Chapter 18 Red roses

***POV - Melaena Sorella = Italian for 'sister I flip through the pages of my diary, sipping my orange juice. Kiara and I just came back from dance practice. Teaching those little kids is great and I think the group might even have a chance of winning, they're that great. I ve written everything about my stalker D in my diary since his first message. I ve also written down who was there during each occurrence. That s what I m looking at right now, but not one person stands out at the moment. "Mel, you can shower now!" Kiara shouts. We take turns to shower else the water pressure gets too low. I jump up, needing to get clean for my date with Ren tonight and hide my diary in its usual place behind my dresser. I get out of the shower, humming to myself 'It s raining men – not sure exactly why that song got stuck in my head, but at least it s a cheerful tune. Ren gave me an ultimatum at Damion s party, we take our relationship to the next base, and I stay away from Damion or we break up. I needed some time to think, to sort out my feelings and since then I haven t seen him that much. But I ve finally made my decision and tonight I going to tell him. I wipe the steam from the mirror and stare at myself. My intestines pull into a knot as I look into my own eyes, trying to ignore the message my 'windows to the soul is trying to portray back to me. My deepest darkest secrets, the ones I m desperately hiding from everybody, including myself, is that I would much rather go on a date with a guy I hate, than my boyfriend. How messed up is that? And even worse is that I want that guy to strip me naked and take my body any way he wants to. That there is not messed up, it s totally juiced up crazy! I shake my head and walk into my room to get dressed, but froze as soon as my eyes fall on a bunch of blood-red flowers on my bed. My breath stops in my throat making an oozing sound. One slow step at a time I walk towards my bed as if the flowers are going to jump up and attack me. I notice a card attached to the bouquet. "Kiara! KIARA!" I yell at my roommate and she throws her door open and runs into my room, dressed in only a bra, panty in hand. "What the fudge!" She yells and I point to my bed with my eyes. She turns her head and a frown pulls between her perfect brows, her eyes almost popping out of her head. "Who? When?" Her head turns back to look at me and I pull up my shoulders, not trusting my voice yet. She grabs the card and reads it out loud. Babe, I can t wait to make you mine. You belong to me, always and forever. Your true love. D XOXOXO Ug, the talking pig reverence again. What is it with guys and that word? Almost every guy uses it. I m so glad Damion doesn t call me that. "Ok, this is getting crazy creepy." "Still, I can t think of any D guy except Damion," Kiara sits on the bed between the flowers. "It s not him." I defend him maybe too quickly, earning a glare from my best friend. "I know it s not him, dumbass. He s crazy, but not this type of crazy." "I don t care who it s from, what I care about is that somebody was in our house, in my room, while we were here!" "Oh … OHH shit!" Kiara jumps from the bed and runs to the door to check if it s locked, while I pick up the flowers and throw them on the kitchen table. "I think you better ask one of the boys to come over to stay with you until I get back. Or I could cancel?" "No, you have to do this tonight. I ll get Axel to babysit me." She picks up her phone and dials Axel while hopping into some clothes at the same time. "Hi dude, can you come over please, we have a little situation." She takes out some wine, pinning her phone between her ear and shoulder, and I grab 2 glasses from the shelf. I need something to calm my nerves, we both do. "Thanks." She hangs up and says that he ll be over as soon as he can. We drink our wine on the couch. "This is so weird." She murmurs as if she s talking to herself. I get up to go get ready for that date, suddenly even less in the mood. Why would somebody do this? Is it about the revenge he talked about? What happened to his father and what has it to do with us, with me? My mind keeps running around while I get dressed in a denim mini dress with a zipper at the front, black Doc Martens, and I grab my black leather jacket with a skull embroidered on the back. Enrique bought it for me at a biker shop in Italy when he was there for a photoshoot and it s probably my most favorite item in my wardrobe. I find Axel sitting in the TV room with Kiara, reading the note, frown on his beautiful face. "Shit." He s only response before dropping the card on the table. "Crazy right?" Kiara asks and Axel pulls up his shoulders, still frowning. "Yeh, way past crazy. I can t believe he was inside the house." He then looks up at me and his face turns into an almost shocked expression. "Eh … Mel … are you going out … eh … like that … I mean … dressed like …" A knock on the door interrupts his question. Giving Axel a frowny face, I open the door for Ren. His face brightens up as I let him in, but then he notices the huge bouquet on the table and frowns. Ren doesn t know anything about my stalker and I like to keep it that way. "Hi, Ren." Kiara greets him while Axel just waves, never being a great fan of my boyfriend and not hiding it either. Nobody in my personal group hits it off with Ren and most of them don t even try to be polite. Hell, Logan and Damion are blatantly rude to him whenever they are around. I shake my head to get free from my mind-running. I don t want to think about Damion right now. He s already taking up too much of my thoughts. Kiara sees Ren eyeing the flowers, so she picks them up and smiles as big as her mouth allows her. "Aren t they pretty? I got them from a fan." I thank her with my eyes and look at Axel, snorting not caring what Ren thinks. "Ready?" Ren asks and I nod, grabbing my purse from the kitchen and giving my friends a friendly wave before walking out. I shoot Kiara a last thank-you look before closing the door. We don t talk much during our short ride as my mind keeps backtracking to the card and the flowers. Is somebody trying to frame Damion as the stalker? But why would they then tell me to stay away from him? It just doesn t make sense. "What s going on with you?" Ren s voice dribbles into my mind, stopping it from running any further. "Nothing, just … " I don t know what to tell Ren. I can t tell him anything going on in my mind so I just leave it vague " … some family issues." I smile to try and convince him. I open the door of the diner and a little bell rings to announce our presence and it feels as if the whole diner is staring at me. Feeling uncomfortable I keep my eyes down, looking at the black-and-white checkered tile floor. Ren puts his hand on my back and steers me to an open table in the corner. Sitting across from Ren, looking at the menu, I notice that he seems tense and quiet. "Is something wrong?" I take his hand that s lying on the table and give it a little squeeze, feeling guilty that I ve been distracted a little too much. "Mel, you ve been my girlfriend for more than two months now, and we both know why we re here, so let s just get it over and done with." He looks at me waiting for my response but the realization of what he s saying seeps into my mangled brain and it closes up my throat so no sound can escape. The result is me staring at him with a dropped jaw and huge eyes. "Ok, I ll need some words, cause I m not a mind reader and you are like a closed book to me. I never know what you re thinking." His voice is soft as to not attract attention from the people around us. I take in what he just said, and it s just the opposite of what Damion told me the other night. How can one guy read me like a magazine and another one think that I m a locked diary? At least I manage to close my mouth and swallow the huge lump down. I blink a few times to get out of the trans. My mind starts having a duel in my head between trying to focus on Ren and thoughts about Damion. "Yes, I have been thinking about it." I m going to be as truthful as I can, without hurting him too much. But before I can continue, a girl walks up to Ren and throws her arms around him, kissing him full on the lips. He pushes her away and wipes his mouth and with an angry face asks, "What the hell?" Exactly what I was thinking. She frowns and looks at me. "Call me later, sweetheart." She trails a finger along his cheek and then walks out as if nothing happened. Ren looks uncomfortable and Damion s words that Ren is cheating ring in my head. He opens his mouth and I know he wants to explain, but it s not necessary so I hold up my hand. "It doesn t matter. Ren, my parents didn t have a happy marriage, my dad was never around and he drank too much, so I promised myself I don t want that for me. I want true love, the kind they talk about in stories. I know it s lame, but that s what I m looking for." He opens his mouth to interrupt me but I hold up my hand again to stop him. "And what we have is not love so I m breaking up with you." His face falls and I can see that he s angry. "It s about Damion, isn t it? You re screwing the guy." He hisses softly. "Why does everybody think that? Anyway, by the looks of it, you re the one that can t keep it in his pants." "A man has needs, Mel. I love you and if you satisfy my needs, I ll never fuck around, I promise." "I m sorry, Ren, but I can t." "That is the wrong choice babe." I shrug, that sounded like a threat, ug. He gets up and walks out of the diner before I can say anything more. I m stunned about his reaction, and I watch him open the door and then the clinging of the bell shakes me from my haze. Ok then, I suppose I ll need a ride back. I turn in my chair to get my phone from my purse to call Kiara.