Melody's Melodies

►

Not a good night, not a good day, not a good night, not a good day, not a good night, not a good day.

It’s repetition, for three days straight. It’s been worse than usual, because Melody can’t concentrate on school only able to think of Devin and when she gets home she’s ripped from everything and only given pain and hurt.

Three days have passed and she hasn’t seen Devin at all, not a glance, not a knock on the front door, not a meet at the bus stop. It’s like he knows something’s wrong with her, he knows she’s worthless, he knows she’ll never amount to anything, just like her father told her.

Griffin’s gotten more violent and careless. He doesn’t care about where he hits her, how hard, or with what. Melody received beer bottle cracked against her head two nights ago. The bottle didn’t break, but it did leave a rising bump. Luckily her hair is thick enough to cover it, no one would know unless they touch her head.

She doesn’t know how she’ll get through this without dying. He’ll kill her before she gets to run away like her mother did.

That’s the one thing Melody is okay with about her mother’s death. It wasn’t under the hand of her father.

Melody stands at the bus stop, wearing a thick gray sweatshirt, blue jeans, and gray Vans. Her hair is down again, the mark from three days ago hasn’t gone away, the swelling on her nose has gone down, but it still hurts.

Her earphones are in; she’s listening to About You by XXYYXX, and reading the final chapter by Night. She’s at the second to last page, she already knows how it ends, but she has to read each and every word like it’s a new book to her. Then a hand appears on the pages of her book and she jumps back startled, the book slips from her hands.

She looks up to see Devin in gray jeans, black button up, red beanie and black sneakers. He’s across from her, leaning down to grab the book. Once he’s upright he cracks that heartbreaking smile and Melody’s heart flutters, but then she turns cold.

She takes the book from him, not saying a word, and pulling her backpack off her shoulders, putting the book into her book bag.

“Hey Melody,” she can hear the confusion in his voice.

She doesn’t return the “hey,” she doesn’t say a word; she just turns the music up louder blocking him out. He steps closer to her, trying to catch her eyes. But she refuses to look at him.

He’s speaking, she’s not listening and he doesn’t understand why she’s being all weird. He taps her shoulder and when all she does is slightly step away he then gently reaches under her hair and pulls the ear buds out. Melody gasps, she was expecting to be slapped next and she looks up at Devin with wide eyes.

“Melody it’s okay, calm down. Don’t look at me like that,” he says softly, letting the ear buds slip from his hands, falling and ricocheting off her leg, swaying until they hang in midair.

Melody’s eyes fill with tears, but she only blinks them away and looks away from him.

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

She shakes her head, her hair moving slightly around, Devin can see a glimpse of darkness on Melody’s face, but he assumes it’s just the shade from her hair.

“Melody, why are you acting like you don’t know me? Are you mad at me?”

“You weren’t here,” she says softly, it’s all she says.

There’s a lump in her throat, she’s about to cry, but she swallows, hoping the lump will go away. It’s not even just that he wasn’t here for her, if she didn’t like him so much it wouldn’t hurt her feelings so much, but she needed him here. She needed him here to erase the darkness and just bring her the warmth she so desperately needs, but he didn’t come. He left her in the cold, just like everyone else does.

He looks at her with a soft look in his eyes and he opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it.

She looks over at him, to see he has his backpack this time, it’s leaning against his leg. It’s a simple black Dickies backpack.

He tries to speak again, “I’m sorry,” it comes out gently.

“Don’t lie,” she doesn’t like to hear people lie for stupid reasons, she’s a stupid reason to lie.

“I’m not lying.”

“Then don’t say sorry for something you’re not even close to being sorry about,” her tone never changes, it’s soft and quiet.

“But, Melody I am sorry. I didn’t know that me showing up to school meant that much to you,” he says desperately.

She looks up at him and he can definitely see the pain in her eyes.

“It’s not even about you not showing up to school, it’s about you not coming by to see me, or even giving a wave if you were down the street. You didn’t care and you don’t now, so don’t pretend to it’ll only hurt me more.”

Melody knows she’s being irrational, she only met this guy not even a week ago, only seen him three times, why should she feel entitled to receive anything from him?

“What can I do to make it up to you?”

The question brings Melody’s thoughts to a halt. She’s never been asked a question like that. People usually treat her like shit, order her around and demand her to ignore the betrayal. Melody doesn’t know what to say, she only looks at him watching his beautiful face have sorrow written all over it. She doesn’t like it; he doesn’t deserve to be as miserable as her.

“I’m sorry,” he says again. “I do care and I mean it.”

Melody nods and he steps closer to her, his backpack slowly descends to the ground. Melody sucks in a breath not knowing what to expect from him. He brushes his hand gently over the exposed skin on her face. She watches him as he runs his thumb across her cheek. He wipes the wetness away and she didn’t even know a tear escaped. His face comes close to hers and she closes her eyes waiting to be stricken, it’s a habit, but instead of a slap or a scratch, punch or yell. His soft lips press against her forehead. His hands touch her hair, going through it. Devin pulls back a little, watches Melody, her eyes still closed; he softly presses his lips against hers. A soft sound nearly inaudible escapes from within her. And then it’s like static electricity going through her. One can only take so much before they have to pull back, because the shock hurts. But the pain only lasts for a second, but it terrifies you for that one second.

She pulls back away from him, his fingers still tangled in the ends of her hair and she sniffles. Tears run down her face and she turns away from him, he can’t keep seeing her breaking down, it’s weak.
She wipes her face, the emotions she feels are all over the place and she doesn’t know what to do. Devin gently places his hands on her shoulders.

“It’s okay,” he says quietly in her ear.

That’s when they see the bus coming down the road. They gather their things; Melody wipes her face once more and when the bus stops, opens the doors they climb on. Melody finds an empty seat, Devin right behind her, Melody sits down and this time she doesn’t have to be alone.