Show Them What it Means To Be Alive

where tired eyes will close

“Hm,” Melanie mused, a chunk of her caramel hair twirled around her thin finger. She stared at the flashing red numbers of the alarm clock as if it would finally give in read out loud to her, telling her what was going on.

Swinging her legs around, she pulled herself out of bed. The covers Melanie had been sleeping under had the slightest feeling of sand in them – a slight annoyance she had grown to love from all of the summers spent at the beach.

A small smile plastered Melanie’s lips as the saw the blues and purples of the sunset through the bay window. They mirrored her most recent memory of the day, the sunrise.

It seemed impossible to her that the day had gone by in a heartbeat.
Soon, she knew, she would feel compelled to be tired again, because of how the years of going to school had trained her. She sighed at the loss of the day.

Making her way around, examining the rest of the apparent hotel room, her eyes landed on her constant reminder that no time spent was wasted.

She looked on the floor. Make that reminders.

The full-sized bed across the room from Melanie’s bed looked as if it was struck by a tornado and a half. Every sheet and blanket that she assumed was once on the bed was either dangling off the bed or on the floor next to it. One lanky sleeping body had apparently gone down with it, now curled up on the floor, half under the bed, in a mess of black and blonde hair.

The other skinny, boyish (although admittedly slightly feminine), figure was sprawled out in an uncompromising position. He was seemingly naked under the last blanket that littered the barren bed. For a split second, Melanie undoubtedly wished for x-ray vision.

Quickly, she mentally kicked herself for having such thoughts, and walked off giggling about what could have possibly caused the scene in front of her.

Her gaze stopped as her eyes landed upon a piece of lined paper taped to the door. Not the door to the hallway, but that door on the inside wall of your hotel room that was always locked. The one that constantly confused you until you realized it conjoined rooms.

Mel,
I’m sorry in advance if Alex and Jack are scaring you.
Hopefully you’re a heavy sleeper,
You sure as hell were when Alex carried you back to the hotel room.

The rest of us are staying in here, if you need to hide from them.
- Ri

Taking Rian’s advice, Melanie turned the unlocked brass door handle and pushed the door open against the beige carpet on the other side.

The room she was staring into was like a mirror flip from her room, except for the whole room took on a blue theme, as opposed to the peach in theirs.

Looking to her right, Kara and Rian were cuddled above the covers of the bed that Alex and Jack were on in the other room. Melanie laughed at the difference in the couples.

And again when she realized she had just called Alex and Jack a couple.

On the other side of the room sat Zack, his legs crisscrossed on the bed as he attempted to tie a red bandana around his dirty blonde hair.

“Having problems?” Melanie chuckled while taking a seat next to the boy, swinging her legs underneath so she was sitting back on her legs.

“… Maybe.” Zack admitted.

She laughed, picking the bandana out of his hands and wrapping it around his forehead, loosely tying it in the back.

“Okay, so I guess I did need help. Thanks,” The blonde laughed

“Sure,” She smiled, “So we’re in Maryland? This place is amazing.”

“Yeah. It’s a little while away from where we live, but I love it here.”

“Huh. I never knew there were beaches in Maryland…” Melanie thought out loud.

Zack raised his eyebrows at her, as if her dumb comment wasn’t even deserving of an answer.

“Nononono. I mean, I know it’s on a coast,” Mel attempted to redeem herself, “But, like, I never knew there were beaches like this. Pretty much the only beach I’ve ever been to on the east coast is the Jersey shore.”

“Really?” Zack smirked. The brunette knew she couldn’t read minds, but right about now she could swear she knew what Zack was thinking, word for word.

“Shutup. I’m like living proof we’re not all orange and muscley in New Jersey”

“I don’t think the girls are supposed to be muscley” Zack quoted her made up word, “In the first place”

“You know what I mean.”

“I guess. Okay, more importantly,” Zack smiled, “Get any blackmail on Alex or Jack yet?”

Melanie’s first response was a simple hug to this boy. She really hadn’t spent that much time with him before, but she soon realized what Kara had said was right; once you got him talking, it was like ‘the greatest thing ever’.

She explained Jack and Alex’s situation that was going on through the maple door in the adjoining bedroom. Complete with the clothing, or lack of.

“I’m setting a video camera up, next time. I don’t know if I’d want to watch it, but I’ve never wondered this much in my life,” Mel concluded her story.

“Wondered what?” A happy looking Jack Barakat appeared in the doorway, wearing a plain white tee shirt and plaid pajama pants

“What the fuck you guys were doing in there…?” Zack answered for her

“Two words…” Jack grinned

“If you say ‘butt sex’, I swear to god…”

“Pillow. Fight.” Jack interrupted Zack’s impending threat, jumping up and down. Melanie stared at the boy disbelievingly for a second, before laughing until her cheeks grew sore.