The Other Dibenedetto Girl

Ah, the airport. One of the most crowded places during the holiday season. People were walking around the place looking for their flight terminals; wandering up and down searching for baggage claim; people embracing the ones they loved for a “welcome home” or a “come back safely” and families walking into the small restaurants and shops for lunch. There were also people like me: the tired, hungry ones who were walking alone because nobody was there to greet them. Hopefully, unlike everyone else, I wouldn’t have to wait too long at baggage claim. I did not really bring much to begin with, just my dress for the funeral, some pajamas and extra clothes for the next morning. I wasn’t gonna be in California long, so why bring so much stuff?

As I strolled down the long path to where my luggage would be, I noticed a tall, black-haired man standing on a chair. He was thin, and had several tattoos up and down his arms with a pair of thick rimmed glasses on his pale face. When I took a better look at him, he was holding a large sign with my name on it and shouting down at people.

“Are you Melanie?!” He yelled at a passing old woman. I could not suppress the giggle I let out.

To save everyone’s eardrums, I walked towards the man. Then, unfortunately, I spotted someone else beside him. He was a tad shorter than the first man and was not standing on a chair. He too was tattooed, and his black hair had a soft, shiny feel that I remembered perfectly. His usually beautiful green eyes were shielded by expensive sunglasses; his pale skin was as flawless as it had been since the last time I saw him, and the lip piercing I remembered was there on his full, perfect lips. When he laughed at the taller man, his smile made my heart stop.

It was incredible that Zack Baker still had that affect on me.

“Hey Jimmy,” I said to the man on the chair.

“Melanie Dibenedetto?” Jimmy jumped down from the chair and squint his eyes at me suspiciously. “Are you sure?”

“Sadly, yes, I’m sure.”

Jimmy stood there for a few minutes, scanning me. I would not be surprised if he did not remember me. I had been away from California for a long time, and a lot of things had changed, like my hair for one thing. It used to be a helmet of glossy, mouse brown curls, but now it was scarlet red. My eyes were the same hazel-green they had always been, yet lately I had been thinking about contacts. Then, just as I thought he would question me again, Jimmy gave me a bright smile.

“Hey you!” He immediately wrapped me in a tight hug, but I merely patted his back. “What happened to you? I haven’t seen you in forever!”

He released me, and I shrugged. “Just moved out east, to New York.”

“New York?” Jimmy turned to Zack. “We’ve been in New York tons of times, right?”

“Loads.”

“Loads of times,” He returned to me, “How come you never came out to our shows?”

“Shows? What shows?” Were they circus people now? Broadway? I never struck Zack as the type.

“Our concerts. You didn’t hear? We’re in a band now. Have been for years.”

“Oh, wow.” I said, not totally surprised.

Zack and Jimmy were highly talented musicians; so were the rest of Valary and Michelle’s friends. It was only natural they would make it big.

“Yeah. We have millions of fans now. We’re on vacation for Christmas this year.” Jimmy smiled. “Where’s your stuff?”

“Baggage claim. It’s right over that way.” I pointed down the hall.

“Alrighty, let’s go get it.”

Jimmy headed ahead of Zack and me. I expected Zack to move ahead along with Jimmy, since they were best friends, but instead, he walked along beside me. I felt all my nerves jump into my stomach. My mind went completely blank and my palms became sweaty. I crossed my arms around my stomach and Zack stuffed his hands in his pockets. Just like I remembered. He always did that when he was nervous.

“You dyed your hair,” He noted to me in our awkward silence.

“Yeah. Brown just wasn’t me.”

“Red’s a good color on you, but I still liked brown.”

“Thanks.”

A silence came over us again, then I spoke: “How-How have you been?”

“Alright. Can’t really complain about anything. You?”

“Okay, I guess.”

“That’s good.” He paused. “I didn’t think you were gonna come this time, you know, since you didn’t come to your dad’s funeral.”

“My dad was an asshole,” I said bitterly. “Why would I wanna see the son of a bitch buried? Hearing he was dead was enough to make me content.”

I guessed that my sudden harshness put Zack off a bit, but then he gave me a look of understanding. It was only innate that I wouldn’t want to attend my own father’s funeral. He and I had hated each other. Nothing would have made me happier than to hear he had finally been put six feet under. God truly is good.

We continued walking together in our discomfited silence. It had been eleven years since I had last seen Zack. Very little had happened between us during the time I had lived in Huntington Beach. What could I possibly say to him now that we were-somewhat-alone? Should I ask him how his family was? Should I ask about his old girlfriend, Hollie and if he was still with her? I wasn’t sure what to ask and not sound inappropriate, or give off the wrong impression. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to know all of these things. I wanted to know if he had ever thought about me since we both departed from each other. I wanted to see if he had any old pictures of us or if he ever told anyone about the times that we shared and all the things we did together.

I wanted to know if he remembered.

“Perhaps it would have given you some kind of closure,” He said next. “I mean, if I hated my dad, I would have gone just to end everything permanently. I’ve heard from Val that you never fully-“

“I’m sorry to tell you, but Val never fully understood the situation to begin with. All she did was sit up in her room, making out with that boyfriend of hers, and pretending that nothing was going on.”

“Valary and Michelle did know that stuff was going on. They just didn’t know how to handle it,” Zack reasoned, “I’m sure you couldn’t either.”

“Can we talk about something else?” I said this as casually as I could, so he would not suspect the tone of anger that was producing.

“Um, sure,” Zack said, but I only knew that he would try to touch this subject again later. “What have you been doing since you left? Anything interesting?”

“I started teaching art in an after school program a couple of years ago; I also teach high school English classes during the summer, but all-year round, I’m a waitress.”

“Hm, sounds you’re busy a lot. I’m glad to see you did something with that art-thing of yours. You were always the best artist.”

I felt my cheeks grow hot from his compliment. “I wasn’t that great. There were people that were better than me.”

“That doesn’t matter to me. I liked your art, and that made you the best to me. Like I remember that one picture you painted of that daffodil, and they hung it in the school lobby so everyone could see it. I used to walk by that painting all the time, and see your name in the corner. The way that you used the different yellows and whites together added that realistic touch to it.”

The fact that Zack would have that small detail in my life committed to memory caught me off guard. I mean, that daffodil was not one of my most memorable paintings, yet he recalled it like it was yesterday. My heart stopped just thinking about it. I pictured the old teenage Zack, dressed all in black, looking at my painting as he walked by and smiling because he knew I had painted it.

“Well, that was just that one picture. I’ve had other ones no one ever saw,” I said as I looked down at my feet.

“I’d like to see them sometime.”

I gave him a smile, which he returned kindly.

“What have you been up to, Mr. Rockstar?” I teased, turning the subject on him.

Zack smiled, and I felt my heart melt for a second. “Just busy living the dream. Playing shows, making albums and meeting girls to take back to my hotel room.”

“Sounds like a nice dream.”

“It is,” He grinned proudly. “I also started my own clothing line too, as you can see on The Reverend over there.”

I chuckled softly as I recalled those silly nick names they had all come up with. I personally remember Zack’s because I thought about it whenever I saw him. ‘Zack Vengeance’. I suited him so well, considering all the enemies he had made in high school. I never understood why he had so many grudge against people, but I never thought to ask him. Why should I ask him about his grudges when he never asked about mine? I looked at Jimmy as he turned around, strutting the black shirt with a skull on it backwards. It was an interesting design. The skull had a bandanna; a cigarette and ‘Est. 6661.’ in pretty cursive letters on the bottom.

“6661?” I turned to him.

“The year our band started,” He said to me.

I nodded in comprehension. Zack always had a tendency to add some kind of relation to himself or the things around him into whatever he did. It was one of the things that made him who he was, and I loved it.

“We’re here!” Jimmy called out to us both as we reached baggage claim.

Just as I suspected, tons of people were lined up beside the moving belt that rolled several piles of luggage around. Passengers were picking up their bags or standing around searching for whatever they were missing. Seeing as I had only brought a small briefcase, we would not be waiting here long. The real wait would be looking for it.

Zack stood closer to me than was normal for two people who were practically strangers. Our bodies were inches away from each other; my eyes coming in full view of the tattoos on his arms and the rest of his body. I could feel his body heat rushing over mine; the smell of his cologne more apparent than anything else. It was not overpowering yet not fainted either. I could smell a hint of smoke in it, which told me he still smoked cigarettes. Normally, I hated men who smoked. It was bad for your health and it could do harmful things to your body. However, whenever I saw Zack light up his cigarette, it did not bother me. Actually, it made me more attracted to him.

“Which ones yours?” Jimmy asked, knocking me back into reality.

“A black duffel bag.”

“Really?” He turned to me, “Why so little? Aren’t you gonna be staying longer?”

“No. I have stuff to do back home, and staying would be a waste of time.” I searched across the line for my bag, but didn’t spot it anywhere nearby. I knew what was coming up, and I wanted more than anything to change the subject.

“Hanging out and spending the holidays with your sisters shouldn’t be a waste of time. You’re supposed to be with family and love-“

I saw it sitting behind a large grown suitcase, and pointed it out to Jimmy. However, since the taller man was so focused on lecturing me about family, I picked it up. I knew it would come down to this eventually. I knew someone-anyone-was going to tell me that staying for the Christmas holidays was something I should do since I usually spend Christmas by myself. They’ll tell me that my sisters would like it if I stayed with them; that I could get reacquainted with everyone, and possibly end up liking my sisters in the end. I hated having to contradict them, especially in this case, because this was Jimmy that was lecturing me.

Out of all their friends, Jimmy was the one that understood me the most.

“I’m sorry, Jim.” I said, “But love is not something I know too much about. Now, can we leave please?”

I gave him an annoyed stare, but he returned it with worry and concern. Jimmy’s crazy, insane persona would have thrown people off to take him as someone with very little knowledge, but I would have begged to differ with them. Jimmy was a genius, and highly knowledgeable. He was very talented at what he did, and it didn’t surprise me that he was in a rock band. He had enough nerve to go after the things he dreamed of doing and that made me admire him because I knew I could never have such a feeling. Having to tell him to stop talking brought me to thinking that he might not stop talking about it.

“Okay,” He said finally. “Just for now…I’ll drop it.” He pointed a finger at me, squinting one eye at me, “But I’ll get you someday, Missy.”

I gave a soft laugh and the three of us walked out towards the parking garage. I expected it to be just Zack, Jimmy and me riding back to whatever place we were going, but instead, I found a van and five people greeting the two men that were with me. I felt my body flush of color when I saw the two people that were standing farther from the van. They both look identical in facial features and body structure, but their hair colors were different. One had long straight blond hair and the other had long black hair with a tinge of purple in it. Despite these changes, I could recognize Michelle and Valary anywhere.