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Sleeping over at Kali's had a very different tone from the last. Instead of dancing, singing, and making food and drinks, Melina sobbed her eyes out on the couch, while Kali and Paloma caressed her on either side. It was a lot of tears, a lot of frustration, and a lot (a lot) of weed.
"If he only wanted to hook up, then he didn't have to do all that..."
Melina's lips were red by how much she cried, and her face drained of color. She felt like she could drown the whole word in tears. It was all to 'get it out' but when would it finally be over?
"Saying he liked me is so cruel. It's too much..."
She slept sandwiched between her two friends like they were her human body pillows. Rubbing salt in the wound, she left her favorite purse in his house. In it, was the golden chain he left behind on the private plane from New York. That stupid plane that started everything. That started all of this...
In his own home, Benito's headspace wasn't any better. After the cleaners made his home look brand new, he sat in the spare room where he and Melina spent one mere night. He laid her forgotten black purse on the side of the bed where she had slept. The days passed on to weeks, the weeks passed on to months... he blinked, and it was now summer. Melina's purse was still there. Every so often he dusted and wiped it down, keeping it brand new.
There was something heavy inside, but he never opened it. Unbeknownst to him, it was his own chain he'd asked her about. Even though he had many, that one varied a sentimental value the others didn't. It was one of the first pieces of jewelry he bought when he started making money — real money. He called it his good luck chain, and it was missing. Hidden in Melina's forgotten purse.
Maybe, maybe if the purse just stayed there... she'd come back for it. At that point, it was like an altar of what could have been.
He fucked up and he knew it. He didn't blame her at all for blocking him, hating him, cutting him off... He knew better than to text Gabriela that. Looking back, she set the bait and he took it. She was fishing for something to send Melina, wasn't she?
I'll settle the score and then forgive you, how's that?
Melina? Rico idea. Goodnight.
Even then, he could try to make himself feel better all he wanted, it still didn't matter. He knew better than to text that. And not because it was 'evidence' against him, but because it wasn't true. It wasn't true — and it scared him.
Melina left the memory of an unforgettable night and innumerable regrets. The night leading up to having her built anticipation within him. The butterflies, the jitters, the hitch in his throat. Something he sometimes wrote lyrics about, but was simply working from the past. He realized all he ever wrote was wrong. The feeling of really falling for someone was richer.
