Unchained Melody

by S. K Munt

  ‘I knew you were sneaking out!’

  Callie groaned when she heard Hunter call after her. She looked up at him and shook her head. ‘You know me too well bud. But go back outside, okay? As nice as it would be to have three people at rehearsals again, it won’t be on my conscience if you get dumped because Meredith’s mates are out there right now telling one another that you’ve come to collect on my- ’ she formed air quotes around the word: ‘-offer.’

  ‘I won’t get dumped.’ Hunter said matter-of-factly, resting a hand on one of his narrow hips. He wiped his hair out of one eye with the other hand and made a face, distracted clearly by the worm he was still trying to keep down. Callie hoped it tasted like a septic tank water after it had been used to make moonshine. She wished he didn’t look so good wet, either. ‘Mer’s crazy about me Cal. If she didn’t trust me, she would have followed me here.’

  Callie shoved her second foot into her boot and bent to tie the laces, keeping her gaze away from Hunter’s water-speckled and golden six pack. How had he managed to get one of those by the start of Spring anyway? She’d just seen him suck back an entire bag of Doritos! ‘Well then that’s a relief.’

  Hunter squatted. ‘Is it?’

  Callie looked up at him, surprised by his sobered tone. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  Hunter laced his fingers around one bent knee and inclined his head. ‘Callie… in what universe, and at precisely what point in time did you conceive of giving me your virginity?’

  Callie was astonished by his candor! ‘Hunter, it was a game.’

  ‘Then why are you running?’ He squinted into her eyes, though what he could see given how glassy his own brown eyes were was beyond her. ‘And why are you so worked up?’

  Callie rolled her eyes, hoping the motion wouldn’t jerk a tear free. ‘I have glassy-eyes from Sean’s joint, which is why I’m leaving,’ she lied. ‘And I already explained my answer; you would have been a safe choice. Besides, you have a girlfriend. If I’d said Reece or Ryan, people would have kept trying to dare me to...’ she made a face and shrugged. ‘Whatever. I’m sorry I said it, okay?’

  ‘I’m sorry you haven’t said it before now,’ was Hunter’s soft response. He rested her hand on Callie’s knee and a tingle of electricity made her knee cap twitch. ‘When did that occur to you Cal?’

  Callie groaned and stood, knocking his hand free. ‘Like, New Year’s okay? It was no big deal. We were wasted from Wolf’s Breath, we walked home, talking about how we’d never kissed anyone on New Year’s and for a second-’ she held up one finger. ‘One second- I thought that maybe we should you know, we were both still…’ she fiddled with the pin on her hat, trying to ignore how Hunter had risen with her and how close he was standing to her. ‘It wasn’t like I was into you Hunter, or trying to score a boyfriend. I just thought it would be a nice little moment, one friend doing the other a favor on a special occasion...’ She began to search through her ballet bag for her Discman. Ryan’s T. V was playing Channel V in the next room and the track was Ginuwine’s Pony and she needed to not hear the erotic words while her knee was still tingling from Hunter’s touch. She turned to leave, telling herself:

  It’s the alcohol making us act all stupid. When you sober up you are both going to have a good laugh about this with Ry and never feel this weird around them again! But then Hunter inched closer, blocking her exit by resting one arm beside her shoulder on the low divider wall behind her. ‘It would have been a very nice moment…’ His voice was low and intimate. ‘And if we’re still playing Truth Or Dare…’

  That was when Callie caught a whiff of the alcohol on Hunter’s breath, and noted his dilated pupils, leaving only that bright ring of yellow visible of the iris. He was drunk, and she didn’t need to go home and scour a Dolly Magazine to know that this was one of those: ‘Help! I accidentally kissed my best friend and now he won’t talk to me!’ moments just waiting to happen if she didn’t sober up his ego and make him see how foolish he, in fact all of them were being!

  Hunter was cute as, and since the first day they’d met, there had been this spark between them, so she sort of wanted to turn her face to his and see what happened; to see if Hunter would do what Ryan had decided against… and what it might be like if the boy she felt the most comfortable with in the world guided their bond up another fret.

  But then she glanced into his dilated eyes again and her resolve solidified. She liked the fret they were on, so she needed to snap them both out of it before they dropped the friendship chord completely!

  ‘I almost kissed Ryan!’ The confession slipped from Callie’s lips effortlessly, for she didn’t know how to be with Hunter or Ryan while keeping a secret. And she knew she shouldn’t anyway. Something had gone wrong in their friendship and distance and dishonesty weren’t going to fix it. Callie needed to be one of the boys again by hiding behind her hat and ignoring that they had grown up to be cute enough to make her want to look at them as often as she listened to them.

  The admission startled Hunter back- away from her. ‘What?!’ He looked utterly betrayed.

  Callie hugged herself. ‘Ryan almost kissed me, Hunt. This afternoon. It was… it was stupid. We fell asleep and woke up close and the storm came and so it didn’t happen and we’re both glad and neither of us wanted to tell you- but it almost happened.’ Callie tugged her cap back down, so he couldn’t see into her eyes. ‘So I named you in Truth Or Dare, because I didn’t want to encourage Reece, or let Ryan think that I thought it was more than just... a sleepy mistake.’ She smiled tightly. ‘You have a girlfriend. You aren’t attracted to me. You’ve never even come close to kissing me so therefore, you were the safest answer.’ She turned away, reaching for the door knob. ‘And that’s all Hunter. I’m trying to keep things from getting any weirder than they already are so please… don’t get weird. Like the kiss with Ry, my admission was nothing, okay? Nothing.’

  There was a knock on the door just then and Callie almost leapt clean out of her unlaced boots. Already knowing who it was, she composed herself and swung the door open, greeting Meredith with a wide, completely fabricated smile. ‘Hey!’ She chirped. ‘Good timing Meredith! Hunter and I were about to trot over to your place so you could look after his drunken ass.’ She opened the door all the way, revealing Hunter half-slumped against the wall, looking dazed. Callie slipped out between Meredith and the door jamb, patting her shoulder. ‘He’s been whining for you for ages and because I was going home anyway, I was going to bring him by.’ Callie was lying of course. She didn’t even know which house was Meredith’s. But the girl, who had at first eyed Callie and Hunter with suspicious blue eyes, swelled with self-importance.

  ‘Oh baby!’ She shot to Hunter’s side. ‘How much have you had?’

  ‘Enough to swallow a Tequila worm.’ Callie forced herself to giggle, then winked at Hunter. ‘But he’s starting to come to his senses agin, aint cha Hunter?’

  He blinked at her, frowned, and then shook himself off, glancing at his girlfriend while his ears reddened. ‘Yeah… a cold draft will do that.’

  ‘Good.’ Callie said pointedly. ‘Anyway guys, see yah Monday, okay?’

  ‘Thanks Callie!’ The blonde said without looking back at her.

  Callie closed the door shut behind her and then all but melted to the topmost of the million, perfectly paved steps to Ryan’s door, wondering if she’d come off flippant enough to counteract every horrible claim that was going to be made against her and Hunter’s names, before the night was out.

  *

  At around one in the morning, Hunter blew Meredith a kiss as Marnie’s car pulled away and jogged back up Ryan’s stairs, his legs burning by the time he reached the top. When he walked inside, the lights had been turned off but the air-conditioning was still on, making him feel like he’d walked inside a refrigerator.

  But Hunter’s face was still burning regardless; now that he’d sobered up, he was mortified. He had really made a jackass of himself with Callie, and
he hoped Ryan had too- or he was going to throttle him for getting Callie all weirded out in the first place by trying to kiss her!

  Hunter swung a left at the end of the foyer, passing the dining room and then began to trot down another flight of steps, trying not to think about Callie’s confession, about what might have gone down between his ‘friends’ that night if the party for two hadn’t been crashed.

  Ryan’s bedroom door was open when Hunter descended the basement steps, the reddish glow of lava lamps making the room look like the yawning mouth of hell. The sounds of Freak On A Leash blasting from within didn’t detract from that concept either, and Hunter felt the music stream past his ears and feed his pissed off soul.

  Ryan had already pulled out the fold-out couch and tossed some blankets and pillows onto it. Everything in Ryan’s room was black; black wrought iron furniture, black satin bedding, black leather sofa bed- but the exposed Besser Block walls were still their original grey, and so with the light of three red lamps, and clothes, sheet music and empty bottles and cans strewn about, the room looked more like a dungeon than a refuge.

  Hunter loved it. This was how musicians were supposed to live! Unfortunately, along with an architect father, Hunter had been saddled with an interior designer for a mother. Because their house doubled as a show piece, Hunter’s bedroom was meticulously presented, and he was expected to keep it that way. Navy blues and whites, natural timber furniture… a clock on the wall made from an actual antique ship steering wheel (his father’s obsession, not his) made his bedroom look like it belonged to someone who was eight in the head and forty at heart.

  His own personal touches, like his candles and stash of porn and posters were hidden behind curtains, cupboard doors and in matching wicker storage baskets in his closet. It was embarrassingly gay. Just like his hair. Just like the clothes his mother still bought for him- Hunter was suffering through high school like he was trying to emulate a Brady, not an artist. If he had things his way, he’d make his bedroom look like a diner from the 50’s; chrome furniture and a jukebox, pin-up posters on the walls, one of those cigarette ashtrays that spun and one of those neon signs that blinked...

  Ryan had showered while Meredith had been kissing Hunter good night and was now wearing black track pants with white stripes down the sides and no shirt as he stood in the center of the room and sculled a bottle of water until it con-caved with a crack. He threw the empty receptacle carelessly to the floor, looked up at Hunter and said: ‘Hey man. That only took forever. I’ve made your bed up though and there’s a fresh towel in the bathroom when you want it…’ He threw himself down on his own four poster bed and picked up a book: Don Quixote. Hunter knew that because he’d seen it on the table in the music room upstairs earlier. ‘I’m probably just gonna read until I pass out.’

  Hunter said nothing in response, watching Ryan settle comfortably into the centre of his bed, his nose already buried in the book. Water was shining like blood on his damp hair in the light, giving him the impression of being someone’s master or vampire lord, not a seventeen year old kid with mummy and daddy issues. Hunter resented him for that- for being so flippant, so fucking cool in the face of everything all the time. For reading a book with a title Hunter wouldn’t attempt to pronounce out loud. No one talked shit about Ryan. Callie was a slut, and Hunter was a wannabe rock-star who should have been a boy scout instead; but Ryan Weaver was Ryan Weaver and had never, a day in his life, tried to be anyone else or had been expected to be.

  Hunter leaned against the wall, crossed his arms and stared harder, waiting to see how long it would take for Ryan to feel a burning sensation between his eyes.

  It took four seconds.

  Ryan glanced at him, then turned back to the book. ‘Geez, how wasted are you? I’m not going to carry you to the shower, man.’ Hunter pressed his lips tightly, his scowl intensifying naturally in the face of that remark. Ryan sighed and put his book down on his chest, ‘Okay what? Did you drop acid or something?’

  Hunter stared.

  Ryan looked at him then, and after a few beats, a wearied look came over his face. ‘Fuck.’

  Hunter raised an eyebrow.

  Ryan sighed and sat up, tossing the book to the bedspread and resting his elbows on his knees, with his head in his hands. ‘She told you, didn’t she?’ Hunter tapped the side of his nose, afraid that if he opened his mouth now, nothing but the F-word come out. And he owed Ryan the chance to be heard out before he threw him into a few walls. ‘Look, I’m sorry.’ Ryan regarded him with an earnest expression, his drooping gait reminding Ryan of a scolded dog. ‘It wasn’t intentional. She was asleep, right there on the couch next to me, it was dark and raining, I was lonely, she was beautiful and smelled like fucking flowers…’ he exhaled. ‘But nothing happened.’

  ‘Because lightning struck?’ Hunter asked coldly.

  ‘Yeah.’ Ryan snorted. ‘I think the Gods were telling me to back off.’

  ‘Someone had to.’

  Ryan’s eyes flashed, looking a bit like muted lightning themselves for a moment. But then he sighed, flopping back on the bed and bringing his hands to his face. ‘Look I know it was stupid okay?’ Gavin Rossdale’s husky voice making lyrical anguish to Glycerine filled the room and suited to match both of their moods perfectly. ‘But I told you weeks ago that I was beginning to suffer in her company and what did you do?’ He sat up on his elbows and glared at him. ‘You pissed off. You left us alone almost every day for a month Hunter! It’s a bit late for you to lecture me for breaking the Three Musketeer code when you were off sticking your musket elsewhere!’

  ‘Okay, for starters, I haven’t stuck anybody with a musket.’ Hunter pushed off the wall, holding up a finger. ‘Secondly, I’m not just pissed off that you risked our friendship with Callie because you had a hard-on, but because you then asked her not to tell me about what happened. To keep a secret from me. How is that keeping us a trio, Ryan? Since when are secrets even a thing with us? What else haven’t you told me?’

  ‘Nothing!’ Ryan bounced to the balls of his feet, looking squarely at Hunter. ‘That’s it, okay? I almost kissed Cal. Almost. We were interrupted by thunder, and the way she answered that little Truth Or Dare round robin tonight tells me that she might have waved a red flag even if we hadn’t been- because you’re the one she’s imagined kissing anyway, not me!’

  But Hunter held up his hand. ‘She was full of shit, Ry. I don’t know what her real answer was, but she basically told me that she made it up for the simple fact that I was the only one of the three options that wasn’t available and therefore, wouldn’t get any ideas.’

  ‘Oh bullshit. She told you that because she doesn’t want you to know how much she really likes you.’ Ryan turned away and kicked his rubbish can aggressively. ‘Everyone knows it Hunter. Why do you think Sacha asked you what she did? About why you haven’t kissed Cal? Everyone assumes that you two have hooked up because clearly, there’s something between you guys that has been excluding me for a while!’

  ‘She doesn’t want me.’ Hunter snapped, the words causing him actual anguish. ‘She had her chance but she-’

  Ryan’s head whipped around. ‘What?! What chance? When?’ Hunter cringed. Everything inside him cringed just as everything inside Ryan began to straighten. His mate started laughing- actually laughing! ‘Oh no way- you’ve tried kissing her too?’ He loped towards Hunter with a half-amused, half-hateful grin on his face. ‘And I’m the one keeping secrets?!’ He poked Hunter in the centre of the chest. ‘When? Come on, Marks, fess up! I can see in your eyes that I’m fucking right!’

  Hunter slapped his finger away. ‘I just told you man, and it happened two hours ago. What was I supposed to do? Run inside with Meredith’s hand in mine, curl up in your lap and sob because I tried to take Callie up on her offer and she actually ran away after literally pushing Meredith into my arms?’

  Ryan’s brow smoothed out. ‘She did?’

  Hunter nodded. ‘I was drunk. I only meant to go
after her, to ask why she’d never mentioned the whole virginity thing to me-’

  ‘Because it excited you to hear it-’ Ryan pointed out.

  ‘Yeah well, fuck I’m not made of stone!’ Hunter stepped back, throwing his hands in the air. ‘Anyway I had her up against the wall, and she reacted like I had leprosy, told me that she’d exaggerated the wanting me thing, because she didn’t want you to think that she wanted you, or for Reece to think he had a shot in hell, period.’ He sagged back against the wall, feeling depleted in every cell. He shrugged. ‘And then she bailed.’ Ryan stared at him, his gaze shifting from one of Hunter’s eyes to the other quickly, as though searching for a tell that Hunter was now lying. But Hunter returned the suspicious look with a defeated look of his own, and held up his hands again. ‘She doesn’t want either of us, Ry. She’s our friend. And now, she’s this close to running to the hills, because we’re crossing lines all over the shop since she got boobs!’

  Ryan turned away. ‘Fuck! This is bullshit!’ He bounced lightly on the balls of his bare feet. ‘And it’s all my fault, of course! Why did I have her over? I’ve known this was coming. I didn’t plan to do it, but I knew there was a chance I might!’

  ‘You did?’ Hunter asked, stiffening again. ‘Why? How often have you thought about it?’

  ‘How often?’ Ryan leaned over and pulled up the spiral, five-subject notebook he used to write lyrics in. Loose leaves of paper were stuffed between the attached pages and Ryan pulled them out, throwing them above his head like he was in a parade. ‘This often!’ Dozens and dozens of pages took flight and floated to the ground. He paused, peered in the dim light at the title of one, shook his head and threw it into the air above his head. ‘Sun-Kissed Snow White!’ He pulled out another fistful. ‘Fisted heart!’ He reached for another and once again, flung it behind him. ‘I want to be inside you Callie!’ He shot Hunter a foolish look. ‘Okay that one was never meant to be seen…and they all suck anyways!’