The Rise and Falls of Melody Wilson

Part 18

 

 

It felt like the huge cover of guilt that had been laid over me, was finally off. I had told her everything.

Well, maybe not everything.

By the time I had arrived at Mariah’s house I had worked myself up enough to tell her about Andrew. I was honestly tired of keeping it from her and was ready to share.

And Mariah was more than willing to listen (once she had heard Andrew was involved, that is). I had told her all about me and him growing up together, about how close we were, the things we did together, and, of course, how he left. Finally, I even told her how we hung out the other day. Surprisingly, she’d only asked a million questions, instead of the billion I’d thought she would. Of course, when she'd asked  why Andrew had left in the first place, I had no answer for her. He never really explained. It was more why he never contacted me over the years.

After ages of filling her in she finally asked the question I knew would come- why was I here with a suitcase?

“So what are you going to do?” she had asked after I’d explained how I had just wanted to get out the house after me and Riley had fought. “Do you just want to stay here for a little?”

I shrugged. “That’d be nice…” I sighed. “I don’t even know why I let him get to me.”

“Melody,” Mariah looked at me sympathetically “You and Riley have fought before, it will be okay. He leaves you and your mom constantly while he runs about doing who knows what, while you care or yourself and your mom and do the whole high school thing. You have more than a little right to be mad at him.”

I looked down at my hands, my thumbs already slowly twisting around each other, “But I shouldn’t have yelled at him like that. What if he leaves again? It’ll be my fault.”

Mariah shook her head as she came to sit next to me on the edge of her bed. “No, it won’t be your fault. Riley obviously has other things that are bothering him and he’s just taking it out on you and your mom. He needs to get over it and be the brother he should be.”

I continued to avoid her gaze, trying to hide the hot tears that were threatening to spill, and focused on the bright and colorful afghan we were seated on. "I don't really want to talk about Riley anymore. "

Mariah shifted into a more comfortable position on the bed, her legs crossed, facing me. "Okay. New subject, Andrew."

I shook my head, grinning. "I knew you weren't done asking about him." I laughed.

She shrugged it off playfully, "Its interesting! I mean, how many people in our town can say they know someone like Andrew ? Excluding Jack, that is."

"Not many, I guess."

"Exactly. It's pretty cool. You know the son of this big time millionaire, who owns a bunch of high end restaurants and co-owns a record company that his son just signed his band  under."

"They're not a big band. His dad is more famous than him." I stated trying to tone her gushing happiness down.

"That's not the point." She waved my comment off. "The point is that you two were really great friends who lost each other for a while, but now he's back in town and you have the opportunity to be with him again."

"As friends." I stated softly.

"As whatever you want to be." She confirmed strongly but quietly. "Because I know there's no way he's taking my best friend spot, even if he wanted to." She smiled smugly. I almost joined her, but then she said, "Anyways, from the way you've talked about him it seems like you like him."

"Don't." I said firmly. "We're friends. If that."

"Anyways," Mariah sighed. "Are you going to talk to him again sometime?"

That's one of the things I loved about Mariah. She never got stuck on one thing for too long. If she could see some topic (or anything, really) was leading down the wrong road, she'd jump ship and get on another one.

I shook my head. "I have no idea. I haven't seen him since that night."

"He hasn't contacted you at all?" She asked her eyes wide in mild surprise.

"Nope." I said looking at her bright blue eyes. "It's not like I gave him my number or anything. He only came by my house that once."

Mariah gasped.

I shot her a curious glance and she blurted, "House!"

"What house?" I asked her, confused.

"His house! You should go see him!" She clasped her hands together in excitement. "He's got to be in this area somewhere! The best neighborhoods are here. I doubt he's living in some low grade house; We could easily find him."

I moved back from her a bit shaking my head. "No way are we going to his house."

"Why not?" She pouted.

"Because! There is no need to go to him. I'm not desperate to hear his voice or to see him. I saw him a couple days ago, I don't need to stalk him down to talk to him." I responded adamantly.

"Melody!" She exclaimed. "Andrew just came back, he made a point to come talk to you- once he figured everything out. He obviously wants to talk to you. Do you want to lose contact with him again?"

I sighed feeling my small hold on this matter start to slip. "No, I don't."

"Well!"

"We don't even know where he is..." I resigned knowing it wasn't a very strong point.

Mariah grinned. '"Like I said, he's bound to be in one of these neighborhoods. It won't be hard to find him."

I wasn't big on the whole tracking someone down to talk to them idea, but Mariah didn't seem to understand that. What would I even say to him? 'Oh hey, Andrew! Just thought I'd stop by and see how you are doing? I'm really not some creeper who tracked down where you lived.'

No way was I doing that.

Sure it had been nice to hang out and talk a little with him that day, but it’s not like we had that much to about anymore now that we'd gotten the whole 'I haven't seen you in forever' talk out of the way. And we didn't even have anything in common anymore.  He was the son of a big time millionaire who had come back to his hometown to wind down from his crazy Hollywood life. Apparently, the rumors of rehab weren't true. On the other hand I was just an old friend of his that he recently met up with again.

I took a deep breath in, "Just drop it, Mariah. I really have no need to go find him at his house and talk. If I see him around and we talk, then so be it. But we're not tracking down his place of residence just so we can have a chat." I told her firmly.

Mariah sat there for a moment just looking at me. I could tell she wanted to continue and press me to change my mind, but thankfully she just let it go with an unconvinced, "Fine."

Since it was pretty early in the day we ended up making a bunch of food so we could settle down and watch a marathon of TV shows and movies. Mariah and I were pretty much recluses during the day on weekends.

Later that day, Mariah managed to get Rick out of bed so he could come over to her house. Which Mariah rarely did and only when she was certain of the time her mother would return from work at the hospital.

After more than thirty minutes of Mariah's begging, I consented and let her tell Rick about my "connections" with Andrew. Rick's awaited response was a distracted "That's cool," before he cracked up at something Sponge Bob and Patrick did.

It was close to eleven when Mariah finally shoved Rick out and we hurried to bed before her mom got home.