Melody's Melodies

►

He stands up, staggering his way over to her and Melody slowly backs away with every step he takes towards her.

“Where were you?”

She watches him with wide eyes. Whenever he comes into her room, it’s a sign that it’s going to be horrible, more than it usually is.

“You cheatin on me,” he yells drunkenly.

She’s standing in the threshold, terrified.

“Amara, you answer me.”

“No I’m not,” Melody whispers, she knows he didn’t hear her.

“Don’t fucking mumble!” he slams his hand into Melody’s baby blue wall.

Melody’s heart is racing; she’s not as strong as she thought she would be. Her arm is throbbing again and all she wants to do is put ice on it and go to sleep. But now she has to go through him before she gets any peace.

Griffin reaches and grabs Melody by the shirt collar and slamming her into the wall next the stairs. The light switch digs into her back. She goes to block her face when she sees his hand coming for her face, but it’s the wrong arm. His fist slams right into her arm and she nearly sees white light.

The pain is indescribable; it’s like acid going through her veins, but only for a flash of a second.
She buckles down to her knees and she cries, but she can’t make a sound. Tears fall out as she falls onto her side. Griffin is hovering over her; another fist comes into contact with her face and the side of her head.

“Get up,” he yells, he has exhausted himself.

“Amara get your ass up,” he screams into Melody’s ear.

She’s in so much pain; she doesn’t care what he yells or what else he does to her. She just wants the pain in her arm to cease.

He kicks her in the stomach really hard, knocking the wind out of her and she’s coughing and gasping for air. He grabs her by the neck , yanking her up by the neck and slams her back into the wall. He grabs her arm again and watches her face as he squeezes, making her scream.

“That hurts huh?”

She screams and cries only to be tortured more; she knows it’s definitely broken.

“Please, please stop,” she begs.

“Why should I?” growls.

“Please,” she screams as he squeezes, she tries to pull away, but she can’t.

He lets out a maniacal laugh and then lets her go.

“What a fucking pussy you are,” he continues laughing and then goes into the office and slams the door shut behind him.

Melody will never forget the look in his eye, the sound of his laughter, nor his last words to her.
This has never happened before, he’s never cursed her in such a degrading way and she doesn’t know why she takes it so hard, but she does.

With that, she holds her arm close to her body, pads her way down the stairs and runs out of the house. She doesn’t care how she looks, she’s sure that she looks terrible, but she runs.
She runs, hoping to find Devin, but she doesn’t so she hurries to his house. She pounds on the door with her unhurt arm, and she sees a light turn on. The door opens before her and she’s in tears again.

“Devin,” she blubbers. “Please, I- I want to stay with you,” she whispers the last word.

He’s hurt and worried at the same time. He’s terrified to find out what happened to her, but he pushes it away for later and takes her gently by the waist and pulls her inside. Shutting the door with his foot, he takes her hand, leading her to the bathroom.

She sits down on the closed white porcelain toilet, while Devin goes through the medicine cabinet.
He pulls out a brown bottle of peroxide, cotton balls and swabs, and ibuprofen, placing it all on the sink.

He crouches in front of her, sad look in his eyes as he looks over her bruised, wet face and he sighs.
“I’ll be right back,” he says softly.

When he leaves, she looks over the room through one fully open eye and one swelled halfway closed eye.

The bathroom is peach, mermaid blue shower curtains, and there’s a photo of a giant tin pot of yellow flowers above the silver towel rack.

Devin returns with a white washcloth, he runs the water and wets the rag. Then he places the warmly wet rag against Melody’s face, gently padding her face, wiping the blood away.
He pads little cuts with peroxide covered cotton balls, then throws them away. He pulls out two ibuprofens for Melody and places them on the sink.

“Do you want to take a shower?” he asks quietly.

She looks into his deep green eyes, her lower lip puckers out, she’s about to cry again, but she nods instead.

He leaves the bathroom, grabbing a large soft brown towel for her, he goes into his room and grabs one of his white T-shirts that he’s sure will be too big for her and a pair of gray sweat pants.
He goes down back down the hall, to hear she has the shower on, steam rolls out of the bathroom. He knocks on the wall near the entryway, without peeking.

“I have some clothes for you and a towel.”

She doesn’t say anything, so he steps in the entryway.

He sees her shoes kicked off in the corner along with her socks lying on top of them. She is in the process of peeling off her shirt; her back to him, her bruised blue and black back. He sighs unintentionally loud enough for her to hear and Melody jumps and gasps.

“Sorry,” he says quietly, looking away from her. “I, I didn’t see anything, I just. . . Here’s some clothes and a towel,” he says finally.

She rolls her shirt back down and then steps over to take the things.

“Thanks.”

Devin nods and walks out, going to the kitchen. He flicks on the light over the sink, finds the Ziploc bags in the drawer and prepares Melody two bags of ice for her eye and arm. He puts the bags in the freezer and then walks over to the window, opens it and fishes out his pack of cigarettes in his jeans.

He sighs again, upset to see that she’s in so much pain and it makes him want to cry. So he does silently to himself. The situation reminds him of his mother all over again, only he was too young to do anything about it, someone else had to jump in. Now he can, he’ll help Melody as best as he can.