Our Corner of the Universe

ten.

☾☆

Hunter

"Please let me take you back to my house and make sure you are okay. I can't leave you." I begged her. I could feel the tears forming, but at this point I didn't care.

When I walked up to see that asshole hurting her, I couldn't see straight. I have never in my life felt that level of anger toward someone or had the urge to protect someone so strongly.

I almost blacked out in rage as I was punching the perv, and when I looked up to see the look on Mel's face, my heart broke. She didn't speak or move for a long while, but when she flinched at my touch, that's when I lost it.

This whole situation was my fault, I knew that. If I never lied, if I never tried to hook up with those other girls, if I never tried to fight my feelings for her, she would have never been in this situation.

I knew that I couldn't leave her tonight, and after a moment of silence, she put me out of my misery and agreed to come with me. I gave her a reassuring smile, then motioned for her to join me as we started walking toward the frat house.

As we were walking, all I wanted to do was reach over and pull her close, remembering how well she fit next to me before, but I knew that after what she just went through she probably wasn't ready. Instead we walked in silence with no contact.

I quickly got out my phone and shot the guys a quick telling them to clear out the party. I knew they wouldn't be happy but I wanted Mel to feel comfortable walking into the house and I knew if the party was still happening it would be too much for her. I got a few guys texting back protests, but I responded telling them I would be back in 10 minutes and that I would explain later but it was important. I knew they would be mad, but right now the only thing I cared about was her. I knew that when I told them what happened they would understand.

I put my phone away and looked over at Mel to see how she was doing. She had a blank look on her face making it impossible to read how she was feeling. I didn't even know what to say, wanting to wait to have any real conversations until we were back in my room, so I remained silent.

Shortly, we were back at DKE. The house was quiet now and there were no longer people pouring out of the house onto the lawn. "Where did everyone go?" Mel said quietly, speaking for the first time since she agreed to come with me.

"I told the guys to clear the house, I didn't want you to have to deal with all that when you got back," I informed her. She didn't say anything but gave me a small smile as we walked through the door.

Almost all the guys were sitting in the living room to the left when we walked into the house, and they went silent as we walked through past them. After taking in my bloody hand and Mel's appearance I'm sure they had a lot of questions, but they let us go upstairs without a word.

I guided her to my room, telling her, "Please make yourself at home." She tentatively sat on the bed, looking uncomfortable. I didn't know if I should sit next to her or not so I opted to sit in my desk chair instead.

I took a deep breath and then decided it was time to talk, but I was finding it hard to find the right thing to say. "Mel I am so sorry for everything that happened tonight. I want you to know that what you saw-"

Before I could finish my thought she cut me off, "It wasn't what I thought right? I don't want to hear that bullshit Hunter. You didn't feel the connection between us, you didn't like me, at least be man enough to say it." This was the most I had heard her say all night, and while I was shocked by her outburst, I knew she was right.

"Okay you are right, it was what it looked like. I was going to hookup with that girl. But you aren't right about the rest of it. I did feel the connection, it was so strong it scared me. The way I feel about you, I have never felt it before and it scared the hell out of me. That is why I was hooking up with other girls. I thought that they would distract me from how I feel about you but it didn't work, you were still all I could think about." I sighed, trying to find the right words to make her understand was hard, especially because I didn't entirely understand it myself.

She didn't say anything, but instead looked away from me. I moved around to the bed in an effort to see her face, and what I saw broke my heart. Her blank expression was replaced with pure sadness as tears began rolling down her cheeks.