Haz and Mel

Chapter 15: Not coping

Melanie POV

I could feel someone slipping into my bed next to me and I knew it was Rose, my younger sister. She was three years younger than me, but very grown up for her age. ‘Are you going to tell me what happened, Mel?’ She said softly and carefully. She had always called me Mel and I had always loved it. But now my heart just broke, hearing my nickname. Because somehow it belonged to Harry now. And I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to like the name again if it didn’t came from his lips.

I was basically lying in bed for a full week now. I didn’t explain much when I came home. I couldn’t… My mom had tried to talk to me but I shut her out. I shut everyone out. When my friends heard about my home-coming, they tried to contact me, but I was convinced they were going to ask me how it was and give me a thousand questions about the boys and Harry in particularly. And I knew I couldn’t handle that. So I just locked myself in my room. It surprised me how much I longed for him. I was so used of having him around all the time, that I just didn’t really know what to do without him. And I had never had that  before in my entire life.

‘Mel?’ My sister called again and I flinched at the sound of the name.

‘Can you please stop calling me Mel. It’s Melanie.’ I snapped, and immediately I felt bad. Because Rose didn’t know better of course. ‘I’m sorry… Just… Call me Melanie, please.’ I added softly, turning myself towards her in bed, so we were face to face. And I gave her a little smile. Quite a sad smile I imagined.

‘What’s wrong with Mel?’ She said, meeting my eyes. And that was the first time I realized how much I actually missed her. I knew it before, but I forgot it after the whole Harry disaster. I forgot how much I actually was looking forward to see Rose again.

‘It’s just… Someone called me with that name and… I try to forget about it.’ I said to her. I couldn’t be anything other than honest with her. We had always told each other everything and this wasn’t going to change that.

‘You try to forget about… him… Don’t you?’ Her eyes told me she knew it all along. ‘You fell in love…’ She send me a smile, a reassuring smile.

‘I miss him…’ My voice broke… just like my heart.

‘Then why don’t you go back?’ She said it like that was the most logical answer. But it was just not that simple. Although I wished it was.

‘Because he doesn’t see me that way Rose. For a moment I thought he did, but it was all just a big fat lie.’

‘Please… Melanie, com’n. Did you see those pictures? Like every picture in every magazine? He’s totally in love with you. The way he acts around you or the way he looks at you.’ Rose sat up so she could express herself better. ‘I actually already thought you guys were a real couple. I never expected it to ever be fake in the first place. You are not such a good actor, Mel… I mean Melanie.’ She corrected herself immediately. ‘Neither is he…’

‘How can you know that? You’ve never met him!’ I didn’t believe her words. I was not a good actor indeed. But he was… better than I thought.

‘Yeah, but you did! You met him… And that’s enough for me to know he’s in love with you.’ Rose spoke, trying to get through me. But now I just wasn’t following anymore.

‘What? Why would he?’ I breathed out, confused.

She sighed before she started. ‘Because you are different. You are different than any other person I know. You are my sister and I know how good you are. And he got to know you too. It was only a matter of time before he would really start liking you.’