Page 153 of On The Edge
“You ungrateful little shit?—”
“I don’t want to talk to you ever again. Stay away from me and my family, do you understand?”
She scoffs. “Your family?I’myour family, Reis. Not those friends you live with or that girl that was going to ruin you. Me. I’m your flesh and blood family.”
“They are more my family in every single way that matters. You? Nothing more than the person that gave birth to me.”
“You fucking?—”
“Goodbye, Mother. Stay away from Melody. I mean it, I’ll know. I have people watching her and they’re authorized to protect her,by any means necessary.”
“Reis—” she says, but I hang up the phone before any more stupid shit leaves her lips.
“That sounded cheerful.” Kai rolls his eyes, standing up and crossing his arms. “Melody?”
“She didn’t know Melody was in Haven. Or at least, hasn’t seen her. She sounded genuinely surprised there was the possibility she could have run into her. This fucking shitstorm. I just want to go get her.” I shake my head, sitting on the end of the bed and put my head in my hands. “This is all my fault. All of it. I was the one that wouldn’t let us explore this in high school because I was so fucking scared it meant she might not choose me. I was the one that made you all leave her in the middle of the night without even discussing it with her because I was too fucking dumb to think there was something deeper going on. I was the one who forced us to cut her out of our lives completely. I was the one who hurt her when we found her again. I was the one to fucking poorly handle Louis. I… this is all my fault, Kai. And now I don’t know how to fix it.”
Kai’s so quiet, I almost think he’s gone, but then I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s not all your fault, Reis.” Kai’s gruff voice brings me some relief from this fucking tornado of guilt I feel inside. When he squeezes my shoulder, I can’t help but lean into the comfort of my best friend. “We’re all our own people. All that’s happened? That’s on all of us, not just you. We could’ve asked. We could’ve said no. We could’ve done something,anything.But we didn’t. And that,thatis on us alone. This… situation? It’s on all of us. Don’t carry that ‘I fucked everything up alone’ shit around anymore, okay?”
I nod, take a deep breath, and clear my throat before I stand up.
“How do we get her back?” Kai asks.
“It’s going to take a lot. Let’s call the guys and I’ll tell you all my plan.”
FORTY-SIX
“Last show.Let’s make it count,” I say, stretching out my arms overhead. The anxiety in my chest over the show and what we plan on doing for Melody is eating at me.
I’m so fucking exhausted, I haven’t really been sleeping since she left. I know Reis hasn’t either, because we've run into each other at each hotel gym at four in the morning. I wonder if his nightmares are back.
I knowIhaven’t slept fully since the moment we found out she was gone. It’s eating at me, but I just have to focus. One more show and then we can go get our girl. Our muse.
Our Melody.
Last night, Reis had come into my room where Markus and I were trying to keep our shit together by watching a Marvel movie, but really, we both were secretly drowning in our own agony. He came in and wanted to do something big, something that Melody would see.
Claiming her on the stage at the last show on our UK tour?
That’s going to get the attention of everyone. Our faces and words are bound to be on every newspaper, every magazine, every single rock article for days to come.
Unless she’s under a rock, she’ll see it.
Oh god, don’t be under a rock. Please, please, be okay. Angry, raging, stomping around.
I’ve been having dreams—it’s the main reason I can’t fucking sleep anymore. I know Kai is, too. My dreams are always that she’s broken and hurt. Not just emotionally, but physically. She can’t get up, she can’t move, and she’s all alone.
Even just thinking of the dream I had last night makes my heart start beating a little faster. I’m ready to be fucking done with this show and get on our plane. We had Paul time it perfectly so that when the show ends, we take off forty-five minutes later.
Just enough time to get off the stage, into the car and make it to the airfield. We can shower on the plane. But what matters is that we get to her as soon as humanly possible.
I’m also not above exchanging my soul if it means that she’s safe, healthy and we get to her in less than five hours.
“You guys ready for this?” Reis yells out into the crowd, who scream in return, but I know he’s really talking to us. Each of us play a few notes on our instruments in response. I hit the pedal three times before the hi-hat twice.
“Awesome, it’s going to be a great night!” Reis says into the mic, his voice muffled slightly through the mask. “Before we get started, we have a message for someone special. We need to get a message to her, and if you guys wouldn’t mind, help us out!” Paul runs out on stage with his phone, starting the recording that he’ll post from all our social media that have been extremely silent for days.
