Chapter Sixteen
Mel
I'd only been home for maybe twenty minutes and had just managed to convince Auntie Dorrie that everything was fine and that Cammie hadn't needed that much help tonight after all, when my phone started to ring.
I pulled it out of my pocket and internally cursed. It was Mattie. Shit. Maybe it was okay, though? He couldn't know already, right? Cammie wouldn't have really called him and told him already, right?
I looked up at Aunt Dorrie and said, "Mattie's calling."
"And?" she asked, and I waited for her to say more. "Aren't you going to answer it?"
It was a video call, and Mattie would take one look at my face and know something was wrong, but my aunt wasn't leaving me much of a choice, so I forced what I hoped looked like an easy smile onto my face and hit 'accept'.
Mattie's face popped up, and my heart sank seeing he was upset. I knew I deserved whatever he was about to say, though.
"What happened?" he asked.
Aunt Dorrie moved behind me and waved to Mattie, who waved back. "I'd been trying to get to the bottom of that." I felt her suspicion without even having to see her face.
"What do you mean, what happened? What's got you upset?"
"Come on, don't play dumb. Cammie called me crying, so clearly something happened."
She...what? His words made no sense. Cammie had been fine when I left her, and yes, I’d messed up, but she'd started it and had been consenting too.
I stopped the moment she hesitated and put a stop to things.
Nothing that happened should have made Cammie cry, though.
Except Mattie still looked seriously worried.
"Seriously, nothing happened. There was a little bit of a miscommunication, maybe, but it was really nothing. Just seemed like she wanted me to leave. Maybe something happened after I left?" I couldn't have been the cause of whatever was upsetting her...right?
I'd been by Mattie's side for enough of those video calls to know how much it devastated him to see her hurt and to know how hard she tries to put on a brave face when she's upset. I really hoped I didn't have anything to do with making her upset.
"Well, if nothing happened with you two, can you go back over there and check on her? I'm worried about her."
"I-" I hesitated, but there wasn't really a choice. I had been a coward running out, and it wouldn't hurt to apologize to her again for that. "Yeah, of course. I'll head back over."
At that, he breathed out a relieved sigh and said, "Thanks, Mel, you're the best."
He definitely wouldn't be saying that if he'd known what I had just done, though. I hung up before he could somehow sense how much of a fraud I was.
Unfortunately, my aunt was still in the room and was far too perceptive. I took a longer moment than necessary putting my phone away before slowly turning around to face her.
"Melina, you can bullshit Mattie all day long if you want, although I'm sure you know the boy didn't believe you, but you can't put one past me.
Something happened, and either you're going to tell me about it, and we can figure out what to do together, because the two of you are both incredibly special to me, and whatever happened needs to be fixed - or if you insist on being stubborn, you can march your ass back over there now with some apology mead and fix things yourself. "
It was hard to argue with her in general, but it was impossible now when she wasn't being unreasonable.
It sounded like either way I was going back over there tonight, though, so I might as well get it over with.
Talking out the situation with my aunt was just going to make me more anxious about going back.
It was my own fault. I never should have made such a mess of things, figuratively, and absolutely shouldn't have run out on her, forcing her to clean up the literal mess, too.
"Apology mead?" I asked. "What's apology mead?"
"I've been experimenting with home brewing with the honey - and have a few bottles of honey mead that are certainly winners. I save them for special occasions, and assuming you girls mend this rough patch, it'll be a special occasion."
She rummaged around in her cupboard, pulling out an amber colored liquid in a fancy bottle.
"Here, take this and give Cammie my best."
I really hoped this was going to be as easy as my aunt seemed to think it would be.