underneath the stars ▷ gmw

iii. chaos in the house (part one).

the first thing melanie sees is her mother, covered up by a blanket, yelling and throwing objects at the wall.

"get out, get out, get out! i have told you multiple times already to leave! you're just like a pest! you won't leave me alone... they won't leave!" karen tears up.

"mom?" melanie carefully approaches her mother. "mommy, its me, melanie. i'm here, you're safe. it's okay," the petite girl forces the objects out of karen's hand and onto the floor. one of them being a knife, which cuts her accidentally.

"oh melanie, my beautiful baby. how was zay? is he still handling his siblings well?"

melanie smiles as the familiarity rushes back to her mother, not paying much mind to her injury.

———

she notices it's 6am by the sunlight outside, and mel gets up to prepare for school. she knows she fell asleep in her mother's embrace, but she left before melanie woke up for school to get to work. this time, she didn't even bother dressing up the slightest bit.

sluggishly, melanie goes through her clean
clean clothes pile, only to find a pair of black off-brand joggers, white ankle socks, a grey tupac t-shirt, and her trusty jordans.

mel looks in the mirror, about to brush her teeth, when she realises there was no water running. or mouthwash.

so she goes ahead and brushes her teeth while looking for a water bottle, or something to use to rinse out her mouth.

unfortunately, all she finds is some half empty wine bottle. melanie takes it, swishing it around in her mouth and spits in the sink.

she cringes at the taste, then runs to put some breath strips in her mouth.

she grabs a pillow and a baggy pastel blue sweatshirt and stuffs it in her bag as she exits out the door.

not even caring that she was 15 minutes late to school, she drags herself inside matthews' classroom.

"you're late, miss thompson."

"i don't care," melanie replies, nonchalantly, as she places the pillow on her desk and immediately falls asleep.

the teacher chuckles.

"hey! how can she fall asleep in class, and she only gets a laugh from you, but i fall asleep and you make me stay after school?" maya frowns, looking at the very much sleeping girl.

"she's probably playing around, maya. don't worry about it," matthews waves her off.

"just leave her be, maya. why do you always have to jab at her?" lucas says in defense of melanie.

"i'll have you know she doesn't sleep in class very often," zay states, flicking the back of melanie's head, which wakes her.

she turns to face him. "what the f–" zay raises his eyebrows to warn her, "heck do you want?"

"you're in class right now, you know that?"

"yes, i know that. i also know i was 15 minutes to class. now let me go back to sleep." melanie waved him off, and landed her head on the desk again.