The Ghost of Him

11. Bubble Baths

*Melanie's POV*

Being completely honest, I wasn't even sure what was happening to myself anymore. What happened to the Melanie that would have been panicking and trying to run away at any given chance? That Melanie had been replaced with one that was sleeping next to a murderer.

I couldn't tell what time it was, but the sun was up so my parents were gone and at work by now. And would be until the sun was already setting.

I sat up and brushed my hair out of my face before lazily shaking Gerard awake. He grunted, inhaled deeply and stretched out his arms widely.

"Gerard? We should get going if you want to take a shower and everything at my house."

He nodded but kept his eyes closed. Not wanting to waste much time, I got up, crawled over him, and walked myself outside. I figured if I went outside he would take a hint and get up. He did as I expected, and two minutes later he was frantically pulling on his shoes as he stumbled out of the RV.

He eyed me standing off to the side and slowed down. "Fuck, I thought you'd already left."

I rolled my eyes. "No, just hurry up I want to make this as quick as possible."

"Okay, then. Lead the way," he said pretentiously, almost like he was mocking me.

I stood there for a moment, trying to decipher which way was which. He smirked. "Give me your address."

I reluctantly recited my address to him and he quickly gathered where he was and then started walking away from the RV. I scurried after him, trying to keep up with his long strides.
"Wait - how can you do that?"

He didn't look at me. "Do what?"

"You know... Figure out where you are like that."

He gave me a short laugh. "I think you're forgetting that I've lived out here for three years now, Mel. I know where pretty much everything is from here."

Something about what he said made me skeptical, but I just shoved my worry away and continued trying to keep up with him. He never bothered waiting on me, and a few times I had gotten smacked in the face by a low hanging tree branch he neglected to hold back for me. I suspected he had forgotten that I was even with him at this point.

After almost 20 minutes of trekking through the woods in complete silence, he reached the edge of the trees and shot his arm out to the side to keep me from walking past him. I looked up and immediately recognized my backyard.

There was a little chain link fence that encased my yard and a small play set in the back corner for when I babysit my baby cousin on the weekends. We were in the woods directly behind my house.

"This one right?" He glanced over at me for confirmation.

I nodded, wondering how he could walk through the woods for twenty minutes and end up directly behind my house out of all the other ones in the small neighborhood I was in.

Gerard quickly looked around and then grabbed my wrist and trotted over to the chain link. The small fence only came up to our waist, and he stepped over it easily before helping me to the other side. He then grabbed my wrist again and hurriedly pulled me across the grass and to my back door.

The old sliding glass door didn't have a lock, but my parents never thought we would have a big enough reason to lock the back door anyway. Gerard slid it open and quickly pulled me inside with him.

He glanced around my huge, blue kitchen, taking in his surroundings. I watched him as his eyes wandered to the tiny laundry room off to the side. He immediately started shedding his clothed on his way into the small room.