What Can I Say?

"Cover up with make up in the mirror, Tell yourself it's never gonna, happen again You cry alone and then he swears he loves you, Do you feel like a man, when you push her around? Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?” – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Melody was surprised to receive a message from Hollywood records; it had been months since she last heard from them. As she listened to the message her heart skipped a few beats. She had to go on tour with him.

"Hey babe, what's up?"

Melody shut her phone and looked up at her boyfriend. "They want me to do a press tour."

"That's great babe!" Her boyfriend exclaimed.

"No, Brad, they want me to do a press tour with Nick."

Brad's face fell as her words hit him. They hadn't spoken about Nick since the first night after
Melody and Nick had their final fight. It was a shock for Brad to hear his name now.

"Why?" Brad asked. He knew what would happen if Nick and Melody saw each other again.

"For his album, I guess they want me there to talk about some of the songs." Melody sighed. She couldn't believe she was going to have to have to face him again.

"Can you refuse?" Brad asked hopeful.

"I could but I don't want to." Melody replied. "This could be a good thing for my career."

Brad looked away from Melody; she could tell he was hurt. "Are you sure this isn't so you can
see Nick again?"

"Of course not." Melody said quickly.

"Whatever." Brad said then turned away from Melody.

"Brad wait." Melody said catching up to Brad as he reached the door.

Melody grabbed Brad's arm in an effort to stop him from leaving. In the second it took for Melody's hand to close around his arm Brad turned around and pushed her so hard she fell to the floor. Melody scrambled to get up as Brad grabbed for her.

"Get away from me!" Melody screamed.

"Shut up!" Brad screamed as his hand clamped down on Melody's ankle and pulled her
towards him.

Melody struggled to get out of Brad's grip on her leg, but he was too strong. He pinned her to the floor and leaned in close to her face.

"You want to leave me for that asshole? Go for it bitch." Brad said in a deadly whisper. "But you'll be running back to me when he fucks you over again."

Brad slapped Melody so hard she saw stars. Melody cried and tried to push Brad away. He put a hand to her throat, but didn't put any pressure into it.

"I could do it. I could make sure you never saw him again." Brad said adding enough pressure to Melody's neck to make her panic.

Melody dug her nails into Brad's hand in an attempt to make him let go of her neck. Brad finally let go with a final, painful, squeeze of his hand on her neck. He stood up and looked down on a 'crying Melody.

"You tell anyone about this and I'll kill you." Brad turned away and slammed the door as he left.

Melody curled up on the floor in front of her door and cried until she fell asleep. When she woke up the next morning she had a text message from Brad with a long apology. She skimmed the message then deleted it. She took a long hot shower then looked at the damage that was done.

There was a bright black and blue mark around her throat and a not as noticeable bruise on her cheek. With a heavy sigh she applied enough make up to cover the bruise on her face, but no amount of makeup could cover the massive bruise on her throat. After finding a scarf to wear Melody left for the meeting with the record company.

The last thing she wanted to do was be around people but she had to go to this meeting, besides it kept her mind off of the terrible experience. She hadn't given herself anytime to think about what to do about Brad. She focused on trying her best to be normal. Besides it wasn't the first time he had hurt her, but it had never happened like that before.
She walked into the big office building where she was told the meeting would be held. She went up to the tenth floor, in the elevator her nerves finally hit. Her palms began to sweat as she made the ascend up. As she entered the office where the meeting was being held the first thing she saw was the curly hair of the man she once loved.

Nick turned when she walked into the room and his breath caught in his thought as his eyes fell on Melody. Their eyes meet for a brief second before Melody looked away.

"Hello Ms. Crenshaw!" The man sitting behind a big oak desk exclaimed. "So glad you could make it."

Melody shook the man’s hand then sat down in a chair next to Nick. She fought the urge to look at him again. The last thing she needed was to fall for him again.

"Well now that everyone is here let’s get down to business. The press tour will start next week. We'll start here in California then go to New York. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect." Nick replied.

Melody nodded a silent agreement when the focus was on her. "Yeah, perfect."

The meeting ended a few minutes later after Melody was given a list of all the places they would be going.

Melody silent left the room and made her way towards the elevators. Unfortunately she had to share the elevator.

"So are you excited?"

Melody glanced at Nick but didn't say anything. She wasn't going to pretend to be friends with
him, not after what happened between them. She looked away regretting the one small glance, it made her miss him.

“Look Mel, we-“

“Don’t call me that.” Melody said glaring at Nick.

“Sorry. I was just going to say we need to get along if we’re going to be on this tour.” Nick continued as if Melody hadn’t interrupted him.

He watched as Melody thought about what he said. He hoped they could at least be friends, even if it was only while they were on this tour. He missed talking to her and seeing her every day and this tour meant he would be seeing her a lot more.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Melody said slowly.

Melody wanted to be friends with Nick, even though her brain kept telling her that was a bad idea, but she knew Brad would be furious. Right now pissing Brad off wasn’t a good idea.

Nick nodded his head sadly. “Ok.”

The doors of the elevator opened and Nick was the first one off. He needed to get a drink before heading home to his girlfriend. It was going to be a long night.

Melody didn’t want to go home any more then Nick wanted to. She knew Brad would be waiting for with some sort of present to make up for what he did and she would of course let back into her life. It was a cycle she couldn’t break even if she wanted to.