Mallory's Melody

Epilogue

A month later

TO EVERYONE IN LOS ANGELES, August fifth was the tragic day that Starlight Academy collapsed to ashes. It was the day that marked the end of an elite organization, the demise of a glorious vision of raising a new generation of musical prodigies. It was a day held in commemoration of the influential leader who had died in the fire.

But to Mallory, it was the day that nearly all parts of her died. It was the day that her childhood died as Cole Trent, her dreams as William Orlando, and nearly her ability to love as Jason Trevor. It was a day that would come to haunt her repeatedly, that would rob her of her sleep and would make her cry buckets of tears until she felt like she would die.

The day of Cole's burial had been the hardest day of her life. She'd been a seventeen-year-old who handed her own father over to death. She'd cried herself to stupor whilst she dug the earth to put him beneath it and if not for the support of her friends, she would've, in the haze of her deep grief, buried herself along with him.

But perhaps it was true that time healed all wounds. She was feeling slightly alive again. Her grief no longer controlled her, it no longer bound her to her bed for days or plagued her with doleful nightmares. It no longer kept her captive to her disheartening past. Now, here she was, driving to Starlight Academy's commemoration in a car her own boyfriend had bought her.

When she met Jazon's gaze, she couldn't think of a better gift, to have him with her in the here and now. If things had panned out differently, she would've been driving to his grave with a burdened and guilt-ridden heart. She was grateful to God, to life, to her own melody, for giving her the gift of Jason Trevor. But it took just about a minute for her gratitude to fade away.

"You're a terrible driver, anyone ever told you that?" Jason teased when she made a precarious swerve to the right. He held his helmet tight to his chest, humouring himself. "I've died before, why kill me again?"

Mallory rolled her eyes at him. "Maybe you shouldn't have bought me a car then. I mean, since I'm such a terrible driver..."

Jason's grin nearly blinded Mallory's visibility of the road. "Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe I shouldn't have." He paused for a very long time. "But I couldn't think of a better gift to give the girl who saved my life."

Heat suffused her cheeks. "You don't give a gift to someone who owes you, Jace. You saved my life in the fire first, remember? If anyone should be giving gifts, its me."

"You're gift enough, Mal," Jason said. "You repaid me the day you agreed to be mine forever, boo." Jason craned his neck from the passenger's seat to press his lips on Mallory's cheeks. Out of habit, Mallory turned her head to return his kiss, before it struck her that she'd loosened her grip from the steering wheel and was about hitting the trunk of the car in front of her. The owner shot rolled down his window and shot her a very profane sign.

"Can you watch the damn road?" Jason screamed, now buckling the helmet to his head. "It'd be a miracle if we make it out alive."

Mallory gave him a slight jab at his side. "What the hell are you talking about? You're the one who distracted me. You don't kiss a driver. That's the first rule in the manual."

"Says someone who hardly got her driving license..."

Mallory sighed aloud. Jason Trevor was inexorable. But she loved him anyway.

She loved him to death.

"How and you are and your mum fairing?" Mallory asked him. He and Ava had moved into a new apartment a few days ago. Mallory still couldn't believe how quickly Ava regained her popularity back, and this time, it was actual popularity, not notoriety. All the Jane articles she'd written since the last seventeen years gained floods of attention after the fire incident at Starlight Academy.