Love Will Save You // Ryan Follese

Chapter 3: It was Like a Time-Bomb Set into Motion

-Melanie-

I drug myself out of bed the next morning, sore from all the dancing I did. As I walked carefully down the stairs, I could hear the TV on in the living room playing what appeared to be Spongebob Squarepants.

"Danielle, I swear, you are such a little kid," I laughed as I walked into the kitchen.

"It's Saturday morning cartoons! You don't just not watch them!" she yelled.

I sat down on the couch a few minutes later with my bowl of cereal, shoving Lucky Charms into my mouth.

"You love Lucky Charms a little too much, Mel," Danielle said.

"You love Saturday morning cartoons a little too much," I replied, sticking my tongue out at her.

~

A couple minutes after I was done eating, my phone rang. It was some unknown number, but I answered it anyway.

"Hello?" I said once I pressed my phone to the side of my head.

"Um, Melanie?"

"Yeah... Who's this?"

"Ryan!"

"Ryan..."

I took a big sip of my orange juice as I heard the guy on the other line chuckle, "Follese." I started coughing, nearly choking on my drink. "Are you okay?" Ryan asked when I calmed down.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but how did you get my number?" I asked, trying to steady my breathing.

"Jamie said he got it from your friend." I looked up at Danielle and she was grinning like an idiot.

"Danielle!" I screamed and threw a pillow at her.

She blocked it, "What? I knew you weren't going to give it to him yourself!" I grabbed another pillow and she jumped off the couch and ran upstairs. "You'll thank me for this later, Mel!" she yelled.

"Uh, Melanie?" I heard on the phone.

"Yes..." I said, dragging out the 'e'.

Ryan chuckled again, "I'm guessing you didn't know about this."

"No, not at all," I answered honestly.

"Well, in my defense, I didn't know Jamie had your number until about 5 minutes ago when he begged me to call you."

"He begged you to call me?"

"Something about love at first sight or whatever." I started humming Whatever and I heard Ryan laugh, "Humming my song?"

"Oh, sorry... It's kind of an involuntary thing. I've become so used to doing it, it just happens sometimes..."

I could hear the smile in his voice, "That's cute. And between you, me, Jamie, Nash, and Ian, I sing along to our songs when they're on the radio."

"Seriously?" I laughed.

"Yeah. It's especially great when we're at a mall or something and one of our songs starts playing. I get the 'How the hell do you sound just like him?' look."

"They really never put it together?"

"You'd think they would, but no. We do get a few girls every now and then start screaming."

I chuckled, "I'm sure."

"So, anyway, about why I was calling."

"Aside from Jamie begging you to?"