Chapter Thirty-One-Melly's Hell

Chapter Thirty-One
Melly's Hell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     "All I'm suggesting, Melanie, is that you consider it. It could help Miss Ha-"

"Don't," Melanie growled, hands going to fists. "Do not...ever...say her name in front of me."

"Melanie," Mammy warned.

"It's alright," Mayor Barly said, standing,"touchy subject I shouldn't have encroached upon. My apologizes Miss Wilkes."

Melanie did not forgive him.

"Do consider it, though, will you, Melly?"

"Good day, Mayor," Melanie said without a smile. The old man nodded solemnly as he let himself out.

"Stop that,"Mammy growled at the girl. Melanie stared at the door with cold eyes and a sneer.

"He's not even coming to see mother! He's just coming here trying to act like...like...ugh!" Melanie screamed loud and hoarse. She blinked away the tears coming on.

"Do it for your Momma, Miss Melly."

Melanie didn't say what she wanted to in that moment. And what has she ever done for me? She wanted to growl. But she didn't. She wouldn't do that.

"Even if I did speak in town square about the incident, what would I say to help..." Indie...

She couldn't say India's name, much less her little pet name Melly and Aud had always called her.

"The people are still shook up from Damien and what they think to be India," Melanie flinched at Reid's words.

"Please don't say her name..." she mumbled. "Just...I can't..."

Spencer squeezed her hand.

"Mail, Miss Melly," the old house worker came up to Melly. Xylen was aging, just like Ardely. He had to be in his late 40s or early 50s now. Melanie shuttered. She too was getting old. She was working on her bachelor's degree now. She was in her 3rd year thanks to the fact she was taking them online and all year round. She'd only been on a campus for a half a year. It was horrid. All the drinking and parties and sex...ehhh...It hadn't been for Melanie.

Melanie looked through the mail and her eyes stopped as she scanned a sheet of paper.

"What is it?" Spencer asked. Melanie had gone pure white and her blue eyes were struck.

"Melly?"

"It's from the school..." she mumbled.

"Victoria?" Charlie asked, just coming into the room.

"Charlie...it's got my name on it."

"What does Neeses High School have to do with you?" Mammy grumbled.

"That's why I'm worried, Mammy..." she mumbled.
Melly tore open the envelope and stared, her lower lip trembling.
"Melly?" Charlie asked.
"They want me back."
*****************************************************************************************************************
“There has to be some mistake!” Melanie screeched.       

       Spencer had never seen her in such frenzy. He too, though, would’ve been rather upset about having to go back to high school. He knew Melanie graduated a year early, and he just knew Melanie hadn’t been the social hub. She was too…different. It wasn’t bad. He loved that Melanie was different. It made her better. Better traditional and loving than slutty and distant. For a moment, he tried to imagine her that way, but he cringed. Her in a short denim skirt and pink glittered tank top, bubble gum rounding from her lips, hair cropped short with a curl at the tip and much more make-up than she wore now…just wasn’t real. That wasn’t Melanie.

       Regardless, the girl was in the admistrational office, just a few miles from the school.

“Miss Wilkes, the fire destroyed all the records, including yours. You were the only one meant to graduate in 2012 that graduated in 2010.”

“But you know I graduated!”

“The state doesn’t. Your college can’t update your grades because of this.”

“But-”

“I understand how upset you are. But you will just have to return to high school.”

Melanie stared.

“You can’t-”

“Melanie,” Charlie said. Melanie looked hopelessly at him.

“Spencer?” she said, looking for one last trace of hope. He too shook his head. Melanie collapsed into a folding chair she had been offered.

“How long?” she asked, resigned.

The man pursed his lips. “How about we strike a deal? You said you had your transcripts. Bring those to me, and you only have to do a week of high school and make straight A’s. Alright?”

“Alright,” Melanie sighed hopelessly.

*

“I just-can’t-uh-Gah!!” Melanie screamed.

“I know,” Spencer said lamely, taking her hand. She rose, breaking the grip.

“All that’s going on! And this happens! Going back to high school? Are you kidding me?!”

“Melanie…”Penelope whispered across the table, “How old are you?”

Melanie smirked, “I’m surprised you haven’t looked, or that none of you figured it out.” She smiled sadly. “I’m 18.” They blinked. “I’ll be 19 in February.”

“Serious?” Morgan gasped. He was the first. Melanie laughed at him.

“Serious,” she replied with a smile.

“Melly, I’m so sorry,” Spencer murmured.

It was Melly’s turn to be shocked. “Why?”

“You’ve seen things…you never should’ve-”

“Lest we forget, boys, the BAU was not my first brush with death,” she mumbled, “nowhere near my first or last.”

*

Shaking. Cold.

I saw Charlie standing next to mom, unsure. His expression was unreadable. I felt a push from behind. Aunt Strauss.

“It’s your turn, child,” she said, pushing me toward the casket with the Wilkes code of arms on the side. I blinked. I was trembling as she held my shoulders pushing me forward. I was inches from it now.

“Abba?” I mumbled, tears blurring my vision. I wondered how dark and cold it must be in that casket. Abba didn’t like the dark too much. He didn’t like me to be left in it. “Abba…Abba…ABBA!” I screamed. Aunt Strauss let go of me out of shock. I leaned forward, trying to pry open the lid of the casket. A vase of lilies fell off. I felt hands on me. Two older boys-cousins-were ripping me away from under my elbows.

“Abba! ABBA!” I screamed out. “Let me go! He needs me!” I wanted to yell, but all that came out was my Father’s name. “No! Please!” I was shaking and screaming and kicking, the itchy black dress with white lace collar felt hot and sticky to my skin. They were taking me out of my own Father’s funeral. I couldn’t…ABBA! NO! DON’T!

 

They put me in a car somewhere, far from where they were lowering him into the ground. I wasn’t there at his final goodbye. I regret that. But mainly, I regretted the fact that I wouldn’t be able to throw myself into the hole with him, and break my neck, joining him. That’s what I wanted, but not what he wanted. I read and reread and reread the letter. He wanted me to move on. He wanted me to live.

Aunt Josephine held me, after they put him in, the back of the car. Charlie sat in the front seat, not looking back at me, not looking at the road. Not seeing at all. I wondered what he was thinking, later, but now all I was thinking was about how my father was dead, and there was nothing I could do about it. Or that’s what I thought.

“Have you ever thought of witchcraft?” India had murmured to me one day. Aud stared.

“Indie…” she whispered. I looked up at them. It was the first day back at school. The first day I had successfully pulled myself together and didn’t hyperventilate. Much.

“When my parents died, you know my dad was a scientist, he also had a lot of books I read up on that he left me. It was all witchcraft. I just thought, maybe, there was something-“

“That’s blasphemous, Indie,” Audrey had said.

I would’ve jumped on the boat, but I was too entranced. A way to bring back my father?

“Show me your books, Indie.”

“Melly…” Audrey said.

India smiled. “We can start tonight.”

*

Melanie sat up with a start. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at the clock. 3 a.m. Great. She could hear Spencer breathing quietly. She wished silently he would leave the room. She wanted to be alone to cry for once. She didn’t like Spencer holding her and feeling vulnerable.

 

The last time she had let down her walls had been for Charlie. Look how well that went.

“Goodness…” She mumbled. She heard Spencer snort, and she knew she had woken him up. She groaned.

“Melly?” she heard his tenor voice whisper.

“Yes?”

“You’re up?”

Melanie rolled her eyes. “No, genius, I’m sleep talking.”

“Touchy,” he said.

Melanie rubbed her eyes. She felt Spencer sit down on the edge of the bed, his hip next to hers. He was facing her as he sat on his left leg under right.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered.

She snorted. “You can tell something is wrong?”

“Am I wrong?”

Melanie didn’t respond.

He scooted so that they were both facing the same direction, and they were hip to hip, side to side, and arm to arm. She let her head rest on his shoulder and he put his hands into her gold hair.

“What is it?”

“I had a bad dream,” she mumbled.

“You weren’t screaming that loud. I figured it wasn’t that bad. You stopped, and I went back to sleep.”

She glared at him in the darkness.

“Oops?” he said. She smacked him playfully.

“It was my Father’s funeral.”

Spencer’s smiled dropped.

“Exactly like it happened. Every horrifying, embarrassing moment coming back to haunt me. Goodness, it was just…awful…Spencer…” she mumbled, placing her head into his neck.

“Hey, Mel, it’s okay…okay? Hey, look at me.” Melanie did. Spencer knew this was something Derek would do, but not him. He didn’t have bravery like him.

 

But he did.

 

He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, his hands gripping her shoulders to keep her there. After a few seconds, he pulled back. Melanie stared.

“What?” he asked. “You’ve kissed my cheek before and skipped off like it was nothing before. Can’t I kiss you too?”

Spencer caught on a few seconds after he said it. Melanie slipped slowly to the other side of the bed, his warmth distracting her. His memory of the almost kiss at JJ’s and then that night in the woods…he shivered, remembering her red lips….

“Spencer, I don’t think you need to come into my room anymore.”

“Melly, we can still pretend-”

“No, it wasn’t that, Spence…it’s not that…I just…don’t need it anymore. I’m okay, alright?”

“…Get some sleep. You have school in the morning.”

 

The door clicked shut.

*

Melanie burst into hysterics the minute it did that. Every emotion flooding her. Her father’s death, India lost, Spencer’s touch, Phillip’s betrayal, Charlie’s pain, and every feeling that Melanie Wilkes had ever felt in her heart. The sobs wracked her body; she kept a hand clamped to her mouth as she sobbed.

       She stopped herself. She knew if she kept on like this, she couldn’t stop. The slow tears trickled down her cheeks in her silent sobbing, her body convulsing, as she tried to get to sleep.

*

Melanie twitched at the lunch table. Audrey was throwing food down her throat and Melanie stared off in the distance, thinking.

“You gonna eat that?” Audrey asked, pointing toward the tray on Melly’s lap.

“Did I ever?”

Audrey promptly picked the food off the try and onto hers. Melanie stared.

“How in the world are you so skinny?” Melanie asked. Audrey shrugged.

“What do you have next hour?” she asked her friend.

The red-lipped girl sighed as she brought out a folded piece of paper.

“Uh, Spanish with Yeck. Jazz Choir I. English IV with Dwyer.”

Audrey frowned. “I don’t have any of those.”

Melanie joined Audrey’s expression.

“I have choir with you,” Niall said throw bites of food.

“And we have English together,” Tommy said.

Melanie blinked, “You mean you passed?”

Tommy’s eyes narrowed and Audrey stared.

“So mean!”

Melanie shrugged as she sipped the carton of milk on her tray. 

“Cruel, Melbelle, Cruel,” Tommy said before smiling from ear to ear.

“I’ve got Spanish with you too, Mel,” Zayn said, knocking her chair. She nodded a little.

“You think you can do this?” Audrey whispered after a moment to her quietly. Melanie smiled while looking in the distance.

“I’ve done it before, haven’t I?”

*

“How’s yo’ day go, Miss Melly?”

“I have homework,” she mumbled trudging into the dining room.

“Miss Melly-”

But Melanie had shut the door to the room.

*

It was half way through the week, when Spencer saw how horrid Melly’s Hell had been.

       She was about 5 or so minutes late to getting out, which didn’t bother him. But when he was sitting in the car, 5 minutes turned to 10, and 10 turned 15, and 15 was turning into 30.  Spencer got out of the car, and entered the school. He looked past Melly’s locker and chorus room, and then wondered where she’d be.

 

The library.

 

He entered the back, and she was manning the desk, saying goodbye to the librarian. She must’ve left her phone at home, or she would’ve called him.

“Alright, ma’am, see you tomorrow!” Melly called as the librarian left.

       Melanie went to the cart and unloaded the recently checked-in books. She carried an arm full, and she didn’t see over the stack when two muscular boys in football jerseys came in.

       Spence decided to wait by the back door. She didn’t notice him there, blending in with the books and knowledge.

“Hey, bookworm!” the red-headed boy called. Melanie stiffened. She turned, but didn’t speak.

She saw the cocky smirks on their faces.

“Bookworm, bookworm, ugly little bookworm,” the brunette boy sang.

Melanie’s eyes burned. “Can’t you come up with a different taunt than the one you used in 3^rd grade?” she said, but you could tell she was hurt. She knew her emotion, but couldn’t control it. “Oh, I forgot, that’s your reading level, isn’t it?”

The red-headed linebacker growled, and pushed her down.

“Hey!” Spencer said rising and running over.

“You got a bone to pick-” the brunette started, but they saw Spencer’s shown badge and aimed glock. The red head backed away from the mess he’d left Melly. Books all around her and her skirt twisted.

“You’re lucky, nerd,” the red head hissed. “Lucky you got the government working for your rich ass. What? They’ve been working for you since your daddy died?”

Melanie flinched, but the two boys were leaving. Spencer looked sadly at her.

“Melly?” he asked. She ignored him as she rose slowly, picking up the books.

“Mel-“ but she had sorted, and put the books up and was heading for the door.

“Melanie?” he asked again in the car. She stared out the window.

“Since the 3^rd grade?” he asked her.

“My whole life.”