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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 13 2008, 09:37 PM (202 Views) | |
| Riss | Jan 13 2008, 09:37 PM Post #1 |
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Where we gonna go from here?
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Please excuse how personal this story is. ![]() It's just easier to write this way. Part One ]For my brothers’ Alex and Loclyn. I love you. And for Andrew. And my Dearest William. "Love is like a piece of art work, even the smallest bit can be so beautiful." - Stacie Cunningham Prologue “I’m trying not to kiss you,” he smiled at me. The tears were pouring down my face. He was leaving me again. But this time was the last, for sure this time. Things were never perfect for us, but I loved him. He was my first love. And I’d never forget him, ever. “I love you Andrew,” I squeaked. I meant it, too. I’d told him that I loved him so many times before, but this time my heart sank. “I don’t think I should tell you what I feel,” he pushed his bags into the backseat of the shiny silver car. “I wish I could, but I shouldn’t… It’s not going to make things easier,” he shut the door, immediately opening the front door. He sat in the car, waving to me. “Goodbye Melody,” he started the car. “What if I come with you?” I blurted. I knew he’d say no, but of course… It was worth a shot. He just stared at me, with a little hostility, and shook his head at me. An obvious no. He shut the door… shutting himself out of my life. Chapter One: Surprise. It was the last day of school. I rolled out of bed, hurrying my daily procedures, as I normally had. Nearing the end of the first semester I started getting sick of school. I was getting up around seven and I was almost always getting to school after the bell to be heading to class, or the tardy bell, sometimes even. Of course, I never felt beautiful, but it was hard to get out of bed. I’d sometimes feel really sick if I didn’t get enough sleep, and I didn’t go to school those days. Of course, I got a load of crap from my brothers about it, they didn’t think I was actually sick, but I didn’t really care. I’d quit my job only on Saturday… I knew I didn’t want to spend my summer working, even if that was the cliché thing to do. I’d worked since shortly before Halloween, and I was sick of it. I had really bad working habits. I did have the easiest job in the world, though. I simply called people… I didn’t telemarket, no; I performed a service, but anyways… Even if I didn’t really do anything in the summer, work interfered a lot with my family and friends. And I’d barely passed my classes this year… Not a good thing. It was my first year of high school… Although I was in the school system where ninth grade is still in the middle school… It counted, and I panicked nearly all year. But work was supposed to help me to get homework done; it was the only time that I ever got bored enough to do it. Not like at home… I just never felt motivated. Whatever, excuses… I was just lazy. “Are you going to school today?” My mom knocked on the door. I was putting on my face. I quickly brushed the powder over my face, and drew the eyeliner on, rushing to the door, throwing it open and smiling, trying to be cute. “Wanna take me?” She groaned. She had to have known it was coming. She was hurrying me up the stairs, and so I didn’t have time to eat breakfast; but that wasn’t such an unusual thing. “What are you thinking about?” Mommy asked me as we approached the school; it was a strangely quiet ride to school. “School, pretty much. It’s over,” I grinned at her, using my cleverly disguised voice. I was really thinking about Andrew. I’d known him since I was in seventh grade. He and I were very close. I loved him very much. He was always the person that I could tell anything to. He didn’t judge, really, and I did fall head over heels for him, like most boy-girl friendships do. Too bad he lived in England and I lived in the Western United Stated, huh? The point, actually, was that I hadn’t spoken to him in days. He’d gotten into the habit of not speaking to me for days at a time in the winter, for no reason (yeah, he actually told me that there was no reason), but this time, he hadn’t been online for almost a week. I knew that of course, it was Andrew, my Andrew, and he was fine, but I was still worried. I was still thinking about it when I got inside the school, but stopped when I glanced into a classroom with bare walls and stacked desks. My best friend, Chloe, was staring at me. I smiled at her. “Hullo,” I said in the ‘Melody’ voice. I examined her long, dark, blonde hair and remembered that when I’d first met her she was the girl with the hair. Her hair used to go all the way down her back, to the very bottom, but then right before ninth grade, two years after I met her, and about a year that she’d been my ‘best’ friend she cut it to about halfway down her back, and cut bangs into it as well. The day after the break for summer, I cut my beautifully long hair to my shoulders, and cut bangs as well, but of course, I cut it uneven, and I didn’t fix it right. It was too short after I’d finished with it… I hated it, but it just got a couple of inches shorter after I cut horribly ugly and uneven layers into my hair, and decided eventually to cut them out. It wasn’t until January (seven months later!) that it had even grown back to the length I wanted it at in the first place. It was quite awhile until it would be back the length that it was before I cut it. I missed that… I also decided to grow out m bangs… I was so sick of them. The bell rang… Of course. I gathered my things for my first period geometry class. Chloe walked off, to her locker without another word. I laughed, thinking of how in my group of friends, rather than waving or smiling, we’d make faces whenever we saw each other in the hallway, out in public at random moments, or when a camera got pointed in our direction; something I sort of regretted after seeing the picture my art teacher took of me, Chloe, and another friend of ours at the science fair. Awful! First period was normal… Nobody would shut up, and I just listened to some guy friends’ talk about the most random things, laughing at them occasionally, and sometimes throwing a comment in. Gym was just fun and games; nearly every single one of my friends was in my gym class. It was great, even some of my guy friends had second period with me in the other side of the gym. Third period was noisy as well and fourth period too. Fifth was good enough, nothing exciting though, plain. Lunch was normal too, and then in sixth period, as planned, I just left. It wasn’t raining today though, darn. On the last day of school last year, me, Chloe, and another friend of ours, Sarah, left school early, running to avoid one of the teachers watching for us out side, and we walked a little more than a mile to Chloe’s house. Sarah and I stole a bag of chips, and umbrella, and I gave my ugly pink jacket to Sarah, and took Chloe’s black one. Chloe stayed at home after that, but as we’d planned, Sarah and I took the forty minute walk in the cold rain to the plaza. We bought tickets to see a movie (that I went to see only a couple of days before with Chloe, but Sarah was obsessed with the movie series, so I told her I’d buy her a ticket). In the theatre we put out jackets on our soaking wet feet, and watched intently, as if I hadn’t seen the movie before. Different for me; normally I couldn’t stop talking at movies. Chloe and I joked about the first movie we went to together, our ‘first date’ in the late fall of eighth grade. That day was also fun. That was before Chloe became obsessed with her weight. We went a book store early that morning, and had to stand outside for about twenty minutes, and then I got pretty annoyed inside, because she couldn’t pull herself from her anime books. After I finally got her away, we went to see movie times, decided to get some lunch, and come back to the movie. We walked to restaurant down the street, about five or ten minutes walk, and we got some mini stuffed dogs there, and had them attached to our purses, until I lost mine. And then… In the movie there were only old ladies and gay men in there, which we didn’t mind, but you could tell what kind of movie we went to, at least. But anyways… We decided to make a tradition out of leaving school early on the last day and walking to the movies. It was just me a Chloe today; Sarah and I weren’t as close as we were in seventh grade. We’d fallen out that summer… I started to get annoyed with her in the spring, she would copy everything I did, and it bothered me more than anything else. But she and I were planning on going to a Mormon summer camp that summer, so I had to try to stand her until then. We didn’t get along at all at camp. We fought all the time, and were really only nice to each other when we needed something; and because we didn’t know anybody else there. We have an inside joke, though about that. We were sitting in front of the mess hall eating ice-cream in paper cups, and I said something that upset her, and she threw the paper cup at me, and stormed off. The girl next to me asked what happened, and I couldn’t help but laugh... We hated each other after that. We didn’t really talk the rest of the summer. I called her to ask about her classes right before school started up again, but I could tell we weren’t really on ‘good’ terms still, by the way she talked to me. I’m emotionally weak, though. Even though we weren’t friends, not even acquaintances, we weren’t rude to each other at school. We didn’t acknowledge each other, actually. But I had two classes with her. My gym and dance classes were with her; we actually signed up for dance together, before the war began (so to speak)… Boy oh boy… The stories I could tell about those classes… But that’s not the story I want to tell…. I wrote her a note once day, saying that I was sorry, and that I wanted to be friends with her again, and of course, we were friends again after that. We just weren’t close anymore. That was fine, though. I thought about all of this and more and Chloe and I left the school, multi-tasking by talking to Chloe about stupid, random things at the same time. “I haven’t talked to Andrew in awhile,” I said blandly after a moment of rare silence. “Yeah… I don’t talk to him anymore,” she said, for a millionth time. She said it every time I brought him up. “I mean like, a long time…” I emphasized the word ‘long’. Chloe knew how infatuated I was with him, and she didn’t really have a standing opinion on him. She just thought he was kind of weird. I thought he was adorable though; looks and personality. I also loved that he was mature, something I couldn’t always achieve… Being four years older than me would of course benefit him in that area though. I sighed. “He’s getting old…” He had just turned nineteen, and I had turned fifteen only ten days after. She nodded. “So is Len,” she brought up her ex-boyfriend, who was about eight months older than Andrew; and pretty much his complete opposite. “I don’t really feel like going to a movie…” she said after that. “Me neither,” I said. “I think I just wanna go home and relax today,” I shrugged; so much for tradition. Oh well. Chloe looked like she was trying to hide a smile. “What?” I asked he; prodding her for about five more minutes until I just gave up. I was still trying to change that. I was far too annoying and persistent, and I hated that about myself. There were only a few people around. The seventh graders were let out the day before, and only the people that were really itching to get out of school were walking already. About ten other people in sight, none were really close. “I’m gonna come over for a little bit, okay?” she said as we were crossing the big intersection, about halfway to my house. “It’s hot out here…” I said okay and we talked more about summer plans and trips. We were talking about her older brother when we walked up my drive-way, and I opened the garage door. Nobody else was home. I walked immediately down to my room, brushing my hair and teeth, one of my many habits from my obsessive compulsive disorder. “I’m gonna go get something to eat,” I pointed out the door of my room as she plopped onto my bed. “Want something?” she said no, so I walked out of the cool basement and upstairs to the kitchen. I found a granola bar, stared at it, and decided that I wanted it. When I got back downstairs, Chloe was still lying on my bed. I lied down next to her and we talked some more. “Wanna let me do a photo shoot for you sometime soon?” I asked her. “Iuno, maybe,” We discussed it for a little bit, but soon enough she decided to get up and go home. I walked with her to the corner of my block, and then left the other ten minutes to her house to her alone. I walked back to the house, and played video games for the rest of the day. “Are you hungry?” my little brother sounded put out, when he walked into the front room, where I was playing solitaire on the computer at about seven thirty. I shook my head no and focused on the game. It was my unhealthy addiction. I played it whenever I got sick of racing and shoot ‘em up games with the t.v. I was getting good at eating less, but I was still fat. I wasn’t as active as I should be, but facing the facts, I was lazy. I had no one to impress besides. I should probably be self conscious about that around the guys at school, but they almost always saw me as just a friend, and that got me discouraged enough to the point where I stopped caring. Besides… I loved Andrew, and no one else. It was hard for me to care, now. It was also heartbreaking that I was probably actually ‘in’ love with somebody that I could never have. I’d planned to move to England so many times before, but I suck at saving money. I’d never be able to. Where would I go? How would I start? It was an endless frustration. At about nine or ten, I decided that I’d just go to bed. There was nothing much to do and I felt a little tired. I walked downstairs, washing my face, and brushing my teeth again, going to the bathroom, and them stumbling around in my room. It was a mess. I didn’t like to turn on the light when I went to bed… It was on the opposite side of the room from my bed. Instead I liked to turn on the lamp over the mirror at the foot of my bed that I’d get ready for school in. I flipped it on and took out my contacts. I noticed my favorite book ever sitting on my dresser, and decided to read it. I picked up my glasses from the bedside table next to the body mirror, put them on, turned off the light, turned to my bed, and had a heart attack. I didn’t know if I should scream or not. There was a dim outline of a person… lying on my bed. In place of the body length pillow that I usually slept with, I called him Cuddle Buddy. “How about a real cuddle buddy?” The voice was beautiful, and almost put me in a trance. “Andrew?” I asked suspiciously, hopefully, and afraid. I saw a faint white line on his face. He was smiling at me! I walked around my bed, to the side. I stared in disbelief. I turned on the lamp on my headboard, and suddenly felt self-conscious. He could see me… It was fat, and I was ugly, let’s just face the facts. He reached out his arms to me, boldly. It was definitely him. I got on my bed, on my knees, embracing him warmly, still confused. “You’re really here?” I asked. And then suddenly, I was worried. “Do my parents know you’re here? How did you get in here?” I was home all day and he never showed up in my room. “Chloe let me in a few hours ago…” He pointed at the window. I lifted the curtain to make sure that the window was closed. I found black widows in it in the winter and it scared the life out of me. “I was here when she left though,” I squinted at him. “Yeah, she just opened the window enough that I could open it myself and get in when you left. It’s too bad that you didn’t come down a long time ago.” He pouted. “I had to sit in here all by my lonesome.” He lied down again… I never noticed that he got up. “You’re pretty bold…” I pointed out. “What makes you think that I’m not going to go tell my family that you’re here? Have you arrested for trespassing?” I raised an eyebrow at him, but he just smiled. “You wouldn’t,” I just questioned him with my face. “You love me too much,” and his smug grim grew even more. I groaned, and jumped at him. He held me. It was a comforting feeling. He had me spot on too, I loved him more than anything, and even if I didn’t understand what he was doing here, I still wanted to spend my time with him wisely. “Oh,” I gasped after nearly falling asleep several times. I strode across my bedroom floor, which seemed like an eternity with him watching me from behind. I locked the door, and walked back to him quickly; nervous, self-conscious, and still afraid. I was probably dreaming. I’d cry when I woke up to the same old life I’ve always had. I crawled back into his arms unconsciously, lying on top of him until I finally got the nerve to ask. “How long are you going to stay?” I was terrified of the answer. “Until August,” he answered, ready, knowing that I’d ask. “It’s the best I could do…” he kissed the top of my head. I rolled off of him, miraculously fitting beside him in my small bed. “I need to sleep,” I informed him a moment later. I didn’t want to, but I was falling asleep already. He nodded, and pulled me in as close as he could. I put my left arm over his waist, afraid to look at him, holding my right hand close to my chest, and eventually, I fell asleep in the arms of the man I’d always longed for. Edit: This isn't a finished Chapter, btw. Comment Thread: http://s15.zetaboards.com/xwritersdreamx/topic/6503098/ |
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| Riss | Jan 24 2008, 10:30 PM Post #2 |
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Where we gonna go from here?
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Damn Brandon. You got me all excited that you commented on *my* story.
:P Anyways... I don't have time to read your atm, go to go to work. I'll read it tomorrow. ^-^ (Exactly four months until our birthday! )
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| CalmB4TheStorm | Jan 24 2008, 11:57 PM Post #3 |
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OMG AMAZING did u send it to brooke? |
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| The Phantom | Jan 25 2008, 03:53 AM Post #4 |
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Updated prologue. The prologue is finished. Chapter 1 will start forming here ASAP. Remember, when I hit the limit of 10,000 characters here though, it will be moved to my vault when I get it. |
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| Samanthasammy224 | Jan 25 2008, 04:55 AM Post #5 |
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Sammie
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Brandon very good. I can't wait to read some more.-Donnelly- |
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| Ben Zwycky | Jan 25 2008, 04:13 PM Post #6 |
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Fearsome Fleet Leader :D
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Good stuff, Brandon Just a reminder that you have to leave the 'at least 10,000 character extract or teaser' up for public viewing even after you move the story to your strongbox.
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| CalmB4TheStorm | Jan 25 2008, 08:52 PM Post #7 |
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Fabulous. I love that helios has red hair and eyes, it's very fitting This is a great story so far, i LOVE how you have managed to put in so much character development into the first chapter, AND i hardly even noticed all that i was learning about your characters great job! |
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| dreamcatcher | Jan 25 2008, 09:25 PM Post #8 |
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OMG! It is amazing and i want to read more. I'v been through who knows how many books this year and none of them have interested me. But this is a great first chapter update soon.
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| Riss | Jan 29 2008, 11:22 PM Post #9 |
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Where we gonna go from here?
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“Good morning…” His face was smiling hugely at me. I was still dreaming. I had to be. There was no way that I could be this happy, that I could have him…. His face was just about an inch away from mine. I was afraid to speak. I could taste my morning breath. I sat up, shifting to the edge of my bed… Which wasn’t all that much of a move… I stood on the cold floor, staring still. I felt his gaze cutting through me. “I’ll be right back…” I walked out of my room, self conscious of his gaze. I didn’t close the door behind me, but I closed the bathroom door, standing against it. The lock didn’t work. I found out that when I was crying in the bathroom on New Year’s Eve and a friend walked in; when I thought the door was locked. I really couldn’t stand it. But I lived alone downstairs, so there was hardly a chance of anybody walking in on me. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was glad that I hadn’t washed my face before I went to bed; there was still a little bit of eye-make-up on, at least I didn’t look at my worst. I brushed my teeth until I felt like my gums were going to bleed, and then walked back into my room. “I need to take a shower…” He informed me once I got back to my bed, staring down at him. Which also made me feel self conscious; I knew how I looked from that angle, and it wasn’t pretty. I nodded. “Now?” I asked after it was quiet for a minute. I glanced at the clock. It was six thirty. I had to get ready for school… No I didn’t. “I don’t have school anymore!!” I grinned at him. “Do you believe it?” He smiled at me “Yes, now,” he sat up. “You’re a tard, you know that?” I smiled at him. “Okay… One sec,” I walked out of my room again. Nobody was up. I walked to the second floor, grabbing a couple of clean towels from the laundry room, taking my time. “Melody…” I heard my Mom’s voice. “What are you… uh…?” She sounded tired. “I’m getting ready for school,” I knew that that made me sound stupid, but at least she wouldn’t suspect anything. “I thought you were done with school….” My dad’s voice was strong and threatening. “Oh yeah! Thanks,” I hated acting stupid…. “I’m up though, I’m gonna go shower.” They didn’t say anything, just a few grunts. I walked slowly downstairs again; holding my breath when I walked back into my room. He was still there. I half smiled at him, walking to sit down next to him on my bed. I handed him a towel. “Here, go shower,” I pointed to the door. I remembered the mess in the bathroom. “Wait…” hurried to the bathroom, putting things away, and trying to grab the mass amount of dirty laundry on the floor all at once. I dropped it all on the floor by my laundry bins. “It’s all yours,” he smiled at me. Getting up and pulling me into a warm hug. I held him there, accepting the fact that I probably wasn’t dreaming. I had him, when he was all I’d wanted for more than two years now. After a minute or two he pulled away and simply stared at me. I didn’t have my contacts in, but I could see him… I stared at him back, into his beautiful green eyes. I’d always thought he had lovely eyes. I glanced at his lips. I had a thing for lips- lips, eyes, and curly hair. I bit my bottom lip. He was adorable. He was skinny, though… I knew that before, though…. I felt so self conscious. “Hurry,” I smiled at him, pointing to the door again. He stuck his tongue out at me and hurried into the bathroom. I waited until I heard the shower start to collapse. I fell onto my bed, and began laughing hysterically. I couldn’t believe it. I started crying soon after, happy tears though. After about five minutes I decided to clean my room a bit. Without making it look like I was trying too hard. I cleared off my dressed and sorted most of my laundry in less than three minutes, just as I heard the shower shutting off. As soon as I heard it, my brain put some puzzle pieces together. I quickly gathered some underwear, jeans, and a t shirt, putting them on my bed, and picking up the rest of my laundry. Sorting it slowly… He came in nothing but the towel I had handed him earlier; just as I thought he would. I tried not to blush, dropping the rest of my clothes into whichever basket was closest, grabbing my clothes and the towel I had brought for myself. “I’m going to go shower now…” I said quietly, brushing by him in the doorway without another word. I tried to be fast, yet efficient today. I washed my hair only once, instead of twice, and I combed my hair while I was rinsing the conditioner out to avoid the long brushing process afterward. While I was getting dressed I thought about it. Was I really going to be able to keep him hidden in my room for two months? I didn’t think I could. I had to be more careful than I ever had been or ever would be… I combed through my hair one last time before I went back into my room. It felt self conscious once again when he looked up at me from where he was sitting on my bed. I felt bare. I didn’t have any make-up on… And he’d seen pictures of me without any make-up on, but he could also see how fat I was. Ewe. I immediately went to the dresser, and put in my contacts. I did my make-up after that- first applying my creamy skin cover up, followed by the powder and dark brown eye-liner. Then I went to sit with him. He only watched me the while and did the same when I sat with him. I smiled at him, self conscious again, of my awkward, crooked smile on my round, fat, face. Suddenly I thought of my older brother and his girlfriend. She was bigger than me, and still, he loved her. But Andrew was a little skinnier than Richard… And Richard was already abnormally skinny. I turned away and pondered things. Why was he here? He’d never told me about it. He’d never told me that he loved me enough to come… I’d told him a million times that I loved him, but he never believed me. I did love him though; with all my heart. I thought about kissing him. I thought about telling him that I loved him. I thought about speaking, but I didn’t know what to say. I thought about his motivation for coming, and then it hit me. I licked my lips. I turned to him; he was just staring off into space. I took a breath, and even if I didn’t feel bold enough to say it, I had to. “We’re not going to have sex,” I said quietly. He just looked back at me and smiled. “That’s not why you came…?” I said, trying not to sound rude. “That’s fine, Mel,” He said my name… Well, my nick-name. He rarely called me Melody, but even though he probably didn’t give it a second though, it meant a lot to me that he spoke it. “That’s not why I came at all. I just wanted to see you,” “A lot?” I asked sarcastically. Not only was it expensive, but it was nerve wrecking to fly over-seas… Or at least that’s how I saw it. “I have to go do my chores,” I stood up. He raised an eyebrow at me. “Now?” I nodded. I wanted to do them before anybody woke up so that I could leave… I didn’t really feel safe with him at home. What was I going to do when I was supposed to be watching my little brother? I could feel the anxiety building up. “If I hurry and do them we can leave,” I offered. He smiled at me. He was so adorable. It was no wonder I loved him. “Okay, hurry,” I took in his accent for the first time. I was smitten… I was in a daze all the up the stairs and into the kitchen. “You’re still up?” My mom came slowly trudging down the stairs in pink slippers, a white tank-top, and black Capri bottoms. “Yeah, I couldn’t fall back asleep,” I was almost done cleaning at this point. The dishwasher was running and I was wiping off the counters. “You’re doing your chores?” she asked me. “I just want to get out of the house. I was gonna go see a movie with Jamie, Chloe, and Lilah,” I tried to sound convincing. I was generally pretty good with coming up with good excuses, but that one was sort of a downer… What if she asked questions?” “What movie?” I knew it… “We don’t know yet, a chick-flick, probably; Jamie’s boyfriend broke up with her a couple of days ago.” “I didn’t know she had a boyfriend,” my mom didn’t sound too interested, but she always asked about my friends. She tried to be the cool mom, and only a couple of my friends had seen her truly abusive side. At the thought my heart started beating faster… What would my parents do if they found Andrew in my bedroom? I groaned, but Mommy didn’t say anything. She sat on the couch, got comfortable and turned on the t.v. How was I supposed to get out of the house with Andrew now? I stood in thought for a minute. “I’m gonna go see if anymore roses have budded yet,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. I slipped out the back door, and waited for my mom to come to the door asking what I was doing… She wasn’t a very good listener. She didn’t come. I quickly ran over to my window, trying not to make any noise that she would hear, or that would wake up my brothers or dad. I jumped into the window well, and examined the screen blocking my window. I’d snuck out my window before, and my parents had put the screen back on backwards so that I couldn’t. Once a friend and I were skipping the last class of school, and we were at my house, trying to get into my room, but we couldn’t get the screen off. I took that into account as I tried to open it… I suddenly became very squeamish. I realized that I was in only my socks and I noticed that bodies of the black widows that my mom killed from me in the early winter. That was quite the terrifying experience… Not the mention the spiders in my hair and on my back. I wasn’t afraid of bugs until after all of those experiences, and a few more. “Dammit!” I was discouraged. I couldn’t get the screen off. At that the curtain on my window swung back and Andrew was grinning at me. I glared at him, playfully. But slid the window open. “What are you doing?” He asked me, poking at the screen. “I’m trying to get the screen off…” I lowered my voice. He leaned his forehead against the screen. “From outside?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, that’s how it’s put on, smart ass,” I gently leaned my forehead against his and smiled at him, self conscious once again, of my smile. I put my hands against the screen and then he did that cutest thing I’d ever seen. He matched his hands with mine and nearly pressed his lips to the screen. “Hot about a kiss?” he questioned me. My heart skipped a beat or two, but I kept my composure. I pressed my lips against the divider and felt his lips press against mine. I swear I died- I suddenly though about it. “Wow,” I pulled back. “My first kiss sure was in an interesting place, wasn’t it?” He made a face at me. He knew that I’d never really had a first kiss yet, but he probably didn’t take that into account when he’d kissed me. I didn’t mind though. There was no way that he was going to be here for two months and not kiss me. I stood and took a step back. I leaned against the wall of the well boarder. I didn’t really want to climb out with him watching me, but it was obvious that he wasn’t going to leave me alone. I laughed out loud and smiled at him, leaving him with a confused look on his face as I almost effortlessly, to my surprise, climbed out of the window well. I ran back up to the house, and glanced at the rose bush; there was one new bud or red. I opened the door, almost too excited and nearly shouted at my mom. “There’s one new bud,” and then rushed back to my room. My door was closed. I opened it quickly, seeing Andrew standing in the middle of my room, still looking confused. I had a strange rush circulating throughout my body. I stared at him, with a sheepish grin. I gave me a quizzical glance and ran to him, jumping into his arms. It surprised me that he held me up. I was a bit bigger than him, and he just didn’t look strong enough. I kissed his shoulder and rested my head on his shoulder. He walked over to my bed, slowly, setting me down and sitting beside me again. “So what are we going to do today?” he sounded a little less enthusiastic than I was. “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “What do you want to do?” “I’m not sure,” he pulled me in close to him so that my head was against his chest. “I’m kind of hungry.” I thought about it for a minute then looked up at him. “Would you be okay for about half an hour?” He shrugged. “We could go to the plaza and get something to eat.” “Okay,” he stood up. “I’m guessing that we have to go out the window?” I smirked at him. “No, we don’t have to go out the window.” He stared at me. “You do though,” he groaned. “I’ll go out the front door,” I replied, pushing the screen with only a little force. I pushed the corners in after a moment of unsuccessful effort and it popped out. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Andrew. “I’ll just meet you outside the window, okay?” he nodded at me and I swiftly walked to the door. I closed it behind me, running to the cabinets in the back of the family room, checking for my spare key, then running back to my door and locking it. “I’m going to Chloe’s now,” I said bluntly to Mommy once I got up the stairs. I stood at the door and opened it, waiting for her to yell at me. She just looked up at me, gave me an annoyed stare and waved a hand. “Goodbye,” she nearly shouted. I rapidly bounced out the door and took an immediate left and to the north grate. I pulled it open and saw Andrew standing beside the well. It hit me then that he’d probably get caught… We would get caught. I sighed, not wanting to bring it up now. “We’re going to have to walk,” I informed him once I was beside him. “For thirty minutes?” he raised an eyebrow at me. I decided then and there that that was the ‘Andrew face’ and almost smiled. “About,” I answered. Casually reaching for his hand and pulling him tenderly through to the open gate doorway, opening it with my other hand and letting go as soon as we were both standing on the front lawn outside of it, closing it gently. “So where in the plaza are we going?” He asked. Then I thought about it for a moment… “Oh shit!” I cursed, throwing the gate open and jumping into the well. He followed me and stared down at me, not saying a word, though. I ducked into my room and skidded across the floor and reached into the top drawer of my dresser, gabbing my wallet and cell phone, stuffing them into my pockets and rushing back to the window. He was still standing in the same spot, only giving me a strange glance and I pulled myself up. “I forgot my wallet…” I said as I opened the gate again. He followed this time, instead of being dragged behind. I trudged to the sidewalk before turned to see him about a foot behind me. I intrepidly extended a hand to him. It looked as though he didn’t know what to do with it at first, but then he finally took my hand and after we both walked for a moment, we were side by side. I looked at my left hand, his fingers were interlocked with mine and my heart stopped. I didn’t know what to say to him. We had a long time to go, and I really didn’t want to pass it in silence. “So where are we going, exactly?” he asked me again. “First I need to talk to Chloe,” I replied. We walked another minute and I softly tugged him across the street and we walked in silence for about another five minutes. “Did you want her to come with?” he asked when were about halfway to Chloe’s house. “Not unless you wanted her to,” I replied, wanting to be alone with him despite the awkward silences. “I don’t care,” he shrugged. I thought for a few minutes more, as we approached the freeway, of with Chloe lived across the street. I pointed to a house a block down the on the other side of the street. “That’s her house,” and he looked at it and stepped off the gutter. I looked up and down the streets. They were abnormally empty for this time of the morning. Everybody should be going to work… But nobody was really going to school, so it was a little bit expected. We swiftly made our way across the street. And took the two minute walk to the corner Chloe lived on in silence. Once we were staring at the front of her house I pulled my cell phone out of my right pocket and checked at time. It was too early. “So…” he gave me a funny look and I smiled. We walked to the side of her house and through the weeds to the back. I studied the windows in the back of the house, and then let go of Andrew’s hand. I kneeled on the dirt outside one of the basement windows and tapped on the window. Nothing. I groaned and thought for a moment, standing and putting my hands on my hips. “Elyzabeth is bound to still be in her room, sleeping, most likely,” I referred to Chloe’s older sister, and Andrew just followed as I walked to the opposite side of the house that we had come from and I looked up at the only window on that north wall, selecting a rock from the ground and throwing it up to the window. I just stood. It was more than likely that she’d come. Her boyfriend, would do the same thing on occasion and she probably thought I was him. But no doubt, she came to the window. “Mel?” she looked disorientated, and I knew that she’d just rolled out of bed. I smiled. “Is anybody else up?” “Ohm… Chloe is in the shower and everybody else is gone,” “Let me in?” I asked, and she was gone. I walked around to the front door and Andrew followed. “Hi…” Elyzabeth said to us once we were inside the house. I knew what she was thinking. “This is Andrew,” I shifted towards him. “Oh!” she looked more awake. Either I talked about him too much or Chloe had said something. I thought for a minute and grinned. “Where are Mother and Jenn?” I inquired. “Work,” she said blandly. “This early?” she shrugged. “Breakfast?” I watched the redheaded beauty float into the kitchen and followed her. “She’s so pretty…” I glared at her. Andrew almost laughed. “You are too,” he smiled. I stared at him for a moment and suddenly thought of Elyzabeth and how after her and Charlie started dating, he was all she ever had time for. I also remembered how a few months ago Chloe and I promised each other not to end up like that. So I put a hand on Andrew’s chest as if to tell him to stay put and went to Elyzabeth where she was pouring herself cereal and milk and poured some for myself and Andrew, taking them to the table and sitting down. Elyzabeth sat at the counter and ate. I stared at her. This was a habit of mine. Whenever I saw someone beautiful I had to try to find something wrong with their appearance. I watched Andrew eat too, but decided not to after a moment. I wondered if that made him uncomfortable. I wondered even if it made him uncomfortable to eat here. “Was it supposed to take us half an hour to get here?” he asked when we were through eating and Elyzabeth had went back to her room. “I was planning on walking to the plaza,” I replied, pausing to drink the last of the milk from my bowl. “But I guess you didn’t have to wait as long.” And I smiled, hoping that he wasn’t upset. “Ah,” “Do you want to just stay here for awhile?” I asked, racking my brain for things to do. “We could go to the park, if you want.” “That sounds good,” but as soon as he said that I started laughing, for I heard Chloe yelling. “No! God!!!” Andrew raised an eyebrow at me and I stood. “She’s playing Kingdom of Hearts,” I explained, taking his hand and walking down to the room that she was in. I was wrong though. She wasn’t playing her game. I let go of Andrew’s hand, leaving him on the stairs as I ran to her on the computer chair. She had just enough time to look up before I rolled her away from the computer screen and took over the computer. “What are you doing!!?!” she yelled at me. “My computer broke…” I lied, simply trying to annoy her for what she’d done last night. “I’m gonna check some stuff…. What did you do?” she rolled her eyes. “I accidentally deleted something and the undo button isn’t working. I looked at her Sims game and pushed Control and Z on the keyboard, to which a strange looking animal popped up. I grinned at her smugly and she stuck her tongue out at me. I laughed at her and saved her game. “…Have you talked to Andrew lately?” she asked not casual enough. I tried to hide a smile. “No, he’s still not answering my emails or anything,” I stared at the pixels and logged onto my email account, to which I had two new messages… Junk though. “Really?” she sounded genuinely puzzled. I closed the internet tab and smiled at her, skipping to the step that Andrew was on. “No,” I said as he nearly jumped on me. I giggled quietly and Chloe laughed. “Hi Chloe,” he waved to her and she waved back. I retained by balance and my mind went blank… Once I was knocked back into reality I realized that they were both staring me. “Oh!” I was a slightly embarrassed. “We were going to go to the park?” I asked him. Careful not invite Chloe, in fear that he didn’t want her there. “Okay,” he answered me and I thought about it, pondering some of the things he’d said to me earlier. I decided to take a longer walk, about half an hour, actually. We said our goodbyes and after I ran upstairs to say goodbye to a sleeping Elyzabeth we were out again, and we had to take the long walk on the freeway, which frightened me. “If my parents or anybody happened me see us…” I started, looking up at his blank face, wondering if everything was okay. “It’s alright that we tell them that I ran into you at Chloe’s house or something?” He nodded. “Is everything alright?” I asked, hesitant. “Of course,” he replied, taking me hand again, as the remainder of the walk in silence. |
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| Riss | Feb 4 2008, 01:45 AM Post #10 |
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Where we gonna go from here?
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Chapter Two. “Anything special you wanna do today?” I asked one extraordinarily hot day almost two weeks after Andrew had come for me. We were laying on Chloe’s bed, with nothing better to do until my parents left for dinner and a show, dropping off my little brother at our grandparents, as I told them that I would not babysit him this summer. Things got way too out of control last year. “I want to play you a song,” he said after a moment, eyeing Chloe’s red and white guitar in the corner. I always wondered about his talent… He’d always told me that he liked playing, but I never heard it. I sat up and plucked the guitar from the stand against the wall, bringing it back to Andrew, where he was still laying. I handed him the guitar and lied down next to him again. I waited for a minute as he played with it, and then he began to play an unfamiliar tune. “What is that?” I asked him after a thirty second tune that I still didn’t recognize. “Nothing,” he said. “Just something that came out. “Don’t break anything!” Chloe squawked from the next room, and I just laughed. She made us leave her door open… She’d had a bad experience with letting her friend and her boyfriend alone in her room. That still made me laugh… I fell silent again and Andrew started playing again. It was strange at first but it quickly became familiar. “Pieces?” I said skeptically, turning to face my English beauty. He just winked at me. He was playing my favourite song. I closed my eyes and almost silently sang the song to myself. “Wanna play?” he asked when he stopped. “What?” I was unsure what it was exactly that he was talking about. He sat up and looked down at me. I took a hint and sat up too. He set the guitar next to him and pulled me into his lap. This was a first. Up until now we’d spent most of our time watching movies at his house or talking while I did my chores at home, we didn’t get close too often, which surprised me because every time we’d talked before I expected to be attached to him. I was also befuddled that my parents hadn’t found out yet, or my brothers. I wondered what they thought… I was rarely in my room as often as I was now. I instantly brought back to being in Andrew’s lap when he took my hand. I didn’t look at him, but out hands instead. He put in over the strings of the guitar and I aligned my fingers with his, stroking the cords where he was, paying more attention to his touch than the sound emanating from the instrument. He stopped moving and gently closed his hand around mine. He heart sped up rapidly. I didn’t look at him; instead I looked at our hands. My eyes moved with the guitar as he removed it from my lap and set it beside us again. We’d only kissed once before… I remembered. And did that really count? I was frustrated, over the smallest thing. He took my other hand, wrapping it the way he had with the other and holding them around my waist and he kissed my neck. I got chills. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but maybe he would think it was a spur the moment thing. I did the first thing that came to mind. I sang. “I’ll love you forever,” I sang quietly, a song from one of my favourite children’s books, telling him that I loved him, and being discrete at the same time. Would that confuse him? “I’ll like you for always…” I continued. “As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be,” I felt his lips curve into a smile against my skin. He opened his mouth, barely, but didn’t say anything. He closed his mouth again, into the same fixture as always, no longer smiling. He hummed an unfamiliar tune to me. I wondered if he would sing to me. Once he told me that he thought he could sing and that would one day, but it had yet to happen. I slowly started to rock side to side, not thinking at all, for the first time in my life. I didn’t think about love, or life, or Andrew, or anything at all. My mind went completely blank. “Do you guys wanna go to a movie?” Elyzabeth came into the room, Charlie was right behind her. “Who’s going?” I asked, still rocking. “Us,” she said, and her face morphed into a thoughtful expression. “And Tommy and Kaitlyn might go.” “What about Chloe?” “Chloe,” Charlie said in a louder, but not hollering. “Do you want to go to a movie?” “Who’s going?” she replied. I smiled. “I dunno,” he replied. “I guess,” she sounded as if she were closer. She nudged her way past the hip attached couple in the doorway and gave me a twisted look. “Don’t do it,” I remembered why she didn’t want us to close the door and smiled. “I know,” I moved mine and Andrew’s arms away from my body, as he released his hands from mine and Chloe and I trailed into her bathroom. Elyzabeth followed and Charlie simply turned to watch her, not even having to move from his spot. This wasn’t a strange routine. We’d all crowd around a mirror, do our make-up, brush our hair, and steal whoever’s hair pieces were available. I untangled two head bands from a pile or blue and black, with a dash of green or gray in. “Andrew,” I cooed. He plodded into the bathroom, standing behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders and staring at me in the mirror. “What do you think?” I help up both headbands. They looked exactly the same aside from colour, but he chose the black one, pulling it from my hands and awkwardly placing in on my head. I offered a crooked smile and adjusted the head piece. “You’re beautiful,” he smiled. My face lit up and he inclined to kiss my cheek. Our audience awed and I nearly blushed. “What are we going to see?” I asked, turning to face Charlie and Elyzabeth, taking hold of Andrew’s hands furtively. They named a couple of unusual movie titles and I cocked my head. I guess I hadn’t been watching much television lately. “We’ve got to go now though,” Charlie whispered. “Okay, let’s go,” Chloe walked back into her room to grab his purse, and walked straight upstairs once we had it in her hand. “Is it okay with you?” I looked up at Andrew. He nodded. I released one of his hands, holding the other still and we walked out to Charlie’s car. Chloe was standing on one side of it already, so Andrew and I walked around to the other side. Charlie unlocked and opened Elyzabeth’s door. He was so adorable. I beamed. She turned around and unlocked the door for me and Andrew. I pulled it open and slid into the middle seat as Chloe sat down on my left side. Andrew sat on my other side, offering me a hand once I’d buckled. I took his hand with both of mine and leaned on his shoulder. I sighed. This would end. Like everything else… it had to end. I didn’t want to think about it anymore though. I closed my eyes, restless from late nights up with Andrew and early mornings to do my chores. The days I didn’t do my chores before people got up were hell. Every time somebody would walk downstairs while I was still in the kitchen, I’d panic. Of course, we locked the door and had a silly knock for the window and door. I had fallen asleep by the time we got to the theatre. Andrew was nudging me and Chloe was poking me when I opened my eyes. I yawned briefly, causing Chloe to yawn in turn and I followed Andrew out the door. We all approached the ticket booth in silence. “Two for two o’clock,” Charlie said, digging his wallet out of his pocket. Andrew’s hand started to sweat. I didn’t pay any mind to it though. “Yeah I’m going to the same thing,” Chloe mumbled once Charlie and Elyzabeth had stepped away. “Me too,” I voiced, pulling my hand from Andrew’s slippery grip and wiping it on my pants. I picked out a twenty dollar bill, sliding it to the vendor behind the glass. Once she’d handed me my change and tickets I gave Andrew’s ticket to him and pocketed my change. We all walked into the theatre, thankful that it was nearly vacant. Charlie, then Elyzabeth, and then Chloe filed in. I followed after her, and Andrew after me. We watched the screen silently, with the exception or Charlie and Elyzabeth whispering or making a wise-ass remark. When the theatre went dark and the sounds got louder Andrew tugged on my sleeve. I turned to him and motioned for me to come closer. “What?” I said gently and he pouted. “I want to take you out on a date,” he stated. That was a little bit random to me, but I didn’t question him. I nodded and turned back to the screen, just in time to miss something that must have been funny. Chloe was hooting. “I don’t want you to spend your money,” I whispered to Andrew a few minutes later. “I want to take you out on a date Melody,” he sounded firm and decided. I rolled my eyes. “Fine Andrew,” I turned away, annoyed, and watched the remainder of the previews without another word to him. During the movie, I laughed, I smiled, and I would let out my smart-aleck remarks but I didn’t say another word to Andrew. “I hafta pee,” Chloe mumbled when the end credits began. I laughed and stood; Chloe, then Elyzabeth, and then Charlie and Andrew followed suit. We trailed to the bathroom, Andrew followed behind me, but I didn’t speak to him. I wasn’t angry; I just didn’t know what to say. “Are you mad at Andrew for something?” Chloe asked while washing her hands. I had been standing and staring a hole into the wall the entire time. She didn’t say anymore, and walked out of the bathroom. I stared deeper into the hole but after a moment I decided to join her. “Still mad at me?” His angel’s face was staring at me. Hard. “I’m not mad at you,” I tried to push past him, to my friends around the corner. He grabbed my arms, holding me stiff, staring into my eyes. I was about to speak but my brain must have turned to mush. His hands slid down my arms slowly until they were touching my hands, but not holding them. I didn’t give it another though. I turned and nearly ran to Elyzabeth. She was standing in front of Charlie, with her hands wrapped around his waist, and his around hers. I sighed. “Every time I saw you two together I wished that he were with me,” I said to her, resting my forehead on Elyzabeth’s shoulder. I felt tears welling in my eyes, although I knew that they wouldn’t fall. As far as I could tell, I could not cry in front of people. I’d done that once in school, that was during one of the biggest emotional breakdowns I’d ever gone through or ever would. I groaned. “I’m a fool,” Andrew was standing where he was before. I watched as he leaned against the brick and slowly fell to the floor, his tall figured sliding down the wall. I frowned, and dragged my feet over to where he was standing. “I’m sorry,” I admitted, kneeling beside him. He didn’t look at me. “If you want to take me on a date,” I sighed reluctantly, giving in to him. “I’ll let you,” He turned to me, and one corner of his mouth curled up. “But I get to choose where,” I reasoned, and he nodded. I didn’t go to him that night. I didn’t go to bed as early as I usually did. Instead I stayed up. I wrote everything that was on my mind. It wasn’t necessarily about him, but there was a lot going on with my family, and many more things were worrying me. It was nearly midnight when I finished, signing my name in purple at the end of the document. I saved the pages of script and thought about Andrew for a moment. I wondered what I would say to him if he asked why I was up so late. I sighed and got online, checking my emailed and then deciding to look up some words in the dictionary. “Goodnight Melody,” the familiar words from the familiar voice sound annoyed from upstairs. I groaned and turned off the computer, wondering to the basement, taking my time getting to my room. Of course, I was more than ecstatic to be with the love of my life, but I was deep in thought. He was staring at me when I opened the door. The lights were out but I could feel his gaze digging into my thoughts. “Date,” I said, slowing making my way to my bed. “A social appointment, engagement, or occasion arranged beforehand with another person,” I sat down beside him. “How long did that take you to figure out,” he sat perfectly still. “I’m sorry,” I moved closer to him. “I got distracted…” “What was the point of telling me that?” “I just thought you ought to know so that you didn’t get mad at me when I showed you where I wanted to go,” “Where?” “I’m not going to tell you,” I smiled and kissed his cheek without even thinking about it. “Fine,” he pulled on my waist so that I rolled on top of him. He grinned at me, feeling accomplished, I assumed. “Iugh….” I stumbled over words, changing my mind at the last moment. “What?” he held me, but looked at me, confused. “Oh, nothing,” I rested my head against his chest and he didn’t ask any more questions. He was breathing heavily when I woke up. I gently pulled my head up and looked at his adorable drooling face. I kissed his forehead, more than softly. “I love you,” I whispered, resting my head on his chest again and drifting back to sleep. |
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| Riss | Feb 25 2008, 04:39 AM Post #11 |
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Where we gonna go from here?
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A/N: So.. For what's left of Chpt. Two, a friend is helping me write that part... Because of the content.. (You'll understand when I post it) But after I've posted the rest of Chapter Two, I'm going to start posting my story in my storage box. I'll post the edited Chapter One and Two here, though. (I'm not sure how much of this will make sense) “Here?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Yes, here,” I shoved my hands into my pocket and walked towards the restaurant. The fast food, deep fried smell disgusted me as soon as I swung the doors open. “This is where you wanted me to take you out?” He wrinkled his nose and I smiled. “Yes, you can’t really spend that much money here, can you?” “That’s hardly fair,” he responded, with one woman looking up at the sound of a British accent. Obviously, it wasn’t a common thing. “Melody?” the woman asked in the middle of what seemed to be a staring contest between Andrew and I. I glanced at her. “…Cosmo? Jamie?” I realized that it was my camp counselour. How strange. “I haven’t seen you in two years and still I recognized you!” She stood, hugging me. I realized at that moment that my parents might find me out through people, or even see me and Andrew themselves. But then I realized… There was always a white lie. “Oh really?” I tried to sound like it was a big deal, but really it wasn’t. I looked a bit different, yes… fatter, with different hair, but my face has always been the same, and I was definitely done growing… I was done growing when I went to that summer camp two years ago. “This is Andrew,” I put a hand on Andrew’s arm, thinking about telling her the truth. “Oh? How cute,” She smiled at me. I realized that she’d never met or ever would meet my parents, and so I decided to tell her the truth. “We’re on a date,” I said, hoping that maybe she’d leave me alone. She was friendly enough, but really preppy and really talkative. “Oh! So are we!” I looked around. I didn’t see anybody. “Me and Michael,” she giggled, realizing that he wasn’t near, pointing to the back corner where a tall handsome man sat. “Oh yeah, you got married, I remember now,” “You’re on a date here?” Andrew intrepidly questioned. “Technically, yes,” she gave him a strange look, but didn’t stop smiling. “We’ve been on nicer dates, of course, but it’s nice to be able to just go out, you know?” “Where was your first date?” he wouldn’t stop. “Andrew,” I tugged on his sleeve, but he just pulled away. “At an Italian restaurant in Park City,” she stopped smiling, looking at me, curiously. “…This is your first date?” “Yes,” I answered, walking off. “But it’s fine,” and I walked to the back of the restaurant, on the opposite side of the restaurant from her husband. “Okay then… Have fun,” she waved, walking back to Michael, holding the straws she must have gotten up for. I stood there, watching as Andrew gaited towards me. “Mel…” Andrew stared at me. “What?” I crossed my arms and turned away, a little annoyed. “Let’s not fight…” he said shortly after, gently grabbing my waist from behind, pulling me into his warm embrace. I put my hands over his, and he released his grip, linking his hands with mine. “Wanna go do something else?” I suggested. “Sure,” he responded, after a moment of thinking. I stepped to his side and took his hand again so that I could be next to him, walking with him out of the restaurant. We’d gotten a ride to the plaza from Charlie, but we were on our own getting home. It only took about five minutes for us to be out of the craziness of the shopping and lunch-time rush, but it was silent between us the whole time. I never believed him before when he’d told me he was the quiet type, until now. About ten minutes later, both of us absorbed in thought, I saw something terrifyingly familiar. “Oh shit!” I stopped walking, my shoes skidding against the rocks beneath my feet. “What?” He sounded calm… “That’s my mom,” I panicked, pointing to a parking lot across the street. A strip of a dance studio, a karate studio, a spa and other small businesses were leaking people. I wasn’t exactly pointing to my mom, but to her car. I thought for a minute and just kept walking. Andrew didn’t ask any questions. I turned abruptly at the corner, walking fast to get behind a building that I was still unsure of what it was. It looked unused and dirty so I never thought too much of it. I sat on the cracking pavement behind the building and thought about things. I thought about Andrew, and then my mom, and my dad and brothers, and then my friends and old teachers, and I nearly cried. The tears welled up in my eyes, but they didn’t fall. He looked down at me, still standing. “Are you okay?” He asked. I loved how males seemed to be emotionless and blind… “I’m fine,” I mumbled, probably too quietly for him to hear, but he didn’t say anything else. He knelt beside me and took my hand again. After about fifteen minutes, we had adjusted and moved enough to the point that I was sitting in front of him, with his legs open and his hands were playing with mine. I wondered about the circumstances as I stared at our hands. “Would you say… that we’re going out?” I asked, afraid. I knew how the world worked; I knew that this sort of thing happened all the time… The summer romance… it wasn’t always considered dating exclusively, or even dating at all. “I dunno,” he answered, and he stopped moving his hands but they were still comfortably clasping mine. I leaned my head back and it was propped on his chest as I thought for a bit longer and then my cell phone started vibrating in my pocket. I looked down at my pocket. Andrew shifted his arm from where it was, on top of my phone. I sighed, contemplating answering it. After the fourth session of vibrating, I pulled from Andrew’s grip and dug it out of my pocket. The word “Richard” was plastered in bold black letters on the front screen, and a picture of my brother was in the background. I flipped it open, pressing the green button. “Hello…” It wasn’t a question, like most answers, it was a greeting; it was the way I usually answered the phone, which occasionally took some people by surprise. “Where are you?” He didn’t sound angry. “Why? What do you want…?” “I was wondering if you had any money….” He confessed. “For what?” “I wanted to take Angie out for her birthday, and I’m not sure if I’ve got enough,” “How much do you have?” “I’ve got about thirty dollars,” “I can give you like five dollars, but I’m still walking home from Jordan Landing,” I notified him of the plaza, and he was silent for a moment. “Andrew and I could come get you,” he decided. I loved Andrew, his best friend. I loved how he had the same name as the man I loved. He was handsome too, and I liked being around him- he made me smile. “Where are Mom and Dad?” “They just dropped off Jacob and went to Shawn’s house,” I thought about it. So my family wasn’t just around the corner anymore, and my little brother was at my house. But knowing that they were with my Dad’s brother, they would be gone for a few hours. “Okay,” I said in a voice that told him I was going to tell him more. “I’ll wait for you at the Karate studio… I’ve got a friend with me,” A plan was forming in my head. “Can you drop us off at Marla’s house?” “I don’t remember where she lives,” “Like right down the street,” I sounded annoyed. In elementary school we’d always went to her house in the mornings and walked to school with her and her younger brother. “Oh yeah,” he sounded a little stupid. “We’re leaving now then,” he hung up the phone and I stared off into space for a moment, squeezing Andrew’s hand after a moment of though. “Richard and Andrew are coming to get us,” I said quietly, pushing my phone back into my pocket and taking his hand again. He was already familiar with Richard’s friend, for I had spoken of him a few times before, and he didn’t ask any questions. He stood up, pulling me up with him, holding me by my waist. I smiled, holding my hands over his and began walking towards the studio. He leaned forward to rest his head on my shoulder and we walked across the street. Luckily, there were no cars coming through the normally vacant street at the moment, because I probably would not have noticed. I was completely absorbed in my thoughts. This boy was so dreamy… so wonderful. We stood outside the Karate studio; I knew we had about five minutes until they’d be here. I turned to face him and smiled up at him. He smiled softly back down at me. I wrapped my arms around his waist and laid my head on my on his chest, sighing deeply. I still thought this must be a dream. How could I be so lucky? He held me close to him. After about two minutes of just standing there, standing in his arms, I decided that it would be better if Richard didn’t see me like that. He’d blackmailed me before and he could do it again for sure. “He should be here soon,” I said, reluctantly pulling away, taking his hand and standing close to him, hiding our hands behind our backs. Andrew leaned down and kissed the top of my head. I smiled but didn’t say anything to him. I stared out to the street, gazing at the oncoming traffic, seeking out the small black car that Richard and Andrew would be in. When it came into sight, I released Andrew’s hand and waved. The small car pulled over to the bike lane and Richard stepped out. I briskly approached him and he looked at Andrew, then me. “You guys are gonna be pretty uncomfortable…” he said, his eyes continued flickering between the two of us. I remembered then that the car only had two seats. I bit my bottom lip and nodded at him. “You’ll have to climb over the seat…. He pointed in. I looked back at Andrew. I waved my hand at the car, palm up, offering to let him in first. He shook his head. I got onto the passenger’s seat, on my knees, and saw the adorable Andrew Campel smiled at me. “Hey Mel,” he said, leaning over to kiss my cheek. I kissed his cheek at the same time as he did mine and climbed in between the two front seats and into the cramped space between the trunk of the car and the seats. I curled up my knees and turned my head just in time to see Andrew climbing in between the seats… My lovely Andrew. He didn’t look happy though. I first thought that maybe I shouldn’t have let Richard get us, but he smiled softly at me, and I let it go. Even if it weren’t a very sincere smile… I knew already how emotional he was, and I didn’t want to irk him at all. “You’re hanging out with Marla?” Richard asked, once he was in the car and we pulled out to the high-way again. Suddenly, Campel was making a wildly risky U-Turn and I fell forward, onto Andrew, who was sitting on the opposite side of the space, facing me. He laughed and gently sat me up again. I stuck my tongue out at him and he slyly smiled at me. Richard punched Campel’s right arm. “Stupid! You could have pulled into the parking lot and gotten out!” He just shrugged and kept driving. “Marla wanted to hang out…” I finally replied. “Okay, but now Jacob’s home alone,” Richard turned to look at me and gave me a cold look that said ‘you know that, right?’ “I know, I might call and see if he wants to come over and hang out with her little brother.” Richard turned away again and softened his tone. “Okay…” “Oh yeah,” it only took me a second to catch on to his suddenly more calm, voice than before. “My money is at home,” It wasn’t a full lie… I did have some money at home. I did have about twenty dollars in my pocket now, but I wondered if Andrew would get mad about that… I couldn’t really get into my pocket right now anyways. “We’ll just wait out here,” Richard said, as we turned onto out street. I didn’t reply to him though. I was thinking about Andrew… He was going to leave… He wouldn’t always be here, like I’d wished for so deeply. There was a familiar bump a minute later, and I looked up. Richard put his hand on the door and waited to Campel to stop as he pulled up the drive-way. He got out of the car and I climbed in between the seats again, slowly walking the rest of the way up the drive-way and up the steps to the front door. I rang the doorbell once and saw my little brother’s pale face in the window a second later. I rolled my eyes and considered lecturing him, again, about doing that, but changed my mind when he opened the door. I turned to make sure that Andrew was going to follow me, and not stand outside with Richard and the other Andrew. I smiled warmly at him, but he didn’t return the smile, he didn’t even look at me… I made my way down the stairs to my room, and pushed the door open. As I dug through the contents of the top drawer of my dresser I noticed that Andrew wasn’t following me anymore… I took ten dollars and went back upstairs. He was sitting on the couch with Jacob when I glanced into the living room before I walked outside again. I stopped at started at him. He was focused on the television set as well as Jacob. He was leaning forward, with his arms rested on his knees and his hands held loosely together… He looked like my father when he was watching sports... I strode to the couch and sat beside him, not taking my eyes off of his. When his eyes moved to meet mine, I couldn’t help but feel… bad. It wasn’t sadness, or guilt, or anything familiar though. His eyes were sad and I didn’t know why. I stared deep into his piercing green eyes for what seemed like forever… Until I heard Richard pulling the screen door open outside. I sprung up at the sound, and Andrew slowly got up after me. As Richard pushed the door open I walked towards him. “Sorry… I got distracted…” I said, holding my money out to him. “Okay,” was all he said, extending his hand to take it from me. I recoiled my arm and raised an eye-brow at him. “You’re going to pay me back, right?” “Yeah,” he said blankly and took the money from me. “Alright,” I said, slightly frustrated that he hadn’t waited for me to give it to him. “Uhm… Could you just walk to Marla’s? I’m meeting Angie at Andrew’s and it’s in the opposite direction…” “Sure,” I said, not pointing out that he could still get there from Marla’s house, it would only take a minute more. “Jacob, do you want to come with?” “No,” he replied, still transfixed on the flashing colours on the screen. I was pretty sure he didn’t even know what I was talking about, but I didn’t care. I shrugged and pushed on Richard’s shoulders. “C’mon!” I said playfully and he ruffled my hair. I squinted my eyes at him and he smiled widely at me. I returned the smile and followed him out the door. Andrew followed me and we walked slowly down the drive-way. I watched out the corner off my eye, for the black car to pull away from the house. It wasn’t until they had, that I turned my head completely to see them speed down the street and around the corner. I turned around and started going back up the drive-way. Andrew didn’t say anything, again. “Wait here, please,” I said, as I opened the front door again, leaving him on the door step. “Jacob,” I said loudly, to get his attention after I had closed the door. “What?” he actually looked up. “Go to Jordan’s or something,” I said bluntly. “I need some alone time…” “Okay,” I stood, taking his boots from the pile of shoes by the door. He sat on the couch again, staring at the T.V as he pulled one on… taking more than a minute to put the other one on. “Not your boots…” I said as he struggled to pull himself away from his show. “Fine,” he moaned and he trudged up the stairs, stopping twice to look at the screen again. I had to shout to get him to start moving again. Once I was sure he was upstairs, I pulled open the front door again, and offered a hand to Andrew. He took my hand and stepped inside. “Wait for me in my room,” I said in a hushed voice, as I lead him to the basement door and walked down the first half of the stairs. I left him there, hurrying back up to the main level. “Is this okay?” Jacob sounded annoyed. I tried not to laugh. His shorts were too short, and his shirt didn’t match… But being a nine-year-old boy I couldn’t really say anything about his fashion sense. “Go put on some different shorts,” I said, smiling. He threw up his arms, annoyed, and turned back up the stairs. I didn’t even notice that he was wearing my mom’s sandals until he came back down in his basketball shorts. I laughed, and told him that he could go. I thought it was sad, and funny at the same time, that he and my mom had the same size shoe. He walked out the front door, surprisingly not stopping to stare at the show he had on. I turned off the T.V and went downstairs. Andrew was examining the pictures on my dresser… It occurred to me that he’d only really been in my room at night and morning. We spent the rest of our days wondering the area, or at Chloe’s. “Is that Thomas?” he said, pointing to my blonde, curly-haired guy friend, in a picture with me. “Yeah,” I said. He nodded and continued looking at my pictures… I walked to the other side of my room and looked at the pictures that were on my desk… I loved pictures… “This is you…” I said quietly- but loud enough for him to hear. He turned and practically glided to my side. I looked for emotion in his face but nothing surfaced. I took a good look at the picture… I didn’t really before I told him that it was there, but I did now. It was just a picture, though. It was him, in a white tank-top, wearing somebody glasses, and smiling, only slightly… I wondered why I didn’t have a different picture. I loved his smile. In the bottom corner of this picture, in lip-stick, there was an I, a heart, and a U, in a vertical formation, one right after the other. I looked up at Andrew’s face. He looked confused, and angry at the same time… At first I didn’t get it, but then it hit me. About four or five months ago, he asked me not to tell him that I loved him, and I obliged… at least, while he was conscious. He headed back to my dresser, and I just watched him. He bent over to read what I had written on the top drawer. “Live every day like your last,” In lip-stick as well. He looked at the rose I have hanging on the wall that I had gotten on Valentine’s Day from a friend, and then he was drawn to the colour on my mirror. I clenched my fists nervously, remembering what was on my mirror. He read everything out loud. “Spontaneous Combustion….” He started at the very bottom. “Pardon me, while I burst into flames,” he was at the top now…. And underneath that was what I was waiting for… “I hearts my Andrew,” he looked at the piece of paper taped above my mirror. It was a piece of paper that he’s made for me awhile ago. It was a sample of his handwriting. I asked him to write his name, and his name was written on it a few times…his full names, once, and then several other versions: his first and last name, his first name… his nick-name (which I despised, I might add)… And then in the top right corner, he wrote my name. My first and last name… and he’s underlined it. That made me feel good. He half smiled. “I remember that,” he said. I wanted to say something, but I was unsure of what to say. My phone started vibrating in my pocket again. I reached for it immediately, almost glad for it. “Hello,” I greeted my calling mother. “Hey, Christina’s birthday party is tomorrow, do you need me to take you to get her a present?” I thought about the sentence. My cousin’s birthday was tomorrow… Then a wave a realization hit me. “No, I’ve got something. I’ve got another call, bye.” And I hung up. I’d probably get yelled at later, but I was excited. I’d only half lied… I didn’t really have another call, obviously, but I did already have my cousin’s present…. But I also had one for Andrew. A belated birthday gift that I’d actually planned on sending to him, but I never got around to it, and just figured to send it to him next year. I suddenly realized how glad I was that he was here, remembering what I had written on it. “My cousin’s birthday is tomorrow,” I informed it. “I might have to go to a party.” “Okay,” he said simply. “I have something for you…” I said after a second. I knelt on the floor and reached into an empty space under my dresser. I felt for it… I rubbed past my hats and skirts, and shorts and hair styling products that I kept under there, until I felt a book. I pulled it out; it was actually a black three inch binder. On the front, with a silver marker, I had written ‘Happy 19th Birthday Andrew’, and I had tied a ribbon around it of the same colour. “I’m not quite sure…” I started, standing and holding it out to him. “If you want this… But I made it for you, for your birthday… It’s about a month late, but it’s the thought that counts, right?” “Sure,” he said, gingerly taking the book and pulling the bow that the ribbon was tied into undone. As he opened it, and flipped a few pages, he walked over to my bed, and sat down, dropping the book in his lap and flipping the pages still. “Do you… uhh… like it?” I said, worried that he wouldn’t. “Yeah,” he sounded unenthusiastic and my heart broke. “You kept everything?” he looked up at me, looking sick. “Uh-huh…” I said, looking down at my poor excuse of a birthday present. I had printed and bound every conversation that we’d had since I first met him two years ago. The first words on the first paper were ‘Who are you?’ in an instant message I’d sent him, and the last one on the last page was from me as well. It read ‘Goodnight m’dear, sleep well and have a good day tomorrow’. “Thank-you,” he muttered, closing the book and setting it aside. I sat down on the other side of the book and sighed. “You don’t really like it… do you?” I murmured. “No, I really do… I just don’t feel well,” he looked back at me and I frowned. “Do you want to go watch a movie?” I suggested, knowing that we had the house to ourselves for a couple hours. “How about a tour?” he suggested. “Of my house?” he nodded. “Okay… That’s my closest,” I said, pointing to his other side, where my closet was. “And this is my bed…” I said quietly. He looked at me and I finally stood up. “Okay, come on,” As I walked to the door, he caught me by my waist and pulled me back to him. I bit my bottom lip as I turned and looked up at him. “In a minute,” he said, slowly inching back to my bed. I drew a sharp breath as he sat down again and held my hips, staring into me. He cocked his head and dropped his hand after I didn’t immediately sit beside him, and so I sat. He turned to face me and shook his head. I was confused, but I didn’t say anything. He shifted his entire body face me, so I did the same. “You’re not very good at this,” he said, actually lifting and pulling me onto his lap. That surprised me. My face was almost at the same level as his now, nearly a foot away, and he was smiling at me. He was holding my waist and looking into my eyes. He slowly began moving his face closer to mine, holding his gaze with my eyes. I stared back into him, not feeling gauche at all. I didn’t break my transfixion until he closed his eyes and pressed his lips against mine, gently brushing his tongue against my trembling lips. I pressed my lips back, trying not to be too hard, or too gentle. Andrew parted his lips, only a little, but I pulled away. His eyes were confused when I looked back at him. I stared at him again, deep into his beautiful and scarred eyes. He’d gone through a lot of love and loss in the past few years… Would I just be another loss? Was I even considered love? I wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his shoulder and sighing deeply; so much for having the house to ourselves…. My legs were around him as well, if he hadn’t been there, I would have been sitting cross-legged. I sat there for a minute more, with his head rested on my shoulder. I stopped thinking again. I was unsure of how much I liked this… the whole, mind going blank thing, around him… I nudged him gently, bobbing his head once. He pulled away and I lifted my head. I smiled at him and he just looked back at me. I leaned forward and rested my forehead against his. Our noses were touching and I could hear him breathing. I pulled up just a bit, and kissed the tip of his nose. My heart was pounding… I wondered if he could hear it. I lowered my face to be level with his again. I was breathing heavily too, I noticed. I kissed his cheek softly and my eyes flickered back to his. He was looking back into my eyes, softly, though. I lowered my eyes again took my arms away from where they were holding him. I reached around my squoze his arms tenderly with my hands. He pulled his arms back and took my hands. I pulled our hands to rest in between us… Suddenly, even I didn’t expect it- I pressed my lips, hard, against his. It must have taken him by surprise as much as it did me, because it took him a second to correspond. I wasn’t sure when it happened, but our lips were moving together… and strangely, I didn’t have to think about it. We were moving fast, but I didn’t mind. Soon though, we slowed, and after a moment I pecked him once on the lips and pulled away, breathing deeply still and looking into his eyes again. I kissed the base of his neck and closed my eyes, resting my head where I was. Andrew rubbed my hands warmly and kissed my neck once, but didn’t rest his head there. “Melody…” he whispered. “Hm?” “Ten…” Then he rested his head on my shoulder. At first I didn’t get it… Ten? I thought about for several minutes… I recalled a conversation we’d had about a month ago… and I finally understood what he meant… One day, I was feeling rather sentimental and I asked him a simple, yet prodding question… ‘How much do you care about me? If you care about me at all…’ When he asked me how I wanted him to rate it, and I said that he should on a scale of one to ten… he told me seven point five. That kind of ripped my heart out. He’d told me the next day that the number would be higher if he were here with me… I thought about it all too often, but it never played a major role in my life… |
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| The Phantom | Apr 1 2008, 04:16 AM Post #12 |
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Updated the first chapter. Only had time to add a paragraph but I did a bit of fixing up in the first chapter too. I just rereading the first chapter because there is some new things that may prove to be important to note in the future. |
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| The Phantom | Apr 2 2008, 04:10 AM Post #13 |
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Going to open my strong box soon and this story will be traveling there. Be prepared to go there for updates to the story soon. Also updated. |
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| The Phantom | Apr 2 2008, 10:29 PM Post #14 |
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ATTENTION! Updates will now take place in my strongbox! Please go over to the vault and ask for access into if you are interested in seeing the rest of the story! |
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| unbittentongue | Apr 15 2008, 06:18 AM Post #15 |
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This is amazing. I enjoy imagery you place your readers in, as if I were there with the characters watching them as you create the story. I'm very interested in reading the rest of this, excellent work. |
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9:00 AM Jul 11
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I can't wait to read some more.
Just a reminder that you have to leave the 'at least 10,000 character extract or teaser' up for public viewing even after you move the story to your strongbox.


9:00 AM Jul 11