Haunted King

SEVENTEEN | my classmate

Melody stared at her grades in awe. She had managed to pass everyone one of them with high B's. Even though her parents would murder her for these grades a part of her felt relieved. It felt like she was making a stand against her parents overbearing expectations. She didn't know where this would lead but she was happy it had happened.

The only down side was that her scholarship was gone. Her parents weren't going to pay for her college with the stunt she just pulled and she hadn't taken out any loans. She was utterly screwed.

A knock on Melody's door alerted her to the slightly ajar door. Crystal peaked her head in, a steaming mug was slipped past the door. "Tea?" Crystal offered. Melody smiled, "yes please." Crystal slid into the room and lightly put down the mug by the computer.

"How's it going?" Crystal gaze an encouraging smile. Melody sighed, "I'm screwed. I lost my scholarship, my parents aren't going to pay for my tuition-." Crystal raised an eyebrow, "why won't they?"

Melody wrapped her fingers around the warm purple mug. "Because they aren't going to pay for my classes if I have bad grades." Crystal's bangs were pinned up by a hair curler so Melody could fully see Crystal contemplating her words. "They will because they are the ones who forced you to become a doctor in the first place. They aren't going to leave you poor on the street."

Melody grimaced, "That would require talking to them." They both sat in a depressed silence. "I'll go with you if that would help anything." Melody shook her head, "no. This is my problem to deal with." Crystal hugged Melody, "call me if you need anything. Okay?" Melody smiled, "okay."

•••

The bus ride to Melody's house was brutal. On one side of her was a chubby man with the loudest voice she had ever heard. He was on a phone call with whom she assumed was his wife. They were arguing over what color to paint the walls of their bedroom.

The woman wanted yellow which he replied, "I refuse to live inside of a Laffy Taffy Janet! Just paint it grey like every other sane person on this planet!" His country accent deepened as he continued shouting into the phone.

On the other side was a mom arguing with the man because the baby in her arms was constantly crying from his shouting. This he then replied with, "hold on Janet. Woman, I don't give a damn if your spawn is crying. You created him, so you shut him up!"

Melody was trying to work through her building panic attack and the loudness of the bus wasn't helping. She missed the civil people back in the city. The suburbs were never kind to her.

When the bus came to her stop she let out a sigh of relief. She quickly shoved her way out of her section and pushed through the people who were packed like sardines. Once she wiggled her way out of the bus the feet of a person also exiting the bus tripped her. The concrete grew closer and closer until she landed in the arms of someone. Melody blinked up to a worried brown gaze. "Are you okay," the man helped her to her feet.

Melody straightened her clothes and ponytail. "Yeah, Thank you..." her voice trailed off. She recognized the man in front of her. Long black hair that was now in a ponytail. Dark blue eyes, that narrowed at the sides from his Eastern Asian heritage. Korean maybe? His summer clothes revealed the sleeve of tattoos. A mixture of words, symbols, and creatures painted his left arm till it was almost fully black with ink.

He looked more laid back than he did on campus. 'What was his name again?' He also seemed to recognize her. "Melody, right?" He wondered. Now she felt even worse for not remembering his name. She slowly nodded.

He smiled as if he could read her conflicted thoughts, "I'm Christain Davis." He stretched out his hand to hers. Melody took his hand and lightly shook it. After a second she tried to pull away her hand but noticed he wasn't letting go. He flipped over her wrist and stared at her arm. "Surprising," he whispered. Melody scrunched her eyebrows, 'what is he looking for?'

After their first interaction Christain had done his homework. It seriously bothered him that he hadn't remembered her face or name despite spending a whole year in the same class. He never forgot someone's face. Never. Even when he truly wished he could, when he saw someone's face it was forever imprinted in his mind.

He did more than learn her name. He learned about her past. He learned she was a sinking ship just waiting to hit rock bottom. She was a broken vessel in need of mending. A tainted soul if you will. And that had drawn him to her. But the day they were finally back in class she had disappeared. She had vanished from his sight as suddenly as she had entered it. But now she was here again. 'Is this fate?'

Melody ripped her hand out of his grip and shoved it into her green sweatshirt pocket. For some reason she felt extremely nervous around this man. "Well Christain, it was nice talking but I have to go." He didn't seemed dazed by her slightly forceful actions. "Oh, please. Don't let me keep you," he grinned. He waved her goodbye as Melody sped walk down the street and in the direction of her house.

Her day was already starting off on a weird note and she needed to keep her head on straight. Confronting her parents was never an easy task. So she cleared her mind, and began plotting her game plan.

"Just don't screw this up more than you already have," she murmured to herself.