend? As far as I can see, Melanie wouldn't want to run away from you, all the way from the hospital, if you still were her boyfriend." Joel shrugs.
"Joel, get out of here." Ethan warns.
I step in between the two of them and say, "Well, you're standing in front of my house, I decide whether anyone stays. I already told you, Ethan, I don't want to see that ugly face of yours any longer, kindly get the hell out of here."
"I'm sorry, Melanie, I really am. Give me one more chance." Ethan pleads.
I don't say anything, I just open the door and go inside. I go upstairs, to my room and I can't hold back my tears any longer. I crash onto the floor, bawling my eyes out. I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and a soft voice calls out my name, from the staircase, "Melanie?"
Joel comes upstairs and when he sees me crying on the floor, he runs over to me and pulls me into a hug, "Shh, it's fine, Mel. You did it, you pushed him away."
"But a part of me still loves him." I cry and his arm around me, strokes my back.
"Is he worth all your love? He let the most loyal girl go, whose fault is that? Definitely not yours, sweetheart." He strokes my back.
I inhale his comforting vanilla scent as he pulls me closer to him. I feel safe, protected in his strong arms, away from people like Ethan. He strokes my back and whispers, "It's going to be okay, you know? It's his loss for letting an amazing person like you, go. You're a strong person, Mellie."
"I loved him with all my heart and he didn't care even the slightest bit."
"He's an idiot, there's someone out there who is going to love you with everything they have. You just need to wait and look for them."
I sob on his shoulder as his hand trails over to my face to wipe my tears and then tuck my stray hair behind my ear. The moment his fingertips touch my face, my body tenses and he quickly withdraws his hand when he realises that.
"Are you okay, now? I'll sit here and hug you all day, if you want." He laughs in my hair.
Yeah that'd be nice.
I hug him tighter and whisper, "You're the best, thank you for being here."
"No problem, Mel."
"But why were you coming to my place, anyway?"
"I went to the hospital and Erick told me that Ethan wanted to apologise to you and so you ran away. I went to the parking and checked for your car, but it wasn't there. I figured that you would be here, so I came here."
"Oh."
"You haven't eaten, have you?"
"Nope, not in a whole day." I shake my head.
"WHAT THE HECK? You're coming with me, I'm not letting you sit hungry like that." He yells.
"It's okay, Joel. You can go, I don't want to go anywhere."
"I'll cook something for you if you don't want to get out."
"No-"
"What would you like to have for breakfast?"
"Nothing-"
"I'm a brilliant chef, the other guys can't cook at all. Well, except for Erick, he can cook a little bit, but I think that's just for Alexa." He laughs and holds my hand.
A smile plays on my lips, "Damn, such dedication."
"I would've been more dedicated than him, but now we're back to square one, which means that I still have a chance with her."
His words sparked something inside of me. I don't like the fact that he wants to be dedicated to Alexa and not me. It's weird because Lexi is my best friend and Joel is just my celebrity crush who I'm OBSESSED with. I don't understand why I felt that hint of anger momentarily.
"Yeah." I say softly and get up from the floor, away from him.
You're not getting attached to people who are never going to like you back, Mel. Just no, you saw what happened when Ethan didn't like you back.
"I died inside, when I saw her on the road that night. I was broken, the girl I'm in love with was going to die. I've never felt such intense sadness, ever. It killed me to know that I'd probably never see her smile again-"
I literally zone out when he starts talking about Alexa. He really likes her, and not me.
He's just a celebrity crush, get over it, Mel.
"Her eyes-"
JUST STOP TALKING ABOUT HER, WILL YOU?
"What?" He looks at me wide eyed.
Oops, I said that out loud.
"Yeah, just stop talking about her, uh. She doesn't remember anything and, uh, I'll cry again." I make up something.
"Okay, um, do you want me to cook you something or take you out for breakfast?"
'Take you out for breakfast' sounds like 'Take you out for a date'. Melanie, stop being an idiot, will you?
"Let's go out because I don't want you to cook. It's too much that you'll be doing for me." I shake my head.
"But that's what friends are for, right? To help each other in their darkest times?"
"Still, no."
"Well okay, let's go." He holds my hand and my heart skips a beat when his warm fingers twine with mine.
We walk down the road and go to a breakfast joint near the beach. We sit down at a table when a waitress screams and literally runs over to our table.
"Fan." Joel shrugs.
The trips over something and she would've really hurt herself if Joel didn't catch her.
"Whoa, whoa, easy there, sweetie." Joel helps her to stand up straight.
She looks like she's around our age and she's actually really pretty. Moderately long brown hair, pretty green eyes and a few inches taller than me.
"OH MY LORD!" She screams. "THIS ISN'T ONE OF MY CRAZY DREAMS, IS IT?"
"I guess not." Joel smiles at her warmly.
"OH MY GOODNESS, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY SINCE FOREVER." She throws her arms around Joel and I notice that she's breathing really fast.
She must like him a lot, then.
"I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, JOEL! I'M LUCY AND PROBABLY YOUR CRAZIEST FAN. COULD I PLEASE HAVE A PICTURE WITH YOU?"
"Sure!" He smiles.
The girl named Lucy shoves her phone into my hand while she clings to Joel to pose for the picture. She quickly places a kiss on his cheek and hugs him tightly again.
Is she done, yet? I don't like anyone close to Joel, like that. Yes, I'm selfish and I know it.
"Hold on, I'll get you a menu card." She looks into Joel's eyes dreamily, takes her phone from me and walks away. She reappears with two menu cards and hands one to each of us. Lucy looks at my face and I quickly look away.
She blurts, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be asking you personal stuff, but have you been crying?"
"Uh-" I begin but she cuts me off, "No worries, there's nothing that a good strawberry milkshake cannot fix."
"No, it's okay-"
"Whipped cream or ice cream or both?" She asks.
"She'll have both." Joel laughs. "We'd also like pancakes and waffles with maple syrup."
"Right away!" She smiles. The place has just opened for the day, so only two other tables are occupied. Lucy walks always and I hear her shriek, "I JUST MET JOEL PIMENTEL, OH MY GOD!"
"Damn." I giggle.
"See? You're already smiling." He laughs.
He's right, I actually feel better when I'm around him.
You're getting attached, shut up, Melanie!
"What can I say? Milkshakes just make me happy." I smile as Lucy places two strawberry milkshakes on the table.
I take a sip and throw my head back and moan, "I live for this."
He laughs and watches me finish my milkshake within the next twenty seconds.
"Damn, what are you made of? That's was fast." He laughs and pushes his milkshake towards me.
"No, have yours, it's amazing." I push it back to him.
"No, I think I'm just fine, looking at you become happier." He smiles warmly.
Lucy gets us our pancakes and talks to Joel for a few minutes before disappearing into the kitchen again.
"That's how you make a girl happy." Joey winks as he watches me eat my pancakes hastily. I'm full, by the time I finish eating. He doesn't eat anything at all and doesn't even let me pay.
"Let's go and meet Alexa." I smile up at him as he nods and interlocks his fingers with mine.
-x-
A/N : Heyy! I hope you enjoyed reading Chapter 45!
Sorry for the extremely late update, I've been super busy. My updates will be slow, but I'm not giving up on this book just yet. x
Hope you're having a great day today! 💙 Stay Gold, loves.
QOTD : Do you know how to eat with chopsticks?
AOTD : I actually did, a few years ago. I've forgotten, now. 😂🙈
Keep reading and commenting! Follow me and stay tuned for updates! ❤️
- Shay x