Darkness Will Come to Light [1]

XI. Through the Glass

The familiar sweet smell of Pearberry spray from Bath & Body Works stirred the air of the bustling cafeteria. Without even turning her head to face the newcomer, Melaina knew that it was Savannah who sat down beside her on the tiled linoleum floor. The girls ate their lunches sitting against the brick lunchroom wall, separate but together. Silent but comfortable.

Mel liked her sweets, while Sav preferred salty treats. So with the intuition that only best friends experienced, the girls exchanged Mel's chips with Sav's cookies with subtle looks and small smiles.

Keeping your best friend on the outside looking in hurt both girls more than Mel could have imagined.

With Marissa dropping out of their best friend group and Melaina hiding within herself, Sav only had her sister to confide in anymore. She was a loner at heart; her imagination ran wild in her artwork, but people found her love of the unseen world to be peculiar. Mel believed that Sav's fascination with otherworldly beings--like spirits and Fae--made her the open-minded, nonjudgmental girl that she knew and loved.

Sav munched on her newly-acquired potato chips with one hand while she flipped through her sketch pad of meticulously drawn merfolk with the other. Mel watched her soul-sister from the corner of her eye as she idly tossed the bag of Chips Ahoy! between her small hands. Mel's anxiety twisted her stomach into knots.

Like a broken toilet, if Mel started to spill than she wouldn't be able to stop the flow. She set the cookie bag on her lunchbox and hugged her knees to her chest. She would continue to hold the flow of poisonous words in.

It's for the best, she tried to convince herself. Savannah is beautiful and innocent, and I won't be the one to ruin that. This is for the best.

~*~

Gym class was lonely; Mel avoided talking to Edward, not that it was too difficult. Coach Love moved the class from rock climbing to the cardio unit. Edward had a note from his doctor for his heart condition, so he did written work on the bleachers while the students ran laps around the gymnasium for warm-ups and then around the school for thirty minutes of the period.

With her small frame, finding a heartrate monitor to stay up under her ribs was an impossible task for Mel. There were about ten small sizes per class, so she had to fight with claws extended daily for one that wouldn't be extremely large. If the belt didn't sit right against her skin, then her heartrate wouldn't get picked up accurately, which resulted in no class points for the day. If she didn't get credit, then she sweated half her body weight for nothing. That was not ideal.

Mel enjoyed running on her own time with music playing loudly in her ears. Without a distraction, Mel's thoughts ran wild as she made laps around the school building. The slapping of feet against the sidewalk did little to clear her mind; she found that sound annoying.

The rain had cleared and left behind a layer of mist in the air. She tried to focus her thoughts on the ominous mist, imagining Damon Salvatore stepping out of it with mischievous blue eyes and his signature smirk. Mel nearly tripped on the curb of the sidewalk as she fangirled. She shook her head at herself and righted her footing before running again.

Since it was her last class of the day, Mel pushed herself hard. If she tired herself out from running, then she would be able to fall right asleep when she arrived home. That was the plan. She hadn't slept well the night before. Her nightmares had been plagued with images of her life burning around her.

Coach broke her stride when he blew his shrill whistle. She changed out of her gym uniform quickly and stopped at her locker for the books that she would need for homework.

The crisp air felt nice on Mel's face as she walked home. Autumn had always been her favorite season. She loved the smell of spices and bonfires, the crisp air taste on her tongue, and most of all, the crunchy leaves. Mel went out of her way to step on those; there was nothing more satisfying.

~*~

The next day passed in a blur. Mel's head thumped to the beat of her heart. She carried her little bottle of Advil in her backpack like a precious gem.

Savannah texted Mel in the morning to say that she would be absent from school and after that, only Alice tried to talk to Mel. Even Mel's partner in English kept his distance. She had walked to school under cloudy skies and against cold winds, but she didn't think she smelled bad...

Mel wanted to sniff herself to confirm that she still smelled like her Twilight Woods perfume, but she didn't because it reminded her too much of what a dog would do.

Alice glided across the room like a ballerina. She stopped in front of Mel with a toothy smile. "Hi, Mel. Cute sweater!"

Mel looked down to see what shirt she was wearing that day. It was black and grey with an abstract elephant design at the center. "Thanks," Mel said politely.

"How are you doing?"

Mel glanced at Alice but kept her head resting on her crossed arms. "Just tired."

A half-truth.

Tired and depressed was more accurate.

"I didn't see you at lunch today. I was going to ask if you wanted to sit with me and my family."

Mel hung out in the bathroom the entire period, but she didn't say that to Alice. She only offered a shrug. Mel really was not in the mood to socialize today. She was tired. Her nap after school yesterday was all the sleep she could get.

Thankfully, Alice seemed to take the hint. She turned to Jasper and launched rocket-speed into conversation with him.

The end of the day didn't come quick enough, but for the second night in a row, peaceful sleep evaded her.