The Inevitable Evidence

14.

PDV Melora

I've been on the porch for a good ten of minutes and I'm pretty sure he knows went out and then he’s a little further outside, under a tree in the dark. I don't know what I'm waiting for to join him but deep down I know where I imagine what's going to happen. It's simple, he'll tell me that he doesn't like me in return, that it was just a game but why would he say that if finally, he confided in me for Harmony and he   would not stop the night of the evening in Niall if I didnot co m m ptfor him ... I don't know what to think... My head keeps heating up and wants to know what he's going to tell me, and on the one hand on a new disappointment I'm not risking anything but everything that happened with him was not nothing to me, I'm not the type to flirt like that with a boy. No, but it's the pompom, "fricoter*" really Melora? I really have my head loose.

And while I immerse myself in my worst thoughts, my phone vibrates bringing me back to the surface and bringing me back to earth. I put a hand over my face and pick up my phone and look who may well send me a message at this late hour. My blood only turns when it's Damian's name   that I see on my lock screen. Do I dare or I dare not? Maybe I’d better turn around? Raaah, I don't know what to do!!! After a slight fight against myself, I open his message.

Dam: Are you really going to stick on the porch?

Aaaaaaah! The bastard, I should have known that he would eventually know that I was there! At the same time the porch is on too, stupid light! I accompany my thoughts with several movements of the head to try to see what he does and distinguishes a faint glow on his face sign that I will receive a message in not long ...

Dam: Stop looking from everywhere pretty heart, and come.

Dam: I promise, I won’t hurt you.

Is that supposed to reassure me? I don't know, but he manages to convince me to go. I adjust my jacket on my arms and blow a good shot before I start moving. Except I didn't expect Tobias to come outside. I widen my eyes, taken on the fact and having no cigarette in my hand. I don't even know what to do. What the hell ishe doinghere seriously?! He really pisses that one off! But... Would he have figured out what's going on? Understood that I'm more or less dating Damian? Surprised an exchange in college? I look at him so much with round eyes, that I don't even see Laurie behind the window, making me countless signs.  I can't decipher what she wants to say to me and hear Tobias start talking except that Laurie opens the door at the same time and asks her to follow her.

"Why would I follow you? What do you want from me? He asks him, cold and accusing eyebrows.

-      Your dear girlfriend is asking for you. She answers with a hypocritical smile.

-      She can wait. He said, turning to me.

-      Unfortunately, no, she's in a bad state, we just played a game of alcohol and she vomits in the toilet. She insistswith a gleam in her eyes that I know by heart, she is lying to me and I see him close his eyes by massaging the ridge of the nose.

-      You should go pick up your girlfriend's rat tails over Goldsmith’s toilet. I added, looking forward to finding the blond in the dark.

-      You...

-      Damn it, but you're stupid or what! Bring it on! Laurie gets impatient by taking him by the arm and closing the door. »

I'm turning around.

Thinking not a minute longer but the darkness gives me even more time to freak out like a scoundrel when I walk towards him. I judge myself as much as I make fun of myself when I bite all my fingernails, a tic that I can't stop when I've been stressed since I was a little girl. He must know how stressed I am and it's really not serious! When I’m close enough to him, I see smoke rising in the sky. The further I go and the more my heart tightens so when he decides to turn around when he finishes his cigarette, I immediately look at my feet and suddenly find a great interest in the grass.

The blond is on the tree behind him. My legs start shaking all alone and I bite my cheek, simple reflex. He's watching me, but I'm unable to talk under the risk of being a 15-year-old girl, whereas since the beginning of our relationship, I've stood up to him. I hate being in this state in front of someone but something pushes me to be totally transparent and myself with him and his makes me even more nervous because it confirms what I told him earlier ...

"Melora? Suddenly calls me his low voice.

-      Huh? what? Or yes? I say, I say immediately.

I have to raise my head too abruptly towards him because he looks at me raising his eyebrows with a slight grin at the corner of his lips which I strangely want to bite just because I know he laughs at me the bastard.

-      But stop stressing like that... He responds with a soft laugh.

-      I-I don't stress first! I was responding by stopping gnawing my fingernail. And stop making fun of me, it's not cool!!!

-      It's really cute when you're stressed... He goes on, sinking me. Now come closer. He asks me, reaching out to me.

-      You're me off. I say, on the way to him. You... You don't know what you're saying, you... You don't know me! I barely added by pointing at him and facing him, keeping a distance betweenus.

-      Still, sweetheart, I know that when you stress your leg moves by yourself and you bite your nails. I also know when you lie because you avoid my gaze and because you do this thing so singular ...

I end up looking at him, plunging my gaze into his while biting the inside of my cheek so as not to look down and try to show him that it's not true.

-      That's exactly what it is. He says, putting my heart upside down. I also know when you're nervous because when I approach you you shiver when I'm not even ready for you yet. He said, joining the gesture to the word as I crossed the distance, I had put between us, feeling the goosebumps covering my entire skin.

-      Dam... I pronounced by feeling him so close to me, his breath tickling my lips because with my heels I almost make his waist.

-      I love you too Melora. He admits, freeing me from a huge weight. I freak out as much as you do and don't expect me to tell you often and get ready to drool and get upset. He continues, feeling I'm already robbed away from reality. But keep going to drive me crazy. Does he finish before I throw myself around his neck to kiss him.”

**

PDV Laurie

I got into one of those hits s me... When I saw Tobias get up, I panicked and even more when I followed him and found that he went outside leaving Auxalia to take care oftheguys. Now I find myself with him behind me, going up the stairs to the bathroom, which I don't even know the exact place to go to see his ghost girlfriend since she'sdownstairs laughing with Oscar and Joshua. How am I going to handle this? Hell, what the hell I wouldn't do for Melora, she owes me a McDo and Damian too.

Arriving at the top with the energizer behind me, I turn left and enter a room, I knew I could not fall on the bathroom, it would have been too beautiful. He follows me inside - like a nice dog... Oh it's okay I'm joking - and when he enters the room, I rush to the door to close it and stand against it, a little too loudly and hurriedly to go unnoticed. Tobias turns around, frowns and crosses his arms on his torso while I, with my lips pinched, I still wonder what I'm going to be able to say to him.           

"It was a lie, wasn't it?

Well, bah I would not need to talk first, it's cool. Am I telling him the truth or not? Knowing that I'm already in trouble, what attitude should I adopt? But if he understands anything between Melo and Dam, it will be my fault... Oh and then, eh he's not going to eat me and then honesty it always works accompanied by a nice smile.

-      It may well be that yes... But before you yell at me or hold me to account, I won't tell you anything.

-      Laurie, I'm not a kid. I'm with Damian all the time. He says with that dismissive look that I want to slap but I was asked to hold myself well so I would not make a story.

-      Think what you want, I don't know what you're talking about. I answered by making the ignorant, always leaning against the door.

-      In that case, decals you and go back to the party.

When he utters this sentence, he gets just inches from me and I'm unable to move. When you look at him, you might think he's insensitive to what's going on outside with our friends, but on closer inspection, he's tense, his jaw keeps clenching and he doesn't look me in the eye.

-      what? "Pronounced by looking me straight in the eye since I remain speechless in front of him, like a Mongolian. It... Ihave that glow that I liked to see in him and that I find after more than four months, that fragile glow that he showed only when I was near him. »

In fact, we were never very close given how reserved it was, that's why I and the others are so shocked to see it so assertive and impenetrable. But sometimes when, for example, we were all together and I found myself alone with him, we had this closeness that no one really saw, not even me until I missed his presence with us.

We loved the watched laugh all together, spectators of the lives of our friends.

We liked to bicker by throwing water or even flour when Harmony decided to make cookies.

We liked to be alone together and, in those days, which never lasted long in view of the behaviors of Emilio and Driss, I perceived his fragility and expressions when he looked at Melora paraded before her eyes when she was looking for the wrath of Eidan and that she only deserved what she deserved afterwards.

He didn't need to tell me anything, I understood him. But I had to look at him from the corner of my eye to see all the love he had for Melora that no one saw either her or him. Everything about my best friend, I could see it in his eyes and I really liked that part of it. I liked watching him look at her infate. So, when I see this side of him in front of me, I have to seize the opportunity to have a conversation different from all the conversation he had with Jaison, Melora or even Harmony.

I am the confidante of everyone in the group, even Eidan is saying, and I am mostly a grave so everyone tells me his secrets. I know in advance that he will not adopt the same behavior with me - that's why I'm considering a conversation with him - I’ve seen his weaknesses and he's mine so we're bound by something he can't   deny or ignore, I don't see him answering me like a dog and limits that an argument breaks out between us.

"I would like to ask you something... I was trying to follow him with my eyes, for, as if he understood, he sits at the edge of a bed where we are.

-      Tell me everything. Ends up responding by blowing a bigblow, eyes in the wave.

-      What for? ... Why make you hateful in their eyes? I asked, sitting in a suit in front of him, like a child ready to listen to a story.

-      I have to.

-      Have? I was rehearsing with a grimace.

-      Yes, I can't tell you any more but Laurie, this new facet of me, she's part of me, it's me. He said, approaching me and touching my cheek with his fingers, something he had never done before. You'd think I'm playing a game but not at all. Yes, you knew the nice and shy Tobias but I simply developed the other part of me to put aside the other, it had to. A lot of things change in a summer. "He explains to me as he approaches me. As for what I did to Melora and Jaison, I think everything I'vetold. I have neither lied nor lacked sincerity in making the words I made to them, I do not regret anything ... Not even that phrase about Melora. »

I remain f*******n in the face of his words, trying to read between the lines, looking for the counter meaning but when I think I have made the reconciliation and the right analysis, he opens the door and I try to get up quickly by turning around. He is stopped in front of the door and looks at me, as before...

"Especially Laurie, make your first impression, it's always been the rightone."

And he leaves with that last sentence floating around me. I try to understand, wondering what I may have missed or misinterpreted. He must have slipped important information into what he confided to me, he knows that I am good at this kind of thing, always finding the flaw, the clue to a problem, even difficult to solve. I'm logical, I should get there, he did it on purpose for sure... All his words revolve around my brain but nothing comes to me or it's far too unlikely to be true... What did he mean by my first impression? And what does he have to do? He has to hurt Melora and Jaison, forced to mount this facet that no one knows to protect something or someone? Is there a connection between what happened this summer and what Emilio told me about his sudden friendship with Damian? I don't want to jump to conclusions or even false, if it happens, he makes a complete mockery of me... What makes me doubt is that he   said that he did not regret anything but having this face so sad and unt closed, when he pronounces the first name of Melora, that he did with an infinite sweetness that astonishes me, so it is a lie, he still cares as much to it. Is he also referring to their altercation on the trampoline? He is still affected for sure; he regrets what he said about Melora during recruitment it shows as the nose in the middle of the figure. When he looked at me when he said these words, his eyes told me the opposite, he told me to make me understand that he thought otherwise. It is impossible that I am wrong, not when I saw him with my eyes watch over Melora...

My phone takes me out of my thoughts, it's her by the way. I open the message and read it.

My Melo: He said he loved me too! Where are you? I have to tell you!

My Melo: You can't imagine how relieved and happy I am... So that's what it's like to be in love?

My Melo: Hurry, darling!

The messages are coming out without me being able to place one, I'm so happy for her! She deserves all this happiness even if Damian is not easy, I think it is good, finally I think ...

**

PDV Auxalia

I'm immersed in a discussion with Maddison and Adam while keeping an eye on the boys since Laurie and Melora still haven't returned. Indeed, since I saw Laurie leave following Tobias, I have no at all known what is going on and I'm slightly worried - see a lot - and I just hope he didn't understand anything, it would piss me off... Suddenly, I see Laurie pass by with Tobias and I miss choking on my glass, almost spitting the contents on Maddison looking at me with his menacing eyes. I apologize and do everything not to let her go to rinse up, telling her that I missed my target and that she doesn't have to worry... Harmony looks at me with a ruffled look, but I don't know, deferring my attention to Jaison and Driss talking about Melora's Friday night party.

While everyone is having fun and talking about various things, I am still on my guard. Damian suddenly comes back, exchanges a look with me and shows me the door so I can join Melora. I don’t ask for my rest and hurry to join her trying tobe as natural aspossible-while I wait for one thing to know if it's reciprocal and run outside. I hear Jaison ask Damian if he saw Melora and he says yes, that she is sitting on the sway dive in her thoughts, which is not surprising to anyone because she said she wanted to get some fresh air and stay alone, I turn around to tell Jaison that I'm taking care of our dreamer who clearly doesn't have to hold up because Damian looks serene with a big smile, which rarely happens to her when we see him every day in college, it’s the Wheeler effect.  

No sooner had I crossed the threshold of the door than a black mass fell upon me.  She hugsme tightly against her, crying and I’m suddenly worried, would I havebeen wrong?  Oh no... If that's the case, I intend to turn around to break his head and he better find a nice safe house! I take him away from me and frown when I see him crying but smiling at the same time... Does she have a bad wire? A jammed nerve? I inspect it which makes her burst out laughing but I can’t find anything, it's weird.

"Are you broken? Don't tell me I have to take you to the repairman? Last time it cost us a blind with Laurie, can't you be careful? What's your face? Your brain? Your arm?

-      Lia stops I'm really going to die if you keep making me laugh... She said, holding her stomach and wiping tears from the corner of her eyes as I just let go of her arm.

-      So, tell me, instead of being patient! I have to give him a kiss to give you happiness or hit him and then lock him in the coffin that Josie planned?

-      Did she really plan a coffin?? Ask Me Melora with exorbitant eyes.

-      But not Mongolian!! I was laughing hard. But that's not the f*****g question!!! Does he love you back or not? I was impatient on the verge of explosion.

-      Yes! He said he loved me and... that I had to keep going to drive him crazy. She says, her eyes sparkling reflecting the love she has for him. I don’t realize what's happening to me Lia, someone I love also loves me in return, it's amazing...

-      I'm so happy for you, you have no idea how happy. Now, move on with him and gently.

-      Oh, yes! I know that just because he loves me in return doesn't mean everything is going to be beautiful, all pink, I'm aware of that. But that feeling, that warmth in me when he confessed that to me, I felt loved and soothed. As a deliverance, I told myself that he could not love me, that it was nothing given how physically I am and...

-      Oh, no, Melora Wheeler, I wouldn't let you finish your sentence! I say, pointing at her. You're fine the way you are, you're not fat. You have beautiful shapes, which make you who you are and that you have become and he loves you as you are. If he wanted a model, he would have gone to see Louisa but no. You're unique, so stop! You deserve to be happy and he is the one who should jump from everywhere because you love him too, all those who have judged you for your weight are stupid!

-      I love you know... Does she answer in a small voice like every time she doesn't know what to say other than that cute phrase that - for once means a lot - and means everything.

-      Oh yes, I    know, since you threw sand in my face in kindergarten! I was half joking, taking her in my arms and squeezing her very tightly.”

Happy is too weak a word to describe how I feel right now about my best friend. She deserves all the happiness in the world after what she went through with Tobias. She remained strong and accumulated rejections from boys that she thought was beautiful and which she was considering a little thing but they all rejected it, further diminishing the confidence and esteem she had of herself and she never gave up anything...

The girls and I struggled to gather out of the water, Jaison too. But eventually, she realized that she was more than the fat, cute girl who's dating no one. She found strength in her and I don't know how she did it, but since she was little, she’s been my role model. When I look at her, I now see that she has confidence in herself because by having this alchemy with Damian, it allowed her to see that she liked, that she could be irresistible despite the kilos she had and that she lost - which she still has too much according to her.

She is an example for girls who find themselves too fat, who think they can't attract the beautiful guys—or at least the ones they want and think they're unattainable to them—who are judged only by their appearance. By beginning to accept herself, to ignore the wicked remarks, she has emerged something powerful and even more so since she has reconnected with her origins. His smile and his presence are his strengths, they are out of the norm. It shows everyone that just because you don't fit into a size 36 doesn't mean that the Bad Boy - well, don't exaggerate either, but it's just like - can be interested and completely crazy about a size 40 girl. I'm so proud of her, but so much.

When Damian looks at her, I know that he is sincere in his approach or at least I hope with all my heart. I know that he is stung and that what she makes him feel is beyond anything he has seen so far. That it's different from how he felt about Harmony. He looks at her almost as if she were one of the wonders of the world, when he doesn't look at her with his black eyes when he's not happy with something of course because it's well known that Melora doesn't - usually - not what he's told and even more so when it's him. It's cute to see besides, when we find ourselves at home with Laurie and Ruben, we have fun with Mel's behavior, she leads him by the fingertip 90% of the time and he ends up dropping the case without being weak either. But I love to see her blossom with him, their relationship is so passionate ...

I've already talked to him about it, as a best friend, and even though he told me that he didn't know what she was doing to him, that he didn't get where he was going and that it was beyond him, I saw that he was as bitten of her as she was of him, that a magnet drew them to each other, defying the laws of the universe. Yeah, I know it's too much but it's true, I swear! I love watching him and even more than when it's Jaison who does it because Damian is the passion, the true love I see - yes even if we're young. But really, she deserves to have her love story, which she never thought she would live elsewhere, so it shows her that she's wrong this moron. And then... that it's Damian doesn't scare me as much as it used to be. Melora is like the sister I've never had so when I see her so happy, I'm happy too - without being in love with Damian must not push either, it's totally not my style, beurk*.

She detaches herself from me and hastens to send messages to Laurie so that she can tell him, she asks me why she did not come before answering her question probably remembering that she was with Tobias. We decide to go home because it is quite cold and before joining the others, we stop at the kitchen to serve ourselves a drink having removed our coats when entering the coat rack.

We find the other and seeing Harmony chatting with Maddison. Melora walks up to them and sits next to Maddison, starting to talk to Harmony and she looks at  her with astonished eyes just like me and the other people in the room.

"Well, what? Can't I sit here? Ask the brunette for a slice of pizza in front of her.

-      Did you put on your lenses, Mel? Intervenes Jackson when no one knows what to say.

-      Well yes banana otherwise I wouldn't see anything.

-      You're right next to Mad right now. He insists that I keep her close.

-      I still don't see the problem Jack... Just because we don't get along doesn't mean I can't take part in the conversion she has with Harmony, you know, we're not in kindergarten anymore. She explains by exchanging a look with Damian.

I understand better... Recently, Dam had a cable over the closeness between her and Jaison so she explained to him that she would never go out with him and that their friendship exceeded all that she imagined and that it was very strong between them and far too much for them to go out together and that anyway, he had no choice but to accept it. So, he had to do the same for Maddison with whom he gets along great, using something to bring her closer to the one that was once our friend.  And in return, he tries to ignore and get closer to Jaison.

-      Well answered Melora, I could not have done better. Maddison smiles as he reaches out to him.

-      I know, I know. Said my best friend, swaggering and shaking Maddison's hand, ignoring the boys' laughs about Jackson. »

PDV Harmony

I'm still banned from this scene, just like the rest of the house. Melora talking to Maddison after what happened is... Surprising. Looking at the boys, I see them having the same reaction as me.  I saw that Maddison was still really shocked, too. But, on reflection, I'm glad that Melora is taking a step towards Maddison, it's true that it's not necessarily up to her to do it, but I support her approach. Since the return of the blonde, it's true that she was cow with Mel and I still do not know why, must say that I am not super close to Mad but I still do not understand why all this hard work because they were really very close. Everything changed because of Tobias anyway and I think it's a real shame because, basically, Maddison really liked Melora very much and vice versa. For Melora, it was always "girlfriends first" so she often put her friendship with Tobias in brackets to try to calm Maddison's jealousy impulses because friendship is what matters most to her and I understand her. Unfortunately, that was not enough. I still remember how maddison was mean to my friend and even to Tobias, who really didn't know what to do or even, caught between the two. It is true that it was not to be easy but he should have been sincere and said his preferences, it would have avoided so much damage, whether on Maddison's behavior or even on Melora's feelings...

Besides, here he goes down. From the moment to the stadium, he's only ignored me and it's really something I hate. I know that I should never have followed him and seen him in this state and we talked about it a little bit afterwards, but I would have thought - stupidly - that he would have understood that he could talk to me and that for me, what he had done did not change the affection I have for him. But apparently, this character trait has not changed and is still relevant. He walks to the kitchen and I decide to go, taking the bull by the horns, mostly fed up in reality. I tell Melora I'm coming back, since Auxalia went to see Driss outside with Jaison. Melora smiles when I tell her that I will try to talk with Tobias and she rolls up her nose with her smile to encourage me. That's what I love most about her, despite everything that's happened, she listens to me and encourages me to find my friendship with him again; I have no secrets for it. She's really the friend you should have, have a Melora in your serious life! After everything he's done, she could tell me not to hang on and it's useless but she knows him and she knows he's not like that and I have to dig in and tell him I'm here. I love her, really because I know she doesn't want us to take part for her, she hates being the center of attention and she respects my choice.

So, I go into the kitchen and meet Laurie who comes down from the floor, I stop by making the link with Tobias and she tells me to go see him, it's how this girl knows so well the feelings and needs of others. At the same time, Laurie is our confidante; She knows the secrets of everyone even boys and I'm sure I don't know a quarter of Emilio's secrets but I like to know that it's Laurie who helps and advises everyone, a real bisounours.

Once in the kitchen, Tobias is alone and is with his back to me. I lean against the door because you never know if he wants to escape me but I curse Kwan for having a double entrance. Without even turning around, he says:

"I know it's you Harmony, your heels resonate when you walk. He said calmly without turning around, staring at something through the window.

-      Didn't Lucius teach you to be polite and to face the people who speak to you?

-      And you Melora hasn't announced yet that she's dating Damian? Swing it by turning this time, its face hard and completely closed.

-      What? Are you kidding me Goldsmith? »