Daddy Dearest

Chapter Forty-One

Melody

“Alex, please, listen to me. I didn’t know what he was going to do. It’s not like I invited him to kiss me.”

We were standing in the dark corner of the gym as the school dance continued without us. I thought everything was fine by the way Alex acted in the garden, like he believed me, but when we got inside the gym, he said he wasn’t feeling well and wanted to go home.

“You’re going to leave me here with my stalker on the loose?”

He’d looked at me sullenly and snorted. “Oh, come on, Melody. You’ve got both Davenport men chasing after you like dogs plus Nancy, Janice, and Noriko are here.”

I nodded with understanding and pushed off from him. “Oh, it’s like that, huh? You obsessed over me for two years then after we finally had sex, you drop me like a bad habit.” I shoved a finger into his chest. “You know what? Fuck you. You can die in a fire for all I care, Chambers.”

He grabbed my elbow before I could walk away. “Oh, no, you don’t. What the hell did you think you were doing, going off to the garden alone with Davenport?”

Fury made me want to slap him. “Okay, first of all, I just wanted to get air on my own. I did not go off anywhere with him. He insisted on coming along with me because hi, I have a stalker who possibly wants to kill me.”

He scoffed, pushed his fingers into his hair, and shook his head. “Of course he insisted on going with you, Melody. He wanted to be alone with you. Because he wants to fuck you!”

This time, I couldn’t help myself. My hand lashed out and slapped him across the face. Horrified with what I’ve done, I buried my offensive hand in my stomach and doubled over. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I began to cry.

“Hey. Stop it.” He put his arms around me and kissed my hair. “It’s okay, I deserved that slap. I shouldn’t have said that. Come on, Plum, stop crying. You’re going to ruin your makeup and make yourself ugly, then I’ll be embarrassed to be seen with you.”

I laughed and punched his middle, which didn’t matter because he had abs of steel. “You’re so stupid, Chambers.”

“I know, but you love me.” He tugged my arm and pulled me into the corridor that led to the restrooms. He pushed me into the ladies’, dogging my heels.

There were a couple of girls in there who shrieked and told him to get out.

“Sorry, ladies, I am this young woman’s personal security guard and I have to make sure nothing happens to her.” He placed his hands on my shoulders. “Just think of me as your protection, too.”

A couple of the girls who initially shrieked, whispered to each other and giggled before leaving the restroom. I turned toward the mirror to check my hair and makeup. Flawless. I sighed.

I left the restroom, dragging Alex along with me. He leaned against the wall of the narrow hallway with one foot up and folded his arms tightly over his chest. “What happened with Charlie?”

My mind flashed back to the incident half an hour ago. Charlie said he wanted to talk to me alone. I had to admit, I was curious because he and I haven’t hung out in a few weeks, much less talk closely. He didn’t even seem to care when I was walking around for three weeks with that cast on my arm.

He just stared at me for a bit, like he was thinking of something to say. He’d gotten a haircut, so he no longer had hair to push back, so I think he was a little weirded out about that. 

“Listen, Mel, I know things haven’t been great between us.” He looked down at his hands. He’d been fiddling with his fingers. “It’s just that I’ve been going through some changes I couldn’t discuss with you and suddenly, you were hanging out with Lottie a lot more. It’s like we didn’t have anything in common anymore.”