Bradin walked to practice early the next morning. Coach P must be crazy; these 6am practices are going to kill me he thought. Lucas was sitting on the sand waxing his board "Hey dude" Bradin called. Lucas looked at him and nodded. Bradin walked over to him and noticed he wasn't happy about something "Dude, what's going on?" he asked
Lucas looked at him and said nothing. After a while he could tell Bradin wasn't going anywhere, so he had to just flat out tell him. "Come over here" he said and got up and walked over to a ledge of rocks. When he was sure that no one could see or hear them, he said "I saw you last night"
"What are you talking about?" Bradin asked, totally oblivious to what he was talking about
"I saw you and Mel outside her house. I saw everything." He said firmly, he can't try to talk his way out of this one, I saw him with my own 2 eyes.
Bradin looked down at the ground "How much did you see, seriously?"
"Everything. I saw you two come out of your house, walk down to hers, I saw you kiss her and her kiss you back, but most importantly, I heard you tell her you love her, and I heard her tell you she loves you. Dude, I've known Melani since she moved here, she's always been the girl next door, and she NEVER says I love you. Ever! But what the hell are you doing? She's with James"
"I can't tell you Luke, I promised, if she wants you to know, you can ask her, you just need to promise not to tell anyone"
"I promise, but you two need to be more careful. What if Tanner saw you and not me? He would tell James. We do live right next door, he could see you anytime. Just don't let her get hurt Brae, I'll kill you if you do." And with that Lucas walked back over to the team.
Bradin sighed and joined him today is going to fucking awesome, I can just tell he thought.
Melani walked around in a daze once again. "Homecoming's tomorrow night" she said almost every other second
Lucas decided that it would be good to talk to her about the Bradin situation, but no matter how he tried, she was always surrounded by either James himself or one of his loyal followers. The perfect opportunity came at lunch, when she was sitting with Kelli, picking at her food. "Hey baby" he said kissing Kelli on the cheek. She giggled "Would you mind if I talk to Mel alone?"
Kelli looked at him wearily, "ok?" she said questionably as she walked away, looking over her shoulder every few steps
"Ok, so I talked to Bradin this morning, and he told me to talk to you if I wanted the full story" Melani looked at him like he had a million heads "I saw you and Bradin kiss last night, I was coming home from my date with Kelli and I forgot my key and obviously no one was home, so I went to ask if I could chill with you and I saw you. Needless to say I didn't bother asking"
Melani stared at him, not sure of what to say "I don't know what to tell you Luke. Apparently you saw it, so I cant tell you it isn't happening, because it is. So what do you want me to clear up?"
Lucas looked at her. He didn't expect her to be so willing to talk about it. "Well, why you're doing it would probably be a good place to start" he said. Melani stood up "Where the hell are you going?" he whined
"Away from all these people. You may know, but I don't want the entire school to know" she walked down the hall to the student tutoring center. She waved to a few of the tutors and walked over to an empty room with a desk that said supervisor on it "I run the tutoring for the Juniors, this is my 'office'. Nice isn't it?" she rolled her eyes "So do you want the full-out five hour long version or the reader's digest version"
"Um, I have class in like 10 minutes, which one can fit in that time slot?"
"The reader's digest one. Long story really really short, James hits me, I found Bradin after hating him when I lived with him in Kansas, fell in love with him and decided I needed to be with him. I knew that if I left James for him, James would make his life a living hell, and he'd probably kill me or send your brother to do it, so I stayed with James and Bradin and I are together whenever we can be"
Lucas looked at her "Wow, he really hits you?"
Melani pulled up the sleeve of her shirt and he saw a fading bruise "Remember when I had to leave the mall on Saturday, that's because I was late" she rolled down her shirt "You have to promise you won't tell Luke, tell anything. Besides Kelli, you're my best friend, please promise me?"
Lucas looked at the ground "I promise I won't tell James that you're cheating on him and I won't tell anyone that he hits you, but I want you to be careful, ok? It easily could have been Tanner that saw you and not me, and he'd tell James in a second. Just promise me you'll tell me if he hits you again. I want to know"
"I can't put this burden on you Luke, it's already on me and Bradin and his sister and her boyfriend and Tanner, I can't stand…"
"Wait!" he interrupted "Tanner knows he hits you?"
"He's usually with me when it happens. He's known for years"
"Wait, this has been happening for years and you never told anyone? Mel how could you carry this all by yourself? Does Kel know?"
"I told her at the beginning of this year. It started freshmen year." She looked down at the floor, half embarrassed half afraid to look at him
Lucas walked over and hugged her "Mel, you should have told me. Bradin and I will protect you. I promise" she smiled weakly "We should go, we're going to be late for Algebra" Mel nodded and the two left the room and walked out into the hall. Kelli and Bradin were there waiting
"So, what was going on that you needed to not only leave the quad, but go into hiding as well?"
"I told him Kel" Mel said "He saw us"
Kelli walked over to Lucas and hugged him "I wanted to tell you but I couldn't. Now we really are an unbeatable foursome. He'll push us the wrong way someday and he'll be in big trouble"
"Who?" James asked as he walked over to the group "Hey baby" he said kissing the top of her head
Lucas had to hold Kelli tighter to resist hitting James right then and there "The boy who I had the incident with freshmen year. It's nothing big. What's up?" they could all tell she knew he didn't believe her
"I just thought I'd walk you to class, is that ok?" He looked at all the members of the group, daring them to stop him from controlling her
"Sounds good" she said, forcing a smile. The two walked down the hall, the three gazes of Mel's friends glued to their backs.
A/N: THanks for all the really awesome reviews and for all the people who went and read If Only! Your reviews seriously make my day! The next chapters' going to be really intense, just a warning. It's going to be Homecoming! Don't 4get to review! 143 Steph