My Lonely Song Writer

Chapter 8:Melody and Jillian

"That's so cute," I heard someone say.

I opened my eyes and squinted. Way too much light. I tried to sit up and felt a slight pain in my arm. Liam was laying sideways with his legs hanging off the side of the bench. I was laying on top of him with my arm tucked at a weird angle underneath me. My legs we crunched together on the rest of the bench. This bench was so tiny. As I started to get , Liam woke up. He groaned. We both stood up and stretched our arms and legs.

Mark and Carol were up now. Mark had a cast on his leg and Carol had one on her arm. There was an IV sticking out of their mom's arm. "Good morning," I said.

"Morning," she said back. "You two looked so peaceful."

Liam stretched an arm behind his back. "Not so peaceful now. That thing is so uncomfortable."

"Very," I agreed.

Mark was playing on his phone. I haven't really talked to him much so I guess now I could make a good impression on him. I walked over to his bed. "What are you playing?"

He looked up at me and then back at his game. "Minecraft," he muttered.

"Oh, well I have no clue how to play that game, but I'm sure Melody loves it."

"Melody?" Liam wondered.

"She's my friend," I explained. "She should be back either today or tomorrow."

As if on cue, I received a text. "Make that today."

Liam smiled, "This should be interesting."

I gave him a funny look. "Why?"

He shook his head. "You're one strange girl so I'm guessing your friends are going to be just as strange."

I laughed, "You're right. You are pretty strange."

He laughed and shoved my shoulder. "That's not what I meant."

"Sure it is and warning: she is a bit of a fangirl."

"And you aren't?"

"Pfft...no I'm not," I said as I walked into the bathroom.

After I had made myself presentable, Liam also changed. Then we both headed down to the hospital cafeteria. Five star restaurant. Note the sarcasm. The food tasted worse than my school's. The pudding was good though. Can't go wrong with pudding. After Liam and I were both done eating, we hung around and talked for a bit. Neither of us were in a rush to go back to the room. I didn't really like hospitals...like at all. They're always so sad and it smells weird. There wasn't a lot of people in the cafeteria today so I don't think we were really bothering anyone. We didn't stay for long either. Moments later we were on our way back.

Everything seemed to slow down since the car wreck. I guess the reality of it finally settled in. Carol and Mark were eating breakfast in bed when we got there. Although everyone felt lighter today, Mark was still quiet. Was he always this quiet? I wasn't really sure. It would explain why we rarely talk. A couple doctors came in every so often to check on them. It didn't take long for them to announce that Mark could go home today. Not long after that, my parents came to pick us up. They announced that they would be watching the Liam, Mark, and Sophia until Carol was released. The car ride home was silent. I tried starting a conversation with Mark, but he dropped it each time. I didn't blame him. He's 11 and he was in a car wreck. It must have been terrifying. Who wouldn't have been terrified?

As we pulled up into the driveway, I noticed that a few houses down that an empty parking spot was now filled. Melody and Jillian are back! I managed to stay patient while Mark got out of the car. By the time he was walking up the sidewalk, I was dragging Liam over to Melody's house.

Liam's POV

Sammie was pulling me across the sidewalk. I had no idea where we were going, but she was super excited. She stopped in front of a large twelve-sweater Ford van. There was a bunch of people running around and pulling luggage out of the van. One girl had earphones in and the music was loud enough that we could hear. Sammie tapped on her should and she quickly turned around, pulling out her earphones. They hugged and Sammie pulled away. "This is Melody," she introduced. "Melody, meet Liam."

So this was Melody. She was short, almost up to Sammie's shoulder, and had brown hair and eyes. We said hi and then she turned to Sammie. She grabbed her arm and held it next to her own. Melody's skin was just a few shades darker than Sammie's. "Ha!" she said. "Perfect!"

"Oh shush it," Sammie laughed. "We already know you tan easily."

"If you can make short jokes, then I can brag about my tan!"

That's when I joined in the laughter. "And I thought you were always nice. I also thought you said she was strange. Besides the tanning thing, she not strange at all."

At that Melody laughed. "Not strange?" she said. "That's a first. We're the weirdest people you'll ever meet."

Sammie agreed, "Yep, definitely. If you need proof then...Melody what music were you listening to?"

Melody suddenly seemed super excited and started jumping on the balls of her feet. Then she started to shout "OMG I WAS LISTENING TO B.A.P AND THEY CAME OUT WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM CALLED FIRST SENSIBILITY! AND ANGEL WAS ON THE ALBUM WHICH IS SOOOOO AMAZING!"

She was out of breath when she finished. "B-A-P? Like...bap?"

"Nooooooo!" Melody said. "It's an acronym for Best Absolute Perfect. They're a Korean band."

"Korean?" I asked. "Can you even understand them?"

"Ugh. Why does everyone have to criticize that? There is such thing as translators too you know. They're like poets."

Melody kept rambling on, but I didn't understand anything she was talking about. What the heck is kpop? I take back what I said about her being strange. I guess normal people are worse though. At that moment, I felt someone shove my shoulder and looked over to see a taller girl's arms wrapped around Sammie's neck. She had darker brown hair than Melody's and also had brown eyes. She may have been much taller than Melody, but she still was a inch or two short of Sammie's height.

"Ooo," she said,"did you get a boyfriend while we were gone?" 

She released Sammie and stood next to Melody across from us. Sammie laughed and gestured towards me. "This is Liam. He moved here a few weeks ago."

"She avoided the question!" Melody pointed out. Sammie's face flushed. Once again she tried changing the subject.  She is a bad liar. 

She continued, "This is Jillian."

Jillian stuck out her hand for me to shake and I took it. She gave me a wide smile. She greeted, "Nice to meet Sammie's boyfriend."

I could feel my face heating up so I gave a weak smile back. Sammie grabbed my hand and started pulling me back. She said to her friends, "We've got to go help with something. I'll explain later. You guys need to unpack anyways so see ya tomorrow."

Then we turned around and headed back down the sidewalk. Jillian called after us, "Yes, go 'help' with something....all alone and just you two. We absolutely trust you."

The sarcasm was clear and I laughed when I spotted Sammie's bright red face.

I commented, "I think they're almost as excitable as you."