Melanie's Secrets
Emily Ward
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Emily Ward
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i. Amy
My sister and I used to be good friends. Halloween used to be our favorite holiday. One time, we got this idea to see how long we could stay out of the house before our parents noticed. I don’t remember if it was my idea or hers. It was a test. We wanted to see how much our parents cared about us.
We walked to the park with our bags of candy and sat under the slide, trading and bartering. The night lingered on. Julie fell asleep first, candy wrappers around her in the sand. I don’t know how long I stayed up after her, and I don’t know how long we were asleep for, but my parents found us. My dad yelled in Spanish, and my mom cried the entire way home, and we were grounded for a month. This is the first Halloween we’ve gone without some embarrassing escort they both trust.
I think this year’s a strange time to change their policies. This party is at Melanie’s house. Melanie has been my best friend for four years now, since we both joined the volleyball team in freshman year, but no one trusts her. Not even me.
Before the party, I straightened my black hair and found a black and red dress and some fake teeth. I put some food coloring on my chin and marveled at my originality. Julie is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and she’s talked three of her guy friends into being the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. Her costume is the best, though, a blue and white dress, pigtails, and the red slippers. We’re sitting on the upper patio by ourselves because everyone else has left to get more drinks, but this is the first time we’ve been alone in a long while.
There’s silence between us. The music and the sound of the commotion from inside is coming out of the backdoor. Julie sighs, taking a drink of her beer. “Do you know where Trent went?” she asks.
“No.”
Instead of going to find him, Julie stays in her lawn chair. “What’s Melanie dressed up as this year? Playboy bunny again?”
“No, she’s a pirate.”
Julie rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, her costume is about the size of a sock?”
I don’t respond.
“Why are you her friend again?”
“We’ve been friends since ninth grade,” I say defensively. “I know you don’t like her, but that doesn’t mean I can’t.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“Fine. She’s fun to hang out with, she’s loyal - what?”
Julie waves her arm wide as though she’s showing me the backyard. “She’s the one who blamed that marijuana on you.”
I sigh. “There’s no way to prove that.”
“You’re lucky it didn’t get past Mr. Thayer. Mom and dad would have killed you.”
I look up at the sky. The sun is setting, and the first stars of the night are appearing.
“You deserve better,” Julie says quietly.
Surprise is the first thing I feel, and then amusement. “Right,” I say with sarcasm. I pause. “You wanna know a secret?”
Julie looks at me with keen eyes. I’m sure she thinks I’m going to give her some juicy information about Melanie.
“I don’t think I deserve anything,” I say.
Julie breaks eye contact with me and takes another drink of her beer. She stands up and as she walks to the backdoor says, “Maybe you don’t.”
My sister still tests people.
ii. Julie
My sister is great at throwing pity parties. I weave through the ninjas, Hasidic Jews, and nurses of the party, my eyes seeking out a familiar face.
Before I find Trent, Ryan finds me. He’s my Cowardly Lion, but he could not be talked into the bodysuit. He wears a brown t-shirt and has a tail hanging out of his khakis. I drew whiskers on his face before we drove here. He fits the part: cute, cuddly, not enough roar in him to really make an impression.
“How’s it going?” he asks.
“Fine. . .sitting through Amy’s self-loathing.”
Ryan’s eyebrows furrow. He’s good at caring about everyone, even the people who would screw him over without a second thought. “She all right?”
I roll my eyes. “She’ll be fine. She has Melanie. Apparently, that’s all she needs.”
“You really don’t like Melanie.”
“Who does?” I ask. I shake my head. “Joey was right to finally break up with her.”
“I thought she broke up with him,” Ryan said, watching two Lady Gaga’s argue.
I shrug. “I don’t know, I don’t care.” It’s partly true - Trent told me Joey broke up with her, and I just see it as some sort of sweet justice. She ruins pretty much everything, why shouldn’t she get dumped?
“Wanna hear a secret?” I ask Ryan with a grin on my face.
“What?”
“You know the last party Melanie had, the one this summer, when someone called the cops?”
“Yeah.”
“I called the cops,” I say smugly. Ryan raises his eyebrows and says nothing. It wasn’t the reaction I was looking for. I shrug as though I’d do it again. “I thought she deserved it,” I add, as though Ryan is asking why.
iii. Ryan
Julie’s soon distracted by something shiny, and I lose her. I watch her melt into the crowd. I want her to look back at me and make eye contact, but she doesn’t.
I go downstairs to the game room. I’ve only been to a few of Melanie’s parties, and usually I’m with a friend. I care too much about school to be invited to more of them. I’ve been to Melanie’s house, though, and as I walk through it, I’m reminded of my stupidity.
I join Trent, who’s playing pool. He’s dressed as the Scarecrow - his costume consists of a straw hat and some rope around his waist. Other than that, he looks like normal Trent - ratty jeans, band t-shirt. After he wins a game, he leans against the bar with me. “Having fun?” he asks, elbowing me in the stomach.
“Sure.”
“Whatever. You should go home and do some homework.”
“I already did it.”
Trent looks at me in disgust. “It’s only Friday!”
“I’m kidding.”
Trent rolls his eyes. “Don’t joke about homework. Hey, are you in Government this year?”
Oh, the joy of being overlooked. “Yeah. . .I sit behind you.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Trent says. “Well, we should do that paper together.”
I decide to change the subject. “You should teach me that game.” It’s not everyday I want to learn a drinking game, but if we keep talking about papers, I know I’ll get suckered into something.
Trent gathers a crowd, and we play a stupid drinking game. The revelry of high schoolers never ceases to amaze me. I don’t know whether to be amused or disgusted, whether I should laugh and watch or join in on the drunkenness that some of peers love so dearly. Usually, I laugh and watch.
The crowd disintegrates, but Trent and I stay on the couch together. “Okay, Ryan, spill.”
“Spill? Spill what?” Paranoia starts to rise up in me again - or maybe that’s the alcohol.
“I don’t know,” Trent says, laughing. “Tell me a ‘secret.’” He actually uses air quotes.
I look around the den. Seniors and juniors of West Hollywood High are talking, laughing, drinking, dancing. There are two pool games going on, people trying to avoid the protruding sticks. I look back at Trent and then point at the couch across from us. “Melanie and I had sex there.”
Trent looks at the couch with wide eyes. “Shut up! Tell me something real.”
“I just did!”
“No, really, Ryan.”
iv. Trent
I wake up in a bed. I groan and roll over, trying to figure out where I am. There’s a pretty girl on the other side of the bed in an angel costume talking on her phone. She gives me a flirty smile.
After getting up, I realize three things. One, I’m still drunk. Two, I’m still at Melanie’s house. And three, it’s still Friday night. This is good. I like being drunk and I need to go home tonight, or my mom will flip.
I stumble out of the bedroom - probably a guest bedroom, unless Melanie and her mom don’t use dressers. They could be closet girls. Heh, or closet lesbians.
Joey is out by the pool. I’m surprised he’s not surrounded by his usual group of other football players and cheerleaders. I think about stripping off my clothes and swimming, but being wet doesn’t seem appealing, and it’s too cold. I sit by him in a lawn chair. “Joey!”
“Hey, Trent.”
“Does Melanie know you’re here?”
“I don’t know,” Joey says with a shrug. He has a fake black eye and a ‘P’ on his white t-shirt, but I don’t get it and I don’t care enough to ask.
“I saw her coming out of an abortion clinic a few weeks ago,” I tell him.
Joey looks at me, and he looks sad, and I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t have told him.
“I don’t think she saw me, and I haven’t told anyone. . .didn’t think it was anyone’s business. . .maybe I shouldn’t have told you.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
v. Joey
I used to be in love with Melanie. We flirted all freshman year, and our first date was Homecoming Sophomore year. She was dressed in this dark blue dress, and I bought her a corsage. I think when I first knew I was in love with her, though, was the summer after that. We left home at six for a movie, and we stayed out for hours. We drove all around LA in my new car and ended up, as usual, at the beach. We got out and started running up and down the beach, our footprints behind us. Melanie threw off her sandals and her jacket and ran into the waves. I ran after her. We swam in all of our clothes, then we tried to get warm again, but we soon returned home, covered in salt water, sand, and the remnants of young love.
We went out for two years, but it had to end. There were many little things that led to the break-up - manipulation, mistrust, control. There was also one big thing that Trent seems to know about. I now have senior year to look forward to without her. That gives me relief and anxiety.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen her yet. I’ve only been at the party for about an hour, but usually, Melanie is everywhere at once. All the usual signs of her are still here - her house, her friends, her shoes, her rumors, but she’s nowhere to be seen. Not that I can complain.
Melanie’s house has an upper patio, and this is where I find Amy. She’s sitting by herself, her knees drawn to her chest. She has on black boots and a black and red dress. The skin of her thighs is exposed in the porch light. She doesn’t notice me until I speak. “Hey, Amy.”
She looks up in surprise. She looks like she’s been crying. “Oh, hi, Joey.”
“What are you doing out here all by yourself?”
She shrugs. She has a black dress on and some fake blood on her chin. I can see some vampire teeth on the ground next to her chair. “You a vampire?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says. Her dark brown eyes surveys my costume, and she smiles. “A Black-Eyed Pea?”
“Yeah.” I sit down in the chair next to her.
Amy sniffles and looks down at the pool. “I can’t believe Melanie let you in her house.”
“I don’t think she knows I’m here.”
“Oh, she knows everything,” Amy says, smirking. She looks down at her boots, playing with the laces. Her dark hair falls over her face. She brushes it aside, then seems to notice I’m looking at her. “What?”
“There’s something she doesn’t know.”
“What?” Amy asks, a playful look on her face.
“I really like you.”
The words come out of my mouth unexpectedly. They float in the air and fall on the ground. Amy stares at me, her mouth slightly open. “Joey. . .”
“I am. Melanie, she’s. . .she’s nothing compared to you.”
She looks away. “I can’t believe. . .that we’re having this conversation. . .”
“Do you remember the 4th of July?”
Amy nods.
“The fireworks over the ocean, the bonfire. . .I hardly remember them. I just remember you.” Melanie and I broke up a month before that, and she wasn’t at the barbecue. It was Amy and Julie and some of their friends. Amy and I spent an hour or two just talking, and I realized that Amy was someone different when Melanie wasn’t around, or maybe she was different when I wasn’t around Melanie. I don’t know, she just wasn’t the best friend anymore, she was someone else.
Amy now looks at me with reluctance. She drops her feet onto the ground and crosses her arms. “This is weird, Joey.”
“I know. I know, I. . .I wasn’t planning on telling you. I just saw you, and. . .” I trail off. I think I’ve really freaked her out.
“It’s just that Melanie’s my best friend.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just. . .maybe you deserve better.”
Amy stares at her lap, then finally meets my eyes. “Maybe I do.”
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About The Author:
Emily Ward doesn't even celebrate Halloween, but she had a lot of fun exploring the relationships in this story. Emily is an author living in Salem, Oregon with her husband Chris and their cat Thomas. Along with writing, she loves to read and cook. She's been published in Literary House Review and Pond Ripples E-Zine.
Blog: http://wordsofeward.blogspot.com
Website: http://emilyannward.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/therealemilyw
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/emilyward
Cover image by Seer