Melody's Melodies

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“Stay the night with me,” he pleads.

“I can’t,” she whispers back.

They spent the rest of the day at his house, eating and chatting about things, trying to forget the pain they’re suffering from.

Devin’s mom is out of town, she has been out of town for two weeks, on a trip visiting her dying mother, Devin’s grandmother. That’s why it was so easy for him to skip day after day; no one is there to badger him.

They’re lying next to each other on the sofa, Devin softly runs his hand along Melody's hurt arm. It’s 8:15, the house is dark, Devin left all of the lights off and they’ve kissed many more times.

Melody likes the touch of his hands, lips, just his skin in general. She likes everything about him especially the way his hands linger on her body gently, the way his kisses caress her skin, the way he holds her when she can’t take much more and she wants to break down, but he holds her together just enough to keep her from crumbling right before him.

“Why not, what if you just never go back? You can stay here and then I can explain it all to my mom when she gets back, she’ll understand.”

She doesn’t say anything, looking at his shirt, thinking of her father. She desperately wants to stay, she wants to be with Devin all of the time, but if her father finds out that she doesn’t plan on returning, he’ll hunt her down and kill her for sure. She knows it.

“Please,” he whispers against her neck.

She closes her eyes, wanting to comply to his wishes, but she sighs.

“Don’t do that,” she says softly.

"What," he asks.

“Don’t be irresistible,” she bites her lip.

He laughs a little, tickling her neck.

“You think I’m irresistible?”

She smiles to herself.

“Yeah kinda,” she says.

“Then stay. Please, I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he’s serious again. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose you.”

“Do what you were doing a week ago,” she knows it’s harsh, but she doesn’t want him feeling sorry for her.

“Melody,” he pulls back to see her moonlight lit face. “I care about you now, even if we haven’t known each other for years, we obviously met for a reason.”

He kisses her forehead and she breathes in his scent of cigarettes and mint.

“I can’t,” the sadness is evident in her voice.

Devin sighs, he isn’t going to pressure her anymore, and he knows she wants to, but she’s afraid of her father’s wrath.

“Well I’ll walk you to your house then,” it takes everything in him to say those eight words.

They get up, Devin picks up her backpack, putting it on his back and he holds Melody’s hand securely and warmly in his own.

He locks the door, and they quietly walk to her home, that couldn’t be any closer if they wanted it to be. She doesn’t want to depart from Devin, but she knows that she has to. She knows that she can deal with the beating, because she has before. Hell if she can suffer through a beer bottle to her head and what might be broken arm, she thinks she can suffer through almost anything he brings.

They stand on the unlit porch, facing each other. Melody’s house is dark, and she hopes that Griffin has already fallen into deep slumber in his cave.

Devin gently takes Melody’s face into his hands and looks into her eyes.

“I need you to do me a favor.”

“What’s the favor?” she whispers.

“Meet me in an hour at the bus stop so that I know you’re okay. And if I don't see you there, then I’m barging in there,” he points at her front door. “And I’m taking you home with me . . . I swear if that bastard lays another hand on yo-”

Melody shushes him.

“If he’s drunk then I’ll know what to expect,” she says.

She thinks, “Correction: he’s drunk so I know what to expect as soon as I see him.”

He steps back from her, a look of disgust on his face.

“Melody, that’s shit you shouldn’t have to expect. You shouldn’t have the shit kicked and beaten out of you for no fucking reason!” he’s angry again, his voice has risen.

He’s thinking of his childhood. He had to deal with abuse when he was little as well. The physical abuse happened to his mother, the mental to himself. His stepfather, Jeff was a cocaine addict. Devin will never understand why his mother stayed with Jeff for as long as she did, but luckily it ended when it did.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “If you can’t deal with this, then-”

He cuts her off, “this shouldn’t have to be something for me to deal with. This definitely shouldn’t be something for you to deal with. He’s going to kill you Melody!”

She knows that, she knows he’ll kill her; she’s been thinking and throwing around the idea of what it’ll be, how it’ll end and when.

“Melody, I’m begging you just come back to my house with me, I don’t want you hurting. Please.”

She looks at the concrete and slightly shakes her head.

“I’m used to it,” she shrugs.

“And that’s where the problem lies. You’re used to it, when you shouldn’t be.”

“I know I shouldn’t be. I know I shouldn’t be a lot of things, but I am. I know I shouldn’t be depressed, hurt, beaten, motherless, loveless, and abused, but I am. Devin, I’m screwed up and you showing up in my life isn’t going to change other people and how they treat me."

She's almost in tears again, but she continues.

"I want to go home with you and live happily ever after and end this nightmare with my father, but I can’t. He is going to kill me if I leave and maybe even you and I can’t have that happen, at least not to you. So if it takes me going in there and taking whatever he gives, then I will just as long as no one else gets hurt. It’s okay for me to be hurt, but no one else needs to be if it’s not necessary.”

“What if he kills you, because you do return to him?”

She doesn’t respond.

He continues. “Knowing that, that’s what you think, hurts me. Knowing that you think it’s completely fine for you to be hurt, hurts me the most. He has destroyed you; you think his abuse is your entire fault don’t you?”

She’s still silent, he’s waiting.

“Devin I have to go inside,” her response is weak.

He doesn’t know how else he can get this girl from going inside, he feels completely useless so he just nods.

“All I ask for you to do is please, please meet me at the bus stop in an hour.”

She looks up at his glistening eyes and she nods.

“Okay,” she says quietly.

“Thank you.”

He leans down and kisses her lips, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close to his body. The kiss fills Melody with warmth and sadness at the same time. She pulls away, but lays her forehead against his chest.

He rubs her back in small circles and presses his lips softly to the top of her head.
Thankfully the bump has gone down on Melody’s head, or that would’ve just raised another argument between the two.

Devin whispers a soft, “meet me,” they separate.

He passes Melody’s bag to her and she grabs it and walks inside, knowing the door isn’t locked.
The house is completely dark, Melody turns on the light at the bottom of the stairs and climbs up the stairs and then turns the light off with the light switch at the top of the stairs.

She opens her room door and it’s dark, she places her backpack down, closes her room door and flicks the light on. She turns around to see her drunken father sitting on her bed. He’s the only dark thing in her room.

“The hell you been?” he slurs.

Melody turns cold.