Lost Highway - Chapter 29

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WithoutSpeaking

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Oct 18, 2009
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Title: Lost Highway
Authors: 1screamingangel & wo_speaking
Rating: PG
A/N: Life goes on, with a few surprises...

***********

Those first couple of weeks had been tough after they left Bridgeport. The girls had to find jobs, find a place to live, and get to work. Three weeks to the day, Mel was enjoying her first day off sitting in the courtyard of their complex when she heard a familiar Porsche engine pull into the drive and stop. Her heart began beating very fast and she was afraid to look around the building. It sounded like Paul’s car but she was sure they had left the country already; it couldn’t be him, could it?

Mel slowly walked around the front of their apartment building and almost ran into well dressed young man of about 20 or so.

“Oh, not what I expected at all.” she mumbled to herself as her heart sank into her stomach.

“Are you Melody Carter?” the man asked.

“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?” she peered around him to see if that was really Paul’s car and added, “Where did you get that car?” she was curious to know.

“Actually, I was asked to deliver it to you along with these papers.” He responded.

Tears welled up in Mel’s eyes as she tore open the envelope with the papers that signed the car over to her from the California DMV. She could not imagine why Paul would do this. She was just starting to be able to go for a few hours and not think about him. Now, here she was, faced with the loss all over again.

Most importantly, it contained a note from him in the same scratchy writing she had seen the lyrics written in.

Mel, I can’t take this with me now, can I? So since you seem to appreciate a good car, I thought you might like to have it. I signed it over to you and you can do what you want with it. And if you are reading this, then I guess I do know how to find you. What else can I say, but I miss you – Paul

Mel signed for the papers and the young man turned and walked away. She stood there unable to move as she felt the emptiness surrounding her. She walked over to the car and sat in the driver’s seat, re-read Paul’s note and began to search the car for anything that belonged to him, anything that could connect her to him

********

Sam was shocked to see the car sitting in the space outside their place as she pulled into the complex. Her heart sank into her stomach. Were they here? She sat frozen in the driver’s seat, finally removing the keys from the ignition, deciding she would never know if she didn’t get out of the car. Sam checked her makeup, hoping her Edge was inside waiting to see her, ready to forgive her for running scared when he opened his emotions to her in their final moment together.

Sam walked into the apartment and looked around, her face falling with disappointment. Mel heard the door shut and looked up to see Sam looking around, “They’re not here. I thought the same thing when I heard the car pull up. He found me and gave me the car. Why do you think he would do that?”

She wasn’t sure what to say to Mel about it. Was it a gesture of love on his part or did he just want to unburden himself of the vehicle. Either way, Paul had thought of Mel. By finding her and giving her the car, he let her know that she was important to him. Sam was more than a little jealous, but loved Mel and was careful what she did say. She looked out the kitchen window so Mel wouldn’t see the hurt in her eyes.

“Obviously you meant a lot to him Mel. And it’s not like he can take the car to Ireland with him. That is really quite a gift. Did he explain?”

Mel held the note up for Sam’s inspection. She read it and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“Sam…” Mel walked over to hug her best friend, she knew why Sam was crying. They had both cried a lot in the last couple of weeks. Sam deeply regretted leaving Bridgeport and was completely upset with herself for leaving the brick house the way she did. Mel sighed deeply and tried to reassure her for the umpteenth time since arriving in Las Vegas.

“Why did I just leave him standing there Mel? What is wrong with me that I can’t tell a wonderful man how I feel about him? You know I was starting to wonder if the closeness I felt for him was love too, but it was just too early to tell. We needed more time together. Maybe I should have had you take me back…” Sam shuddered through her tears. It was too late now to think about what she should have done.

“Sam…what else were you supposed to do? How many times have we talked about ‘love’ and what it means? It takes more than a couple of days to know if you love someone.” Mel was at a loss as to what else to say to Sam. She had already said all of these things to her in the last three weeks and knew that nothing helped. Nothing could make the hurt and emptiness go away. Mel could relate – she would give anything right at this very moment to hear Paul laugh, or tell her a story in his soft accent. She didn’t want his car, she wanted him.

“I can’t believe Edge told me how he felt and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I know I’ve been over this a thousand times ... I don’t know why I did that to him ... Did you not have those feelings for Paul? Was it just me?”

“No, it wasn’t just you,” Mel admitted, staring at the carpet as she traced the designs with her sandal. “I felt an incredibly deep connection with him. The first night we spent together I knew I was falling fast. But…Paul told me from the start that he wasn’t going to stay. Then, there was the conversation with his girlfriend I overheard. So, no matter how much I was feeling, I just figured he didn’t feel the same, you know how that goes, Sam. You just don’t say anything.”

“Wait ... a conversation with his girlfriend? You never mentioned that ...”

“We never got around to talking about it, there are a lot of things we haven’t talked through yet, but what does any of that matter now?” Mel shrugged and sighed. “Although I wished it were, I knew it wasn’t going anywhere ...”

“Do you think they’re serious? He gave you his car, Mel ... don’t you think that means something?”

“He told me they were. I don’t think he lied to me much – no reason to. I don’t know why Paul gave me the car. It was a little joke between us. He couldn’t believe what I knew about cars. So, maybe that is just it, don’t read too much into it.” Mel tried to downplay the generosity. “But it was very sweet of him, and my heart is aching right now…I feel like we are leaving Bridgeport all over again.” With those words Mel slumped down on the couch, feeling like she had been punched in the stomach yet again.

“Guess we’ve not had the courage to talk about this since we left, have we?” Sam asked, sitting next to her on the couch and putting her arms around her friend in a big hug.

Mel had kept a lot to herself, she had debated over and over again in her head whether or not to tell Sam all she knew. Paul had told her everything and she was sure Dave had told Sam nothing. So far, she had decided she should just let it be so they could try to heal and move on. Nothing would change if Sam knew their boys were famous musicians, so why tell her?

“Did he leave you a number to contact him Mel?” Sam asked.

Mel looked at Sam with a vacant stare. “No…no he didn’t. I left it up to him to contact me. No…he didn’t leave a phone number or anything…I didn’t think to ask the guy that delivered it, I was shocked and disappointed. When I heard the car Sam, I thought he was here...”

“Are you going to look for him?” Sam asked her friend, squeezing her shoulders with encouragement.

“I don’t know. Why? Do you think it would change anything?” Mel pleaded more to herself than to Sam.

“He's still thinking about you - why else would he send the car to you? You can't ignore that...”

“God Sam, I think about him all the time too. But he is on the other side of the world, what can I do?”

Mel turned to Sam and asked the question that had been on her mind, but that she had hesitated to bring up. “Do you really wish you would have gone back?”

“I wish I could go back to the moment he told me he loved me ...”

“What would you have done differently? What stopped you from saying anything to him?”

“I was scared to admit that I’d fallen in love, Mel ...”

“Seems we both did. But we are here now and this is what we decided to do long before we met the boys. We have a lease and jobs, all we can do is move forward now. We can’t go back and change anything. None of us can, no matter how much we want to. You love your job and are making good money – so am I. This is what we set out for – not to fall in love in some little desert town with a couple of Irishmen ...”

“I can’t believe it, but I fell in love ... and I long for him every day – I don’t think I’ll ever forget him ...” Sam said, the tears beginning to fall again as she got up from the couch and stepped toward the window, watching the sun setting over the desert. She couldn’t even look at the desert sky without thinking of him ... She’d fallen for him unquestionably; ever since she and Mel drove away that day she’d pined for him, longing to feel his hands touching her and his stubble rubbing against her skin as he kissed her while they made love. She’d finally admitted it to herself, uttering the words out loud. She had fallen in love – with Edge.

“Sam – listen to yourself. You have to forget him! You’re tearing yourself up over him, and you didn’t even have the guts to tell him! If Paul would have told me ... I ...”

Mel wasn’t sure what she would have done. She was very glad he didn’t say anything like that to her as she watched Sam wrestle with this knowledge, the havoc that one little word could wreak in a person’s life. As much as Paul talked, he knew what not to say, no matter how much of a struggle that was for him. The time they had spent together said everything that needed to be said as far as she was concerned.

Mel and Sam stood in their new apartment, trying their best to take the next breath and survive the next second, their fresh wounds, just starting to heal broken wide open.

In the days that followed Mel couldn’t decide what to do with the car. She had done some research on her desert bartender and was amazed at just how big his band was and how successful they were. At times she was suspicious that he was trying to pay her to be quiet in some way. But the more she thought about it that really didn’t seem to be the way things were between them, he had told her so much about himself. Paul had correctly guessed he could trust Mel and she had no intention of ever breaking his trust. She did love him, she could now admit to herself. So she put a cover over the car and left it in the garage for safe keeping, thinking… no hoping, that maybe some day he would come and ask for it back.
 
I couldn't find the Chapter 40 thread of this story in Pleba so I thought I'd post here. I just had a Lost Highway weekend marathon of all 40 Chapters and I wanted to say how much I really enjoyed the story. Congratulations. You are very gifted writers. Well done.:applaud:
 
I couldn't find the Chapter 40 thread of this story in Pleba so I thought I'd post here. I just had a Lost Highway weekend marathon of all 40 Chapters and I wanted to say how much I really enjoyed the story. Congratulations. You are very gifted writers. Well done.:applaud:

Woah, the chapters go up to forty? I only got up to chapter 29!! Where are the others? :D
 
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