Love Will Save You

-Melanie-

At the end of the third run of Elf, there was a knock on the door. "Hey, guys!" I yelled happily when I opened the door, hugging Ian, Maggie, and Nash. Danielle looked over at the door as they walked in. "Maggie!" she screamed, jumping off the couch and tackling Maggie with a hug. "Danielle!" Maggie screamed, laughing and hugging her back. "Well, don't I feel left out," Ian chuckled. "Ian!" Danielle yelled, laughing and hugging Ian. "Nash is unamused," Nash said in third person, crossing his arms. Danielle let go of Ian and opened her arms to Nash, "Come here." "They got tackled and I have to work for it?" Nash pouted. "Do you want me to tackle you?" she asked seriously. "Yes," he replied simply. "Do I have to scream, too?" "It wouldn't hurt." Danielle giggled and screamed, "Nashy!" She jumped on him, causing him to nearly lose his balance. "Damn, Danielle. You almost killed me," Nash chuckled as she let go of him. She ran over to Jamie and buried her head into his neck, fake crying, "Nashy called me fat!" "Overstreet, I am gonna mess you up!" Jamie laughed, putting his arm around Danielle. "First of all, I did not call her fat! Secondly, bring it on, pretty boy," Nash smirked. Jamie let go of Danielle and looked at Ryan, "In case I don't come back, take care of her." Ryan nodded, laying his arm across Danielle's shoulders, trying not to laugh, "Will do, bro."

Jamie walked over to Nash and they stared at each other for a while before they started slapping each other. (Like Zayn and Niall in The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction. If you haven't seen it, I don't like you. Just watch the first couple minutes to know what I'm talking about here.)

"Guys, can't you see your fighting is tearing this family apart?" I yelled overdramatically. Jamie and Nash froze and looked at me. They moved their hands to their sides and after a few more seconds, Jamie elbowed Nash's side and ran back over to Ryan and Danielle. "I'm alive!" Jamie exclaimed once he got to them, throwing his hands in the air. "My hero," Danielle sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Where's the food around here? I'm starving," Nash groaned. "Usually, it's kept in the kitchen. Or in my room. But if you go in there, I'll end your life so fast, it won't have time to flash before your eyes," Danielle said, smiling innocently at Nash. "You guys practically live here anyway. I know you know where the food is," I laughed. Ian put his hand over his heart, "I can't believe you think we would just come into your home and eat all your food like wild animals!" "But I would. Now let's eat!" Nash yelled, walking toward the kitchen. I rolled my eyes and laughed as everyone followed Nash.

We walked in as Nash closed the fridge an turned around, looking at Danielle and I with sad eyes. "What, Nash?" I asked, trying to hold in a laugh. "You have no food," he pouted. "We have food, it's just obviously not food you want," I giggled. "Yeah, and in our defense, if we knew you all were coming over, we would have been better prepared with something other than cookies and hot chocolate," Danielle added. Nash rushed over to Danielle and shook her shoulders, "When were you planning on telling me you had cookies?!" "I just did," she stuck her tongue out at him. "Jamie, your girlfriend's being mean to me!" Nash yelled, letting go of Danielle. "Well, that's what you get for calling her fat," Jamie smirked. "I didn't call her fat!" "It was implied," Ryan chuckled. "And if Nashy doesn't ever imply it again, Danielle might make him cookies," Danielle sang. "I promise, I promise, I promise!" Nash said. Danielle stuck her pinky out toward him and he linked his own pinky with hers. "Okay! I'm gonna go make cookies now," Danielle said, skipping over to the oven and turning it on. Nash clapped and I laughed, "Nash, you are such a little kid sometimes." "Sometimes?" Ian laughed. "Yeah, more like all the time," Ryan chuckled. Nash started to protest, but Danielle looked up from mixing the ingredients and interrupted him, "Nashy, why don't you come help me make these cookies before you slap someone, huh?" He hung his head and shuffled over to her, mumbling, "Okay."

-Danielle-

Everyone else went back to the living room, Nash and I joining them a few minutes later. "So, is this all you guys do on Christmas?" Nash asked, sitting down on the floor against the couch. "Yeah, pretty much," Melanie answered, plopping herself down on Ryan's lap. "Why?" Jamie asked. "Well, we've never really needed anything elaborate. It's always just been me and Danielle." "So, you never have family over or anything?" Ian asked. "Last year, things happened," I continued for Melanie, seeing her get uncomfortable. "Basically, our families don't like one another. So they told us it was either them, or each other. I love my family, but I don't have the kind of relationship with them that I do with Mel. I couldn't just let that go because they can't get over whatever problem they have with her family. Honestly, I don't know why they hate each other, and I really don't care to know either." "The day my parents told me it was them or Danielle, I immediately chose her. They obviously didn't like my answer, so they kicked me out on the spot," Melanie continued, "I started walking to Danielle's house, and we met halfway, because she was walking to mine. We found out what happened, and knew we had to think of something fast. I mean, they left us with nothing. We just turned 18, so we figured it wouldn't be that difficult to find a job. That's how we met Eli. He'd just graduated college, and took over his family's diner. He didn't fully understand what we were going through, but he was nice enough to give us jobs. In exchange for the work we do at the diner, he lets us live here for free. He owns a few houses that he rents out to people, and this place isn't that far from the diner. I really don't know where we'd be without him." She laid her head on Ryan's shoulder, and I could tell she was holding back tears as Ryan held her closer to him. "Like I said, this isn't really something we like to talk about, much less on Christmas. I guess we just figured it would be the best time to tell you since it was brought up, because you probably would have found out eventually anyway," I smiled softly.

Just then, the timer on the oven went off and Melanie jumped up in a rush to get out of the room, "I'll get those for you, Danielle!" "We really are sorry we pretty much just ruined the mood," I said quietly, noticing everyone just sitting with shocked expressions on their faces. I stood up and walked into the kitchen. "Mel, I know you don't like to talk about it, but we would have had to have told them sooner or later," I said softly. "I know, but I would have rather told them on a day that wasn't meant to be happy," Melanie sighed. "Oh, well. It was brought up, and now they know. We can't exactly go back in time and prevent anyone from asking why it's only us. They would have caught on," I shrugged. "But what if they think of us differently?" Melanie whispered. "Melanie, you know that this won't change anything. And you know Ryan is still going to love you no matter what happens. Unless you ruin his shoes or something. Then he might go a little crazy," I smiled. Melanie laughed, "I guess so."

I took the plate Melanie was holding, putting the rest of the cookies on it for her. "Now, let's go back in there and spread some Christmas cheer!" I draped my arm across her shoulder as she smiled and we walked back into the living room.

"Alright, people," I exclaimed, "No more sadness! Only happy faces and food comas!" I sat the plate on the coffee table. I looked at Nash as I set the plate down, "There you go, cookie monster." He grinned widely and grabbed a few cookies off the plate. "Nash! Sharing is caring," Jamie laughed, smacking Nash's hand. "Boy, you better watch yourself. Your lover made these for me," Nash said. Jamie looked at me and I threw my hands up, "I want no part of this." "You made them! Tell him to share," Jamie stuck out his bottom lip. "Sorry, Jaim. It's out of my hands," I laughed. "What was that?" I yelled, "Oh, sorry guys. Looks like Twitter's calling my name. Be back when the cookies are gone. Bye!" I turned around to run out of the room, but Ryan grabbed my arm, "Hey, if I have to watch them fight to the death, so do you, missy!" "Ryan," I groaned, "Twitter needs me!" "I'm sure Twitter needs me, too, but you don't see me tweeting all the time." "Yeah, and it's really annoying. You should do it more," I replied, sticking my tongue out at him. He looked at Melanie and she simply shrugged, "It kinda is. And when you do tweet, it's really weird." Ryan pretended to be sad, "Well, I didn't know people thought this." "We're just speaking from a fan's point of view, Ry," I laughed, patting his back. "My life will not be complete until I get a tweet from you," Melanie sighed dramatically.

Ryan pulled out his phone and started typing away. He stopped typing, setting his phone on his leg and smiling innocently at Melanie. She raised her eyebrows at him, jumping slightly and reaching into her pocket, pulling out her phone. She started laughing, "You're such a smartass, Follese." "But you loooove me," he smiled at her. "That I do," Melanie giggled, leaning over and kissing him.