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“The sun doesn’t cry.”
“The sun only knows how to shine.” But I’m the sun, and he’s the sky, and I don’t know how to exist without him.
I don’t know why I let it in, why I let it cling to me like a dark passenger, but I feel compelled to carry it with me.
It’s comforting somehow. I’m not alone in my misery.
“You’re like the goddamn sun,” he spits out.
“Bright? Happy?” I offer, knowing full well that’s not what he means. Parker squints his eyes, taking one more step back. “Intrusive.”
“I don’t kiss. I’ve never kissed.” I move to find my own footing, internally scolding my dick to calm the fuck down.
“It felt like completion,” I tell him, explaining it the only way that makes sense. “It felt like a pinnacle. Like everything in your life has come full circle, and this person is the culmination
of every dream, every plea, every dandelion wish.
“And when your dreams dissolve, and the wishes scatter, it’s hard to find joy in anything else. How can you ever obtain completion again ...
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“You came,” I whisper, wide-eyed and spellbound.
His hands slide down my arms, resting at my elbows. “I’m regretting it already. Wet jeans are a bitch.”
All this time, I’ve been wrong about her. She’s not sunshine. She’s glittering nightfall, pale moonlight, silver stars in midnight skies. She’s that beacon of light when darkness threatens and consumes. No, she’s not the sun… Melody is the moon.
Fuck… she was so happy in that lake tonight, dancing and weightless, free as a bird. And then I ruined everything. My scars and old ghosts prevailed, snuffing out her spark and sending her right back into the darkness.
“You don't get it,” he shakes his head. “I'm supposed to hate you. I'm supposed to hate everything you stand for. Now, all I want to do is fuck you.”
“So, believe me when I say you’re more than just an itch. You’re a fucking revolution.”
“The dark is the very best secret-keeper. The things we say in the dark never have to leave it.”
She told me to follow my instincts, but my instincts have always urged me to lurk in the shadows and build shatterproof walls. Vulnerability is poison. Emotions are toxic. Becoming soft is a solicitation for pain and disappointment.
“I’m falling for you,” I breathe against her lips, almost grazing them. “But I don’t know how to fall without crashing and burning.”
Until she found me.
Starlight and moonshine. The perfect complement to the dark.
“You taste exactly like your smile.” Melody’s chest heaves as she drags her nails down my jaw, then my neck. “What does it taste like?” “Mine.”
Melody is my first. My first kiss, my first hand job, my first goddamn brush with humanity.
She’s giving me real, genuine intimacy, a piece of her heart, and I don’t know what to do with it.
What was that? What the fuck was that? It was just supposed to be sex—simple biology. A physical reaction. But it felt like a goddamn resurrection.
Once upon a time, the dark was my enemy—the place where I had never felt more alone. But not tonight. Tonight it’s where I’ve never felt more alive.
It’s a smile that evaded me for months, one I craved to witness, to experience for myself, and now it’s mine. It’s just another offering of trust he’s given to me. I promise to keep that smile safe.
“It’s not okay,” I insist, fingers curling at my sides. “Nobody’s heart is wrong. We’re given the heart that is meant for us, and if someone else doesn’t see the beauty in it, it’s not meant for them.”
My insides clench with anticipation. I drift away for a moment, fantasizing about a future that feels within reach. A fresh start. A new man.
“You’re mine,” I grit out, my heart thundering, my soul alight. “You’re what I’ve been waiting for. You’re what I’ve been searching for my whole life, and I didn’t even know it.” Her gasp only makes me hold her tighter, and I swear I see tears glinting back at me, ready to fall. “Melody… you’re my starting point. You’re my turning point.” Pulling her forehead against mine, a strangled sound escapes her, and I finish with conviction, “You’re the whole damn point.”
We are both two broken souls, fractured in opposite ways. She loved and lost… And I was lost before I could ever love at all.
“Then I realized: I do fucking know you, Melody. I know the deep, important shit, like the way your eyes light up when you’re dancing in the freezing lake singing God-awful
eighties songs, and that you cry when you hear violins play, and that your mom would make you peanut butter and banana sandwiches whenever you were sad, and all the little things that keep you waking up each morning, living and breathing. I know your starting points.”
“You’re the moon.” The moon?
“Why am I the moon?” “You’re the guiding light in a dark sky,” Parker murmurs, his breath tickling the top of my head. “You shine strong when the rest of the world is asleep… when no one is even looking.”
“I’m the moon.” I’m Charlie’s sun, and I’m Parker’s moon. I can be both. I’m an eclipse.
“My Melody,” he whispers against my mouth, moaning softly when my core clenches around him. “My Magnolia. My moon.”
“I saw you,” he says, quiet but firm. “I see you in every sunrise. Beauty… promise.” He thrusts hard, and I shake and shiver. “A fresh start. A new beginning.”
If Parker truly had Charlie’s heart, it would have felt like a tiny consent. An authorization from the universe—from him. In a way, I’d have both men with me; Parker in my arms, while still holding Charlie in a loose grip.
“No, no, please… I can’t do this alone,” I cry out, nearly hysterical.
“What happens to the sun when the sky falls?”
“But… it still shines, Mel,” he murmurs hoarsely. Charlie swallows, his peach-spun eyes trying to find my face through the wreckage and rainfall. His fingers grip mine with the last of his strength, and for the tiniest second, I am warm. “It just shines in a new place.”
“You almost died, Parker. I-I watched you almost die… only a few hours ago. You dropped fifty feet right before my eyes.” A surge of panic bubbles to the surface, snuffing out my words and stealing my breath. “Please, don’t make me leave. I need to hold you, wake up with you beside me, breathing and warm…”
“So intrusive.” She nuzzles in closer, her fine hairs tickling my chin as a chuckle breaks free. “Like the sun, right?”
Melody will always be the sun, shining bright, a beautiful new beginning. But above all, she is my moon. The perfect end.
It’s just you and me, carefree and young, swaying together beneath a vibrant sunset. There’s laughter. There’s violins. There’s love.” “I see it, Parker. I see it,” I rasp as emotions sweep through me. “I’m with you.” He pulls me closer, peppering kisses along my neck. “I’ll be right behind you, Melody. Wait for me.”
