Love Will Save You

-Melanie-

After taking a shower, I stood over my bed, looking at the clothes Danielle laid out for me before sighing and putting them on.

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"Are you sure this isn't too casual?" I asked as I slipped on my shoes. "Who's your stylist?" Danielle asked, putting her hand on her hip. I rolled my eyes and laughed, "You are." "Then don't worry about it. He'll think you're the hottest thing he's ever laid his pretty little eyes on!" "I don't know about that one," I mumbled. Danielle sighed, "You need to get it through your head that you're nothing less than beautiful and any guy who says otherwise is blind." "Well, you're obviously blind because there were a lot of prettier girls at the concert last night," I replied, tying my shoe before standing up. "Then I guess Ryan is blind because he asked you out, yeah? But trust me when I tell you he's into you. Whether you want to admit it to yourself or not is your choice."

We heard a knock on the door and Danielle screamed, running out of the room, "Called it!" "What?! No!" I yelled back, running after her. I ran past her and she pulled back on my shirt, getting in front of me. I grabbed her shirt ready to pull her back as well, but she was already ripping the door open.

Ryan looked at the hand that was holding Danielle's shirt and I let go quickly. He chuckled and said, "Ready to go?" I nodded and he held out his hand. I stared at it and Danielle elbowed my side. I looked at her and she nodded toward his hand. I slowly extended my arm out to him and he grabbed my hand, pulling me outside.

As Ryan and I were walking to his car, I silently thanked him for not being too dressed up. He walked me over to the passenger side, letting go of my hand to open the door for me. I smiled at him as I climbed in and he closed the door before running to the other side of the car.

I was playing with my fingers as we sat in comfortable silence until reaching the restaurant. I looked out the window and chuckled, "Olive Garden?" Ryan smiled, "Isn't this where all first dates happen?" "I suppose they do," I laughed, unbuckling my seatbelt and reaching to open my door. "Hold on!" Ryan yelled, jumping out of the car and running to my side, opening my door for me. "Ladies should always have doors opened for them." "Well, aren't you such a gentleman," I giggled, stepping out onto the pavement. "Why, yes. Yes, I am," he smiled, closing the door. He stuck his elbow out toward me and said, "Shall we, Miss Pandocchi?" I linked my arm with his and smiled, "We shall, Mr. Follese."

Dinner was dinner. I may or may not have eaten all the breadsticks before our actual meal got there, and I may or may not have smacked Ryan's hand when he reached for one. I hope they realize they're wasting a lot of food by putting breadsticks out 20 minutes before you actually get what you ordered. But no one asked me.

When the check got to us, Ryan and I had a 10 minute argument about paying. Lucky for him, our waitress came back for the check while I was in the bathroom. I got back to the table and looked at a grinning Ryan and said, "She came back while I was gone, didn't she?" He shrugged, still grinning. "I will pay you back for that, Ryan." He smiled, standing up, "Alright, alright. How?" "I'll let you come up with that," I said as he grabbed my hand and we walked outside to his car. He opened the door for me again and walked over to his side of the car with a smile on his face. He drove to the park, so there was another 10 minutes of comfortable silence.

"Should I even bother?" I asked, gesturing toward the door handle. "Nope," Ryan replied, smiling. He got out and jogged to my side of the car again, opening the door. As I stood up and walked out of the way of the door, he leaned toward me and whispered, "You look beautiful, by the way." I looked down at the ground and bit my lip, fighting the urge to giggle like an idiot. I heard the car door shut behind me and I felt Ryan grab my hand again, interlocking our fingers. I looked at our hands and smiled before looking back up in front of me. We talked about everything and nothing again, which kind of shocked me, because I thought there was nothing else to talk about.

"So, I figured out what you can do to pay me back," Ryan said after another one of our comfortable silences. "And what might that be?" "Let me kiss you," he said. I looked up at him and he looked down at me. "I don't mean a quick one, but I don't mean a makeout session." "Um, s-sure," I stuttered.

He rested his hand on my cheek and started leaning closer to me. I closed my eyes, and I could feel his breath on my face, when I heard "It's been a really, really messed up week. Seven days of torture, seven days of bitter." coming from my pocket. I jumped and backed away from Ryan trying to quickly pull my phone out. "What?!" I answered as Ryan chuckled at what I was assuming was my ringtone. "Get on Twitter," I heard Danielle say quickly."Why? I'm kinda busy right now." "Melanie, I am sorry I'm ruining your date, but get the fuck on Twitter right now!" she nearly screamed. I moved my phone away from my ear before she busted my eardrum, "Alright. Jesus. Hold on." I put Danielle on speaker and pushed a couple keys, logging into Twitter, only to find my timeline full of tweets by Sarah.

"@SarahhAlexiss: Why would he asked her out."

"@SarahhAlexiss: What does she think she's doing with him?"

"@SarahhAlexiss: I can't believe that whore stole my man."

I couldn't believe what I was reading. He was never hers, and I'm most certainly not a whore. "What... I don't... How..." I tried to form sentences, but it wasn't working. Ryan took my phone out of my shaking hand and read the tweets with the same shocked expression I had. "Um, she'll have to call you back, Danielle." "Yeah, sure, Ryan. No problem. I love you, Mel," she said before hanging up.

I looked down at my shoes, running my hand through my hair, trying to stop the tears from falling. I hated crying in front of people, and the fact that the person standing in front of me was Ryan Follese wasn't helping. "Hey, Melanie, you okay?" I shrugged and tried to sniffle quietly, but I knew he heard it. "Mel... Look at me," he said, putting his index and middle finger under my chin, lifting my head up to look at him. He smiled softly at me and moved his hands to the sides of my face, wiping the tears I failed at holding in.

When he was done, he didn't move his hands back down. He kept them on my cheeks and said, "Don't listen to her. She's just jealous. She'll get over it." I shook my head, "You don't know her like I do. She won't let it go. She'll do anything possible to make my life more of a living hell than she already does." "Well, she's just going to have to get over it, because she's not the one I like," Ryan said, smiling at me. "Oh, you like Danielle, don't you?" I asked sarcastically. "Yeah, I asked you out because I like your friend, Mel," he laughed. I sighed dramatically, "I knew it! She's a player, that girl is." Ryan laughed again before almost whispering, "You're not expecting any more calls, are you?" "Um, no, I don't think I am," I said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Good," he smiled before taking my face in his hands again and leaning toward me.

Only this time, our lips connected.