The Ghost of Him

10. Stay

*Gerard's POV*

After I finished my little meltdown, I just kind of sat there on the bed for a while and stared at the wall. I had never revealed my emotions like that to anyone, and I never thought I would, so this was sort of a foreign thing to me. I didn't think Melanie would care.

But I guess she did, because she kept asking me if I was okay every ten minutes or so. I told her yes, even though I wasn't all that positive myself. Other than that, the only time we spoke to each other was when she asked me to open up a can of Spam (whatever that was) so that she could eat.

After almost an hour of an excruciatingly awkward silence, I cleared my throat and drew her attention back to me. "Melanie?"

"Yes?"

I sighed. "Remember last night? When I woke up and I asked you something and you made me go back to sleep?"

She blinked at me for a few moments and then set down the rusty pocket knife that she had been messing with. She sat up a little straighter and sighed. "I didn't let you die because I couldn't," she said shortly.

"Yeah, but that's what you said last night. You said we would talk about it when we were awake. We're awake now," I pointed out.

She just stared at me again. I didn't press, but I guess she could tell that I wasn't going to let this go. She sighed again and looked away. "I couldn't let you die because the subconscious mind has a weird way of making someone feel crazy for becoming infatuated with someone that you shouldn't."

I frowned and furrowed my eyebrows. Too many big words. "What?"

She sighed again, still not making eye contact with me. "I... may have, sort of, fallen for a uh... serial killer."

I stared at her. She couldn't be talking about me! But then again, she couldn't exactly be talking about anybody else. How many serial killers can a single person be familiar with?

"I'm not leaving tomorrow," she continued.

I couldn't help but laugh. She had to be kidding, right? Who in their right mind would stay with someone like me? I was a lunatic.

She finally glanced over at me, but something about her look told me she was being serious. "Why are you laughing?"

"Because you can't like someone like me! I'm fucking crazy! And you're you and you need to get back to your normal life and leave me alone."

"Isn't that the whole reason why you kidnapped me in the first place? To keep me from running off and telling anyone?"

I paused. She did have a point. For a moment, I almost forgot that I was in hiding and I couldn't just let her go and expect everything to be okay.

I shifted. "Yeah but... I could find somewhere else. I'll just, you know, leave the state or something."

She turned her body to fully face me. "But I don't want to leave you. I'm not scared of you and I don't think you're such a bad person at heart. You're just scared and lonely. Why can't I stay?"

I frowned, getting irritated now. "Because this whole thing is a fucking mess and I don't want to drag you into it. You were fine before I ran into you and now you're just..." I trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"I'm just what?"

"I - I don't know. But I'm crazy you can't like me."

She sighed. "Please? I know it's fucked up for me to just come out and say this but I really like you and I know I irritate you and shit but I really want to stay and keep you company and help you." She bit her lip and my stomach did a back flip.