Different Time

Shocking discovery

 As the days go by, Melody continues to get used to the modern world bit by bit in the safety of the beach house, of course. She learned about changing the tv channels and read some of the books she found. Most of them were magazines,  but she didn’t know the difference between such things.

Sam would only come over to the beach house to supply Melody with food. There were times that they would have a bit of small talk, but most of the time they didn’t interact at all. It was understandable, since she’s still not used to seeing her dead friends doppelganger. As for Jim, he would hardly see her; Sam had made it very clear to him not to see Melody so often, just in case she was going to suffer the same fate as their friend.  She knew that if Jim were to see her too often, then his family would be worried of where he is, they would follow him, and they would see Melody alive and surprisingly still well. 

Sam’s dad wondered where she has been, but figured that she could say she’s been hanging out with Jim, since he does seem to need watching over. One of his friends called him saying they had seen Sam going out to the store to pick up food. Sure, groceries are an essential, but almost every week with nothing to show for it? ‘Very suspicious.’ He thought. 

'''''''''''''''

“How are you feeling buddy?” Peter asked Jim in his garage, sitting on the table while Jim was underneath his rusting and dirty car, fixing some link issues. 

“Alright, I was able to sleep better last night,” he answered, truthfully smiling back up at his old friend. 

“That’s great!” his friend beamed at him from atop the creaking wood beneath him.

“What about you? Still surviving?” Jim asked, pulling himself up from underneath, wiping away some of the grease from the engine. 

The redhead had a sad smile. “Yeah,  I’m surviving. Though it’s Jane we should probably be worried about.” Peter kicked his legs back and forth, staring at the plain cream wall of the garage.

“No kidding, I haven’t heard from her since the funeral,” he said, worried about his fear flooding into his voice.   

“Yeah, it hit her really hard.” Peter slumped down and clutched his hands into his pockets, “And I thought you would have it bad,” 

Jim held his breath for a moment, finally responding with a half-truth. “Well, I mean you could say Sam has been keeping me alive.” 

“Of course, she nearly knocked your lights out” he chuckled, a bit nervously. 

“Would you just drop the subject?” Jim growled. 

“Nope!” Peter said, a grin sneaking up his lips

Jim kicked his ankle and watched Peter scamper back for a moment, smiling at the gingery boy. Peter rubbed his ankle and glared at Jim, then proceeded to kick his skateboard as Jim receded under his car again.

“Hey!” 

“You started it, pirate boy!” Peter laughs

“You suck, Pete” Jim rubbed his head hissing at the pain and finally getting out from under the car. 

“Better than moping about,” Peter said, lingering his eyes on the picture of their five friends, taken when they were still in middle school. Seeing Peter doing a picking his nose while Jane looked pretending to be grossed out. Melody was hugging Jim from behind, snuggling her head onto his neck while Jim was blushing, still smiling. Sam had her ever present  poker face to make it look like she’s the only sane one in the group. Still missing the old days, both of them were. Jim looked where Peter was looking, staying completely quiet. It’s still hard to keep things from him, especially since he is one of his best friends. Past Melody wasn’t the real Melody he fell in love with, but every time he saw a picture of his Melody, he would think about the Melody in the beach house, wondering of how she is doing. It must be very lonely there, all by herself. But he shook the feeling off, not wanting to distract himself.