“Meli, please talk to us. What happened?” Pretty sure it was Dee that time.
“Is that fucking Mandy?” One of them asks and my body jolts at the name. I have to get out of here before Mandy sees that her words have had their desired effect. I can break down and lose it later, but I will be damned if I let her have the satisfaction of watching me do it.
“Not here,” I croak and pull some cash from my wallet. After throwing it down, I take off to the door, making sure I don’t give away to Mandy how upset I am.
I feel like someone has just removed my heart. My skin feels tight and my face hurts from holding my emotions in check. The burn that has taken up residence in my chest is making its way up my throat and I know that in seconds I won’t be able to hold back the sobs.
“Meli, wait . . . please!” I can feel Izzy running up to me but I have my car in sight and escape on the horizon. “Melissa!”
She grabs my arm hard enough to prevent me from walking any further and turns me to her. I can feel my tears bubbling over, and when I open my mouth to tell her to drop it, I hardly recognize the sound that escapes. It’s the sound of my heart shattering into millions of unbreakable pieces.
“Sweetie, what is going on?”
“Did you know?” I whisper, my voice wobbling and the tears still streaming down my face. “Did you know?” I ask again with more force.
She jerks back slightly at my question, her brow furrows, and she shakes her head, “Meli, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Did I know what?”
I shake my head a few times and try to get to my car again. I don’t know where Mandy is, but I know with that bomb, she isn’t going to miss her chance to make sure it hit its mark. “I have to leave, Izzy. I can’t be here when I fall apart.” I beg.
“You can’t drive either. Come on, you can come with me and I’ll take you home.”
“NO!” I start to force my way around her but she holds firm. Jesus . . . I have the size advantage on her short frame; how is she able to hold me back? “I’m not going home, not going to him!”
She seems even more confused at how fiercely I am refusing to go to Greg.
“Please, I can’t go home.” My strength is crumbling and my body is starting to shake with the effort it is taking to hold it in.
“Fine sweetie, that’s fine. Come on. Let’s figure out where you want to go while we’re on the road, okay?”
She folds me in the seat, hands me my purse, and makes quick work in getting around the car and taking off. I have no idea where I am going to go, but I know I can’t see Greg right now. At this point, I don’t know if I will ever be able to face him again.
The last thing I see before we pull out of the lot is Mandy bursting through the front of Heavy’s with Dee hot on her heels. She looks around but when she doesn’t see what she is looking for, she turns on Dee and starts waving her hands around.
At least I’m out of there before she is able to watch me crumble. I can hear Izzy asking me where to go, and talk on her phone a few times, but I am in my own world. I pull my legs up toward my body and welcome the tears.
CHAPTER 22
Greg
When I wake up on the couch, I am slightly confused. The house is still dark and silent but glancing at the clock and seeing it is well past midnight, I know something is wrong. Melissa would never let me stay on the couch if she had already come home.
Damn, I am exhausted. I feel like the stress of keeping something from the girl I love is slowly eating at me. I know this talk isn’t going to be easy, but it needs to be done. I just have to have enough faith in us and our love to know that she will be able to forgive me for keeping it from her.
Pulling myself off the couch and stretching my sore muscles from sleep, I take off in search for my girl. Maybe I didn’t do such a good job letting her know that everything is okay. She knows something is off, but I don’t think she could be so mad that she wouldn’t come home. Sure, we have had our share of fights, but they have been over little things like leaving the lid off the toothpaste.
Ten minutes later, I am officially starting to worry. She isn’t here. Not only is she not here, but it doesn’t look like she’s been here since before I got home. All of her stuff is still here, but she isn’t.