Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 39: Always Love

When Melanie wakes up her eyes are heavy but she is familiar with the head of hair staring at her in the face. She squints and moves her body a little, trying to figure out what she's doing at Brian's hotel. Although Melanie is trying to think back to the night before, her head is killing her so just lowers it back down onto the pillow and stares at the ceiling above her. About an hour goes by when Brian starts to stir awake. Melanie gives him a few moments to really wake up before whispering "hey" out into the air

Brian quickly jolts up in the bed and looks at her with concern, "hey. How are you feeling?"

"Like I was run over by a bus" Melanie answers, her eyes staying staring at the ceiling "I can't believe I can't remember anything but Brian, did we have sex last night?"

"No, we didn't do anything last night." Brian confirms to her automatically, he decides to explain a little bit more, "you were struggling walking at the bar last night and your friends were going to take you home. But I gotta tell you Mel, I don't trust them. So I just took you back here."

"I guess that's really nice of you, Thank you." She says while slowly starting to sit up, "but they aren't bad guys, I'm sure they would've been fine watching out for me. I'm sorry if I ruined your night."

Brian decides to wait just a little bit more before informing her of what he knows and just assures her she doesn't have to be sorry, "you must not remember but I told you last night, you don't ever need to be sorry. I'll always care for you and want what's best for you."

"I must've really fucked up if you felt the need to get involved. I've been such a witch lately." She confesses again, and Brian knows she has forgotten everything from the night before, not just from the bar.

Brian hesitates when he asks, "what uhh, what do you remember? Do you remember taking anything last night?"

Melanie tries to think back but she has no memory of even being at the bar. She grabs her head and mumbles, "honestly, I don't remember anything.. and my head is killing me. I don't think I've ever had this bad of a hangover before."

"I don't think it's a hangover." Brian replies.

She looks behind her at him with squinted eyes, "what do you mean?"

He shrugs his left shoulder while tilting his head towards it, "you told me last night you only drank a little. I don't think this is a hangover."

She puffs out some air and nods but tells him, "I guess I took something then. I usually don't get like this though. I'll have to figure out what he gave me to make sure I don't take it again."

Brian's face scrunches up in confusion, annoyed she's just being so willing to go back to hang out with the guys who got her this way anyway, he tries to explain to her, "when you were here last night, in-between all the times you were throwing up you told me that you didn't take anything last night and that you only drank 4 beers."

"I said that?" Melanie says out loud, trying to remember saying that to him. "Hmmm.. well it is kind of embarrassing of you to see me like that, maybe I didn't want to admit to you that I was actually high on something" Melanie tries to explain it away to him, not catching on to what Brian is trying to suggest.

Brian shakes his head and pushes a bit, "you didn't seem high last night, Melanie. You were really out of it. I almost took you into the ER because you were getting so sick. Do you normally do drugs that make you incoherent now?"

"Are you judging me?" Melanie retorts back with annoyance.

Brian scoots closer to her on the edge of the bed, "I'm not. Trust me, I'm not." He puts his hand on her knee. "If you feel the need to experiment and explore yourself right now, that's fine, I know you're mad. But I don't think the people you are hanging out with really have your best interest in mind. I don't think they really care about you."

Melanie takes a deep breath of air. Although she wants to argue with him, she doesn't have the energy or the will. She knows he is right, that these people aren't really her friends but she is to embarrassed to admit that he's right right now."well, thank you for watching out for me. You always do that even if you don't have to anymore."

"I'm still your friend." Brian's eye show pain but also comfort to her, "at least I want to be."

"And i'd like that too, but I just am not over what you did. Not yet, at least." She looks away from him, still not ready to talk about it yet.

Brian can read her easily and just lets it go, knowing pushing her to talk it out isn't the best option right now. "Well you can hang out here as long as you like. I'll have Peter get you an Uber whenever you're ready to head back to your hotel."

"Thanks" she replies, and right when he thinks that's it, she adds lowly "for all of this." Brian looks over at her and sees a single tear rolling down her cheek and falling onto her bare knee.

"I'll always be here Mel." He tells her, knowing she's not ready right now but wanting to tell her he will wait for her if she ever will give him another chance.

He catches her as she nods her head and wipes the tears away. She slowly goes to stand up and tells him, "I'll get a glass of water and clean up a bit. You can get that Uber, I don't want to take up your day off." Brian doesn't argue and heads over to the counter to grab his phone as Melanie disappears into the bathroom.