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“Sure,” I said.
“Did you hit your head at any point? Lose consciousness? Have you fallen or do you feel any obvious injuries?”
“No,” I said. “We got under the store before it hit and didn’t come out until a few minutes after it felt like it had passed.”
“All right, let me check you out here.”
He checked my scalp for any abrasions, and when he saw none, he moved on to other parts of me. I turned as he looked at my back and arms and saw Melanie in the distance. She was walking away from the paramedic, a bandage on her arm, heading for her car.
Before I could get clear of the EMT, she was in it and driving away, tossing broken glass out of her window as she did.
I was crushed. As she disappeared in the distance, I knew I had to do something, to talk to her. I could recognize what was happening inside of me. I had fallen in love with this girl in a very short time. It was fast that much I knew, but it was so intense that it was undeniable. I had never felt such an attraction to another person before, not even Sarah, and I had to find a way to get her back.
20
MELANIE
Idrove home in a daze, occasionally tossing glass out of my window. It was all over my car, and I was vaguely aware I was going to have to call my insurance in the morning and get someone to replace it. I probably would end up with a rental car for a few days.
My brain drifted away, and the farther I got from the store, the farther my mind went astray. I couldn’t process it. Any of it. Not what happened in Victor’s house with his ex, not having the most incredible, passionate, best sex of my life, not the storm that destroyed my parents’ legacy. None of it. I was numb. I just wanted to go home and sit down somewhere that had windows that were unbroken.
The tornado had apparently spun over the store and then turned around, heading back out of town, so the rest of Murdock was spared. My home was thankfully part of that, and when I pulled into the driveway, all the emotion I had avoided during the drive suddenly hit me.
I was home. I was safe, but my whole world had changed.
I didn’t even realize I had been crying. My shirt was wet with tears that I must have been shedding the entire way home. My arm burned from the antibiotic and gauze that now rubbed against the raw part of my shoulder, but that wasn’t why I was crying. I cried for everything that had happened. I cried because I didn’t know how to handle any of it.
This couldn’t stay inside me. I had to get it out. I had to talk to someone.
As I stumbled into the house and locked the door behind me, I pulled out my phone. My thumb hovered over Victor’s name but then I scrolled away from it. When it passed Carmela, it stopped, and I threw it on the bed as I got undressed. There were still dust particles and glass on my skin and in my hair, not to mention I could still smellhim. I needed to get clean. To wash it all away so I could think about it clearly.
I turned on the tub, and as soon as it was warm enough, I stepped inside, setting the phone down on the edge. Once I was finally in, submerged to my neck, and had soaped down enough to feel like I was clean, I hit the button to call Carmela. She answered on the second ring.
“Hello? Mel?”
“Carmela...”
“Mel, are you okay? I heard the tornado was heading right for the store! Where are you?”
“I’m at home,” I replied.
“Oh, thank God.”
“But I was there.”
“What?” she asked.
“I was there when the tornado hit. Under the store in the storm shelter. With Victor.”
“With Victor?” she repeated.
“Yeah. He came to help people get out of the store. We ended up getting stuck. Carmela, the place is destroyed. Absolutely destroyed.”
“Oh, hon,” she said, her voice filled with warmth and empathy. “I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry about that, really. If there is anything you can think of that Mark or Camden or I can do, please let me know.”
“Thank you,” I forced out.
“I’m sure you don’t know yet,” she said, “but if you need people to help clean up and move stuff, Camden and Mark will for sure come to help. Maybe Graham and Ryan too. You just say the word and let me handle it, I will get them all there for you, okay?”
