Melody's Melodies

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Melody stands at the bus stop earlier than yesterday, she’s eager to see Devin. She has her hair down to cover the left side of her face; it was a rough night last night.

Melody made the mistake of having her music playing too loudly, so she couldn’t hear her father calling her multiple times. She was busy sitting on the floor in the corner, by the window reading ‘Night,’ by Elie Wiesel for the fifth time, just because she likes the book so much. She was at the most heartbreaking part, Gymnopedies no.1, composed by Erik Satie playing at full volume in her ears, then Griffin appeared behind her, ripping the head phones out of her ears and snatching the book out of her hands, throwing it across the room. The book flew so far that it left the room and smacked against the staircase railing, lying in the hallway.

Melody, was terrified, because it all came by surprise, she’s usually on her guard and knowing when to expect his attack.

Melody was pushed down on her back, her father grabbed her hair and dragged her by it to the foot of the bed. She kicked and screamed and tried to pull at her hair to loosen the grip he had. It was no use, none of it was, it never was.

“I know you could hear me, why the hell would you ignore me?” he yelled, too close to her face.

Melody was silent, all she could do was cry silent sobs. The booze was pungent on his breath and last time Melody checked the time, it was only 7:15pm. Her beating was early, that only means he had a bad day at work.

Melody had a fist come into contact with her face and a knee to her stomach. He also gave her a bloody nose that bled more than it needed to, it didn't break, he was always careful to not leave too much damage.

“You’re so worthless, just like your god damn mother. You’re both worthless pieces of shit,” and that’s how he ended it.

He stomped away, grumbling to himself, stomping down the stairs and then she heard his voice yell.

“Get that damn book off the floor!”

That’s why Melody wears her hair down and hides her face behind it, there is a dark blue and black bruise just under eye and her nose is swelled and red, but it isn’t too noticeable, it only hurts to touch.

Melody doesn’t play her music this morning; she doesn’t want to miss it when Devin arrives. She’s wearing a flowing peach dress that comes over her knees a bit, thinking that Devin would like it. She also has a black ribbon in her hair, to add color to it and black slip-ons.

Twenty minutes go by and Melody patiently waits, checking her clock on her iPod from time to time. Then she plugs her iPod buds into her ears, she’s upset, because he’s not here yet and he told her that he would be. Then it dawns on her, why would he be here? She’s been wondering why he would want to waste his time, being around her and she guesses that, he’s been wondering that too so he stopped.

The bus pulls up, Melody looks up from the sidewalk when the doors open, she looks back with a sliver of hope that he’ll come jogging up to the bus with the excuse that he woke up late, but this isn’t a Disney movie. It doesn’t happen that way, Melody looks back at the bus, watches her step and sits down in a different seat from yesterday, but alone. She looks out of the window as the bus pulls off, she stares through her reflection at the trees and a tear rolls down her cheek, hanging at her chin, it drops off and leaves a little wet spot on her peach dress.