Some Games Should Not Be Played

She didn't know where she was. She didn't know how she got there, or have the faintest idea why the hell she was there in the first place. She only knew that what had gone on during the last week was not normal, and yet she didn't want it to stop.
But it had to.
And that's why she was tied up, with a knife brushing her neck, ready to plunge into her throat and throw her into the nothingness that was death.
* * * * *
Melanie Harold could have been considered a pretty girl. She had black wavy hair tinted with red, and her eyes were a shiny fudgey brown. Her skin was neither pale nor tan, and her nose was the kind people paid thousands for through surgery, but never got the same result. Her lips were dark pink and thin, but fit her face perfectly.
And she had been considered a pretty girl. In middle school, that is. She was admired by her classmates, and, yes, was semi-popular. And, yet, through her admiration, popularity, and beauty, she never had a boyfriend. She had many crushes, but none who felt the same. This tiny little fact gnawed ferociously at her confidence, and bought her down every day.
Things got even worse in high school. For Melanie, high school was a gathering of pretty girls, and she could not compare. All the other girls around her snagged all the cute boys in a matter of weeks, leaving her wandering helplessly through the crowd of couples proudly showing PDA, alone, lost, and empty.
Months passed with her wondering when her turn would come, and soon enough, her current crush, Jason, admitted that he had secretly liked her for half the year. Immediately, Melanie's heart fluttered to her throat, and her confidence soared. After so long, she was finally as happy as she had ever wanted to be.
But this isn't the end of Melanie Harold's story. In fact, this was only the very beginning.
Our story begins with Melanie and Jason's relationship.

They were a close couple. They were happy together and anyone could see that.
At least, they saw that Melanie was. They all saw that she was happy with him, and very much in love with him. They also knew what was really going on. Everyone who wasn't Melanie, or one of her firends. Mitchell, Caroline, or Angelica knew that Jason was only dating Melanie as a joke.
Jason spread the plan all over the school. Every student was informed of the joke, and knew who wasn't allowed to know.
Melanie only found out on a quiet, snowy Friday morning. The sky was gray and the air was prickly. She rushed to school, eager to see him before the weekend. No one was in school yet; Melanie had a habit of always arriving early.
She walked through the heavy doors and through the dull, unlit hallway to her locker. She turned the dial on the lock, pulled it down, and yanked the door open, pulled off her jacket and hung it up. She took off the book from her top shelf and sat against the next locker, reading to pass the time. She had gotten through three pages when she she heard giggling around the corner. There were a few murmers wisping through the air.
Melanie quietly put away her book. She lifted her bag and followed the sounds. She took quiet steps, careful not to disturb the incredible silence. Another giggle pierced the air.
She peeked around the corner.
What she saw made her gasp in surprise.
What she saw sent chills of fury, sadness, and betrayal through her heart.
What she saw was Jason, kissing his ex-girlfriend Veronica.
Her gasp filled the air completely, and echoed through the empty hall. Jason turned around quickly, and Veronica's blue eyes grew wide.
They stood motionless, as if posing for a picture.
Melanie looked sadly at Jason. Her eyes told him all he needed to know. She could clearly see that there was no remorse in his face. She hoped he just had a good pokerface at the back of her mind. But she knew it wasn't true. She nodded slightly, telling him that it was over. But anyone could see how obvious that was.
The rest of her day was miserable. She had to squeeze her eyes together so hard it hurt to stop herself from crying in the middle of the floor. By lunchtime, everyone knew about what had happened.
"Melanie, I'm so sorry!" Mitchell said to her as she sat down with her tray of sad-looking cafeteria food.
"It's not your fault." She said. She picked up the cheap plastic spork, with no intention of eating.
"No...a kid told me in my math class last week. I didn't believe him, so I didn't tell you."
Melanie poked at the soggy excuse for lasagna. "About what? That Jason was cheating on me?" She stabbed it as hard as she could, poking four holes in a crescent shape on bottom of the the styrofoam tray.
"No...that he was only going out with you as a joke."
The words stung Melanie. She tried to put them together, tried to understand it. She went into her mental dictionary, tried to understand the concept of "a joke."
"You mean...he never liked me at all?" Tears hung desperately to her eyelids. She refused to let them fall.
"I'm so sorry, Melanie."
She forced the tears back into her eyes, and tried to dissolve the pit in her throat. In a combination of sadness and rage, she stabbed the lasagna as hard as she could, once, twice, thirty times. In a matter of seconds, it was reduced to a pile of glop, the bottom of the tray to styrofoam crumbs, and the spork to half of a bent, misshapen, twisted stub, all three destroyed beyond repair, beyond recognition, and beyond hope. Just like her heart.
* * * * *
The next year came around. Everyone seemed to forget about what happened between her and Jason. She felt like she was in a freezer the whole time, with no emotion. A lost look was permanantly etched onto her face, the one that was beautiful when she smiled. But the smile was gone, and was far from coming back. She doubted it ever would. She lived her life plainly, never giving herself anything more than she needed, since she felt she would never want anything again. She read the same book every day, over and over. Ate the same bland food, sat at the same table, went to sleep at the same time. Words hardly ever left her now pale lips. Her face had lost its color, and life itself had lost its spark.
She even deprived herself of the things she needed. She had nothing to live for, so why live? She ate little, not because she was planning to starve herself to death, but because she had very little of her appetite left. Even then,she didn't eat until she was full, because she felt so empty; there was too much to fill.
"God, Melly, You're so boring now!" Angelica said to her. "You have, like, nothing in you! No emotion or anything! You're just...hollow. It's like talking to a log!"
Angelica was completely right. She had no emotion. Her words had no effect on her.
She put all the blame completely on Jason. After all, it was his fault. The fact that anyone would joke about love disgusted her. She convinced herself that she would never find love, and also that she didn't want it. And yet she was still a "log" according to Angelica, which didn't even make sense to her: Why mope over something you don't want?
She didn't want to be a log. But she couldn't stop being one. She...loved Jason, and he saw her only as a game. What was there to live for?
As usual, she came to school early, no longer following her habit, but just to be alone. That's all she ever wanted nowadays, was solitude. She was reading the same book she had been for the past year, the one she had started and finished countless times, and could recite whole paragraphs of in her head. It was her new favorite book, Carrie, by Stephen King. For some reason, she just liked the book that much, and felt a certain connection to Carrie White, even though they had nothing in common.
She felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw one of the newer students, Alec Laper.
"Hey, Melanie." He said. How does he know my name? She thought. I've never even talked to him... The she realized how flirty his voice was. She closed the book and casually said "Hi." She went behind the locker door.
"So." He said, leaning against the next locker. Melanie looked in her mirror and tried not to pay attention to him. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and flattened another stray piece.
"You look really good. no need trying to make yourself look pretty." She peeked curiously from behind the door.
"Thanks..." She said quietly.
"So," he said again,reaching one finger behind the door and opening it wider. He looked her in the eye. She looked away.
"What're you doing after school?"
"Volunteer work," She answered quickly-a lie.
"Hm. How 'bout tomorrow?"
"Babysitting." Another lie.
"You busy this whole week?"
Her heart fluttered. This was going too far.
"Pretty much." She looked at him, and bit her lower lip to keep her jaw from dropping.
Alec's eyes were a warm, solid chocolate brown, and his curly hair was the color of dead leaves, a nice color, as grim as it sounded.
"You sure?" He lowered his head, keeping his warm eyes on her.
"Y-yeah."
She closed the door quickly and walked away, dazed.
Distracted in her math class by Alec's offer, Melanie stared at the wall, thinking, for a good twenty minutes.
No boy had payed any attention to her for years. Except Jason, but he didn't count anymore. She had a feeling gnawing at the back of her head that no boy would ever pay attention to her, and that Alec, too, was only joking.
But still, she couldn't get over the solid chocolate of his eyes, and the strange color of his hair. She shook the thoughts from her head. There was no use grabbing at something she couldn't reach. And didn't even...want.
The bell rang, startling her.
She quickly tossed her books into her bag and rushed out of the room.
"Melly!" She heard Angelica call her by the nickname only she used. She ignored her; she was in no mood to talk to anyone. She walked faster.
"Hey! get over here!"
Melanie didn't turn around.
"Don't you ignore me, bitch!" Angelica's voice got closer. Melanie looked to her right and saw her demanding friend right next to her.
"What's with you today? Something bite your ass?" Angelica said playfully, giving her a shove. Melanie's quick-moving feet tumbled over eachother, and she fell sideways.
Angelica's mouth formed into a perfect O. Melanie's arms flailed and her eyes grew wide.
And then she felt a pair of arms reach under her and catch her carefully.
"Whoa." The voice was all too familiar.
Alec.
Melanie scrambled to her feet. She turned around, face white, heart still.
"Careful there," he flashed his perfect white teeth at her, "you wouldn't want to ruin that pretty face." He walked away, leaving Melanie feeling like a jell-o sculpture.
* * * * *
Melanie went to her locker even earlier than usual the next day, half hoping Alec would show up. she didn't even know why. She didn't...like him...much-no. She didn't like him AT ALL.
No boy would ever like her. Alec's "offer" was probably all a joke as well. So there was no point in having her heart shattered again. She didn't want a boyfirend. She didn't need one. They were only there to hurt you, and she wouldn't let it happen. Again. She planned to just grow up and never find love, and never get married, live alone, and die a single woman.
And yet she still couldn't stop the fluttering of her heart, like a hummingbird's wings, at the mention of his name.
The bell rang. She got a notebook from her locker and hurried to class. She hoped she would get out of seeing him. If she forgot his face completely, maybe it wouldn't matter to her anymore.
She tried this method for two weeks, but it had the opposite effect. Instead of forgetting him, she only longed to see him. She ached to remember every detail of his face, poked and probed her memory to find it, but couldn't. She would get it right for a split second, see a quick flash of the perfect picture of his face, and it would be gone before she blinked.
Melanie's plans to forget him were useless. She finally accepted that she had fallen for another guy, and decided that she was going to go for it and hope for the best.