Love Will Save You // Ryan Follese

Chapter 9: You are the Proof that Love is Beautiful

-Ryan-

I woke up and looked at my clock. 5am? I only slept for 4 hours? Awesome.

I looked down and saw Melanie sleeping in my arms with her arm laying across my stomach, thinking I could really get used to waking up to this. I wrapped my arms tighter around her and laid my head on top of hers, closing my eyes and falling asleep again.

~

"Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up!" I heard someone repeat over and over, jumping on the bed.

I mumbled into the pillow, "I'm up, I'm up. What do you want?"

"Well, you're rude in the mornings," Melanie said.

I chuckled and rolled onto my back to look at her, "I'm sorry. What do you need, babe?"

"You know, calling me 'babe' doesn't make you any less rude," she said, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Then I guess this won't make me any nicer," I smirked, poking her stomach repeatedly.

"R-Ryan! S-S-Stop!" she yelled in between giggles.

"Not until you tell me why you woke me up before 11am!"

"I c-can't tell you i-if you're p-poking me!" She grabbed my hands and caught her breath before simply saying, "Soundcheck."

"Oh, right! When was that again?"

"An hour," she replied. I climbed out of bed, took a quick shower, and got dressed.

"Where is everyone?" I asked, finally noticing Jamie and Danielle weren't in the room.

"They're in the lobby, waiting for you."

"You make it sound like this is my fault," I joked.

"Well, you do lack time management skills," she teased. I laughed as I walked out of the room and into the hallway. I turned around when Melanie called my name. She closed the door to the room and grinned at me, holding my phone, "Forgetting anything?" She walked up to me, putting the phone in my hand and rolling her eyes, "What would you do without me?"

"Crash and burn?"

"Exactly," she smiled, grabbing my hand as we made our way to the elevator.

"Thank Jesus in Heaven! Look who finally decided to show up!" Nash said when our elevator door opened and he saw me and Melanie.

"Lucky for you, I have a wonderful secretary who keeps me on schedule," I said, nodding toward Melanie.

"Whoa, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Secretaries get paid. Just think of me as your highly unofficial assistant tour manager," she smiled as we walked out to the car waiting for us.

"Well, what does that make me?" Danielle asked.

"We do need someone to run the merch table," Ian said.

"Do I get free stuff?" she asked excitedly.

"Don't you anyway?" Jamie laughed.

She punched his arm, "Be nice. I could ruin your life."

"But you wouldn't do it."

"I will if I have to," she smiled at him, kissing his cheek.

Soundcheck was soundcheck. We all went about doing whatever afterwards – walking around the city, checking out the sites, all that fun stuff – before we had to be back for the concert that night.

~

*Concert*

After we finished Beautiful Freaks, I smiled at the audience and said, "Now, normally, I would bring up one of you guys to sing this next song to." They cheered and I laughed, "However, I wouldn't feel right singing it to anyone but my lovely girlfriend." I smiled again as the crowd screamed. "Mel, would you please make your way to the stage?" I asked, looking to my right. I saw Danielle pushing a struggling Melanie, trying to get her onstage. I laughed as Danielle rolled her eyes, finally just deciding to grab Melanie's hand and drag her over to me. The crowd cheered again when the girls came out and I motioned toward Danielle, "And welcome, our wonderful merch girl!" Danielle laughed and bowed as the fans clapped, then ran backstage. I pulled Melanie closer to my side as she glared at me, "Will everyone please give a warm welcome to Miss Melanie Pandocchi." The crowd cheered again and I turned to Melanie, "How are you on this fine evening?"