My voice, hoarse and limp from crying and begging, scratches across the hall, to where your feet are on the threshold of not just the door to my apartment, but of us.

"James...please."

You turn your head ever so slightly, to look at me from the corner of your eye, and breathe a deep sigh. "Melody, don't do this to yourself, doll. You know you can't change anything," you say, and your voice, so unlike my own, floats to me, where I've fallen on the wood floor, unable to breathe properly, or to stand.

"But, James...H-how can you just give up all we have? D-don't you even care anymore? What about us?" I cringe as the cliche words leave my mouth, but I do not even try to call them back again. I've got nothing to lose, now anyway.

You shake your head, and look out into the bright sunlight again, as if it is calling to you. "Melody, you know this isn't about love. This is about wrong and right, and I won't let this go on any longer, whether or not you hold my heart in those hands of yours."

I hear a soft gasp, and vaguely, I know that it came from my mouth. "James...you do love me...I-I don't know what to say," I stutter, hope filling up my heart like a toxin.

"Then don't say anything," you murmur, and I close my eyes.

I hear the door shut, and I let the tears fall silently down my face, not able to hold them any longer. Stupid hope, stupid love, stupid girl. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Then, I hear footsteps coming towards me on the wood, but the door stays closed. What is this?

Suddenly, I'm being lifted from my place on the floor, and two strong arms are holding me to you. You didn't leave. I open my eyes.

"I can't do it," you say, tears of your own glistening in your blue eyes.

"I'm glad," I whisper, selfishly, as always.

And then those arms that are hugging me to you move to my face, lifting it up to meet your lips, and my instincts take control.

Our lips battle endlessly, my own constantly hungry for more, and I know, deep in the back of my mind, that for today, my world is intact.