Page 163 of On The Edge
“Come on guys,” I say softly. “I love you, Mel.”
“I love you, Sync,” Kai tells her just as gently.
“Love you, baby,” Adam says quietly.
“I love you, Songbird,” Markus repeats.
We all stay still for a moment, but then when we get no reply, I sigh heavily and gesture with my head to the door. Kai nods and his eyes darken sadly, turning towards the door quickly. Markus follows him, his boots sounding heavily along the wood floors. Adam sighs as loud as I had, and shakes his head before walking out. I stay there at her door, and press my hand against the wood that separates us.
I know I have to leave.
I just really don’t want to.
Come on, Mathers. She’ll be okay for a few hours.I try to talk myself into it. I grit my teeth and then pull my hand back.
I take a few slow steps and just as my hand touches the door knob to shut the front door, I swear I hear a soft sob coming from her door.
FIFTY
“I don’t like this,”I grumble, climbing into the car we rented to go to the event center. It’s just a big spare room on Main Street that they have town hall meetings in.
Haven is small as fuck.
“We have to.” Reis grits his teeth, spinning the keys on his finger and climbing into the driver's seat before starting the car and peeling away from the curb quickly.
“We know what we’re going to say?” Kai asks, and I know he just wants to make sure that we’re not accidently exposing Melody more than we already have. People can be nasty, and this dynamic we’re in? It’s unconventional, untraditional and we know people are going to have opinions.
I don’t mind everyone knowing.
We don’t have to listen to any of the haters.
I only care about howshefeels.
Reis nods curtly. “Yeah, we’re going to tell our truth, and leave her out of it. If she wants to in a while, when everything’s blown over, we can let the public know, but right now? Right now, I want to keep her for ourselves.”
“Exactly,” I nod. “Bare minimum while telling the worldandMelody that we’re hers. Completely and totally hers.”
“Hello and welcomeback to XYZ News! My name is Christopher Kowalski and I’m here with the band members of the very popular rock band,On The Edge, for an exclusive interview.” Christopher speaks directly into the camera with his overly friendly smile that feels like he’s hiding a million terrible things behind the falseness.
We sit in a line in those folding chairs that actors sit in, looking at each other and then nodding in appreciation to the reporter. This is the job, the less fun part of the job now, but necessary.
“Thanks for having us,” Reis replies, taking point like always, and we all nod in agreement.
“We’re so excited to have you on. You guys are notorious for not giving many interviews, especially as your popularity has grown. That’s not typical, usually it’s the other way around. We recognize that and appreciate you taking the time to talk with us as a unit.”
Yeah, because we’d be doing this if it wasn’t forced on us by our management.I so badly want to roll my eyes, but I’m very aware we’re on camera and live.
He goes on to ask a few questions about how the UK tour went, what our favorite parts were, etc.. We’re used to this game by now, and take turns answering so each of us get exposure and breaks. It goes on for a good fifteen minutes where we talk about our music, our talents, our muses.
But then comes what the question we were waiting for, because it opens the door to our real motive.
Showing her we love her.
Christopher looks down at his notes before looking back up to us. I can see it. He wants to ask and I want him to.
“At your last show in London, you guys did something that you haven’t before. You pulled the mask off on your personal lives a little. ‘Songbird,’ ‘Echo,’ ‘Sync,’ and ‘Reverb.’ You had messages for those people. You all had to know that saying those things so publicly would bring about these questions and attention.” He speaks with his hands and I take a deep breath.
I suddenly worry that maybe we’re making a mistake. Exposing too much. But then I remember the silence on the other side of the door this morning and clench my teeth. I can’t live without her.
