Love Will Save You // Ryan Follese

Chapter 13: Don't Listen to Those Voices in Your Head

-Melanie-

"Oh, that looks cute!" Danielle squealed.

"Danielle. That's like, the 17th time you've said that. In the past 10 minutes, might I add," I said.

"Well, I'm sorry, but we just don't have this kinda stuff back at home!"

"Believe me, I know," I laughed, "Do your breathing."

"Her breathing?" Maggie asked.

"Whenever we're out shopping and she gets like this, she has to stop and take a moment to focus on what we went out to get," I giggled.

"You guys are insane," Maggie laughed.

"New Year's. New Year's," Danielle whispered to herself. "Okay, let's go!" she yelled, grabbing mine and Maggie's hands, running into a store.

~

Three hours and five stores later, we were done shopping and on our way back to the hotel.

"Hey!" we heard someone call from behind us. We turned around and saw four girls jogging toward us. One of them looked at us and asked, "You're dating those guys from Hot Chelle Rae, right?"

"Yeah..." Maggie said slowly.

"We love you guys!" a second girl smiled.

"We love you too," Danielle smiled, a little shocked.

"Would it be weird if we asked for a picture?" a third girl asked quietly.

"Of course not," Maggie smiled.

"I'll take it," the fourth girl said, obviously in a bad mood. It was a little weird, but I just shrugged it off. We took the picture and the first girl got her camera back from the fourth one.

"Thank you guys so much!" she smiled.

"No, thank you!" Danielle squeaked.

The group of girls turned around to walk away and I faintly heard the fourth one say, "Why would Ryan date her?"

I was a little shocked, to be honest. I guess Danielle and Maggie could tell because Danielle just grabbed my arm, spinning me around to go the direction we were originally going.

"Why don't we just go see if the guys are back yet?" Maggie asked in a rushed tone, laughing nervously.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it, babe," Danielle said quietly, still holding my arm.

When we got back to the hotel, the guys still weren't back.

"Um, how about a movie?" Danielle asked, noticing the blank expression still plastered on my face. Danielle grabbed some random movie and stuck it in the DVD player.

~

Halfway through, Nash came stumbling through the door, Ian and Jamie weren't walking straight, and Ryan walked in, sighing and throwing his keys on the little table beside the door.

"You don't look drunk. Why?" Danielle asked, looking at Ryan.

"Designated driver," Ryan said, smiling.

"I'm proud of you, Follese," she smiled back, getting up and walking to the fridge.

At this point, I found my hands to be more fascinating than the movie or the guys, so I was playing with my fingers. Ryan and Danielle started talking quietly, but I could still hear them.

"What's up with her?" Ryan asked.

"We were stopped by four girls on our way back the the hotel after shopping," Danielle whispered, "Three of them were happy and asked for a picture, but one of them looked pretty upset. When they were walking away, the fourth girl asked her friends why you would date Mel. She's still not very happy about it."

"Oh..." Ryan said.

"You should talk to her. She won't listen to me and Maggie."

"I will," Ryan said.

We could hear Nash coughing and Danielle screamed, "Nash Linden Miller Overstreet! I swear to God, if you do not make it to a toilet or trashcan, I will kill you!" She ran to the bathroom where the rest of the guys were.

"I should go help," Maggie said, getting up and rushing into the bathroom as well.

Ryan walked over to me and sat next to me, resting his hand on my knee, "Mel.."

"Why are you dating me?" I asked bluntly, looking up at him.

"Because I love you," he said quietly.

"Do you? Or do you just want me to think that for a while and then just dump me and never talk to me again?" I choked.

"Melanie, what is wrong with you? You've never doubted us before, and now you're letting one little comment get to you?" Ryan said, raising his voice slightly.

"Well, it's not like this is the first time it's happened," I mumbled, hoping he didn't hear me.

"What are you talking about?"

Shit. He heard me.

"I don't wanna talk about it," I said, playing with my fingers once again.

"Too bad," he said, grabbing my hand, "You're talking about it."

I sighed and took a deep breath, but didn't look at him, "When I was a sophomore, I started going out with this senior. He was a great guy, and he was really sweet, but near the end of the school year, he started acting weird around me. We wouldn't hang out anymore, and we rarely ever talked. Then a couple days before the last day of school, I found out he...he only dated me because he made a bet with his friends," I forced a smile, "I don't know. I... I guess I just thought he actually loved me. He made me believe that for 7 months. After that, I thought about ending it all. I would avoid everyone, even Danielle. I would never leave my bedroom. I would cut myself. Obviously nothing that left any scars, but every night, I would say to myself, 'This is it, Melanie. This is the night you're gonna do it.', but I never did – I wasn't brave enough. Then one day, I was watching random videos on YouTube, and I found you guys. I saw Last One Standing in my recommendations and I clicked it. I'll be honest, I only clicked it because I thought you guys were cute. But I listened to it, and I realized you guys were good, so I listened to more. And that did it for me. I knew Hot Chelle Rae was my new favorite band at that point. Your songs made me feel like I didn't need to hurt myself to be happy. They saved me." I finally looked back up at him, "You saved me, Ryan. And I can't thank you enough for that."

When he didn't say anything, I went to look back down, but he put his hand on my cheek, pulling my face to his and kissing me.

"I love you, Melanie. Never doubt that, okay?" he said, pressing his forehead against mine.

I breathed in deeply and nodded, letting a few tears fall, "I promise."

~

Title: "Listen to Your Heart" by The Maine