Drop Dead.

My head was severely throbbing the next morning due to the heavy music. I woke up groaning and holding my head, trying to move slowly so I didn’t aggravate my headache any more. I shuffled slowly into the kitchen where Melanie was waiting with a glass of water and an aspirin. She smiled sympathetically and handed both to me. I downed the pills and chugged the water, set the glass on the counter.

“Thanks,” I breathed. She nodded, and an awkward silence fell over us. I looked out the window as Melanie chewed on her bottom lip.

“Um, thanks for going last night,” she said after a while. I simply nodded and twirled the empty glass around in my hand.

“So um, when are yeh seeing Oliver again?” I asked her idly, trying to show as little interest as possible, but inside, my curiosity was scratching at the walls of my stomach. Melanie seemed to perk up instantly and started rambling off little tidbits of information. Out of the hundreds of words she said, I’d only caught “tonight” and “dinner.”

I guess that meant that I’d be alone again. I couldn’t stop the sigh that seeped through my nose and Melanie caught it and instantly looked apologetic.

“I’m sorry I keep ditchin’ yeh, Char. I really am. But I think Olleh and I are startin’ to get serious.” She smiled dreamily and got that far-off look in her eye. I rolled mine and leaned my hip against the kitchen counter.

“So yeh really like him,” I filled in the blanks. Melanie nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh! Tom said he’d come over and keep yeh company tonight. ‘E’ll be ‘ere about six. I told ‘im to bring dinner.” She winked and skipped off, probably to start preparing for her “outrageous” dinner with Oliver. The image of those two acting all cute together made me want to gag or at least kick Melanie out of the picture.

“Oh, cool,” I said offhandedly after she’d gone. I blew my bangs out of my face before fixing myself a quick breakfast consisting of Cocoa Puffs and orange juice. I sat on the couch, trying to watch some idiotic kids’ show over the noise of Melanie’s singing in the shower. I sighed again. That’s how I knew Melanie was ridiculously happy; she sang in the shower despite the fact that she could not sing.

I ended up turning the volume up all the way and I could still hear Melanie hitting off-key high notes as she dried her hair. It was only a little past two when she skipped out wearing a teal skirt, a white v-neck, and her black flats. Her hair was thrown up in a high ponytail and her fringe was pinned away from her face.

“Have fun!” I called as the front door shut. Then I muttered to myself, “Why does no one say goodbye anymore?”

I fell asleep shortly after Melanie left and when I woke up, someone was pounding on my door. Yawning and stretching the sleep from my bones, I got up and shuffled over, rising on my tiptoes to peek through the peephole. Tom was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, whistling. I unlocked the dead-bolt and swung the door open, smiling brightly at Tom, who I now noticed had a bag of Chinese food in his arm.

“Hey Tom,” I greeted, stepping aside to let him in.

“Hey. Mel said yeh would need some company tonight.” He smiled sympathetically but I waved him off.

“I’m used to it. Happens every time she gets a guy.” I rolled my eyes for emphasis and led him into the kitchen where I set out plates for both of us. “Want a beer?”

“Fuck yeah,” he chuckled and I got out two, setting one in front of him. We dug into the food and served ourselves. “So did yeh realleh like the show last night? Or were yeh jus’ sayin’ that?”

I chuckled and washed my beef teriyaki down with a sip of beer. “No, I really did enjoy it. It gave me one hell of a headache this morning, but I enjoyed it,” I responded earnestly.

“Yeh no’ realleh into that kinda music, are yeh?”

I swallowed. “How could yeh tell?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Jus’ can. It’s no’ hard to figure out who’s a metal-head and who’s no’. Besides, yeh kinda stuck out like a sore thumb.”

“I was in my work uniform!” I protested with a laugh, throwing a piece of rice at him. He laughed as well and picked the rice off his shirt, which I noticed had the exact same words that Oliver’s knuckles had.

“Don’ start the food fight. Olleh and I ‘ave ‘ad too many of ‘em, and yeh won’t win,” he scolded, eyeing me with a raised eyebrow. I smiled.

“What’s yeh shirt mean? I noticed Oliver had the same words tattooed on his knuckles.” I jerked my chin in Tom’s direction, looking down at the bright blue shirt with a killer shark and the words ‘Drop Dead’ written in red.

“It’s Olleh’s clothing company. Started it jus’ after Bring Me started gettin’ big,” Tom explained, picking up a piece of broccoli with his chopsticks, which I never acquired the skill to use.

“So he got the words tattooed on his knuckles?” I asked in confusion, cocking my head to the side. Tom chuckled and wiped his mouth with his napkin.

“Yeah. Olleh’s got a lot of random ink.” He nodded and polished off his beer.

“Just how many tattoos does Oliver have?” I asked him as I quirked an eyebrow. He grinned, an almost evil-looking thing that looked downright unnatural on Oliver’s younger, more innocent brother.

“That’s somethin’ yeh gonna have to find out for yehself, love,” Tom smiled, saluting me with his broccoli.

Melanie – and Oliver, shockingly – showed up around eleven when Tom and I were just getting into our third movie of the night. After filling up on Chinese food, we’d agreed that a marathon was in order, so I broke out all of my movies, mostly American ones from the 80s. We were in the middle of “The Breakfast Club” when the two…lovebirds popped in, all smiles and cuteness.

Honestly, it made me want to suffocate myself with the pillow I was leaning on. Tom greeted them politely and I waved back, pretending to be too focused on the movie. The pair of them quickly took the other couch and were immediately a mess of limbs as they snuggled together. I didn’t mind that so much but when I distinctly heard the sound of locking lips, I voiced my discomfort.

“Look, if yeh gonna make out, either hit the mute button or take it upstairs,” I snapped, breaking the couple apart. Melanie half-glared at me but my gaze didn’t waver, and she knew I was serious. She shot up from the couch and pulled Oliver with her, who looked more confused than annoyed.

“What’s up yeh butt, Char?” Melanie retorted sharply in return before tugging roughly on Oliver’s wrist. He followed her silently and didn’t look at me as they passed the couch. Melanie’s bedroom door slammed shut a moment later. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tom raise an eyebrow at me and I sunk down into the couch.

“Too much Chinese food,” I mumbled, hiding half of my face in my hoodie. He chuckled at me and we both went back to watching the movie.

Tom left around one, claiming he had some editing to do on some of his photos, but he promised he’d hang out with me the next if Melanie and Oliver were going to be together. I told him there was a guarantee of that happening and he grinned, hugged me goodbye, and left.

Oliver didn’t leave.