Impress Me Not: Neon Underground

Chapter 53

He wished he could still be in that bed, lost in sweet memories. Good memories were hard to come by, which was why he cherished each and every one of them. The feeling of floating was rare without the help of certain drugs. Some people could get high on life. Melvin never thought he'd be one of them. And he wasn't. He was more high on a specific night.

Which made the fall back to reality hurt all the more.

His lungs burned as it screamed for oxygen. Melvin was lucky he could make it to the bathroom before coughing his brains out again. His throat burned as stomach acid threatened to eject out of him. Melvin hadn't been the type to vomit until recently, and he hated it. He hated all of this. He had worked on his own mental health since he was a teenager, but recently it all seemed to go downhill. Years of work crumbled before him, burning the house he had built to be at peace down little by little.

He was still in his twenties, dammit. This bullshit shouldn't be coming to bite him in the ass until his thirties at least. It was just his luck, though. Melvin had to fight and claw his way through the years just to get comfortable. But life wasn't meant for comfort, he supposed.

It was meant for suffering.

Melvin washed his face, having used the faucet to cover the other sounds in that bathroom before. It was a good thing that he didn't have much to do today. All it took was those few minutes of coughing and he was exhausted all over again.

He watched the water swirl into the drain, trying to clean up the little bits of blood splats along the way. He'd rather not give the man who's place he was staying at any heart attacks. Mateo had his own problems. And Melvin was dying to forget that his own problems ever existed.

Rain started to pour outside in the short time he was in the bathroom. Florida was well-known for its crazy rain showers. Sometimes, Melvin would stand in it, just to experience the natural chaos. It was another way to forget everything. Anton always thought he was mad. The man was too used to the Arizona sprinkles back then. Rainstorms there were nothing compared to here.

Speaking of which.

"Anton?" Mateo had the phone up to his ear, looking confused as he sat up on his bed. The blanket barely covered his private, thin enough to tease him just enough.

Melvin would have been enjoying the scene before him, especially with how model-like he truly was. But hearing him say his cousin's name made his stomach drop. Like a switch, everything that had happened the day before came back to him. Everything except the good parts.

Anton probably tried to call his phone a thousand times. Knowing him, he probably thought the worst had happened to him. Melvin had told him too much when they were younger. They both shared the toils and problems they each had. He didn't tell him everything, just the mental and emotional problems that he had to deal with. He didn't realize how bad it sounded until he said it.

"Okay, hold on," Mateo spoke into his phone, putting up a hand as if Anton was right in front of him. "Give me a second."

He had glanced at Melvin, those bright green eyes still confused. It was cute seeing him confused. Melvin wished he could just sleep under those covers with him right now instead of this. He laid back down, waiting for the call to be over. Instead of just hearing Mateo's side, however, he was surprised when the man placed him on speaker.

"What are you talking about now?" He asked, moving to face Melvin again.

"Look," Anton's voice was clear over the speaker. "I know Mel probably hates me right now, but can you guys at least tell me that you're inside and somewhere that you can stay inside for a while?"