Sheffield Skyline

When Melanie stepped into her room and closed the door behind her, she jumped up and down a little and squealed around. It wasn't her intention to make friends here but she did and she didn't do anything. Oli asked her to hang out with him and his band tomorrow, meaning she could stop mourning and whining about the moving just for a day. She plopped onto her bed and looked up towards the ceiling with some ornament carving on the edges while her head ran the images of today.

She never could resist a guy in a band or with tattoos, So Oli wasn't an exception either. He was different than Devin, vastly different. Devin was amazing nevertheless but there was something about him that always made Mel doubted him when he said he loved her. In Oli's side, his smile was so warm and his eyes were so intense when he looked at her, the way Devin never looked at her.

Mel shook out the thoughts and cursed herself for comparing her boyfriend of two years to some guy she just knew. She rolled out of her bed and walked towards the desk, turned on the computer and checked her inbox. Devin told her that he would send her pictures and stories about what her friends and Devin did every day so she wouldn't left out.

When she scrolled through the new messages, her smile widened when she saw Devin's e-mail address and quickly clicked on it. As the e-mail loaded, a picture opened and revealing Devin with his arms spread opened while he was standing on the dock at the edge of the lake where they usually came together every Saturday night. The caption under it was "Wish you were here!"

She gnawed on the inside of her bottom lip as her eyes trailed on her boyfriend's picture and realized how much she missed him, even though it was only for a day. They were thousands of miles apart by an ocean and here she was, comparing him to another guy. Mel quickly grabbed a Sharpie from the cup she had for her pens on her desk and wrote D.O on her wrist with a heart next to it.
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"Hey, Mel!", Oli waved his hand as he leaned back onto the stone railing of the stairs when Mel stepped out from the double doors. She took a deep breath and kept telling herself "Oli and I are just being friends" over and over again as she made her way to him. Mel changed from her uniform to a casual outfit so his friends wouldn't thought she was a goody school girl.

"Hey, Oli.", she greeted back and they looked into each other's eyes for a second before Mel looked away because of the intensity. "So, are we up to hang out with your band?"

"Oh yes.", he beamed and motioned to the sidewalks with his head. "Come on."

Mel followed him down the last few steps of the stairs and on the sidewalks. It was a nice afternoon and the sky was a light grey with a hint that it would rain later on. They talked about their day or just random topics that came into their minds. Oli never could take his eyes off of her and pretended that he was listening to her when actually he was busy trying to concentrate. When she was telling him something, her eyes would travel everywhere and Oli found that cute and adorable of her.

Oli was so busy looking at her until she realized he was staring and didn't even listen to her. "Hey, Oli, you're there?", she waved her hands in front of his face.

He blinked thrice and stuttered a bit. "Uh... yea."

She chuckled and shook her head. Oli looked down to his track to hide his face that was turning into a shade of red. They turned into his neighborhood and when they were already in front of his house, they stopped. "This is it."

"You have a nice house.", Mel smiled and looked up towards the second floor. It was a simple and nice English house, like the apartment on Hey Arnold! cartoon. "Really."

"Thank you.", he said sheepishly and cleared his throat before leading her up onto the steps and into the foyer. There was a noise from downstairs and when they walked down the stairs to the basement, the noise was becoming clearer. Oli opened the door and revealed the view inside. Two guys were arguing about something with their guitar and bass slung across their torsos. A guy with his drumsticks in hand was sitting down on the couch, watching the argument.

When Mel and Oli walked in, they stopped and all of their eyes were on them. "Oh, you brought a friend and being late to practice.", the one who has his guitar in hand rolled his eyes at Oli.

"Calm your dick down, Lee.", Oli snorted in annoyance and closed the door behind us. "This is Melanie, and she's cool, so I thought that she'd appreciate our music."

"Well, I don't see why not.", the bassist shrugged his shoulder. "I'm Matt Kean. We have two Matts here. The other one is Matt Nichols, the bastard who is sitting down right now."

Melanie waved a little to Matt Nichols and he waved back with his drum stick. "Fancy meeting you."

"Where is Curtis?", Oli asked as he took off his jacket and threw it onto the sofa, landed next to Matt N.

Lee rolled his eyes once more and shifted his weight onto the other leg. "Late again, probably."

Suddenly, the door slammed opened and a guy stumbled into the room, bumping onto Mel, making her stumbled front. "I'm so sorry!", he blurted out to her.

"And here's Curtis.", Matt K said with a hint of sarcasm. "Where the bloody hell were you?"

Curtis panted and closed the door before pushing his bangs out of his vision and looked around to his friends. "Well, I'm sorry for being late."

"Can we just get to rehearsal so we don't keep Melanie waiting here? It is very rude.", Oli said to his friends but then smiled to Mel. "You can sit down, Mel."

She nodded and sat down where Matt N was earlier because now, he was already behind his drums. Curtis took his guitar and slung it across his torso, plugged it into the speaker and amplifier. After they were done, Oli cleared his throat and said "This is Pray For Plagues."

They started the song and Mel watched as Oli screamed and sang the lyrics. He looked like he was really into it and he was really enjoying his time. She smiled at him and when their eyes met, Oli smiled back to her without stopping.