Free The Unraveling of Melody by Erika van Eck

 
    Beginning of Senior
Year
     
     
     
    “I can’t
believe we’re seniors, Mel!” Emma says excitedly. I put my newly
acquired books into my locker while Emma talks animatedly about our
first day of school. “Seriously, this is totally our year. Maybe
Scott will finally get the balls to ask you out.”
    “ Shh! Don’t be so loud, Emma. Jeez,
someone will hear you.” I feel my cheeks heat from embarrassment. I
quickly shut my locker and begin walking toward the exit, not
looking back to see if Emma has followed me. As I approach the
double doors, I hear quick footsteps approaching.
    “ Come on, Mel, you know I was kidding.”
She pauses for a moment. “Well, kind of. I meant what I said, but I
shouldn’t have said it so loud.”
    I keep walking as she remains quietly on my
right. I’m not really angry with her, but I like to make her squirm
a little. It’s actually pretty entertaining at times.
    I bite my lip to keep myself from smiling at
my evilness. I stop in front of Emma’s car because she’s my ride
home today. She unlocks the doors, and we both quietly climb
inside.
    She puts her keys in the ignition but
stops and turns to me before starting her car. “Mel, I am really
sorry. I swear I
didn’t mean to piss you off.”
    At that moment, I can’t take it anymore and
laughter bursts from my mouth. At first, Emma looks annoyed, but as
soon as a snort escapes my nose, we both completely lose it and
giggle until tears are falling down our cheeks.
    As soon as Emma catches her breath, she
smiles over at me. “You’re such a bitch.”
    “ But you love me,” I joke as I lay my
head on her shoulder.
    “ Unfortunately,” she shoots back. She
glances over at me one last time before sticking out her
tongue.
    ***
     
    As soon as I complete my homework and chores,
I call Sara to see if she’s okay. Her family doesn’t support what
she wants to do after high school, and on top of that, she and
Dustin, her boyfriend for the last two years, went through a rocky
break-up.
    When I say rocky, I mean more like explosive.
There wasn’t one person in our high school not talking about it.
According to most, Dustin dumped Sara for a college girl. But a few
of us know the actual truth.
    That Dustin is a psychotic,
cheating douchebag .
    I plop down on my bed while looking through my
contacts list on my phone. I quickly find Sara’s name and press
“call.” It rings twice and then the line goes silent. I take the
phone away from my ear to see if the call connected, and it says
that it has, but the line is still utter silence.
    “ Hello? Sara?”
    The only response is sniffling. It’s so quiet
that I’m not sure that I really heard it.
    “ Sara, what’s wrong? Did you talk to
Dustin again? I swear I’m going to shove my—”
    “ Mel, it’s not him,” she interrupts my
ranting. “I’m just having a bit of a fallout with my parents
today. They're total
assholes.”
    “ Aww, Sar, do you want to come over?
Mom’s making her famous pesto pasta casserole,” I offer. I strongly
dislike her parents. I’ve tried to get along with them for the sake
of Sara, but they demean her every chance they get, and I
absolutely hate it. I’ve never understood why parents push their
dreams on their children rather than encouraging their own damn
dreams. I don’t think I will ever understand that, even as I grow
older.
    “ That sounds perfect. I’ll be there in
ten and then we can talk about all of the drama that’s happening in
my household.”
    With that, we hang up and I do the
little homework I have. Which isn’t much, just covering a few
textbooks in paper bags.
    By the time I exit my room, only about
fifteen minutes have passed since I talked to Sara. As I walk out
into the living room, the incessant giggles of my little brother,
Lucas, floods my ears. Even though he’s six, he still has the belly laugh of a
toddler, and I can’t help but smile when I hear it. You’d think, as
brother and sister, we would have