Stay

“Think you made your greatest mistake. I’m not gonna call this a break. Think you really blew it this time. Think you could walk on such a thin line. Won’t be takin’ your midnight calls. Ignore the rocks you throw at my wall. I see it written on your face you know you made it, your greatest mistake. When the last straw is broken when the last door is closing I ain’t that dumb to stick around, stick around.” – Demi Lovato

“Why would you do that?” Joe asked his younger brother who stood in front of him.

“You don’t understand Joe.” Nick said shaking his head. “I had to.”

“You didn’t have to do this!” Joe yelled. “You should have been there for Melody!”

“Don’t you think I know that Joe!” Nick replied his fists curling. “I never thought this would happen.”

Melody closed her eyes as she continued to listen to the brother’s fight outside of the bedroom she had locked herself in. She wanted to tell them to stop but she didn’t have the energy to move from the bed. She felt exhausted and her body refused to do anything until she had rested fully.

“Just leave Nick!” Joe finally yelled fed up with his brothers excuses.

“Not until I see Melody.” Nick said standing his ground.

“If you don’t leave right now I’ll throw you out.”

Joe and Nick were face to face at this point just waiting to do something. Nick was not going to leave without explaining himself to Melody. He knew once he left his parents’ house he was going to drink. There was no stopping it now. The drinking would be worse if he never got the chance to see Melody and he would probably do something stupid later once he was drunk to try and make it up to her.

“Get the fuck out Nick, maybe you can go find that whore you’ve been seeing behind Melody’s back.” Joe said trying to get a reaction out of his brother so he could do what he desperately wanted to do.

Nick couldn’t stop himself from punching Joe right in the jaw causing Joe to stager back before swinging at Nick in return. Before the fight could escalate Kevin and Kevin Sr. we’re pulling the brothers away from each other.

“Fuck you, Joe.” Nick yelled trying to get out of his father’s strong grip.

“Joseph go outside with Karen and cool off.” Denise instructed her son.

Kevin let go of Joe and stood between him and Nick. Joe sent one last glare at Nick before he walked ahead of Karen out the door to the back yard.

“Now Nick settle down or you’ll have to leave.” Denise said turning to Nick. “Melody needs to rest so you won’t be able to see her today.”

“She’s my girlfriend.” Nick said still struggling against Kevin Sr.

“I understand that Nick but maybe you should lie down too and calm down.” Denise said nodding at her husband who instantly let go of Nick.

Nick reluctantly follows his mom to a spare room where he laid down and the weight of the day’s events finally hits him. He turns his face into the pillow next to him and sobs into it. The realizations that he is no longer going to be a father making him feel empty and helpless. He needed to be with Melody so that they could be together through this. He knew he had messed up by being out with another girl and for having his phone off. He had seen the missed calls and text messages but he had ignored him thinking it was probably something he could deal with later. When he finally took the time to look at his phone he instantly left the event he was at and drove to his parents’ house without any explanation to the people he was with.

Melody waited until she couldn’t hear anymore voices near the room she was in before sitting up. She needed to see Nick; no matter what he did she knew he was going to be handling this badly. Stumbling towards the door Melody slowly opened the door and looked around the hall. With no one in sight she quickly crossed the hall to the room where she thought Nick would be. When she opened the door she let out the breath she had been holding as she saw Nick lying face down on the bed. Melody walked over to the bed and sat down next to Nick’s warm body. He slowly turned his head to look at Melody and they just looked at each other for a second before Nick spoke.

“I’m sorry.” He said fresh tears now falling. “I am really sorry I wasn’t there for you today.”

Melody let Nick pull her into a hug and cried into his shoulder. Nick kept saying how sorry he was and all Melody could do was say it was fine. They both knew it wasn’t and after that day things were going to be different between them for a while, if they even stayed together.

“Can you explain to me what you were doing?” Melody finally asked.

“Of course.” Nick agreed with a nod. “My new manager came up with a way to tell my fans about you and the-well about you.

“He told me to pretend to see this girl, I guess she’s a model or something, and then in a couple of weeks the story would come out that you and I had dated a few months before. After we broke up you found out you were pregnant and then I’d get back together with you for the baby. I was at an event earlier which is why I couldn’t answer my phone.”

“I see.” Melody said thinking over everything in her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you would be mad so I was trying to wait until I had to tell you.” Nick admitted. “I know I should have told you right away.”

“No, you never should have agreed to it.” Melody said moving away from Nick. “Maybe it was good we lost her.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying we were obviously not ready to have a baby together. I tried telling you that from the beginning.”

“Stop.” Nick said. “We were ready.”

“No, Nick, I always knew this wasn’t a good idea.” Melody said sadly. “I loved her Nick, but she wasn’t meant to be ours. And maybe we just weren’t meant to be together.”