A/N: Alright! Before we start, a warning to all the Melchi/Wendla fans out there!

PLEASE DON'T HUNT ME DOWN AND KILL ME!

MELCHI IS GRIEVING AND HE IS LETTING HIS EMOTIONS GET THE BEST OF HIM!

But yeah…a little Melchi-attempted-action warning!

I have two references!

An obvious RENT reference and a sorta vague Spring Awakening reference! Whoever finds them both gets a miniature Henry!

REVIEW PLEASE!

Two whole months had passed. Natalie and Henry continued to see each other. But considering that he lived so far away now, it was difficult for them to get together outside of school. Wendla had been getting bigger, already in her fifth month. She constantly wrote her friends, explaining the changes that were happening to her, getting prepared for the baby. She was excited now more than ever before. She could feel the baby moving and kicking constantly. She would always have her hand on her stomach, waiting to feel that her baby was thriving.

Everything was going perfectly for the both of them….

They were at lunch one day, eating, talking as usual. Wendla would always throw an angry glare over towards Lilli and her crew every time she walked past them. She couldn't stand the girl…So she was startled out of her thoughts as she heard Henry slam his book down onto the table.

"What's your problem?" Natalie asked, trying to tease him.

"N-Nothing…just haven't been having a good day…" was all he said back.

"Aww…why?"

He shrugged and tried to explain. "Well, I woke up this morning, went to get ready, you know. The phone starts ringing. So, naturally, I pick it up. It was my sister's boyfriend yelling, saying something about he regrets that she's the one carrying his child, then I hung up." he took a moment to sigh angrily. "She's pregnant and she didn't even tell me!"

"She still hasn't told you?" Wendla asked, before her hands quickly covered her mouth, realizing what she said,

"You knew?"

"Yes…Oh, but please don't be angry with me! She didn't want you to know…she didn't want you to have to worry about her…You have to think about how she feels, Henry. Put yourself in her shoes. Or mine even. Would you want that?"

He paused for a moment and she knew that he was thinking. He finally nodded and sighed, "Yeah…you're right…I'm sorry…"

She just smiled at him, "Don't apologize to me…apologize to her."

He nodded, smiling now. Natalie was surprised. It was the first time she saw him smile all day. She was sort of glad that Wendla did that. She looked over at Melchior, who had been surprisingly quiet lately. She noticed that he had a bit of a jealous gleam in his eyes as he watched Wendla talk to Henry.

"Are you ok?" she asked him, trying to get him out of the daze.

He sort of snapped out as soon as she had spoke up. "Yes…Sorry…today's not a good day…"

"Aww…you're having problems too? Maybe you should go talk to Wendla, the future therapist."

"I…I'd like to, but…I just don't want to talk about it…"

"Why? What happened?"

He sighed and then said mournfully, "My best friend died six months ago."

Wendla stopped what she was doing and went to face Melchior as soon as he said that. Her face looked like his: sad, mournful, and upset. She gently placed her hand on top of his and just whispered, "It's been six months?"

He nodded, picking her hand up and kissing it gently. "Yes…six months…"

"Poor Frau Stiefel must be so upset back home…"

"Who died?" Henry asked, wanting to be informed so he didn't feel like a creep listening in on their conversation.

"Our friend, Moritz Stiefel…" Wendla explained, a tear or two in her eyes. She leaned against Melchior sadly. "Oh, poor Moritz…"

"Poor Martha Bessell…" he said, kissing her forehead. "She had feelings for him, you know…"

"I-I know…she told me in her last l-letter…" Wendla was crying now, holding onto Melchior for dear life. "Oh, Melchi…" she whispered, hiding her face in his shoulder.

"I'm sorry…" Natalie whispered, trying to bring some comfort into the conversation. She noticed that Henry's hand was on Wendla's shoulder. She didn't have a problem with it, she knew it was his way of comforting the sobbing girl. But Melchior did. He pulled Wendla away from Henry and held her in his arms.

Right before anyone could say anything, though, the bell rang for class to start up again.

The last class of the day was gym. They just started to play basketball, a sport that none of them were good at. But everyone showered and changed and met outside of the gym to talk with their friends.

"What's with him today?" Henry asked Natalie, glaring over at Melchior.

"I dunno…maybe he's just upset…"

"Did you see what he did at lunch? I mean, he's got some, like, jealousy issues or something."

She sighed and quickly reminded him, "The guy lost his best friend half a year ago…give him a break."

"I should, shouldn't I…." he said thoughtfully. "But I don't want to…."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Of course….Typical Henry…" she smiled, hoping that he would too. She watched as his face cracked a small grin. She looked down at her stuff when she realized, "Crap…I left my phone in the locker room…I'll be back…"

"Want me to help?" he asked her as she walked away.

"No, I've got it…"she said, barely audible as she walked into the locker room.

Henry shrugged and sat against the wall, alone. He felt someone quickly jab his side as he looked up. It was Melchior.

"Where's Natalie?" he asked, glaring down at Henry.

"Locker room….why?"

"I have to talk to her…" and with that he sped up an darted into the locker room, leaving Henry alone out there with Wendla.

Natalie couldn't seem to find her missing phone. It was there somewhere….she went to look underneath a bench when suddenly she heard the door open. Gasping, she turned to see who it was who had entered.

It was Melchior. She sort of smiled, being nice to him as he bent down next to her.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, helping her search.

"I lost my phone in here…What are you looking for?"

"If only I knew…" She sort of smiled, not knowing what to say back to that. He got up and began to look around some more. He noticed a bit of a shimmer as he bent down to see what it was. It was her phone. "Oh… Natalie-"

"Yes?" he heard her call from the other end of the room.

Without thinking, he stuffed the phone into his pocket and made up an excuse. "Oh, it's just a…um…a candy bar wrapper…"

"How do you mix up a phone and a candy bar?" she asked, giggling.

"It's not impossible…"

She slowly made her way over towards him, hoping to cover more ground. "I swear it was right here…" she said, bending down to look under the bench. Nothing. But as she came up, she found Melchior unsettlingly close to her. She quietly mumbled an apology under her breath as she tried to walk away…but he grabbed onto her hand and kept her there.

"What are you doing?" she asked, a little scared.

"What do you see in that boy?" He asked, moving in closer.

"Henry? I dunno…he's nice to me-"

"That's all?" he had her backed against the wall now. "I can be so much better…I can respect you…" he leaned in so close that his lips were barely touching hers. "I can love you…"

She turned away from him, hoping he would stop. "Is this about today?"

"He stole my Wendla from me! So I'm going to steal something from him…"

"What? No! Melchi, it was a mistake! He doesn't-!"

But it was too late. His lips were already pressed hard against hers, his arms wrapped around her. She tried to scream as loud as she could, but nothing came out. She kicked him, she punched him a few times, squirming like a fish out of water. Anything to get him off of her.

He finally moved his lips from hers to her neck as she tried to reason with him. "M-Melchi, please! Please stop! Wendla doesn't love him! She loves you!"

He still refused to listen, his hands now freely roaming her body. She was terrified by now, struck with fear. He touched her in every place imaginable, ignoring her statements, her pleas.

"Melchior, stop! Please! Melchi! STOP!"

His hands had grabbed the hem of her shirt as the door suddenly burst open. She tried to turn away to see who it was. It was Lilli.

She knew she would regret it later, but she tried to call out anyway. "Lilli! Help me! Please!"

Lilli knew that voice. Natalie's voice. She cautiously followed it, afraid to see what was going on. But there in front of her was a terrified Natalie still trying to get an angry-looking Melchior off of her. Without even thinking, she kicked Melchior hard, causing him to remove himself from Natalie. She grabbed onto the terrified girl and dragged her out of the locker room and down the hall to the bathroom.

She watched as Natalie made her way into the bathroom, shaking uncontrollably. She leaned against the wall and just slid down, her head in her hands, her knees pressed to her chest.

"Thank you…" she muttered quietly, not wanting to look at her.

"You're welcome…" Lilli said, going to sit next to her. "What happened in there?"

"I…I don't know…he's jealous of my boyfriend…so he thought it was necessary to make him jealous too. B-But he just hurt me…I mean, he's grieving badly. I know what grief can do to a person…"

"I know too…"

Natalie looked up painfully to the girl. "Why are you being so nice to me? I thought you hated me…"

Lilli just shook her head and explained. "I don't hate you…I'm just…well…jealous."

"Jealous? Of me?"

She nodded and continued. "You have a family. My mom died when I was little. My dad didn't take it so well. He, um, how do I put this….Like what Melchior was doing, only all the way."

Natalie froze. She couldn't help but to think of Wendla's friend Martha. "He did that to you?"

"I don't know why…but he did. And then he got remarried. I thought that having a new mother would be better. Maybe she'd protect me…But she didn't…And that was my life from then on. But someone found out and my grandma was given custody. That was my life from then on. That one swim meet…the one where your mom jumped in? I was so jealous. You had a mother who loved you enough to do that-"

"Lilli, it wasn't love…it was her disease…"

"But still! She cared enough to show up and cheer you on! I wanted so bad to be you. And that's why I started acting like that…Because I wanted to be you…but I was me instead."

Natalie couldn't help but to feel bad for Lilli. She felt awful about all the things they'd done to each other over the years. Neither of them deserved that. "I'm sorry…"

"It's ok…"

"I mean, for everything I've done to you…"

"Me too…"

Natalie just smiled a little. "Do you remember when we used to be friends?"

"How could I ever forget?"

"We'd run around the locker room, hiding people's clothes…And that one time we swam with that boy? We both thought he was so cute-"

"So we figured that neither of us could have him!" Lilli finished. "So we pushed him into the water and he couldn't even swim!"

"He was there to meet girls!" the both of them started laughing like they were friends once again. Natalie thought this was perfect…until she remembered. "Oh, God…"

"What?"

"He lives with me…"

"Who?"

"Melchior…"

Lilli knew what she had to do…only she wasn't sure if it would work. "You wanna stay over my place tonight? You know, just in case? It's the weekend anyway…"

Natalie just smiled happily. "I'd really appreciate it…thank you."

"Awesome…" Lilli said, getting up from the floor and helping Natalie up as well. "I'll see you later then!"

"Ok…bye…"

Natalie couldn't believe it…

Maybe Lilli Roberts wasn't the devil's spawn….

A/N: Awwwww!

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