Chapter Thirty-Eight

Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave

Don't own the title of the chapter. It belongs to James Horner. I got it off the "Titanic" soundtrack.

Thank you so much! Three hundred reviews is amazing! Muffins for everyone!

Melissa woke up the next morning to see sun streaming in through the blinds. For eighteen years, she had woken up in this house. Four years of those were spent downstairs, waking up to her light pink walls and the morning sun.

That would end today. From now on, she would be waking up in a maroon room in a bigger bed, in a house of her own with Jack.

It was hard for her to believe that today she was moving. In a way, she didn't want to leave the only house she had ever known. There were too many memories here! She couldn't count how many sleepovers she had with Kate downstairs. There were too many failed attempts at a good dinner in her kitchen – the most famous was with the fried chicken on fire just days after she and Jack met.

This room held the most recent memories, though. She was talking to Kate on the phone the evening of May 31 (she remembered the day perfectly), deciding whether or not to wear the medallion that the woman in the shop claimed was cursed.

This is where she first met Jack – he was slumped by her desk. She had threatened to call the police and even made a run for the window in her short, red nightgown. Melissa remembered that her first words to him were a nervous "Who are you?" She had even thrown her phone at him, the old, light green phone with glittery star stickers that she bought when she was eleven. Melissa had hit him right in the nose – not on purpose, either – then had threatened to use CDs as numchucks.

She had stormed down here for nearly a week after she found out that he had cheated with Kate while they argued through the door. Melissa had pulled out the nightgown from her closet, remembering that this was what he first saw her in. She had also pulled out the medallion and looked at it. Melissa was angry at herself then for buying it – it had brought her nothing but trouble in her life.

She had first said that she loved him on this bed in what he had first seen her in – right before they had "given her flower" to him. He had also said that he loved her more than rum, but he hadn't said it since. Melissa couldn't help but think that he was being insincere. She knew that Jack couldn't love a woman, but yet she had given herself to him. Melissa had gotten too caught up in the moment – and him. She knew that he felt something for her. He wouldn't have done what he did with her otherwise.

Now, as a result of getting too "caught up in the moment" a few times, she was moving out of her house and could have lost her parents trust since she kept Jack and her virginity state (or lack thereof) a secret.

What if she hadn't bought that medallion? She never would have met Jack – some days, she felt that was for the better. Melissa wouldn't be having to move out of her house today and could stay at home during college. She would have her parents trust and wouldn't have to think about how to care for a baby while in college.

Things would have been far worse off if she didn't buy that, though. She met a man that she loved – even if they did fight and wouldn't let himself become vulnerable. And in seven month's time, she would be a mother!

Like Jack said yesterday, today was the beginning of a new chapter for her.

As Jack loaded the final boxes into the back of their car, Melissa said goodbye to her parents. She found it hard to believe that this was it. This wouldn't be her home anymore – it was wherever Jack and their baby were.

This had happened so suddenly! They had talked about moving in together since the late June, but they started being proactive after she said that she was pregnant. The day was finally here – she was leaving the nest that she had fit oh-so comfortably in for eighteen years.

Saying goodbye would be the hardest thing for her. She still wasn't on good terms with her parents, yet she felt like she was going to start crying, now that she had to say goodbye.

"Bye, Mom," she whispered, hugging her mother. She felt her mother hug her tighter.

"It doesn't have to be like this," she said. "You can stay here!"

Tears were brought to her eyes. Despite what her mother said last night, she wanted her to stay at home! Would she feel this way one day about their child? Would she be begging their child to stay with them?

"I have to, Mom," she said. "Jack and I will visit. You're always welcome, too, you know that." She pulled away from her mother and hugged her father tightly.

"I don't want you to think I'm making a mistake," she said to him. She noticed that her throat hurt with each word she said to him. "Please don't think that I don't love you. I do, Daddy, I do. I'll understand what you felt all those years ago when the baby goes off to college."

"I know you're not making a mistake," her father said. "You're sticking to it, Mel. You're doing the right thing."

Those three words meant everything to her. Her father said that she was doing the right thing – something that, just five days ago, she wouldn't dream of him saying.

Even though she wasn't talking, her throat started to ache more and more.

"Thank you," she whispered, breaking away from him, and looked at both of them. "Thank you for everything that you've done for me."

Her mother smiled. "You'll learn how much that thank you means someday, Melissa."

Before the tears could escape her eyes, Melissa looked away. She could never imagine how bizarre of a feeling moving away from home was. No one was there to look out for you now. No one was there to do her laundry or cook dinner for her...

She didn't have to do this! Her mom even said that she could stay at home! She wouldn't mind staying at home.

No. She had wanted to move out to a house with just her and Jack for a month and a half! Besides, they had already signed the papers.

People waited for years to move out of their house, be it that they were already independent or couldn't stand their parents. Melissa was neither of those. Why was she already having second thoughts? Was eighteen too young to move out? Both her parents left for Yale University – to New Haven, Connecticut! – when they were her age. If they could move from the Midwest to the east coast, she could move ten minutes away.

"I know I will," she said, after gathering her voice again. "I really do have to go, though. Bye, Mom and Dad."

Turning around, Melissa took a deep breath and got in her car. She saw that Jack was pointing her camcorder that she got for Christmas last year at her. How had he snuck that in? Jack must have taken it when he was loading the boxes in the back.

Wonderful. Now she was going to be immortalized crying on the day that she left home. Just what she needed to look back on Saturday, August 18, 2007.

"Put it away," she said, embarrassed, backing out of the driveway.

"This day deserves t' be remembered, love," Jack said. "Each 'n' every..." he put the camera closer to her face, "moment."

"Get that away from me!" she laughed, going down the road.

Maybe moving away wouldn't be as hard as she thought it would be. Jack would be a good person to live with.

Even if they fought and he pushed her half the time.

Melissa pulled up to their – their – house, free from Melissa's parents. Jack stepped out of the car and panned back so that the cream-colored townhouse filled the screen. Melissa had complained about him filming at the beginning, but had stopped – he wondered if it was because she didn't want to look back on this day filled with whining or because she had just given up and knew that he would record until he felt content with what he recorded today.

She got out of the car, holding a gold-colored key in her hand, then went to the white door and put it in the lock, turned the key, then the knob. Melissa opened the door and let both of them in. He did a sweep around the room with the camcorder.

"Do you have to do that?" she asked. "We'll be living in this house for a while."

"Can 'n' will," he said, directing the camcorder to her. "Sit on th' couch."

"Why?" she asked. "We have boxes to unload."

"Boxes with clothes can wait a few minutes." He sat on the couch, the camcorder still on her. "Sit."

She sighed. "Fine." She sat on the other side of the black couch. "What is this, 'Oprah'?"

"No, this is 'The Jack Sparrow Show'!"

Melissa laughed and shook her head. "You're a dork."

"I'm a socially inept person? That's not very nice," he chided. "What is Melissa Lewes's true feelings for Captain Jack Sparrow?"

"I'm terribly sorry to break your heart, Jack, but those are my true feelings towards you," she said, trying to keep a straight face.

Jack learned something about Melissa. She should never go into acting. Melissa was both a horrible liar (that he knew beforehand) and couldn't keep a straight face for her life. What was unusual was that she wasn't a forward person. She wasn't one to speak her mind and was quieter. He had changed that, though. When they first met, she was quiet and shy – or it could have been the fact that he time traveled and landed in her bedroom. But once she got to know him, she had let her guard down. She was still the same person, all she had done was loosen up in the process.

"What is this water substance emitting from my eyes?" he said, pretending to wipe a tear away.

"I am moving in with a dork," she said, stealing the camcorder from him and pointing it to him. "Jack Sparrow: Socially Inept Person."

"Ya make me sound like a new type of species," he said.

"It's because you practically are a new type of species. They don't make people like you."

Do ya mean that in a good or a bad way? he questioned silently.

"Th' love ye're exudin' is o'erwelming," he said sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and scooted closer to him and put the camcorder so that she would get a shot of both of them. "I suppose I must feel something for this socially inept person if I'm moving in with him."

"No – ya wanted t' do this fer th' baby." Jack took the camcorder from her, stood up, and got a shot a full shot of her. Her stomach was still pretty flat. He wondered when she would start showing. He guessed that it would be soon.

"Not e'en a bump," he said. "Although, Mel 'as changed elsewhere."

Threw a red throw pillow at him. "Turn it off!"

And, at the risk of having another pillow thrown at him, off the camera went.