Hollywood's Newest Obsession

(4) He's Coming

HNO (4)

"I am so going to beat you," I yell running up the stairs to the game room.
"What makes you think so," Ashton ask a couple steps behind me.
"No one has beat me," I reply laughing.
"Yeah, probably because you were playing girls," he responds laughing. "I'm a guy and this game basically test my dignity of being a guy. Face it, this is a guys game."
"Prepare to lose your dignity," I laugh reaching the top of the stairs to the game room. Ashton is right behind me is still shirtless. "Please put a shirt on."
"Does it bother you," he asked smirking.
"No, but if you don't, Ally will most likely attack you because there is only a certain amount of times that she can remind herself that she has a boyfriend, and the phrase actual works."
The smirk fades. "We will play once I go put a shirt on."
As if on cue, everyone walks in, and Jake throws Ashton a shirt. Ally, well, she still looks like a ghost because she is a fangirl and she fans...a lot.
"Shall we play," Ashton ask.
"Game on, Meter," I challenge.
After 3 rounds of Call of Duty, Ashton has rematched me to all of the rounds, because he can't except the fact that he has lost to a girl.
"Face it, Meters, I am going to beat you every time," I say killing him again.
"That time only took 3 minutes to kill me! Am I that bad," he ask still in shock.
"No, I'm just very good. I can beat Liz in basically 2 seconds because she just stands in one spot every time behind a truck. Then I blow up the truck and she dies."
"Dude, you just got beat by a girl 4 times," James says walking away from the Air Hockey table with Liz.
"I think you just lost your dignity. Didn't you say that this was a mans game," I ask mocking him from earlier.
Ashton mumbled something under his breath and got up to change the game. Jake's phone went off and he left the room to answer it.
"Mel!!!! Tell James to put his shirt back on," Liz cried.
"James...I don't care," I announce.
"Melody Olivia Paige!"
"My full name? Really, Elizabeth Ann Taylor!?"
"Wait," Ashton says. "Your name is Melody Olivia Paige, and your name is Elizabeth Ann Taylor?"
"Yeah," I say trailing off not knowing where he is going with this.
"Your initials spell Mop and yours spell Eat," he states laughing.
"That's not something we haven't heard before," I say annoyed. Jake walks back in with a blank face. He walks over to Ally and whispers something in her ear. Her face changes from excited and happy to scared and worried. They both walk over to me and the room becomes quiet.
"Mel," they both say.
"Okay, something is really wrong," I say a little worried. They nod their heads. This should be good.
"That was your mom," Jake said looking at the ground. My heart dropped. This isn't going to be good. If she didn't call me, but called Jake...crap! "She sad that your grandad is coming over for dinner tonight."
"If it's family related, why didn't she call Melody," Ashton asked sounding confused as always.
I sat there emotionless. Face blank. "My Grandfather is dead. He has been for 5 years. Unless zombies are real, that is impossible," I state a matter-of-factly.
"No, the one that lives here in LA," Ally says quietly.
"He is not my Grandfather," I say firmly.
"Again, if it's family related-"
"Shut up, Ashton," I spat angrily.
"Mel," Ally says putting her hand on my knee. I jerk back.
"Don't. You and Liz know just how bad he is. He has been even worse since his son died last year. I am sorry. I owe you two big time for putting up with him when he visits, but right now, I need space." I get up and walk out of the room to the stairs. Once I reach the bottom of the stairs in the the basement, I let out a long aggregated scream. I walk over to the punching bag and start beating the crap out of it. No gloves. No tape. Nothing. Bare skin against a painful punching bag.
My Grandfather is a cruel man. Actually, cruel is an understatement. He doesn't care for anyone's feelings, and will tear you down brick by brick until nothing is left. When his son, my uncle, died last year of cancer, he lost it. When the funeral happened, he didn't even show up. My Grandma left him a couple months ago. Now she is in Vegas as a tattoo artist. He disowned my mother after all of this because, and I quote, "You are a pain. You never did anything I told you, and one day it will bite you in the butt. For the health of me, you are no longer my daughter." Now, he only calls when he needs stuff. Any insult he has stashed up, he will say it. No filter what so ever. When Avery died, his words were, "Good! She was an untalented, self centered, slut." Imagine hearing that before all of this drama of his life happened. Yeah, real role model ladies and gentlemen.
Tears started pouring out of my eyes as I remembered the last time I saw him. He slapped me across the face for not answering back to him because I was talking to Ally. I had a bruise on my jaw and a red hand print was in my face for a couple hours. More memories poured into my head and I just punched harder.
"Shhh! Mel, it's okay," Jake said pulling/dragging me away from the punching bag. "Mel, breath. Calm down." He turned me around so I was facing him. My vision was blurry from all of the tears in my eyes. "You're bleeding. Come on. Let's go get you cleaned up." I looked down and my hands were covered in blood along with my shins. All of my knuckles were split. Jake pulled me to the elevator and pressed the game room floor button.
"How long was I down there," I ask wiping tears away and smearing blood across my face.
"About 3 hours. I went down to get you for lunch. It's a little after 2. He's coming at 5, and we are eating 15 minutes later." Tears start to come out of my eyes. Jake turned me around a pulled into a hug. It was nice. Him holding me. Just us. My tears stopped. "Mel? It's going to be okay. Ally explained to me what happened the last time. I'm not going to let him lay a finger on you. Okay?" He caressed my cheek and wiped away my tears. I looked him in the eyes and nodded. He bent down and planted a kiss on my lips. At first it was soft, simple, but then he deepened it. I put my hands around his neck and kissed him back. My first kiss...is an elevator kiss...with Jake Reed. The elevator dinged and we were still kissing. Someone cleared their throat and I snapped around to see everyone looking us with amused faces. I started to feel the pain in my knuckles and shins.
"I need to go get cleaned up," I announced stepping off the elevator. Everyone examined my appearance. I had blood up and down my arms and since I had rolled up my sweats, I had blood on the edges of my sweats and I was leaving half of a bloody foot print.
"What were you two doing," Ashton asked amused.
"She was basically beating the crap out of the punching bag down stairs and before she killed the poor thing, I pulled her away," Jake says slapping Ashton upside the head. "Nothing dirty you bozo"
"Where is the bathroom? And I am probably going to need gaze and tape," I asked taking a slice of pizza from the table and eating it.
"Here, I will show you," Jake says leading me to a door across the room. Once we are in the room he closed the door and pulls out a first aid kit from the cabinet in the bathroom. "Has anyone ever told you you're a great kisser," Jake asked rummaging threw the kit.
"No. I have never had a boyfriend so...." I say trailing off. I'm pretty sure I am blushing brighter the a fire truck. "What about you? Ally told me you had a girlfriend when you got back, what about her? You said you have never dated anyone from here, but have you kissed them?"
"No. That thing Ally told you was a rumor made up by some girl. I was waiting for you. Mel, I really like you. These 7 years has been a pain. I am so sorry for them by the way, but I really want to make things better between us," he says setting me on the counter.
"J, why do you like me? My life is nothing but one disaster after another. I want to keep you safe and not hurt you, because I am a ticking time bomb, and when I explode, there is no containing the damage that I will cause. I don't want you to get caught up in my troubles."
"Mel, I chose to believe that everyone is a ticking time bomb, but you are special. When you explode, I explode with you. There is no hurting me, because I hurt myself when I left you." He finished wrapping up my my hand and went to my shins.
"But-"
"No. I love you. Mel, I don't want to let you go again. You slipped threw my fingers last time, but I am not going to let that happen this time." He finished wrapping my legs and stood up. We were eye level. He leaned in and kissed me again. He placed his hands onto of my hands that me resting on the counter. We deepened the kiss. Minutes, that felt like hours, passed by. He pulled back and I smiled.
We walked out if the room hand in hand. Everyone was gathered around the Air Hockey table where the pizza was at. I slipped in between all of them and stole two slices of chicken with cheese stuffed crust pizza.
"What's for dinner," I asked taking the remote from James and siting next to him on the couch.
"Chinese," Ally said taking the remote from me. She flipped to ABC Family and a Pretty Little Liars Marathon was on. Liz, Ally, and I all screamed. Jake pushed James' face to the side and sat down beside me. He put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my cheek.
"Are you two a thing," Liz asked.
"Yes," Jake said.
"No," I said at the same time.
"Sort of. He hasn't asked me out yet," I said poking his chest.
"C'mon, babe," he whines. He threw me his pleading look and I gave in.
"Fine," I mumble. "Careful girls. We are in a house full of actors, we will be tricked so many times."
"You got that right," Ashton said sitting next to Ally.
"I'm not an actor, but I am almost an actor," James said sitting next to Liz.
We sat and watched the marathon. Jake kept shouting out guesses on who he thinks A is, but he is wrong. Then there is Ashton, who keeps saying who he knows. After about 8 times of him saying "I know Lucy Hale," I was about to throw the remote at his face.
"I have to go get ready,"I whisper into Jakes ear.
"Okay. Do we need to dress nice," he ask.
"I would. He would insult you if you don't."
I left the room and went to the third floor. When I reached the room, I grabbed my long sparkly red dress and slipped it on. It had a sweetheart neck line, 1 inch lace straps and backing. My wedges were in the bottom of my suitcase. I grabbed the black TOM Wedges and walked to the bathroom. I had 15 till he got here. I curled my hair and put all of it up into a lose bun expect one strand in the front of my face. My whole life I was never find if makeup, so I only put on a light mascara and a little bit of lip gloss. As if on cue, the doorbell went off.
There was a knock on my door.
"Come in," I say placing in my ear rings.
"Melody," James calls while coming in. "He is here."
"Great. Who, you look nice," I saw taking in his appearance. He was wearing a nice pair of kaki shorts and a green polo shirt.
"Same to you Melody."
He starts to leave. "Hey, James. You can call me Mel."
"Okay," James said smiling. "Shall we go?" I nod my head and we exit. I walk to the edge of the stairs on the third floor and stop. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sure." He walks down behind me and we start down the stairs.
When I reach the bottom, my Grandfather is standing by the door introducing himself to everyone.
"It's about time you joined us," my grandfather grumbled. "What took you so long?"
"I was trying to look nice, sir. Sorry," I respond looking at the ground.
"Yet you still look horrible," he states annoyed. Everyone's eyes went wide with shock. Their mouths formed an 'O' shape. "Maybe next time spend less time looking worse and spend more time with someone who is getting older. You know I don't have that much time left for me."
"Yeah, and I'm counting the days down," I mumble loud enough for everyone to hear except him. Everyone laughed and tried to cover it up.
"Well, am I just going to have to stand by the door all night, or can I come in," he asked annoyed at us all.
"Yes, sir," Jake says

Why must this nightmare, that is some how related to me, come into this nice house and screw things up? My life is already a messed up without him. Now, well, this is going to get interesting.