There’s at least three awards left to be handed out. I don’t know what they are and I don’t care. Like I ever care. I keep checking over my shoulder to find Melanie amongst the crowded arena. Damn JC for telling me she was here. Damn her for coming. Damn her for… everything.nextCommercial break. I can’t wait any longer. I jump from my seat and race to the other side of the place and start counting rows. Three. Six. Eight. Ten. I stop running. She’s sitting on the end, reading a white sheet of paper while talking to the man sitting next to her. Boyfriend? Husband? I. Don’t. Know.
The announcer lets the seat fillers know they have one minute. I search around and pick a seat next to R. Kelly. Nod and smile as everyone around gives odd looks and glances. A girl behind me tries to control screaming my name to the world. I lean forward, almost dropping onto my knees, “Mel! Mel!”
She looks up searching the room until we meet eyes. I smile at her, she glares. Yep… I think she’s still pissed off at me. People walk across the stage but I’m not paying any attention. “Melanie, talk with me later? Gameworks. Please.”
She looks at me from the corner of her eye and bites her lip. She shakes her head slowly as she stands up, walks past me to the exit. I hear screams of girls calling for Justin. JC, Lance, Chris, everyone is on that stage besides me. I sigh roughly as I stand from my seat and walk to the exit. Let them be without me. I have to see about a girl.
I have no bodyguard with me. No one knows where I am. I’m walking on a sidewalk towards what I’m guessing is New York, NY. My hands start to shake while I search for my cigarettes. I light two at once hoping the extra kick would calm me down. I don’t know what I’m feeling as I make a right turn, heading for the M&M Factory. Why was she back? Did she want to see me? Did she want to pick up where we last left off? Or was she just here to make me realize what I’ve been missing out on for the past eighteen months?
Melanie.
The last time I saw her, her coffee brown eyes were filled with tears. I don’t know what I did wrong, or maybe I just forgot what I did. Whatever it was, she hated me.
I stop in front of Gameworks as a man walks by handing me porn. I take the card and use the point to pick out the gunk beneath my nails. I close my eyes to remember what the hell I was doing. Did I leave her? Did she leave me?
My nose starts running from the cold weather which I end up wiping on my coat sleeve. I take a seat on the cement and pull out another cigarette. A figure steps before me, handing me a lighter. I look up and into the eyes of her.
My wife.