Meliss was finally out of the hospital, and little baby Jessamyn had died the night she was born. Melissa was making a good recovery. Her strength was returning, and she was dealing pretty well with the whole situation, at least with the fact that Jessamyn was gone. The only problem was that she didn't want to talk to Dan. She couldn't even bear to see him. Something about being a fifteen year old mom for a hadful of hours changed her a bit. Even though she knew Dan was great and would always be there when she needed him, she couldn't help but think that he was still a guy, and a famous musician for that matter. All famous male musicians want is one thing.
Dan sat at his drum kit with his head held in his hands. He felt like total crap, Melissa didn't trust him practically refused to talk to him. He had never gien her any reason to not trust him. The only reason he could think of is that he was a guy. It was a terrible reeling to be hated by someone you really cared about just because of your gender. He understood to a certain extent why she wouldn't trust him. He thought Derek was an asshole for treating her the way he did, it was guys like Derek that give the entire male race a bad name. He wanted to try to make it up to her, but since she wouldn't speak to him he couldn't. All he could to was pretty much sit back and hope she would come around.
"It's not that I hate him," said Melissa. "I actually don't hate him, I'm more or so afraid of him and our relationship. He's a guy. . .and right now I don't trust guys. Especially Dan, because I'm afraid of falling in love with him."
Ryan listened carefully to what Melissa was saying. He fel bad for her, he couldn't even fathom how hard it was for her. Yet he also knew she couldn't just shut out Dan. "So. . .why are you so afraid of falling for him?"
Melissa thought for a minute. "I've been hurt by so many guys before," she said. "But Dan is the only one who has treated me well, and I don't want to lose it."
"So why do you shut him out?" Ryan asked. "If you don't want to lose him so badly why do you keep pushing him away?"
"Ryan you could never understand how I feel, I know that what I do makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense to me," she said, then dropped her head with a sigh. She could feel the tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "He's just so great, and I don't deserve great."
Ryan's jaw dropped. "You what? You don't think you're good enough for Dan?" He was almost laughing at the comment. "Mel you are so far from the truth. You don't realize how happy you've made him. You are so good together, and you owe it to yourself to give him a chance. I've known Dan forever, he's my best friend, I know how he is. He's loyal, he would never let you down, and he would never treat or hurt you like everyone else."
The tears sprung from Melissa's eyes and streamed down her cheeks. "I want so badly to be with him Ryan! God fucking dammit why did this have to happen to me?" Ryan moved from his chair and sat beside Melissa on the couch. He wrapped his arms around her quivering body and allowed her to cry on his shoulder. Minutes went by without either of them saying a word. They somehow ended up falling asleep on the couch together, wrapped in each others arms.
~*~*~*~
Nicci smiled to herself as she looked through the window at Melissa and Ryan. 'I couldn't have planned this better even if I had tried,' she thought to herself. Without so much as a single more thought, she took out her camera and took as many photos as she possibly could. 'This is going to be so great,' she thought while trying to contain her laughter.
Frusterated by just sitting around doing nothing, Dan tossed his drumsticks and his lyric book into his backpack. He figured he would have a chance to catch Ryan at his house, since Tori was going to the mall. He left his parents a not, grabbed his skateboard and went out to Ryan's.
center>~*~*~*~*~*~
Tori didn't spend too much time at the mall, she found the perfect outfit to go clubbing in, which needless to say took up all her money. It was a short black cargo skirt, and a black shirt with a vinyl strip across the chest and mesh from the chest up. It would look perfect with her fishnets and knee boots. She happily handed over her Vis PocketCard to make her purchases. She thought to herself as she started walking to Ryan's house ,'Tonight is going to be so much fun. This club is going to kick ass.'
The club she wanted to go to was brand new, it was called "That Damn Place". She and Ryan hadn't been to a club for a while, and a bonus was that some of their friends, a local group called Headfirst, was playing that night. "That Damn Place" was supposed to be one of the best new places to go for teens, even though it was an all ages club.
When Tori was about a block away from Ryan's house she spotted Dan on his skateboard. "Dan! Yo Dan! Wait up man!" she yelled to him.
Dan turned and spotted Tori, once he realized it was her he kicked up his board and waited for her to catch up to him. "Hey girl, what's up?" he asked when she finally reached him.
"Nothing really, just goin' to Ryan's house."
"Yeah me too," he said. "I needed to talk to him about this song we've been writing."
"It's not just a song, is it?" she asked. "Your eyes give it away."
Dan sighed. "Yeah. . .she still won't talk to me. I just wanted to hear about some stuff from him, you know, a second opinion."
"I understand that," she replied. "If it makes any difference, she hasn't really talked with me much either."
"But she's at least talking to you. Everytime I call her house she has her parents say she's washing her hair." By then they had reached Ryan's place, and since they don't normally knock, they just walked in.
"It's kinda quiet in here, maybe he's sleeping," suggested Dan.
"Aww, he's so cute when he's sleeping," Tori cooed. Dan gave her a look. "What? It's not like I'm some psycho stalker teenybopper of to steal his underwear while he sleeps."
"Mmhmm. . .remind me to keep an eye on you around his dresser."
"Dan shut up and get up the damn stairs," she ordered jokingly.
"Yes ma'am," he saluted. "Onwards and upwards to the sleeping Ryan." The two continued to laugh on the way to his room, but once they opened the door, they found that the room was empty.
"He's gotta be in the house, his board is on his bed," Dan observed. "And he wouldn't just leave the front door unlocked.
"Then he's probably in the TV room, it's the only other place he could be when it's this quiet," Tori replied. Dan nodded and then followed her down the stairs. Tori had started softly calling Ryan's name, just in case he might be half asleep or whatever.
They entered the living room, and Dan was the first to see Ryan and Melissa stretched on the couch together. Ryan's arms were wrapped comfortably around Melissa's waist, and his face was somewhere lost between her neck and shoulder. "What the fuck?" Dan said.
Tori was wide eyed and her mouth was agape. "How the hell did this happen?" At this point Ryan had begun to wake up. When he opened his eyes he saw Tori and Dan glaring at him, and then he realized the position he was in.
"Shit, no guys. This isn't what you think," he said in defense as he sat up.
"Like fucking hell it isn't! I can't believe you would do this to me Ry," said Tori as she walked out.
"Man I thought you were my friend," said Dan as he followed Tori out the door.
"Fuck!" Ryan yelled. He looked down at Melissa, who was still sleeping beside him. He didn't want to wake her, she looked so peaceful, but he had to. "Mel, get up. Mel!"
"What?" she grumbled. Ryan gently stroked her long hair.
"We have a problem."