Beneath the Willow Tree

Chapter 5 Just Friends

Melody sat up and rubbed her eyes. She had still been laying on Oliver's leg, so when she finally woke up, he moved his leg to try and get the numbness to cease. Melody looked at the notebook he had sitting on his other knee, "what are you doing?" she asked sleepily.

"Doodling, I guess you could say." Oliver said.

Melody looked closer at the notebook. It definitely was not just a doodle. He was drawing a picture of them that he had on his phone. They were practicing a Dressage test and had stuck their hands out to high-five when his mom took the picture. To Melody, it looked as if he had taken the picture right off of his phone and turned it black and white onto the paper.

"Dude, I didn't know you could draw like that." Melody moved closer to him than she already was and Oliver looked away from the paper and felt his face flush red.

"I have had a lot of time on my hands..."

When Melody looked at him to say something, their faces were inches apart. She could see every fleck of green and blue that riddled his eyes and they both felt their ears go hot from their nearness. Melody leaned back and laughed, "Sorry, dude. I didn't realize I was that close to you."

"It's fine, I don't mind." Oliver realized what he said and held up his hands, "Wait, what I meant was--"

"I know what you meant, it's okay." Melody pushed her hair behind her ear and laughed when his face lit up pink.

Oliver sighed and turned a deeper shade of red, "Would it be an issue if I stayed here tonight? My mom is stuck in the city since the roads are all closed from ice."

"Sure, dude. I don't mind."

"Thanks..."

They sat there in dense silence for a few minutes before Oliver closed the notebook and locked his phone, "Can I ask you something that might or might not be personal?"

Melody raised a brow at him and shrugged, "Ask away, I don't care. You already know something that I didn't want anyone ever knowing so there isn't anything worse than that."

"Are you bipolar?" Oliver asked in his sweet I'm-not-trying-to-offend-you voice.

"Yeah, I am actually on meds for it." Melody said.

"Oh, I was just wondering because of how your mood was swinging back and forth earlier."

"Yeah, I haven't taken anything today, I forgot to this morning. I should probably do that now." Melody hopped to her feet and Oliver followed her downstairs into the kitchen.

She opened the cabinet and pulled out one of the bottles of pills, "I might as well be taking horse pills because of how big these are." Oliver laughed as Melody downed the pill and sat on the counter, "God, I'm tired."

"You were also tired when you fell asleep on my lap." Oliver said, stifling a blush from their earlier conversation.

"oh no, I didn't say anything too terribly awful did I?" Melody said as she covered her face with her hands.

"I thought it was cute when you just curled up against my leg and went to sleep." Oliver said, taking his turn in making the latter blush.

"Sorry about that." Melody said, rubbing the back of her neck.

"It's okay, it was nice to have someone who is close enough to do that." he leaned back on the bar and fixed his hair.

Melody didn't say anything back to him. She had gone back into her own world as she messed with her bottle of water. It would have been a miracle if she had even heard his last statement. Oliver took a moment to enjoy the silence. It wasn't tense or heavy silence, just easy and comfortable. Nothing needed to be said, so nothing was. Melody looked up when she realized that she was caught in Oliver's admiring gaze. She jumped off of the counter top and almost tackled him to the ground in a hug. He didn't push her away or question it, like Melody expected he would; he just laughed and hugged her back, "Can I talk to you about something?"