36 | m e l o n

"Melrose," Emily sighed from the nurse's station. She didn't sound surprised to see me whatsoever.

She started walking toward me but I took a step back, still confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Your father-"

"I know. But you don't even live here anymore. How did you know he was here?" My eyebrows furrowed.

She glanced at the boy next to me and gave him a tight smile. I imagined he did the same back, but I couldn't move my gaze from her. "I guess I'm still an emergency contact on the records."

"And you came back for him, but not for me?" My voice cracked.

Ace latched onto my hand.

"Melon, I couldn't come back while he was-"

Tears threatened to leak at the mention of her old nickname for me. "What? Still alive?" She didn't say anything. "You left me here with him."

"Can we talk somewhere more private?" She bit her lip nervously.

I swallowed harshly and squeezed Ace's hand in anger. "Why? Too embarrassed of your daughter calling you out?"

Emily looked emotional, as if she deserved to be holding back tears. The woman left me when I was fourteen and only had the audacity to call me on my birthday; which she hadn't even done a few weeks ago. "I wasn't happy in that house Melrose. You know that."

"And you think I was?" I kept my voice low and angry. "He treated us both like shit and you got out of it."

He glanced around the hospital and started biting her thumbnail. It was a habit she obviously hadn't broken. She had always done it when Charlie walked in the room. "I needed to start over and I couldn't afford to take you with me. I had always planned to come back when I had enough money, but I never got to where I wanted melon."

I scoffed. "You never planned on coming back for me Emily. You don't have to lie to me."

"I really did angel, I promise. I had a whole plan. I would go back to school, get my degree and get a good job. And I would come back and get you and we would live together in a big house," she spoke as if she were reminiscing on memories instead of a dream.

I looked up at Ace and he brought my hand up to his lips to kiss it. I turned back to my mother. "Did you go back to school?"

She shook her head solemnly. "No, I couldn't once I got a job waitressing at a restaurant. I worked so many hours just to get enough money for rent. I can still barely afford my one bedroom apartment."

"It still doesn't excuse you from leaving me with an abuser, Emily," I shook my head.

She did the same. "He wouldn't touch a hair on your head, Melon. He was all talk with you."

"Then why did he hit her a few months ago?" Ace asked her, jaw clenched tight.

Emily eyed my boyfriend and squinted her eyes, as if she were thinking very hard. And then she turned back to me. "He hit you?"

All I could do was nod.

"But- he promised..."

I exchanged a glance with Ace. "Promised what?"

She looked up guiltily. "He knew I was leaving. He knew I had been planning it for awhile. He told me that he would only let me leave if you stayed. But he promised to never hurt you like he did me."

"But you just told me you had a plan to get me back. Was that a lie too?"

"No, Melrose. I always had that plan. But I didn't want him to find out that I planned to take you with me. At least I was going knowing that you would be okay," Emily frowned.

I took a deep breath, looking down. "Well, I wasn't."

"I'm sorry melon," she whispered. When I looked back up, there were tears in her eyes.

I toyed with the necklace she had given me a few years after she left through the mail. She glanced down at it with a sad smile.

"I'm surprised you actually wear that thing."

I looked down at it. "It's beautiful and it reminded me how much I missed you," I sniffled. Ace presser a kiss on temple and wrapped his arms across the front of my chest, standing behind me.

"I sent it to show you how much I missed you," my mother told me, eyes still shining with tears.

And even though I wasn't sure if I would ever fully forgive her, I pulled out of Ace's arms and crept over to my mother. Her arms automatically opened when she saw me come closer and I stepped into them with caution. She wrapped me up tight and I could hear her heart beating and her breathing heavy. She still smelled the same as she did before she left; like cotton candy ice cream.

When we finally pulled away from each other, I went back to Ace who was standing awkwardly a few feet away. "Mom," I paused, letting the name familiarize itself again. "This is my boyfriend, Ace."

She glanced over at him with a bright smile. "I'm glad my melon has someone to look over her. I'm Emily, it's very nice to meet you."

Ace held out his hand and she shook it, but ended up pulling him into a hug too. "It's nice to meet you too, Emily."

All three of us ended up at Charlie's apartment. I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do with all the furniture and with the apartment itself. My mom told me that she would have it all figured out so I didn't have to worry about it while finishing senior year. I was weirdly grateful she was here now.

After taking some things for myself, we left the apartment and went out for lunch together at the diner Ace had taken me to before we were dating for real, the Roller Diner. I ordered the chicken strips again and Ace stared at me judgingly. But this time, I just leaned up and kissed his cheek and he quickly got over it.

"You two are adorable together," Emily sighed, glancing at Ace and me and the nonexistent distance between us.

Ace landed his hand on my thigh under the table. "That's all her."

"You just don't like being called adorable, do you macho man?" I intertwined my fingers with his on my leg.

He turned to me and smiled cheekily. "Maybe."

And even though I didn't want to think about it, the thought of me leaving him in a few months came to my mind. I wished there was a way to slow down time, and just stay in this moment right now. I wasn't sure how a long distance relationship was supposed to work. And that terrified me more than the thought of leaving.

First of all, THANK YOU FOR 16k! THATS CRAZY. I love you all, and I know I say this every update, but you guys make me want to keep writing with your wonderful comments and votes and all that.

This chapter has over 1,100 words and I never want it to end. The book has over 70,000 words. Incredible.

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