The Mysterious Rattle 16

Original Idea: Sophiie93

Copy Editor: Leena (@myLifeIsARPG)

“J-James…” Melany said. Her arms were shaking. She was nervous, scared.

James slowly approached her arms spread. “Melany… why?”

“I-I’m sorry!” Melany said scrubbing at the dirt spots on her dress. “I tripped and fell in the mud and stained it…” “…I’m trying to clean it up!” She continued to scrub furiously until James put his hand on hers. She slowed. They locked eyes. James put his other hand on the cheek of her right face, using his fingers to wipe away some of the dirt and dust that was smeared under her eyes, caked on by her tears.

“I’m not talking about that Mel,” James said in a sad but reassuring tone. “I’m talking about you. Why did you run away? Why come back here? It’s not safe. You could have hurt yourself.”

“I… I’m sorry…” Mel said pulling away from James’s hand and taking a step back. “I didn’t want to be a burden on you anymore.”

“A burden? Mel we’ve been over this, you aren’t a burden. What are you talking about?”

“No! You keep saying that but, it’s not true. You’ve rescued me. Gave me a home. Fed me. Clothed me. Even tried to build a future for me. It’s more than anyone else would have done. You changed your life for me.” Melany pulled back further, shouting her words. “I’ve taken everything from you and I… I just haven’t given anything back.”

“That’s nonsense Mel. No one feels that way. We love you,” James said taking a small step forward.

“We?” Mel said surprised.

“Yes. Everyone came. Tom, Chuck, even Caroline. They all helped look for you. You left without saying anything. You could have been kidnapped, or injured, or worse!” James threw his hands about as he talked, riled up from the worry. It made Mel jerk away further, like a frightened animal.

“I can take care of myself!” Melany barked in frustration. “Just tell them I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I know Mel,” James said lowering his hands almost in defeat. “I know how strong you are! You survived in this crumbling mansion by yourself for years. You’ve lived on the streets. You’ve been through things that would have destroyed someone like me.”

“And I’ll keep doing it! I can take it!”

“That’s why you aren’t a burden!” James snapped, raising his voice. Melany hissed at him angrily. He stopped himself, feeling ashamed that this was becoming a fight. He took a deep breath. “You’ve been through so much and yet… you kept wanting to do more for me, like you owed me. I never wanted you to owe me anything.”

James leaned against one of the still intact walls. His body just gave out, his back sliding against the rough and rotted wood until he ended up ass planted on the ground, kneed up, arms resting on them, curled in a loose ball. He felt empty. He felt trapped. He felt… like Mel.

“James…” Mel said softly approaching him. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean is… I don’t even know. I don’t know what I mean Mel. Things have gotten so complicated and… god… sometimes I wonder if it was right to get you out that day. Sometimes I wonder if all I do is hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” Mel said taking a few steps closer to James. “James, you improved my life so much. I just didn’t want you hurting yourself anymore.

“Hurting myself?” James asked in confusion.

“Yes. You were anxious every time we left the house. You fought with your friends about me. You even neglected your relationship with Caroline… I know you like her…”

“Wait… what?” James said starting to get up. “Yeah, I mean no, I mean… I liked her before but… GAH…” He tugged at his hair in frustration before realizing he was doing exactly what Mel said he was, hurting himself, and it was scaring her. He needed to stop. He needed to treat this situation like an adult.

“You haven’t hurt me Mel, period!” James said forcefully. “And I’m not in a relationship with Caroline. She has a boyfriend and everything. We are just friends.”

“Then why did you hug each other!”

“Because friends hug each other Mel! Because Caroline was excited that maybe we found you a job.”

“So you don’t want to date her?”

“No I…” James paused a minute. He needed to be completely honest. “I did. But not anymore.”

“And what made you change your mind?” Mel said with one head. “Finding out she had a boyfriend?” she said with the other.

“No, finding out just made me realize how I felt all along…. Not even…. It was before that, when I got home and you… you weren’t there.”

Melany brought her hands to her chest, her heat thumping hard from the rollercoaster of emotions she and James were going through. “What do you mean? I don’t understand!” she said desperately.

“Listen… When I met you I took you in because I saw you as helpless. I was afraid you were going hungry or cold. Ever since then I wrestled with the idea that you were becoming dependent on me. That you traded one helpless situation for another and that as soon as we parted ways you would be right back to where you were before… but…” James swallowed hard and forced the words out. “But it wasn’t like that at all. I was the helpless one. I was the one dependent on you!”

Melany gasped, her cheeks red. “You depend on me? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Melany, nothing was going on in my life! I got up, went to work, came home, went to sleep, and that was it. Chuck practically had to tear me out of my house by the arm just to come and check out the mansion. I had a work crush I was doing nothing about, a project that was going nowhere. I was living a boring life.

Then you came along! You taught me so much about mutants, and I learned so much more researching where to buy you clothes and how to help take care of you. You gave me inspiration for my project at work and now we are going to make a mutant themed RPG. You helped me take care of matters around the house. You made me look at the wonders of simple things like going to the park in a new way. But most importantly, every day I got to come home and see your smiling face. Sure, I was happy to see Caroline at work but when I came home and saw you I felt more than happy. I felt complete.”

Melany was crying from all four of her eyes. She couldn’t tell if it was sadness or happiness but she just let the tears flow. “Why, James… why didn’t you tell me. Every day I was worried that… that you didn’t feel toward me the way I felt toward you!”

“Because I was confused… OK? Because I hadn’t worked out my feelings toward Caroline. Because I was afraid that I had kidnapped you, or was treating you like a pet, or doing some other fucked up thing that was hurting you. Everyone else had some opinion about how I should treat you. Should I let you go? Should I bring you to the police? Should I find you your own place to live?” James stepped forward and took Melany’s hands in his once more. “But they don’t matter. What matters is what I feel, and I… I like living with you. I like BEING with you!”

James was also crying now, his bloodshot eyes looking deep into Melany’s own. “Mel, you are free to do whatever you want. I know you can survive on your own if you wanted to but… but if I’m being honest, I don’t want you to go. I really, really don’t want you to go. I want to come home to you after work. I want to eat dinner with you. I want to help you buy clothes and go to new places with you. I need you Melany. You’re the solution to all the emptiness in my life.”

Melany nodded and smiled through her tears. “A-are you sure about this?”

James nodded back “Never more sure about anything in my life. You don’t have to but, I would be honored if you would like to share your life with me.”

Melany stifled a giggle which broke through her sadness. “Is… hehe… is that really your way of asking me to be your girlfriend?”

“Why?” James said sheepishly. “Was it really that bad?”

“It was horrible!” Melany said suddenly hugging James with all her arms. “But my answer is still yes, a million times yes.”

James caressed the cheek of Melany’s right head before taking the plunge and kissing her deeply on the list. It lasted so long that she didn’t know what to do with her left head, so it just sort of turned, blushed, and looked away.

As the kiss broke Melany whispered into James’s ear, “I think it’s only fair if you evened it up” as she pointed at her left head.

“Nice excuse,” James said, kissing her on her left set of lips playfully.

They just stayed there, holding each other for a long time, until eventually Tom, Chuck, and Caroline came in to find them. Then turned to the group, the flow of tears slowly stopping. They knew from the look on James and Mel’s face what had happened. The new couple blushed and no one said anything for a long while before Tom cleared his throat.

“Ahem… so uh, should I give you two a lift back home?”

James and Mel looked to each other and said in unison. “Yes!” They joyfully ran to the group which was equally happy to see they were all ok.

The best part of James and Melany’s life was just about to begin.