A/N: So, I don't know when it happened but I decided that this story is going to be set to Ingrid Michaelson songs. I mean, she did influence the title of the story and it seems fitting. I'll name each of the chapters after the song I borrow the lyrics from so if you want to then you can listen as you read it.
The chapters will jump to different points and years in Melinda's life so don't be surprised by the sudden differences in her age.
I don't want to be the one to say goodbye, but I will, I will, I will…
"What are you doing," he yelled. Luke followed her through the apartment as Melinda grabbed items off coffee tables and from book shelves.
"What do you think I'm doing? I'm taking what I can and getting out of here. I'm going back home to my mother," she expanded. Twisting, she leaned over to grab a photo frame that held a picture of her parents in front of the manor.
Luke grabbed her and turned her to face him. "Why are you doing this," he begged. The man hadn't shed tears since he was four years old but this felt like someone was putting a blade into his chest. "We talked about his; we're going to…"
"We're going to what," the nineteen year old asked. "Live in this tiny apartment while we both work ourselves to death so we can beat the odds and make our teenage marriage work?"
"I know what you're doing," Luke shook her. "You think if you leave that I'll go to Boston because you don't want me to regret not going in twenty years—"
Chuckling like a mad woman, Melinda wrenched herself free of him and pushed her hands up to her temple before running them through her hair. "I love how you think this is about you," she yelled and pushed him away from her before throwing her bag over her shoulder. Turning around to yell at him one last time, Melinda yanked her wedding ring off and held it out to him. When he refused to take it she placed it on the table and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
"This isn't some old lifetime movie about a woman sacrificing her marriage for the sake of her husband. Do I hope you have a better life than this? Sure, because you will always be the first boy I fell in love with—but I fell in love with a boy and I'm not a fifteen year old girl. I want more than just sitting around in this apartment waiting for something to happen to me and being with you is just holding me back."
"I don't buy it," Luke said as he started to feel his panic dissipate as adrenaline kicked in. He had never been this angry before; never at Melinda but she had never lied to him before. "You're not doing this because you don't love me anymore, you're doing it—"
"Because I want more than just you! I want to write, and meet people, and have a life where I'm not home making dinner after working at the doctor's office all day," Mel shouted. "If you don't want to go to Harvard then don't, but I cannot and will not do this anymore."
Luke followed her to the door and put his hand around her neck, dragging her to him as he kissed her so long and so hard that there was no air left to breathe; their teeth and tongues scraping together in a frenzy and Melinda had to force herself to push him away.
"Good luck," she whispered and ran down the stairs with a duffle over her shoulder as another tenant rushed past her.
Dropping the bag on her floor, Melinda pulled her hair back into a ponytail and traced items on that she had left behind on her vanity.
Her mother and father hadn't been happy to find out that their daughter had run off and eloped, especially when she had been offered a lucrative scholarship to NYU which she had turned down in favor of going to UCSF while working part time for a doctor's office. Now they would be upset when they realized that she had left her husband and come home without telling them first.
Hearing voices from downstairs, Melinda decided to get it over with and found her mother and aunts coming in with shopping bags. Hand on the rail, she made her grand entrance as she came down the stairwell and her aunt Paige was the first one to notice her.
"Hey, kiddo. Your mom didn't say you would be here?" Paige smiled and started pulling items out of bags and the dining room table became cluttered.
She hadn't cried when she had walked out on him, but now the tears she had been so happy hadn't made an appearance earlier came crashing down her cheeks and Paige and Phoebe rushed to her as Melinda sobbed and hiccupped. Each one put a hand on her shoulder and used the other to hold on to her wrists as they supported her weight, barely keeping her from crashing to the floor when Piper came out to investigate the commotion.
"What's going on," was the last thing Melinda could make out clearly though she knew her mother and aunts were trying to console her as her entire body was wracked with sobs.
If you have the last hands that I want to hold, then I know I've got to let them go.