Love Will Save You

-Melanie-

*Two and a half months later*

Danielle and I were on the couch watching whatever shitty movies were on Lifetime just like every other day after work. The good thing about our job, aside from Eli being the best boss ever, is we work 7:30am to 12pm. And it's not that we don't like Lifetime, we just like to make fun of the acting. But we could go over that another time.

Danielle was laying down, her legs hanging over the armrest, and I was sitting on the seat beside her head. There was a knock on the door, and usually, Danielle was the first one calling it. I already knew why she didn't this time, because it was the same reason she hadn't been for the past two weeks. She'd always gotten her hopes up when she answered the door, thinking the band would be home early, but each time, it was never them, so she just gave up.

"You've really got to stop moping around," I said, standing up and walking over to the door. "They'll be back in-" I stopped when I opened it and grinned widely, "-right now." "Ha, ha. Very funny. You're only saying that so I'll get up and be happy for a split second, only to find out Jamie isn't really standing there with some stupid, cute smile on his face, just waiting for me to jump into his arms," she said, not bothering to look away from the TV. "So, that's completely out of the question then?" Jamie asked, stepping into the house. Danielle sat up slowly and turned her head toward the front door. Her eyes were starting to get watery and she screamed, "Jamie!" before hopping off the couch and jumping into his arms.

Ryan walked toward me, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing me. Had it not been the fact that I needed to breathe, I probably wouldn't have pulled away. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked excitedly. "The last few shows of the tour got cancelled because the headlining band had some personal things to take care of," Jamie said, still holding Danielle. "So, about that deal we made about touring," Ryan said, looking at Danielle. "What about it?" she mumbled into Jamie's shoulder. "You can't mumble, this is exciting news!" She moved her head slightly so her voice wasn't so muffled this time, "You're going to have to work with this then, because I'm not moving from this spot anytime soon." Jamie chuckled and hugged her tighter as Ryan continued, "We got an offer to go on tour in the U.K. and we're doing it. And, since you girls promised, you're coming with us." "Seriously?" Danielle asked, finally lifting herself off of Jamie. "Seriously," Ryan repeated. "Whoa," I said, "Slow down. Part of the deal was us having enough notice. When does the tour start?" "Next month," Ryan replied. "Shit," I mumbled. "Um, I'll be right back." I walked upstairs to my room and sat down on my bed, running my hands through my hair.

-Ryan-

I watched as Melanie went up the stairs. I looked at Danielle, but she had her eyes on the hallway Mel just walked down. She didn't even look at me, but I could tell she knew what I was thinking when she started talking. "When Mel and I were seniors, we had this chance to go to Spain with our Spanish class. Everything was packed and ready and we met our class at the airport. We got on the plane, and everything was fine until we were about to land." She turned to face me, "Only the back two tires came out. The front one got stuck, and we hit the runway. We luckily weren't going fast enough to do any major damage and no one was killed. The worst injury was someone having to get stitches in his forehead from hitting the window when we landed. They wouldn't tell us how or why it happened. She doesn't like to bring it up, but I know she's still terrified of it."

"Where is she?" I asked quietly. "First door on the left," Danielle said. "Thanks," I whispered, running up the steps. I knocked, and I faintly heard Melanie say, "It's open." I turned the handle and saw her sitting on her bed, playing with her phone. She looked up at me and I sat beside her, "You don't have to go if you don't want to." "But I promised I would." "That was before you knew where we were going. No one could have guess we'd be offered to go to a different country, much less a country overseas." "But I still promised. And I want to go with you guys. It's just...flying...and... I don't know. I'm just being stupid," she looked down again. "You're not being stupid. What would be stupid is if you hated flying because the peanuts don't have enough salt on them." She giggled and said, "But what if that's another reason?" "Well, I'll bring a jar of peanuts for you," I smiled. "Would you even if the peanuts on the plane had the perfect amount of salt on them?" "If you want me to, I will." "Okay," she said. "So, does that mean you'll go?" "I guess so. But you have to sit beside me." "I wouldn't want to sit by anyone else," I smiled, kissing her forehead.

All of a sudden, we heard screaming coming from downstairs and we ran out to see what it was. "J-J-Jamie! S-stop!" Danielle yelled in between laughs as Jamie tickled her stomach. "Never!" Jamie yelled back. "Are we interrupting something?" I asked, chuckling. Jamie stopped tickling Danielle and said, "Not at all." Once his hands were away from her, Danielle stood up and ran over behind me and Melanie. "He was being a bully," she pouted. "Aw," I laughed, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, "It'll be okay. We won't let him be mean to you anymore." "Why are you taking her side? She started it!" Jamie yelled, faking anger. "Alright, what did she do?" Melanie asked, trying not to laugh. "She said she was better looking than I am," Jamie replied simply. Melanie and I looked at each other and started cracking up. "What?!" Jamie yelled again. "It's not nice to bully people who are better looking than you, Jamie," Melanie said, still laughing. "HA!" Danielle pointed at Jamie, "I told you I was better looking!" "It's not nice to point at people, missy," Melanie said. Mel and I looked at each other and grinned as I took my arms away from Danielle's shoulders. "Oh, God. Please don't do it," Danielle said, looking at us. "Too late!" Melanie pushed on Danielle's back so she stumbled toward Jamie. He started tickling her again and she screamed in between laughs, "You guys suck!"

Danielle smirked when Jamie stopped for a split second, grabbing his face and kissing his lips. We could tell he was shocked, but he kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I win," she smiled when they pulled away a couple seconds later. Jamie breathed in deeply, "You win this battle, but the war isn't over." She smiled at him and gave him another kiss.

"What do you have to eat around here? I'm starved from all that traveling," Jamie asked as we walked into the kitchen. "We have Lucky Charms, Mini Wheats, Frosted Flakes..." Melanie replied. "So, only cereal?" I asked, laughing. She shrugged, "Yeah, pretty much." "No, Mel. We have those popsicles in the freezer," Danielle said. "Yeah, but God knows how long those have been there," Melanie laughed. "Whatever, we still have them!" Melanie and Danielle looked at each other and Mel said, "Nope. Not gonna go it." "Must...resist..." Danielle said. Jamie looked at me questioningly as I just laughed, "Go ahead." Melanie, Danielle, and I all started singing Whatever, and when Jamie caught on, he joined us.

We all laughed when we were done and Danielle said, "Why don't we just go out to eat?" "Yeah, I'd much rather eat something other than cereal today," Melanie laughed. The girls started to reach for their wallets before Jamie and I grabbed their hands. "Nope," I said. "We're buying." "But you guys just got home! We wanna buy you food," Danielle protested. "I don't think so," Jamie said. "You guys obviously can't afford anything other than cereal." Melanie put her hand on her chest and gasped, "Jamie! I take offense to that!" "You know it's true," I said, sticking my tongue out at her. "It's not true! We've just eaten everything in the house and have been too lazy to get more food," Danielle shrugged. "We buy, you pick the place," Jamie said, putting his arm around Danielle's shoulder, pulling her toward the door. "No arguments. It'll be like a double date," I said, grabbing Melanie's hand and following Jamie and Danielle. "But what if we-" Danielle started before Jamie interrupted her, "We're not splitting either." Danielle sighed, "Fine." Jamie opened the door and Danielle yelled, "Wait!" "What?" I groaned. "I was just gonna say Mel and I need to get our phones. No need for the attitude, Mr. Follese." "Alright, you've got 10 seconds," I smirked. They ran upstairs and I started counting down, "5... 4... 3... 2..." Before I said 1, they jumped off the last step and high-fived each other, yelling "Made it!" and laughing. "Come on," Jamie whined, "I'm hungry!" Danielle stuck out her arm toward him, "And I'm Danielle. Pleasure meeting you." Jamie looked at her, "Ha ha ha. Aren't you adorable." "Yes, yes I am. We already had this discussion." Melanie pushed them both outside and said, "Break it up, you two. Let's go eat!" And with that, we were out the door.