Someday, I'll Appreciate in Value

She phoned him immediately when she got home. He and Melanie got into it when the gang was over at his place for a movie. Melanie ordered everyone to leave as she yelled at him in the kitchen.

"Bitch." Pete spat as they exited the house.

"Did you need a ride home, Chanelle?" Joe asked her as he fiddled with his car keys.

"I'm fine, homes. I'll just walk."

"Sure?"

"It's fiiine. I'll see y'all later." she began to walk in the opposite direction from Pete, Joe, Andy and Amy, Joe's girlfriend.

"Bye! See ya!" They waved as she played with her ipod.

★★★

"Is everything alright?" She asked quietly through the phone.

"Yeah. I'm fine, Chanelle." his voice was weaker than usual. "Don't worry about me."

"You guys didn't...(break up)...did you?"

"No."

She sighed impatiently. She didn't know why he stuck around with Melanie so much. He was such a sweet guy, but sometimes so sweet that girls would step all over him. Chanelle and Pete got so tired of this being done to their best friend. If it weren't for that powerful voice of his, he'd be a goner. What the hell did he see in Melanie anyway? Sure, she had long, shiny, beautiful hair, and a nice body, but her attitude was horrible.

"Do you want me to come by?" Chanelle offered.

"Isn't it late for you to go out? You might get hurt."

"Are you kidding, Patrick, I'll be fine."

Walking down the dark street, only lit by the dim street lamps, she thought of all the harsh things Melanie said to him.

It all flashed back in her mind.

"Why do you keep day dreaming, Pat! In the end, you'll just become another nobody in this wasteland of a town! You're going no where, just like me! I'm the best you'll have." Glass broke over the sounds of deteriorating dreams and quiet sobs. Chanelle's gut said to run into that kitchen, stake the bitch in the "heart", pull Patrick by his tortured wrists and give him a hug.

Now at his door, he opened up, with a new scar on his eyebrow. "Chanelle."

"Patrick." She gave him a squeezing hug as he returned the favor. Then he escorted her into the house.

"Patrick," she stopped. "What happened to your eyebrow?"

"Um," he paused, "I had a zit."

She crossed her arms. "You have the nicest skin out of all the people I know. And, if you did have a zit, you wouldn't pick at it."

Patrick's lips curled into a smirk. "Okay." Stalker. "It's not a zit..."

"Tell me, hon." hon? The two sat on the couch.

"Well, she...may have... threatened...[me]...with a [broken] beer bottle."

"That drunken whore." Chanelle thought. She held his hands, which were warm and sweaty. "Why do you let this go on? You deserve better."

His tone got weaker. "How, Channie. She's the best I'll have. She said."

"You're not stupid, Pat! I know. You're a great person."

"What's so great about me?" He said sorrowfully.

"Hellooo! Your voice? You could crush a person with it. And you kill at the drums. You give the best hugs out of anyone I know."

"Even Joe?"

"Even Joe. And you know Joe. He can hug."

Patrick giggled.

"...I miss when you smile...You haven't forever. Not since--"

"I can't, Chanelle." He got up and began to pace. "She's all I know."

"Pat...Patrick!" She got up and held him by his tortured wrists.

"Ow!" he quietly said as he winced.

"Look what she's done to you. She treats you like shit. And I know your self-esteem wasn't this way when you two met. Tell me, would you treat Pete and I the way she treats you?"

Tears rolled down his cheeks. "No."

"Would you treat anyone like that?"

He shook his head.

"Why do you take it? There are people who do care, hon."

Patrick sat back down; Chanelle joined. He cried on her shoulder.

"I don't mean to hurt you..."

"I know." He lifted his head. "I like you, Chanelle."

"...I love you, Pat."

★★★

Patrick sniffled. "Really?"

"More...than anything." Her stomach sank and she sighed. Rejection was near, she thought to herself.

Patrick looked down. "Gee, I don't know. I mean--" he interrupted himself with a gentle kiss on her lips.

Chanelle blushed. "What was tha--"

He interrupted her with another. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She smiled."I like this."

He chuckled. "What do I do now?"

"Well, you could hold me a little closer."

He wrapped his arm around her.

She wrapped both of her arms around him. And for once in three years, he felt that Melanie couldn't hurt him anymore.

"And you are going somewhere." She said.

"And I'm taking you there with me."

★★★