Of Confidence

Melanie began laughing when she saw him standing there...in a yellow prom dress. "John! Take that off!" she yelled as John ran into the dressing room.

Melanie let her eyes drift over to Kennedy who was looking through a rack of dresses. Even though he now knew one of Melanie Hendrick's deepest secrets, nothing had changed. He hadn't told anyone, and none of the guys suspected anything. Everything was back to normal for Melanie.

"Okay," He said as he started pulling the straps to the dress down.

"Not here!"

"Sorry!" He repiled, running into the dressing room at Windsor. Melanie knew she was an idiot for letting the guys come prom dress shopping with her. Where did the others go anyway? Melanie giggled as she looked over to see Pat and Jared hitting on the cashier, who looked like she wasn't interested at all.

Her thoughts were torn away from the two boys when she felt arms wrap around her waist and lips at her ear. Melanie began to relax as she felt the familiar curve of John's body against her own. "Why am I doing this again?"

"Because," she started. "You love me, and because you promised!"

"When we were like..seven! Well, I was eight, but still! You didn't come with me to my senior prom!" He said back.

"Yeah, but like twenty girls asked you and Pat didn't have a date! I felt bad." John had ended up taking some tall, brunette chick and she was pretty sure they were at the actual prom for about ten minutes before they left to have their own fun.

"Fine. Now will you find a dress?" John complained.

"If you let go of me," Melanie said, sadly. She wanted nothing more than for John to hold her against him tightly, but she knew that with him there giving her butterflies and goose bumps she wouldn't be able to get anything done.

"Ugh, you aren't going to let me see the dress?" He asked.

"Nope. It's a surprise! Now go," she ordered.

"What ever!" He said while letting her go and leaving the store.

"Melanie! I found a really pretty dress over here!" Jared yelled from across the store. She walked across the store as three more dresses were thrown at her.

"Dressing room, now. We'll get them, you try them on. Got it? Now go!" Garrett said directing her to the dressing room.

Melanie decided on the dress that Pat picked out. It was a strapless dark blue dress, with a stylish bow at the bust. She picked out some silver heels before they were finished shopping and went off to find John. They stalked around the mall for a few moments before Melanie felt someone pulling on her hair.

"Ouch. Stop it!"She said turning to face the once lost, now found, John. She followed John’s smirk all the way down to the Victoria's Secret bag in his hand. "What's that for?" Melanie asked pointing at the bag.

"After the prom, duh," He replied with a smile as the boys started laughing.

Melanie looked over to Kennedy who lifted his eye brows at her. John was insinuating that they were going to have sex after prom, and that scared her. She refused to be just another one night stand of John O’Callaghan. "Yeah right," she said.

"Oh come on, Mel. I get to have my fun too." He smirked as he pulled on her belt loop.

She swatted his hand away. "Stop it!"

Melanie felt her heart drop as she realized what he was saying. That’s all she was to him; a friend with benefits.

"Geez, someone's PMSing," He said as he, Garrett, and Pat headed to the food court.

"Or some is just horny," Jared said, then smiled at Melanie. "I hope you don't mind, but I got to go, I have a date with Chelsea tonight."

"No problem. Thanks for everything today!" She said hugging him. "And tell Chelsea I said hi."

"I will. See ya Kenny," He said while walking away.

Kennedy turned to Melanie, "I still can't believe Garrett is letting Jared date his little sister."

"I know right?"

Chelsea Nickleson, Garrett's younger sister, was Melanie’s age of seventeen. Melanie laughed as she remembered the third grade when Chelsea punched Jared in the eye for pulling her pig tail. She always knew that no matter how much Garrett protested the two would end up together, and she though it was adorable.

"So John's been flirting with you quite a lot, miss," Kennedy said.

"Eh, he's been the same as always," Melanie replied, refusing to believe that he may be right.

"Are you going to tell him?" He questioned.

"Nope! Well, not anytime soon at least."

"Why not?" He asked.

"I don't want him to not feel the same, and completely ruin everything, you know?" Melanie said.

There was no way that Melanie could let that happen. John had always been there for her and she couldn’t picture herself without him there. She would do whatever it took to keep him in her life, even if that meant being miserable.

"Melanie, I really think you should tell him. I think he might like you, and if he doesn't, you know John wouldn’t let that change anything between you two. He loves you too much. You're a part of him..." He trailed off.

Melanie thought back to the other night when John had told Kennedy that she was his property. Was she wrong for getting butterflies in the pit of her stomach? Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe her heart was getting the best of her.

"--he could never lose you," Kennedy finished. "Maybe you could tell him at prom?"

"I don't know, Kennedy."

"Come on! That's like, what, a month and a half away? You'd have a lot of time to prep for it. Do it, Melanie!" He rooted.

She contemplated it for a brief moment. Maybe John would feel the same...? And the worst that could happen is that he wouldn't, but he would know the truth at least. "Fine," Melanie agreed, finally.

"Yes! About Time!" Kennedy cheered.

"Now, will you tell me something?" she asked and Kennedy nodded. "The other night John made a comment to me. He was like 'If anyone knows that you're my property, Kennedy would know it best.' What did he mean by that?"

She watched Kennedy's cheeks turned red. "Uhm, I don't really know, Mel."

She could tell by the way that his voice shook as he answered her that he was hiding something.

"Kennedy!" Pat came up and Melanie watched him hit his back. "You were supposed to meet us in the food court ten minutes ago."

"Oh..sorry," He replied, shortly. Melanie couldn’t help but wonder why her question had made him so…flustered. It was about her and John, not him.

"You ready to go?" John asked Melanie. She nodded, her eyes still on Kennedy, and his flushed cheeks.

Kennedy lifted his eyes to her once more. He looked from Melanie, to John, then shrugged his shoulders and simply walked away.

______________________________________________________

"Ah! You cheated! Cheater, cheater pumpkin eater!" John yelled throwing his X-Box remote.

"Did not. You just suck at this game," Melanie replied turning off their racing game.

"You blew me up!" He exclaimed.

"It's part of the game!"

He looked down and mumbled incoherent words. "I never, ever, blow you up," He mumbled giving her puppy dog eyes.

"Because you never get the missiles," She said back sharply. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the five year old look he was giving her, making his blue eyes as big as moons. It took her breath away.

"Do too!"

"Nuh uh!" She yelled in retort.

"Would you guys stop? You sound like you're seven again." Melanie heard her mother say from the kitchen.

"Melanie cheated Mrs. Hendricks!" John said.

"I did not!"

"You cheated? Your seventeen Melanie, I thought you knew better than that by now," she said to her daughter.

"I do! John just really sucks! I didn't cheat," she argued, looking over to John. She watched as he shook his head and mouthed the words ‘she cheated.’

"Oh shut up John!" Melanie yelled, jumping onto his back and hitting him on his head.

She couldn’t help but to laugh as he screamed like a girl and ran into the backyard, but she suddenly became nervous as he dangled her small frame over the aqua color of her pool. "John, don't you dare! I will kill you!"

"You asked for it!" He said as he started loosening his grip on her body.

"John no!"

"Too late!" He yelled, releasing Melanie into the freezing cold water. She felt the water go up her nose as she went under, and as she began to resurface she felt the weight of her wet clothes weighing her down.

"I'm going to shoot you, I swear," she said grudgingly, as she stepped out of her pool.

She turned her gaze to John who was trying to hold back his laughter and gave him a dirty look as she walked to her glass back doors. She quickly locked the door behind her so that John would be stuck in the backyard.

Melanie walked upstairs to her bedroom and went to her balcony. She looked down and saw John still standing by her pool. "Go home, John." she said before walking back into her bedroom and locking her balcony’s door, in case John decided to climb the banister outside, as he once did before.

She walked into the bathroom and started the shower. She waited until the bathroom was foggy before she stepped into her shower and washed the chlorine off of her body.

She laughed as she pictured John pouting downstairs, where her mom was probably scolding him for dumping Melanie into the water during the winter.

Melanie grabbed a towel off the towel rack and wrapped it around her thin body. She began to step over the shower’s ledge before looking up and seeing two green-blue eyes looking back at her. Her left foot was still in the shower and as she screamed and jumped, John reached out to stable her before she fell.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said while Melanie regained her balance.

"What are you doing?" She asked while he pulled her into a hug, which Melanie decided she would have enjoyed better if she wasn’t constantly trying to keep her towel on.

He gestured to her mirror which now said "I love you Melly! <3 John.' He held her close and she could feel a blush creep up on her cheeks. The heat of his skin warmed her bare neck even more than the shower water had.

John held her tight and she soaked in the smell of his subtle cologne and the soft scent of fabric softener. She could feel his heart beating through his black tank top against her cheek.

"You're going to be late for band practice," she mumbled softly against his chest.

He released her from his arms, "Right."

Melanie looked into his eyes and she could instantly tell that his thoughts were somewhere else. He looked at his message on her mirror, then back at her. He smiled. "I'll call you later, kid,” he said before kissing her cheek and leaving her alone in the room.

Melanie slowly reached her fingertips to the place where his lips had been before a huge grin appeared on her lips.

She couldn't help but to wonder that maybe Kennedy was right.