Its more of a filler, because I decided to separate the rest into another chapter.
At least Nathaniel admits something here. Just that he's a tad vague
Melody & Nathaniel's POV.
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Duck!
I lunged behind one of the burly jocks near me, who was chatting animatedly with his pals about screwing or something.
Huh. Who would have known a jock would be interested in carpentry?
I quickly flipped open my book and buried my head in it, praying for dear life that Nate Peyton wouldn’t see me. I stole a peek at him nervously.
Well, of course he did. With his hands shoved in his pockets, he walk alongside Helen and his brothers, not saying a word, but merely glancing around casually. But then, his eyes lingered at the spot where I stood before turning away.
Ack. Maybe I should have stuck with feigning an illness or something.
But Nate would know that I was avoiding him.
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, I didn’t want to reject him, I didn’t want to accept him. Heck, I didn’t know what I wanted, but I couldn’t face him. I just couldn’t.
I certainly had a crush on Nathan, I wasn’t sure of my feelings for Nate and there was no doubt that something was wrong with Nate.
Wouldn’t life be great if I decided to develop feelings for Nathaniel too? Then I would have a complete set.
I rolled my eyes. Like that would ever happen.
“Hey babe, you looking for someone?”
I squeaked and jumped in surprise. The jock had turned to face me, his buddies too. They had these interested expressions which disturbed me to no end.
“Umm, no.” I mumbled and clammed up, throwing them a small, forced smile and subtly edged away.
“Hey, I recognise that chick.” I heard one of them whisper as I left. “She’s Melody Keyes. The freshman who everyone says is trying to screw the Peyton triplets. She’s supposed to be some kind of slut who acts lonely and all. Heard she’s after the big bucks.”
I heard a low whistle. “She can screw me if she wants.”
I scurried off into the ladies and looked into the large mirrors. A girl stared back at me with horror written plainly across her face.
Oh, that was me.
I didn’t know which frightened me more: The fact that ‘screwing’ had nothing to do with carpentry, the comment about me, or what one of the jocks said they wouldn’t mind doing. With me.
My lower lip started to tremble. I had heard many false and hurtful stories about me, mainly about my horrible looks, or my ‘problematic past’. I didn’t expect the rumours in high school to be so much more vicious.
Drip.
Once the first fell, I couldn’t prevent the rest of my tears from falling as well. I sat down in a corner of the empty toilet and cried.
Did Helen and the triplets hear the rumour? Would they believe it? Would they look at me in disgust and leave me?
Would I be unwanted again?
“Melody?!” Ashleigh appeared and practically flung herself at me, grasping me gently on the shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“N-n-nothing,” I stammered. “I just felt like crying, that’s all.”
What a brilliant excuse, Melody. After all these years of excelling at English, your hard work has certainly paid off.
“Bullshit.” Ashleigh muttered, then flashed me an apologetic smile. “Sorry. My language escapes me sometimes. But you know perfectly well that I’m not believing your lame excuse.”
“Rumours,” I just managed to cough out. Crying, for some reason, would sometimes trigger a mild coughing fit in me.
“Oh,” Ashleigh replied flatly, her eyes hard like two blue diamonds. “Just-just don’t let it get to you so much, okay? You know it’s not true.”
“Helen and the triplets.” I coughed again, choking on my saliva.
“They’re good people. I trust them not to believe those ridiculous rumours. They are your friends, Melody.”
I paused. It was strange to hear Ashleigh call Helen and Nate good. I was pretty sure that they had publicly expressed their intense dislike for her on numerous occasions.
“Ashleigh, why did you call-“
“Ashleigh!” Stepping in with a strawberry blonde hair draped on her shoulders, Shelby Nielson stepped in.
Abruptly straightening herself, Ashleigh whirled round to face the girl, whose arms were folded.
“Shelby,” Ashleigh acknowledged. “Just talking to Keyes here.”
Keyes?
Shelby smirked, “I can see. It seems that our friend has been useful to us.”
She certainly wasn’t referring to me. Ashleigh looked down. Was that guilt I saw? Did Ashleigh spread the rumour?
Ugh. Nothing was making sense here.
I snapped out of my thoughts as the clicking of stilettos indicated that Shelby was approaching me.
“Hi there,” Shelby planted a sickly sweet smile and it disappeared seconds later, replaced by a contemptuous look. “Listen here you bitch and listen carefully. The Ashleys have dibs on the Peytons, and any friend of Helen’s, with the exception of the triplets, is my enemy. So if I were you, stay out of my path, kay dear?”
“You can’t call dibs on people,”
Uh-oh. I shouldn’t have said that. But it was too late to take back my words.
Shelby sneered, while Ashleigh shuffled her feet uncomfortably behind her. “That only applies to losers like you. Ashleigh here,” She jabbed a finger at Ashleigh, who flinched, her face paling. “Has dibs on Nate, so you’d better back off, Keyes. Right Ashleigh?”
Obviously, Shelby was expected Ashleigh to back her up so that the two of them could push me around. I didn’t know what to expect from Ashleigh though.
“Yeah,” She smirked half-heartedly. Just like she didn’t believe me, I could tell that she was putting on some kind of façade.
“What the hell did you do to Melody?” The door burst open dramatically, like what you see in the movies, and Helen placed herself between me and them. Her hands were on her hips, and she was not happy.
“Nothing. Just having a friendly chat. Is that so wrong, Keeane?” No one was going to fall for that innocent smile of Shelby’s.
“When I find out what’s wrong with Melody and if it involves you, I’m gonna bash up that hideous face of yours. Both you and Ashleigh.” Helen snarled with more ferocity than I had ever witnessed from her before. I bet it was her monthlies that put her in that mood. “Now get out of my sight.”
“You can’t order me around, Keeane. I’m a soph.” Shelby flicked her hair and stared back at Helen challengingly. “Which is also why Trey should belong to me.”
There was shrieking and squealing, then Ashleigh and Shelby were gone, leaving Helen at the door, her fist raised and poised to strike.
Returning to my side, she asked me, her sienna-coloured eyes brimming with concern. “What did those assholes say or do?”
I shook my head and wiped the tears away. “Doesn’t matter. It wasn’t anything worth mentioning. I was crying because I was scared of failing my Calculus test.”
“Silly girl. You score all ‘A’s remember? There’s nothing to worry about.” Helen ruffled my hair gently, “And even if you don’t score as well as you want, there’s always a next time. If you need help, just poke Nathaniel with a pencil and ask him to help you. Shocking as it may be, but the dude is a maths whiz.”
I laughed, “That is indeed shocking.”
Helping me up, I washed up and walked out of the ladies, my arms linked with my friend.
***
“What the hell, Nathaniel?” Nate raised his voice at me.
“What’s the big deal?” I argued. “I don’t get why you guys hate Ashleigh so much. She doesn’t seem as bad as Shelby and the others.”
“She’s bad all the same!” Helen growled, “She upset Melody!”
“She didn’t! You guys stop it!” Melody panicked, watching us with fear.
“Fine, so I get it that being you, you can’t stand by and let her get hurt, but you didn’t have to freaking make a conversation with her!” Nate snapped at me.
“She slipped, I saved her in time, she thanked me, I said ‘you’re welcome’ and she thanked us for inviting to her house that day, and me for finishing up the project. Is that so wrong, Nate? She asked me to help thank you guys. I don’t think you deserve it.” I sighed.
“Nathaniel, Nate, stop it okay? You’re getting all fired up over a small matter.” Nathan commanded, placing a firm hand on my shoulder and Nate’s.
“I don’t want my brother to get hurt by one of those sluts.” Nate spat.
“I appreciate your concern for me, Nate, but dude, I’m not that dumb.”
“Yeah, you’re really dumb.”
I protested, “We get similar grades!”
“Grades aren’t everything,” Nate stuck his tongue out at me.
“Jerk,” I muttered, a grin slowly creeping up my face.
“Moron,”
Next thing I knew, I was giving my brother a noogie, and he was laughing, trying to wrestle me. I could see Melody looking absolutely dumbfounded from the corner of my eye.
I guess she didn’t know. Nate, Nathan and I could never truly stay mad at each other for long. Well, we are triplets. Even though we don’t play the part, we actually love each other very much.
And as I think that, my skin crawls, I inwardly cringe and that sounded totally gay.
“Why’d you shudder? Cold?” Helen asked.
Oh right, Helen may not seem to like me very much, but trust me, that girl can’t help but love me, like a sister, of course. I’m way too irresistible.
“Nah, you don’t want to hear it.”
“Thinking dirty things again, Nathaniel?” Nathan teased, smirking.
“Again? And I wasn’t thinking of dirty things. I was just thinking of how much we love each other, being triplets and all.”
“Ugh, you’re freaking me out. That definitely counts as dirty. You sound like you’re about to commit incest.” Nate cringed, stepping back from me to stand closer to Nathan.
“You’re not gay or something, are you?” Helen joked.
“No!” I hastily replied, “Duh, of course not.”
“Prove it,” Nate challenged.
“I have a crush on someone,” I declared as-a-matter-of-a-factly.
“Woah, why didn’t you tell us sooner, lil’ bro?” Nathan grinned while Nate waggled his eyebrows suggestively at me.
Ugh. Brothers.
Maybe I should tell them. Suddenly I was hyperaware that Melody was with us, a silent participant in our conversation, so I clammed up.
“There’s nothing to tell.” I mumbled.
“Come on, tell us. We can help you… seduce her.” Helen snickered, looking at me devilishly.
My face must have resembled the colour of a beetroot. “I-I don’t need your help.” I stammered.
“Oh, I forgot. You’re one of the lengendary Peyton triplet, world-renowned for being comparable to Adonis. Forgive me for not remembering.”
“You exaggerate, Helen.” Nathan frowned.
“Puh-lease, if any female doesn’t agree with my statement, it must be because she’s blind.”
“So who’s the lucky girl?” Melody finally piped in, smiling warmly at me. Tsk tsk. Such sarcasm. The laughter was so evident in those gorgeous eyes of hers. “I want to help you… seduce her too.”
What’s redder than a beetroot? An overly-ripe tomato? Cause I think I just turned a hundred shades darker.
Sadly, I couldn’t just say: “Hey Melody, can you tell me how to seduce you?”
I stuttered, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. “It-It’s just a tiny c-crush. No need to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
“Oh my goodness! Someone call BBC news! Nathaniel actually used a proverb! Correctly too!” Nate gasped incredulously.
“Ha ha. Very funny.” I narrowed my eyes, but I couldn’t make my smile disappear completely. As mean as it may sound, Nate’s comments could be very witty. Sometimes. “Why don’t you just shut up, Nate?”
I love it!
