Back Into Your Arms

Chapter 38

10 Years Ago

"I'm really nervous" I said to Mel as I waited for her brother to come out of her house.

"Don't be, it's going to be great, have confidence" she said to me as she reached for my hand.
We heard a door slam as we watched her brother walking towards us.

"Hey there man" He said entering the car and shaking my hand. He reeked of cologne, Mel and I just looked at each other.

"Did the perfume bottle spill on you?" Mel asked him laughing.

"What? No"

She laughed.

I drove and we arrived at the small venue.

"No one is going to show up" I said to her nervously as we walked in.

"I'm sure everyone from school will show up, relax" she said motioning me to move closer so she could kiss my cheek.

"I'll be in the crowd, look for me" she said and smiled. I nodded and proceeded to walk backstage.

"Her brother tagged along?" Garrett asked me confused.

"He's the chaperone"

"Ah"

"Are you ready?"

"No, not really"

"Oh c’mon John, lighten up" Jesse the lead guitarist of another band playing that night said walking over to me, he put his hand on my shoulder.

"You're not the one singing" I rolled my eyes.

"True, but c’mon since when are you shy?, have a beer" He suggested.

"I have to drive home"

"Let your brother in law drive, if you don't drink, how else will you relax?" He said handing me a beer.

I was uneasy about it, but I knew it would help, so I took it.

Little did I know, that Brandon would also drink that night.
The other bands went on to perform before us, and my nerves only became stronger, which led to another beer, and another.
By the time it was time for us to go on stage, I was already drunk and full of confidence.
I got on stage and addressed the crowd, and we started playing, and I was singing and letting lose with the crowd.
I had forgotten to look for Melody.
The whole time I performed I did not look for Melody not once.
When we got off the stage Pat came up to me.

“Did you see Mel in the crowd?”

It was then that I remembered.

“Oh my God, I didn’t look for her, I should go back up-”

“John, how many beers did you freaking drink?”

“3, 4? I don’t remember, oh my gosh” I said slapping my face.

“You’re freaking underage, you can get in trouble!”

“I know, shut up, you don’t have to scream it so loud…did YOU see Mel?”

“Yeah, I did”

“Was she upset?”

“Why don’t you go find out for yourself?” Garrett said from behind me.

I walked out and made my way to the audience, looking for her. My height was both an advantage and a disadvantage.
I spotted Mel by the bar, she was arguing with someone.
I tried to make my way to her, but I was stopped by a couple of girls from school.
My eyes met hers. She shook her head in disbelief and continued arguing.

“Hey-hey I need to go; I can’t really talk to you girls right now” I insisted but they weren’t letting me go.

I tried to deal with them as quickly as possible but by the time they left, Mel was no longer by the bar.
I couldn’t find her anywhere.
The guy she was arguing with was still there, it was then that I realized it was her brother, and he was even more drunk than me.

“Brandon, where’s Mel”

“She said she was leaving” he said his voice slurred.

“Leaving?”

“Yup, said she was done with us both, but how is she going to get home? She doesn’t have the keys” her brother said laughing.

I ran out of the building looking for her, there were so many people, I was losing my mind and I didn’t have my phone to call her.
It was then that I heard her voice.

“I have a boyfriend, leave me alone”

I turned my head right away towards the direction of the voice. She was standing there with some guy standing a little too close to her. She looked uncomfortable and very upset.

“Hey!” I yelled out, both Mel and the guy turned my way.

“That’s your boyfriend?” the guy said and laughed.

“Yeah”

“You deserve better” he told her.

“I do” I heard her whisper.

The guy just laughed even more, and began to walk away.

“I really don’t want to speak to you right now John”

“Mel-”

“You’re freaking drunk!”

“I’m sor-"

“Who the hell is driving us home? ME?”

“I’ll call-"

“Brandon is drunk too, can you believe that? What the hell am I suppose to tell my parents?"

I knew she wasn’t going to let me speak, so I didn’t bother.

“MY parents barely let me come here, they said that this was a place where people come to get drunk and do drugs, and I denied it, I freaking denied it, yet look at you, and look at Brandon. What, did you smoke too?”

Fortunately, Pat came out to look for me.

“I told Tim to call your parents, your dad is coming to pick you guys up”

“Thank you Pat, finally someone who is freaking responsible” I heard Mel say, she just shook her head, folded her arms and followed Pat inside to look for Brandon, not looking at me once.
Brandon was really drunk, and I was left to wonder what had led him to drink so much.
My Dad arrived to pick us up. I had never seen my Dad so upset with me.
He didn’t speak to me, not once.
I just sat there in the back of the car, regretting everything.

“I’d like to speak to John alone before we go in” she told my father when we arrived outside her home.

“Go ahead, I’ll get your brother out of the car and go explain things to your parents”

“Thank you so much Mr. O’Callaghan, I really appreciate it”

We were left alone in the car.
She got out of the passenger seat and opened the door to the back of the car and got in and sat down next to me.

“I really am sorry Mel”

She nodded.

“I know”

“Your parents are never going to let me see you again”

“Don’t say that” she said looking me in the eye for the first time that night. I couldn't read her.

“Mel, I’m really sorry”

“You guys were great up there, I wanted to let you know that” she said and reached for the handle of the car door.

She was about to step out when she stopped and came back to give me a kiss on the cheek.

“You really disappointed me today John” she whispered in my ear. Her words, tearing up my soul and with that she walked out.

Her parents already arguing with my dad.

“That’s extremely irresponsible of you guys as parents” I heard Mel’s mom say bitterly.

“I agree, but in my defense, my son wasn’t the only one that got drunk tonight, your son drank as well, dare I say even more”

“My son doesn’t get drunk, but obviously being with the wrong crowd led to this, I’m not sure we will be allowing our daughter to go out with your son again, have a good night” Mrs. Riley said to my dad, pulling Mel inside and closing the door on my Dad.

I felt so bad for my father, he didn’t deserve that. It had been my fault, not his.

“Her parents are rude as hell” he said to me as he got in the car. That was something we could both agree on.

“I’m sorry pops, I really am”

“I know son, but we really are going to have to talk when we get home. This was very irresponsible and inappropriate behavior”

“I understand”

“What did she tell you?”

“Mel?”

“Yeah, did she lecture you?”

“Not at all” I said remembering her words, I almost wanted to cry.

“She told me we did great up there, and that I really disappointed her”

“Ouch”

“Yeah but it’s the freaking truth”

“Well learn from your mistakes, don’t disappoint her again”

I nodded.

“She really loves you, that girl”

“Yeah, she does”
***
I sighed heavily.
“I still feel terrible about that day, I'm not proud of it at all and that was our first show, and I was proud of us as a band for taking a step towards our career but man did I do you wrong”

She scooted closer to me.

“We all make bad decisions from time to time, don't remember that day with so much regret anymore, I mean when did this happen?”

“10 years ago”

“See! 10 years John, even if I did remember the event I'm sure I'd be over it by now” she laughed. She was trying to make me feel better but it just wasn't working.

“I guess”

“You think that made things worse with my parents?”

“Oh yeah for sure, and I still don't get why your brother drank that night”

“I'm wondering that myself…”

“How is your brother?” I asked her. I hadn't seen that miserable jerk around town in the past 10 years.

“He's always been distant from me since the accident and well I see why now, he has a wife and two kids, he doesn't live here anymore he moved to California”

“You used to be much closer to him”

“Yeah, I can imagine I mean he's the only brother I have, you have two brothers too…why have I not met them before?”

My brothers, they had the biggest crush on Melody back then. I had only mentioned Mel to Shane unsure about how Ross would react.

“We all kind of do our own thing, my brothers actually decided to go to college so they are out there studying. You'll meet them, don’t worry”

“Their names?”

“Shane and Ross”

“Oh wow, but you got stuck with the name John Cornelius”

“Yeah, I'm sure my mom got to name my brothers, but as for me, they had to follow tradition”

“The fifth”

“Yup, the fifth, I think the fifth sounds nice wouldn't have wanted to be the third”

“Wait so you have to continue that…” she began to say but she stopped herself and looked over at me.

“Yeah” I said and winked at her.

“Oh my goodness” she said and laughed. She scooted away from me but I only pulled her closer. She laughed as she looked up at the dark sky.

“It's really late isn't it, aren't you sleepy? I thought I was the insomniac” she said turning to look at me. I took out my phone and looked at the time.

“It's 3am almost 4, and strangely enough, I'm tired but not sleepy yet”

“Well I really enjoyed this, we should do this once a month. Just lay out here and talk”

“Sounds like a plan”

“So are you ready for the concert this weekend?” She asked me sitting up.

“I'm always ready, the question is, are you?”

“Frankly after hearing this story, I'm not sure. You said I liked concerts though, I want to believe you”

“Don't worry, I'm not performing, nor am I drinking, I promise I'll have you home by 10pm”

“That's no fun” she said crossing her arms.

“You don't want to be home by 10?” I said and laughed.

“At least have me home by 11 but by 10?”

“Too early?”

“Way too early!” She said laughing.

I sat up with her.

“Are you staying or do you want me to take you home?”

“I'll stay, it's too late for me to go home”

“Alright, better for me, I'll get breakfast in the morning”

She laughed.

“I’ll make that blueberry French toast recipe that Tessa gave me”

“Yes, bless Tessa, bless Jared for dating Tessa”

“Bless Jared for having told me your name that one fine night”

“Actually yes…I'm going to need to send my brother some flowers to thank him”

She laughed but nodded.

“Let’s go to sleep, we are going to wake up the neighbors” she said standing up and helping me up. We folded the blanket together and went inside.

“Thank you for sacrificing sleep for me”

“Any day”

“Goodnight”

“Goodnight” I replied. At that moment, I wanted to kiss her so bad, but I held back and simply leaned in and kissed her forehead. She smiled and went inside the guest room. I didn’t want to scare her off, I didn’t want to kiss her too soon.

That night I had another strange dream, Mel and I were back in high school and we were at prom and the people at prom were all my current friends and we were singing the song Hey Nineteen loudly and proudly, I felt so happy to be there, to be with her.
♠ ♠ ♠
Only chapter I'm posting this week! So I hope you guys liked it! I'm going to Mexico, I'll try to write on my plane trip over there, we'll see what I come up with! I'll probably post again, next Tuesday! Thank you guys so much for your support! Continue to comment and thank you to the lovely 23 of you who want to know how this story ends! Much love!