Page 78 of On The Edge
“No, she started hitting me and crying so hard she fell asleep.”
Adam pushes a breath out angrily as he grinds his teeth. “Fucking Reis.”
“Fucking Reis,” I agree.
“Can you at least curse me out to my face?” Reis snaps, peeking his head around the door. Fuck, I didn’t even hear the door open.
He looks worried as he locks eyes on the woman in my arms automatically. “I heard her crying,” he says, biting the inside of his lip. He comes to where the three of us are seated, squatting down, and taking one of Mel’s hands in his. It’s a sweet gesture, but one I’m not sure she’d welcome.
I’m not even going to talk about the way Adam and I seethe at him touching her.
“And you didn’t come in sooner?” I scoff. “This decision you made fucking traumatized her. You didn’t even fucking ask her or us. You just decided, and we went along with it. She cried herself to sleep on my chest because she doesn’t know if we’re just fucking with her or not.”
“Can you believe that?” Adam snaps, shooting daggers at Reis.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry.” Reis hangs his head and runs his hand down his face. The guy seems more stressed in the last two days than I’ve seen him over the course of the last six years. He used to be a rock. Nothing and no one phased him.
We had an eviction notice on our apartment? Not an issue.
We were dropped by our first manager without warning? Fuck ‘em.
The song we poured our hearts into didn’t even crack the top 500? Next one will be it.
But Melody being mad at him? It turns Reis inside out.
“When she wakes up, I’ll apologize, I’ll explain. I promise. I’ll fix this, guys.”
“You better. Because if she leaves, I’ll leave with her,” I say strongly, not mincing my words in the slightest. The room seems to hold its breath. The weight of what I said wraps around us as they stare at me, but I stare ather.
There’s no choice. Not anymore.
“Me too,” Adam agrees.
“You both seem to think that I don’t love her just as much as you guys do,” he scoffs. “I’ve made mistakes. But she’s…my world. If she leaves, I’ll leave right along with her. Have no doubt about that.” Reis stands, shaking his finger at me, eyes blazing with fire.
That’s fine, he can be aggressive towards me all he wants. In fact, with how I’m feeling right now, I’d welcome a fight.
“Now, give her to me,” he says, holding his hands out and I scoff.
“That’s not happening.”
“Seriously, come on, Kai. I want to be here when she wakes up to explain.”
“So sit on the fucking floor with us, and stop acting like a brat,” Adam snaps.
“I like this new Adam,” I say with a chuckle and a nod.
Reis huffs, not used to being the one who has to follow orders instead of give them, and plops down on the other side of the room with his back against the wall.
“While we wait, I do have one thing I want to float by you guys,” Reis says tentatively, messing with the rings on his fingers. At least he’s fucking communicating instead of just telling us what we’re doing. Progress. Maybe.
A little fucking late, but maybe it shows that he’s learned from his mistakes.
“Oh god.” Adam rolls his eyes.
“Louis wants us to go out on tour next month. He’s got a few gigs around the UK that we’ve been invited to. Everything’s already set up, we just need to agree. What do you think?” Reis asks, but never looks at us directly.
“You guys have to do it, obviously,” Melody grumbles and all our attention turns to her.
