Those Damn Butterflies

Chapter Twelve

My phone rang and ripped me out of my relaxing slumber. Immediately a headache filled every possible space in my head. I sighed and searched for my phone somewhere under my covers.

I knew exactly how long my ringtone was and it was close to the end, so I just picked up the call without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" I asked, my voice still raspy as hell.

"Hi Riley." It didn't take me a single second to recognize that voice. I sat up, immediately wide awake.

"Mel! Hey! How have you been?"

"Good. Good. Listen." She took a short pause and then cut right to the chase. Mel never was one to talk around a topic, just always straight to it. "We need to meet up and talk."

"Yes, yes. Of course."

"Good, I'm close, see you in 10."

Then she hung up. I jumped out of bed and startled poor Pedro awake and he looked at me angrily.

Ten minutes were basically nothing. I sprinted to my bathroom and got ready, then threw on the best outfit I could find. Pedro was watching me curiously from my bed the whole time.

Just as I was about to tidy up my living room a little there was a knock on my door. I took one last deep breath and opened it. Pedro was already standing next to me, excitedly awaiting our visitor.

Mel looked... different. Her hair was longer and a lighter color, her clothes seemed more colorful. She looked good. When my mind started comparing her to Alex I shook my head to get rid of that train of thought.

"You look good."

She smiled at that. "I know."

"Come on in." I opened the door further and immediately Pedro was at her legs, sniffing her.

"Woah. What is this?" Her tone didn't tell me if she was negatively or positively surprised. I gulped.

"That's Pedro."

"And who's dog is it?"

"Mine." I smiled. I was really proud to call him mine.

"You got a dog..." Mel trailed off and eyed the apartment. "Anything else I should know of right now?"

I averted my eyes to the ground. It didn't feel good to keep eye contact in that moment. "No, Pedro is all."

"Ok, good. We'll talk about that later. Shall we?"

I nodded and Mel led the way into the living room, keeping on her shoes. I frowned a little at that but didn't understand why.

"Two mugs?" Was the first thing Mel noticed in the living room. I blushed a little as I remembered waking up in Alex's arms and how good it felt. Then my mind wandered to her face smoshed with Brittany's and I got nauseous again. I swallowed it down.

"Yeah, a friend was here." I kept it as vague as possible because I was sure that all hell would break loose if Mel knew who exactly Alex was.

She crossed her arms. "Which friend?"

I surpressed the urge to roll my eyes. Why did she always have to be so controlling? "A new one, you don't know her."

"Ah, so you've been seeing new people, yeah?" She frowned and I could tell that she was getting close to freaking out.

"Mel, I don't. She's just a friend, ok? Nothing-"

She interrupted me. "I don't care. It's not like I haven't been seeing other people."

My face fell as my mouth dropped open. "What?" I whispered, unbelieving.

"Yes, I thought you got to hook up with other people, so I could too."