Page 162 of On The Edge
“Yeah?”
“Make sure it’s a male reporter.”
“Got it,” he agrees quickly and I nod before hanging up the call. The guys look at me with the question behind their eyes and I shrug.
“Not taking any chances. We have to earn her trust back, and I’m not going to let some handsy reporter jeopardize that. Not again. Not now.”
Melody’s stayingin her room more. She comes out when Adam or Markus go in there to sweet talk her into coming out to eat with us. Kai’s gone in a few times to pull her out when our words don’t work. Mostly I sit beside her, letting the silence stretch between us. I just want her to know I’m there.
I’m sitting at the small makeshift table made of unopened boxes and staring at the closed door of her bedroom, my song notebook open as I stare. How do I show her howdeepmy feelings for her go?
Every song I’ve ever written is about her; how I’m angry with her, how I want her, how I long for her, how I missed her, how I wonder what would’ve happened between us. But I never wrote one about accepting us. All of us.
It took me a while to come around, but I honestly can’t imagine it any other way. The five of us together, for her, is the closest I have come to true peace in a long time. Maybe ever.
I flip to a blank page, inspiration having struck, and start writing. Soon, the words fly out of me—raw, unedited and jumbled, but fuck, I feel amazing.
“Paul did it,” Kai announces from where he’s lying on his air mattress, messing around on his phone. He sits up quickly. “They’ve secured the conference center downtown and the interview is scheduled for tomorrow morning. We’re expected to arrive at the interview, completely ready, at the center at six in the morning. It’s shooting live so, and these are Paul’s words, not mine, “Make sure you know what you’re going to say and don’t fuck it up again.””
“He knows he works for us, right?” Markus snarks from the kitchen, cooking something easy for dinner. We’ve all been taking turns cooking and it’s his turn tonight. He’s only complained half the time.
“I like it,” Adam shrugs from the couch where he’s watching some drum interview on YouTube. “It almost feels like we’re friends, not just his clients.”
“He’s a good guy. A little too into my girl, but as long as he knows the line, I’ll live,” I grumble under my breath, rereading the song I just wrote.
“Our girl, Reis. Ours,” Kai snaps.
“Right.” I close the book and stand up to go check on her. “Ours.”
Five in themorning comes way too soon.
I’m not ready for it, and when Adam’s alarm goes off, we all groan. I fall off the fucking air mattress like I’ve done for the last three days and groan again when I hit the floor while Adam hisses for me to shut up.
We told Melody last night at dinner about the interview, about how it was going to be live. I tried to make it a point to tell her how much I’d love it if she could watch it, but she just nodded blankly. She’s shutting down and I don’t know how to stop it.
I feel desperate. I need her to understand, to believe us, to come back to us. For that sparkle in her eyes to come back. For that bratty little smirk to come back. For her to sass me back and then wink at me.
I need her.
The guys and I putter around getting ready, making sure we’re presentable rockstars. Markus is spending an obscenely long time on his hair – as usual, while Adam is doing push-ups in his cutoff shirt and his bandana on his forehead. Kai’s slipping on his leather jacket and I run the last little bit of gel through my hair.
“Not bad for us on our own, huh?” I smirk in the mirror and turn off the bathroom light.
“Let’s go, we’re going to be late.” Adam checks his watch. “Should we wake her up?”
“I’m at least going to knock on the door and tell her we’re leaving. I don’t want her to wake up and think we’ve left.” Kai steps forward, and we all follow.
“Sync?” Kai calls softly, knocking on the door. “Melody, it’s us, baby. We’re heading downtown for that interview we were talking about last night. We’d love it if you could watch it, XYZ News. Okay?”
We all stay silent, waiting for her to say anything. Do anything.
But she doesn’t. And I try not to let my head drop a little as my heart drops into my stomach.
Kai knocks one more time, and she grumbles something inaudibly. But at least we know she’s alive.
“We hope you can watch it, love,” Adam speaks loudly through the door.
Silence.
