Between You & Me || Luke & Jai Brooks

Chapter XXXVII - Mel + Jai

"What do you mean, there are never girls around here? Last time you were out here, Ariana was hardly away!" Chelsey says in her loud, obnoxious voice.

I spin to look at Jai in horror, and he's staring at his shoes, shuffling his feet.

"That wasn't last time!" Beau tries to put in, shooting Chels a glare, but she either doesn't get the hint, or she completely ignores it.

"Yeah, it was. I remember because they'd broken up a while before that and we thought they'd be getting back together, but it was kind of just a fling." She mouths off loudly.

Mel looks completely stunned. Her eyes flicker between Jai and Chelsey, and slowly fill with tears. "I'm sorry." She excuses herself, and turns and runs for the stairs. I shake my head at Chelsey angrily.

"You absolute bitch!" I hiss, following Mel. Alicia flips Chelsey off before running out after me.

The moment we shut the door behind us we're ranting. "I can't believe she would do that!" I yell furiously, stomping my way up the staircase.

"She's a fucking whore, she would do anything. Motherfucking bitchass." Alicia curses.

"Mel! Melanie! Get out here now! Don't listen to that bitch!" We both begin to shout, banging on every door down the hall, until she bursts out of her room at the end.

Her bottom lip is quavering. "Guys, I can't do this. He cheated on me. You don't know what it feels like. And with Ariana." Her voice breaks into a whisper on the last word, and a tear slips out. Fucking Chelsey.

"She's talking shit again, just ignore her. At least go and talk to Jai about it!" I insist, giving her a tight hug.

She starts to sob, big uneven gasps. "If J-Jai wants to talk to m-me, he can c-come and find me!" She forces out through her sobs. "I'll be in m-my room!" She yells, and runs into their bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Just as the door shuts, Jai appears at the bottom of the stairs, pale-faced and awkward looking. My eyes plead with him automatically, asking him silently, 'why?'. His bottom lip trembles and he shakes his head slowly, shutting his eyes a little in defeat. Alicia marches down the stairs past him, but stops beside him to slap his face right across the cheek, with all the effort she can muster. Then she turns and continues into the lounge room.

Jai stands there like an idiot for a minute, hand just resting on his cheek, then I follow Alicia and leave him to fix his own problems.

I'm always there for Jai, to help him patch up any shit that happens. But he's caused this himself. This is one problem he can deal with by himself.

*Jai pov*
I knock quietly on the door before cracking it open slightly. Mel's sitting cross legged on the bed with her head in her hands. When she hears the door opening, her sobs stop and she glares up at me through her fingers. "Get out."

"Mel, please..."

"Get out!" She picks up a pillow from behind her head and throws it straight at me. I catch it easily, but it's not the force that hurts, it's the gesture.

"Look, I'm sorry, it was ages ago, I barely knew you-" I'm approaching slowly but this time she stands up by the bed.

"JUST GET THE FUCK OUT! I don't want to see you right now! Please." She drops her head into her hands again and it's heartbreaking.

"Melanie, please! I love you." I whisper, and she raises furious, crazed eyes to me. I see in her eyes her weakness turning to rage and it scares me. Not the expression. The thought of her hating me.

"Are you fucking serious? How can you dare say that to me? HOW DARE YOU?!" And she lunges for me.

Suddenly I'm fighting her, pushing her back by her shoulders as she kicks and scratches, her nails raking up and down my face. She's gone absolutely mental and she's close to uncontrollable. It's hard to keep back someone, especially someone you don't want to hurt.

But she wants to hurt me.

The though makes me go limp, and she gets a few decent hits in before her tears overcome her and she sits back where she was before, sobbing even more. We're both a mess.

"Mel, I just-"

"Jai, look, I c-can't do this. I'm s-serious. I though y-you of all people would underst-stand. I don't want to see you anymore. I m-mean it."

It breaks my heart but I know she's right. And I do know how she feels, I went through it all with Ariana. This makes me hate myself even more, and suddenly I turn and kick the wall with all my might, putting my fucking foot right through it. "FUCK!" I yell, and it feels good to get it out. I give the wall a punch for good measure, and this also breaks through the flimsy material. As I pull my hand out, I scratch my skin all around, and blood pools up straight away. "MOTHERFUCKER! FUCKING CUNT!"

The sound of Mel quietly crying silences me and I'm even more ashamed of myself. I give the doorframe a good kick as I walk out, then sob all the way down the hall to Luke and Meghan's room before I collapse on their bed and cry myself to sleep.