This story has a happy ending. (An R5 Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

Both Melonie and Ross know that any relationship between the two of them wouldn't work out. They just met! In a hospital!

Plus they're lying to each other. Well, Melonie is lying more than Ross. He's omitting a pretty important part of his life but does that technically count as lying? Melonie outright lied about why she is in the hospital. It's going to be hard to recover from that.

Still, their attraction is magnetic. Melonie steals glances at Ross while he prepares to go home. Unlike her, he only has one set of clothes since his hospital stay will amount to a little more than 24 hours. He takes care to fold them neatly and place them into a bag though.

"You've got packing down to a science," Melonie admires. Ross has perfectly folded his clothes to a small but neat size. He could fit at least five more full outfits into the bag, which is only really supposed to hold one (maybe two).

"I travel a lot," Ross says carefully. "I like to see the world."

Melonie stares wistfully out the window. "I went to Yellowstone National Park once. It was amazing."

"I've been there. It was beautiful."

"Where else have you been?"

Ross shifts uncomfortably on the bed. He isn't sure how much of his life he should disclose to Melonie. Will she get suspicious if he tells her he's been to almost every continent and almost every state? "A bunch of places," he says because that seems safe.

"Like where?" Melonie presses. She's on the edge of her seat now, literally. Being sick meant that, even if her parents could have afforded it, Melonie never really got to go on any vacations – especially not exotic ones.

The look in Melonie's eyes is so sweet and pleading that Ross gives in. "Almost everywhere," he says. "I've been to Europe and South America. Mexico. Japan. Australia. Basically every state except the really boring ones like Nebraska and Alaska."

"What do you have against –aska states?" Melonie jokes which makes Ross laugh. "That's so amazing. I've only ever dreamed of going to any of those places."

"You should go," he tells her. "It's worth it even if you can only go for a few days. Start with somewhere like London or Paris. Maybe Italy. Those were my favorites. Especially Italy because I love Romeo and Juliet, which is kind of lame for an 18 year old boy but..."

"I don't think it's lame," Melonie says quickly. "It's kind of cute actually."

Ross blushes. "Thanks." He looks away, out the window. "I'm serious though. You should go on a trip. Once you start travelling you'll never want to stop."

"Oh, I don't think that'll ever happen." Melonie wipes her hands on her jeans. They've started to sweat. She's never been so nervous around a guy before. "Being sick puts a damper on any travel plans."

"Well once you get better you can go."

For a second, Melonie forgot the little white lie she'd told Ross. Now it makes sense why he would push her to go places. He doesn't realize that she has to stay close to a hospital so she can get monthly cancer screenings, and then if she ever goes a whole year without a relapse it'll be yearly screenings which might allow for travel. But she doesn't like to let herself think that far in advance. It doesn't seem likely that she's ever going to reach the one year mark. She hasn't yet.

Their conversation comes to an end when Ross's parents and siblings arrive. The room that was once quiet with the occasional sound of Ross and Melonie's voices suddenly turned into a circus. Melonie tried to keep up but it was hard. There were so many of them.

Once his brothers and sister had hassled him enough, Ross blushed and looked at Melonie. "Sorry my family is crazy."

Melonie shrugs. She knows it'll be impolite to agree with him, but this is the most people she's ever had in her room at once. If the nurse came in they would all get in trouble. Melonie isn't supposed to be around a lot of people because that's more chances for her to get sick.

"Um, so, this is my family," he says, fumbling with the words. "My brothers Rocky, Riker, and Ryland and my sister Rydel. And my parents."

Everyone looks at Melonie expectantly, but she isn't sure why. Her limited knowledge of social customs says she should introduce herself, so she does. "I'm Melonie."

"Melonie has the flu," Ross says. "But it's okay she's not contagious or anything. Right?"

Melonie shakes her head. Now that six more people are hearing her lie she feels even worse. Just Ross was one thing, but his whole family? She lies down in her bed feeling defeated.

Quietly, Ross turns to his family. "Can you guys like wait in the hall or something? I'll be out in a minute." His brothers give him a knowing look so he flushes a deeper shade of red.

With his family gone, Ross sits on Melonie's bed. This is a bold move but he doesn't feel like he has time to be timid. "I want to see you again," he says. Melonie sits up in surprise which makes her feel dizzy.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Do you think we could?"

"Um," she says articulately. There's no way she can come up with an excuse on such short notice. And Melonie wants to see Ross again even though she knows she shouldn't. "Yeah, sure. I might be here for, um, a while though."

Ross looks around. "That's okay. What if I came back here? Tomorrow? We can have a picnic out on the grass?"

"I'll have to clear it with a nurse, but yeah. I'd like that."

Ross smiles. He considers kissing her but that's more bold than he can muster up at the moment. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow."

He does a fake salute and leaves the room. As soon as he's gone, Melonie starts to cry. How is she going to handle keeping such a big lie? Sooner or later Ross is going to wonder why she needs so many hospital visits and tests. Seeing him again is a bad idea. But she wants it so bad that it almost makes the lying worth it.

When he reaches his family in the hallway, limping on the crutches a nurse gave him, they wait for an explanation. "She doesn't know who we are," he tells his siblings. "She doesn't know R5 or Austin & Ally or Teen Beach Movie."

"And you didn't tell her?"

"I will," he promises. He doesn't sound very sure of himself though. "It was nice having someone not know for a minute though."

Riker puts a protective arm over his brother's shoulders. "As long as you know what you're doing."

Unfortunately, Ross has no clue what he's doing. But for once he's actually okay with that.