dewashed.

VII .

The weekend goes by quietly, Melrose and Huey begin to wonder if they will ever hear back from the mysterious woman at the convenience store. Nevertheless, they enjoy their time together and sometimes, they almost forget that unexplainable event that brought them together. Almost. After the first night, Huey feels much more comfortable around Mel, but he has now also realized that he is in love with her. At least he thinks he is. Nothing romantic has happened since, but he can feel his feelings for her growing stronger the longer he is with her. After his failure on the first night, he decides within himself to try once again to make a move.

As they sit on her bed and talk, listening to some more music and casually watching a movie, Huey can't stop thinking about when their cheeks brushed before. Everything in him wants to hold Mel but he decides not to move and ruin the moment. It's still pretty early, I only just met her. Don't want her to think I'm taking advantage of her vulnerability. Though he decides not to move and just enjoy the moment as is, Mel moves in closer to lean on him anyway. Dread fills Huey as he slowly raises his arm to rest it on her shoulder opposite him. She is warm and soft. Huey focuses as hard as he can on the movie but isn't really watching it at all. Mel turns and looks at him. As their eyes lock his stomach feels like it's filled with pennies. I want to kiss her but I don't want to make a fool of myself. Don't fuck this up.

"Are you scared?" Mel asks.

"I've just uhh... never done this before is all."

She smiles at him and gives him a big hug.

"It's okay."

Mel pulls away a bit and locks eyes with Huey again. Huey watches Mel close her eyes and he does the same, moving at a continent's pace towards her. Is this really happening? Electricity shoots through him as their lips brush briefly. It isn't a full kiss, but it doesn't have to be. He can feel a smile begin on her lips. They lean their foreheads on each other. Melrose exhales softly. Huey instinctively begins to lean in again to kiss her properly when a beeping sound suddenly fills the room. Mel and Huey jump up simultaneously.

"What the heck is that?" Mel asks.

"I have no idea."

They search around the room, identifying where the sound grows the strongest, eventually finding the pager in Mel's old pants.

"Oh yeah, this thing." Mel says.

"That lady must be tryna get in contact with us. What do we do?" Great timing...

"I dunno, I've never had one of these before. I think there's a button here." she presses the button and the beeping stops.

"Okay... glad that's over. Jeez."

"It says, 'One page.'" Mel says. She presses the button again. "It's... just a string of numbers."

"Numbers?"

"Yea. Nothin' else."

"Okay... what should we do with 'em?"

"I dunno, but I think we should hurry. I'm not sure how long this stays on here."

"Okay, let's write it down somewhere."

She walks over to her laptop and opens it up, inputting the numbers into the search engine. Huey adjusts his pants as he tries to stand. "It's... coordinates. I think she wants us to meet her here." Mel calls back. The pager goes off again. Mel silences it, reads the message, and then looks at Huey.

"What, what is it?"

"No phones."

"Ah. Sure, okay."