The Unraveling of Melody (4 page)

“
Emma, we can’t do that again, okay?”
he says as he sits down and runs his hands nervously over his
face.

I wipe the tears from my cheeks and take my
seat next to him. “I’m sorry, Charlie, really I am. I don’t know
why I did that.”

He’s staring ahead and feigning watching the
TV. “It’s okay; just don’t let it happen again.” He looks over at
me with a smile and a wink—all is forgiven.

I’m not so sure I can forgive myself,
though.

Two months later…

Ever since the Winter Formal, I haven’t
stopped thinking about Charlie. I’ve gotten over the denial and now
the delusions have started kicking in. It’s okay to have a crush;
it’s just a little crush. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not
like I’m going to act on it again, even though I think about doing
so all the time.

For the first few weeks after the
incident, you’d think it would have been an uncomfortable situation
all around, but it wasn’t. I felt ashamed around
Melody,
but the second Charlie walked
into the room, all was forgotten.

He’s like that high school teacher you always
fantasized about except he was my best friend’s dad. It didn’t help
matters that I knew what his lips felt and tasted like against
mine. For a very brief moment, he had kissed me back, and it was
magical. My nerve endings were on fire.

A few days after it had happened, I wanted to
apologize to Charlie again, but I knew that I couldn’t do so at his
home. Very rarely is there no one there. The night we had kissed
was a fluke.

I knew where he worked, so one day after
school I drove there.

The guy at the front desk asks me to take a
seat because Charlie is in the middle of a session right now.

He really does have the best job ever. He
produces albums for up-and-comers. He’s been the one behind some
really amazing albums.

“
Mr. Hershel will see you now,” the man
says. As he walks me back to Charlie’s office, I notice what a
small guy he is. He either has an eating disorder or he’s just one
of those
natural
rail
thin guys. Through his dress
shirt,
you can see that his shoulder blades are
sticking out. As he makes a turn in the doorway, I quickly direct
my eyes to the handsome man behind the desk.

Charlie.

He’s dressed casually, in a pair of dark
jeans. His collared dress shirt is untucked; a few top buttons are
undone and show his white undershirt. I take a seat as the
receptionist takes his leave.

“
Thank you, Miles,” Charlie says before
Miles is out of the door. Miles tips his head and shuts the door
behind him.

After our hellos, I again tell him
exactly how sorry I am for the kiss. Mostly everything I say
are
lies
just
to cover my secret crush.

When that’s all said and done, he takes me on
a tour of the studio. He tells me that he has another appointment
coming in shortly and invites me to sit in. I excitedly agree and
thank him profusely.

That’s how things go for the next
couple of months. I come to his office right after school and sit
with him
while
the
artists record. When that’s not happening, we hang out in his
office and order takeout while talking about every aspect of our
lives. Charlie has really become a friend over the last months
rather than just my best friend’s father. I don’t even think of him
that way anymore.

Now he’s just Charlie, the
thirty-nine-year-old record producer who loves The Beatles and
loathes The Monkees. This is Charlie, the man who has a deep
rumbling laugh accompanied by a full-face white teeth grin, who
absolutely knocks the breath out of me.

We can feel the charge in the air around us,
but it’s obvious that we’re both fighting tooth and nail to forget
it.

There are moments when our eyes
meet
and my body hums in
anticipation
of
what
will happen next. But all too soon, one of us breaks the stare and
we’re left scraping our consciences off the floor.

One evening as I’m getting ready to
leave, Charlie helps me slip on my jacket.
Usually,
L.A. is sunny as can be, but the
last two days have been nonstop rain. As I turn to say goodbye,
Charlie’s close proximity surprises me. Our bodies are only inches
from each other.

A soft gasp escapes me. As I look up into his
eyes, I notice that they are trained on my lips. This time, his
mouth crashes onto mine. I don’t stop him. At first, his kiss is
cautious, but once he notices the passion behind mine, he drops all
barriers.

Mel’s
18
^th
Birthday

I
t has been a
rough few months for everyone, it seems. My mom and dad won’t stop
fighting, and Emma is still not acting right. It’s as though she’s
pained to be my friend, which sounds like
I'm
paranoid. Hey, maybe I am. I hope I
am, but her eyes tell a different story.

She’s always avoiding eye contact with me,
and when she does look at me, her eyes look sad and ashamed. I’ve
asked her about it more than once, but she’s quick to wave off my
worries.

Sara and I have been impatiently
awaiting our acceptance letters into UC Davis. We’ve gotten a few
from other colleges, but Davis is our number one selection. The
three of us—Sara, Emma, and I—all got
into
UCLA. Emma was thrilled, but Sara and
I weren’t so much. It’s a great school, but we have our sights set
on Davis. We haven’t discussed it much, but I know once those
letters come, there will be a lot of things to talk about.
Assuming
that
we get
in, of course.

Scott and I have been going through the
motions of being a couple lately. He’s planning on going to
college
in
Boston.
I’m not delusional enough to think that we will stay together.
Honestly, he’s not even that great of a boyfriend. He only wants to
hang out with me if it’s just going to be the two of us. He doesn’t
get along with Sara at all, so he avoids me if I’m with her. My
feelings don’t get hurt; I don’t have any hopes past prom. After
that, I think we will go our separate ways. I guess, in a sense, we
are both using each other.

Sometimes I feel incomplete. It’s as though
there’s a part of me floating around and I won’t be complete until
it finds me. Scott isn’t that piece; he’s just there to help fill
the void. I’m not saying I need a guy to be complete, even though I
know it comes across that way. A woman doesn’t need a man to be
complete; she just needs the fitting piece to complete her soul.
That piece can come in different forms—a friend, a significant
other, their child or children. Hell, I’m sure some people would
say their animal is their other half. It’s just a piece that makes
you feel complete. No one can figure out the missing piece except
for you.

Maybe my missing piece will come in the form
of a ton of cats. I’ve always been quite fond of cats.

Or, maybe I’ll find my other half in
college.

It’s the week before my birthday, and the UC
Davis acceptance letters should be arriving any day now. My nerves
are shot, and I’ve been driving just about everyone crazy. Luckily,
Sara is feeling the same as me, maybe even more so. Her parents
have been wearing her thin. We’re about two months out from
graduation. My mom has already agreed that she can stay with us
until we move closer to whichever college we will be attending.

Sara basically just goes home to sleep now.
She shows up at school early then hangs out with Emma or me until
it’s time to go home for the night. That still doesn’t stop her
parents from wreaking havoc on her life. After the Winter Formal,
her mother took everything out of her room except the bare
minimum—a dresser, mattress, and whatever was in her closet. She
even went as far as taking Sara’s door off the hinges. I think she
thought that would push Sara into choosing to go to one of their
preselected schools, but if anything, it had the total opposite
effect. Sara was determined as ever to get the hell out of
there.

It’s the morning of my birthday, which just
so happens to be a Saturday. My dad’s birthday is tomorrow, and we
usually celebrate together but lately things have been worse than
ever at home. My mom said she’s going to make dinner and cake
tonight, but I thought it would be nice to meet my dad at his
office for lunch.

I get ready and make my way to the
studio. It’s about a
thirty-minute
drive from our residential
neighborhood to downtown L.A.

I try calling my dad, but he never answered
so I settle on surprising him. I stop down the street at our
favorite bakery and grab coffee and sandwiches. I even throw in a
couple of my favorite M&M cookies.

As I walk into the building, Miles looks
surprised to see me. “Melody, what are you doing here?” His eyes
nervously look back to the studio then back to me.

“
Hey, Miles. I thought it’d be a nice
surprise to bring lunch for my dad. Is he here?” I
smile.

“
Let me see if he’s done with… his
client.” I raise my brow to his pause, but I chalk it up to nothing
more than Miles possibly having too much coffee today. When he
drinks too much coffee, he starts acting like a nervous little
Chihuahua.

I nod my head and sit down in the
waiting room. Miles picks up his phone to call my dad’s office
phone.
Usually,
he
lets me go straight back there, even if a client is here, so it’s
out of the ordinary that he’s taking so many
precautions.

Miles hangs up. “He’ll be right out,
Melody.”

“
Thank you, Miles.”

Yeah, something is definitely up. My dad
never comes to the front to get me; they always send me straight
back to his office. Something isn’t right.

As my dad walks out, I’m struck by how
scrambled his appearance is. His shirt is rumpled, his hair is a
mess, and his mouth looks raw. Not hurt raw, more like a making out
for too long raw.

What in the hell?

I don’t want to assume the worst of my dad,
but it looks like he was just sucking face with someone. For a
moment, I think he’s cheating on my mom but then it clicks. My mom
is totally in my dad’s office sucking face with him. I thought she
was at work, but apparently, she snuck over on her lunch break.

“
What a nice surprise. What are you
doing here, Melody?” He comes in to hug me, and I give him a light
hug in return. He smells of a familiar flowery perfume, but I can’t
place it.

“
I just thought I’d surprise you with
some early birthday grub.” I hand over his bag of goodies. “I see
you’re busy so I’ll just go.” I smile.

I know he’s with my mom, so I don’t want to
hint at anything else. It’s gross enough that I just practically
walked in on them. I did that once when I was Luke’s age; it’s not
something I’d like to relive.

“
Are you sure? We can go to the park
down the street and have a little picnic.”

I pick up my purse and bag from the
chair. “No, no, you go back to doing… Whatever it is you
were
doing.
I’m going
to call Sara and Emma and see what they’re doing.”

My
dad
clears his throat. “Oh, okay, I’ll see you
tonight at birthday dinner?”

“
Sounds good, love
ya
,” I say as I make my way to the front
door.

“
Love you, too, Melody
Grace.”

***

“Check the mail!” Sara’s voice yells
through my phone. I pull the speaker away from my ear because I’m
pretty sure she just damaged my
eardrum
. “Melody, it came! My letter just came, but
I refuse to open it until you open yours. I want to do this
together. So, for the love of all that is holy, GO CHECK YOUR
MAIL!”

I laugh as I run out of my room and to the
front door. Our house is in a newer development so the mailbox is
across the street and three houses down. I run as fast as my bare
feet will allow with my phone pressed firmly to my ear. I halt in
front of the boxes and insert my key into our designated slot.

As I cradle the phone between my ear and my
shoulder, I shuffle through the mail and…

“
It’s here! Oh, my God!” We’re both
squealing, but then reality sets in. “Sar, what if we didn’t get
in? Or worse, what if one of us gets in, and the other
doesn’t?”

The sound of a farting noise comes from the
other end. It’s obviously Sara making the noise with her mouth. Or
maybe she ate a lot of spicy food, it wouldn’t be her first time.
“Yeah right, Melody, we totally got in. Let’s open them and you’ll
see.”

I inhale deeply and then exhale the
gush of
air
. “Okay,
let’s do this.”

I set the other mail on top of the box and
then put my finger under the lip of the envelope. “Ready?” I
ask.

“
Are you kidding? I was born ready,”
Sara replies. I roll my eyes, happy that she can’t see me doing
so.

“One… two… three…”

I start tearing into mine, and I hear Sara on
the other end doing the same. The line goes completely silent then
in unison we both yell, “I got in!”