Melinda had held onto her dream since she was young, no matter who told her it was a waste of time or who didn’t believe in her. After the time she’d spent out here she had become used to her mother and father asking her when she was going to come home and get a nice waitressing job at the tavern like her cousin Ella, or settle down and get married to a stable young man who painted houses or worked on a farm.
She placed her purse next to her keys on the small foyer table. “Can it wait long enough for me to get changed out of my work clothes?” she asked, trying to buy a little time to prepare herself mentally for whatever it was Brandi needed to talk about. Was the landlord raising their rent? Did Melinda drink the last of the milk and forget to buy more?
“I still smell like churros and rediscovered childhoods.” She picked at the front of her white blouse with the little blue castles printed all over it, the iconic symbol of the amusement park where she ran a cash register in a souvenir shop.
“I need a shower, too. It was over ninety-eight degrees out there, today. I’ve been sweating like a pig.” She ran her fingers through her wavy, thick hair, which Brandi had always envied, but right now felt greasy and in need of a good wash. “I’ve been a hot mess since I left here this morning.”
“Actually,” Brandi said, shifting in her seat and glancing at Tyler, “it’s kind of important.”
Alarms began to go off inside Melinda’s head. “Okay,” she said, even more apprehensive, and made her way over to the armchair.
Tyler continued to glare at her, but now he had a slight curve to the hard line of his mouth. That made Melinda’s anxiety spike higher. She cleared her throat and tried to sound casual. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Melinda’s eyes widened at Brandi’s abrupt announcement. “Oh my God, what? Are you serious?”
At Brandi’s excited nod, Melinda felt a momentary rush of relief, and she laughed. “Oh my God! Bran, that’s so awesome! I know you always said you wanted kids but you were going to wait until after college.” She shook her head and smiled. “Congratulations, honey. Here, let me give you a hug.” She started to push up from the chair.
“You might want to stay sitting down,” Brandi said, holding up a cautioning hand. “There’s more.”
“More?” Blinking, Melinda watched as Tyler freed his hand from Brandi’s only to wrap his arm around her shoulders. He sank down deeper into the sofa, manspreading, like settling in to watch one of his basketball games on TV. That feeling of uncertainty crept back in and Melinda looked at Brandi. “You’re not thinking of getting rid of it, are you?”
“Oh God, no,” Brandi said. “No, I’m keeping it. In fact…” She held up her left hand to show off the small diamond engagement ring on her slender finger. “We’re going to be married before the baby arrives.”
Melinda stared at the ring. Immediately, she began to piece it all together: the somber “need to have a talk,” the smug look on Tyler’s face, the happy news… This took her down a path to which she could see only one possible end. A dark hole opened up inside her and her heart plunged into the abyss. “You’re telling me I have to move out,” she said quietly.
“We could put the crib in our room,” Brandi said, “but if the baby is up crying all night then Tyler won’t get any sleep and he works full-time. That means the baby is going to need his or her own room.” She swept her blonde hair off her shoulder with one hand and shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Mel. I wish we could afford to get a bigger place with three rooms, but my doctor is already telling me this is probably going to be a difficult pregnancy for me and that I’m looking at a C-section. I’m going to have to cut back to a half-shift at the hospital. That means less money coming in, and I can’t ask you for more because you don’t make enough on your thirty hours a week.”
“I also can’t afford a place of my own.” Melinda could feel her eyes filling with tears. “Even a studio in the worst neighborhood in town would be out of my price range.” She leaned forward, elbows on knees, and buried her face in her hands. “What am I going to do?”
“You can check online and see if there’s anyone looking for a roommate,” Brandi suggested. “I can help you search…”
“You know I have trust issues,” Melinda said, pulling her hands away from her face. “I can’t live with a total stranger.”
At this point, Tyler snorted a laugh. “Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone’s going to rape you.”
“Tyler!” Brandi shot him a look, part shock, and part disapproval.
Melinda frowned at Tyler. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded, eyes narrowing. “Are you saying I’m too fat to be raped?”
“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Brandi said, trying to calm the waters.
“No, I think that’s exactly what he meant.” Melinda’s dismay shifted and began to take on a fast rise to anger. Her mother – a white woman – had always said she had inherited her short temper from her Mexican father.
Melinda glared at Tyler. “I don’t know what your problem is with me. I have gone out of my way to be nice to you ever since you and Brandi started dating, but it doesn’t matter because you have always treated me like shit. I couldn’t figure out why you hated me so much until one day when I overheard you talking on the phone and you said you couldn’t meet up because you were ‘waiting for that fat bitch to get out of the bathroom’ so you could get a shower.”
“Is that true?” Brandi asked, gawping at Tyler. She turned back to Melinda. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Melinda let out a short, embittered chuckle and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Because I didn’t want to ruin your happiness,” she said, voice cracking. “And because I kept hoping that you would wake up one day and realize what a jerk you dated.
She got to her feet and looked down at Tyler. “You could have had a really good friend in me, but instead of getting to know me you decided to judge me by my size.” Her tearful gaze shifted to Brandi. “I’m sorry, Bran, but your baby-daddy is a loser and an asshole.”
She headed for the door, grabbing her keys and purse. “I have Thursday off,” she said. “I’ll get some boxes and start packing my stuff. I guess I should probably put in my two weeks’ notice at work tomorrow.”
“Come on, Mel, don’t do this,” Brandi said.
She rose from the couch and started after Melinda. “You don’t have to move out right away.”
Melinda could not bring herself to look at her friend. “You really think I can stay here, now?” she asked.
She felt another wave of misery rising over her. “I guess I better call my mom…ask if I can move back in for a while until I can get a job and start saving up for a place of my own. At least I’ll be able to afford to live on my own, there.”
“You’re going back to Tehachapi?” Brandi asked, and she sounded like she had just asked if Melinda planned to go live in a cesspool – which was one of the words they often used to describe their hometown.
“Well,” Melinda said, “it’s not like I really have much of a choice.” Opening the door, she stepped out of the air-conditioned apartment and back into the heat of the waning day.
Chapter Two
Melinda made her way out to her car, an old beater she had purchased from one of her cousins when she left home over a year ago. It had a lot of miles on it, the stereo didn’t work, and it had some cosmetic flaws, but it passed the emissions tests and got her where she needed to go. Melinda hoped it would be able to make the long, winding drive back up the Grapevine loaded with all her personal belongings.
She sat behind the wheel for a moment, trying to catch her breath. She had to admit her exit from the apartment had been pretty dramatic. But who could blame her? Am I being selfish? She wondered, glancing up at the reflection of her red-rimmed eyes in the rear view mirror. My best friend is going to have a baby. I should be happy for her.
She was happy, but it also meant drastic changes to her life th
at might affect whether or not she could continue pursuing her dream. Melinda knew that she had overreacted to the news a bit and had a bit of a meltdown, which was not like her, but it all came at the wrong time. if she could have had a shower and something to eat after the long stressful day she’d just had then she might have been in a better mood to handle the news that was coming. She knew that she would have reacted in a much more mature fashion.
But she was so glad that she had told Tyler what she thought of him to his stupid face. The man was a pig; he was going to end up hurting Brandi. A year from now she would be a single mother struggling to pay the bills and hunting down Tyler’s deadbeat dad ass to get even a penny of alimony or child support from him.
But Brandi was almost as stubborn as she was about things and Brandi would do what she felt was right for her. Melinda had to respect that at least, even if she knew it was dead wrong and someone needed to talk some sense into Brandi. As the thoughts rolled through her head she knew that her family had often felt the same way about her.
But that was way different; she knew what she was doing.
As she had time to process and think it all over, Melinda could not stop feeling so guilty. She almost wanted to turn the car around and drive back to apologize. But she knew she was right.
Feeling guilty over being upset had been programmed into her at an early age. So had her response to the guilt – which was why she found herself pulling into the parking lot at the local El Burrito chain restaurant a few minutes later. She could use the excuse that she had not had dinner, but deep down she knew the reason she ordered the extra quesadilla had been out of a need to comfort herself with food.
She dried her eyes and managed to put on a smile when she walked up to the counter to place her order. She glanced around at the dining area. The blow-up with Tyler had served to make her more self-conscious about eating in public; right now, she knew she would lose it completely if just one person looked her way and started to snicker.
Grabbing her bag of food and her soda, she headed back to the car. She set the cup on the roof while she fumbled with her keys. “Fuck!” she said as they slipped out of her busy fingers. With a sigh, she bent to retrieve the keys. It seemed kind of crazy to get distressed over something so trivial.
She got the car unlocked and reached for her drink. “It’s not like this night can get any worse,” she muttered to herself.
A large hand appeared, grabbing the top of the door and stopping it before she could open it more than a few inches. Startled, Melinda jumped back with a shout of surprise – and wound up dumping her drink on herself. Ice cold soda soaked into her uniform shirt, which she knew from experience would result in a stain if she could not get it washed out right away. What didn’t absorb into her blouse wound up on her shoes.
“What the actual fuck?” Melinda cried. She pounded her fist on the top of the car in frustration. And now felt like her hand might be broken as she brought it to her mouth nursing her wound. As the pain subsided she turned to see what buffoon had decided to cause a drink to spill all over her.
She looked up at the man holding onto her car door. How he managed to come up on her so fast without her noticing, she had no idea; she only knew she had just gone from surprised to pissed off.
“Thanks a lot, asshole,” she snapped. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
In the amber glow from the parking lot’s lights, she could see the guy stood a few inches taller than her, which put him over six feet in height. His long black coat did little to hide his strong shoulders, broad chest, and narrow waist.
His pale blond hair had been pulled back from his face into a ponytail, and his jaw and cheekbones looked sharp enough to saw through a redwood.
He seemed like someone who should be starring as the hero in some big budget action-adventure picture. Given their proximity to Hollywood, Melinda realized he could in all likelihood be an actor.
She had a feeling that she should know him, a powerful sense of familiarity as she stared up into his penetrating eyes. “Uh, hey.” When he just stood there without speaking, Melinda started to grow nervous. Her retail experience began to kick in. “Can I help you?”
He did not reply. Instead, he gave the door a forceful shove to close it and took a step toward her.
Melinda’s heart leaped. She shot a frantic glance toward the restaurant, hoping someone would come out at that moment and hear her if she screamed for help. But no one came out, and she felt pretty certain her cries would go unnoticed by those still inside. Her hand dropped to her purse, still hanging on her shoulder.
“Seriously,” she said, backing away slowly and carefully, “what do you want?”
“You,” he said, his voice a low, deep rumble.
Melinda’s fingers closed around the pepper spray. Before she could bring it up out of her purse, however, the stranger lunged at her.
His powerful arms banded around her and Melinda let out a shriek. A bright light enveloped them, her ears popped, and the world around them disappeared in a flash of white.
Chapter Three
Melinda continued to scream when the light faded and she found herself in a large, spherical chamber with smooth metal walls and a black metallic floor.
She shoved away from the stranger, who released her. Her eyes widened as she looked around. The room appeared brightly lit but she could see no light sources. “What the – what is this place?” she demanded. “Where are we?” She looked at him. “Who the fuck are you?”
“He is Roth, son of Mion.”
Melinda whipped around, feeling lightheaded, to see another tall, powerfully built man with pale skin, black hair, and eyes the color of gold coins. Like Roth, he dressed in a form-fitting black suit that shimmered in the light, with a sleeveless vest that extended past his knees.
Melinda saw no door and she had not heard him come in – if anything, he seemed to have materialized out of nowhere. “Who are you?” she asked.
“I,” he replied, in a smooth voice, “am Athan, son of Taran.” He smiled. “You are safe, Melinda. No harm shall come to you.”
She frowned. “How do you know my name?”
Athan chuckled. “We know everything about you,” he said. “Right down to your genetic make-up. We have been observing you for some time. As to where you are?”
He motioned with a graceful, long-fingered hand and a panel in the wall opened to reveal a black void littered with tiny pinpoints of light. “You are aboard a ship traveling through space.”
Melinda blinked, and then she started to laugh. “Oh, please,” she said. “Is this a joke? I don’t know how you did it, but I recognize a movie studio soundstage set-up when I see one. Are you guys shooting some science fiction picture or something?”
She walked over to the window and leaned forward, peering out from side to side. “This is all just a special effects screen.”
“I assure you, Melinda,” Athan said, “you are no longer on the world you call ‘Earth’. At present, we are traveling away from your planet.”
She looked at him, one eyebrow arched in disbelief. “You’re really sticking with that story?” She snorted and shook her head. “Okay, look – I had a long day at work, I just got some bad news, and I’m not in any mood for practical jokes.”
She looked over at Roth. “And you,” she added, “are an asshole for scaring me.” She pointed to her blouse, still damp but the soda already setting in and leaving a brown stain. “You’re either getting the cleaning bill, or you’re buying me a new one.”
Roth regarded her with eyes that Melinda could now see had a strange, blue iridescent quality to them. “If I did not know better,” he told Athan while keeping his gaze fixed on Melinda, “I would say she is not the one. She talks entirely too much, and everything that comes from her mouth is steeped in ignorance.”
Melinda could not believe what she just heard. Her jaw dropped for a moment but as her temper began to flare again she pursed her lips and planted a hand on
one of her wide hips.
“Oh, okay. So that’s how it is? You pop up out of nowhere as I’m about to get in my car, you scare the shit out of me, then you relocate me to God knows where – telling me I’m on a spaceship – and then you call me ignorant?”
She stabbed a finger at Roth. “Well, fuck you, mister. I’m done playing this game. You take me back to my car right fucking now, or I’m calling the LAPD to report your asses.”
“I stand corrected,” Roth said. One corner of his mouth tugged upward. “She is ignorant and vulgar.”
He turned away from Melinda and walked over to stand beside Athan. “There must be another, one better than this one. I am a Hunter – let me do my job. Take this one back and I will find someone else.”
“There is no one else,” Athan insisted, staring into Roth’s eyes. “She is the only one left.”
“Uh, excuse me?” Melinda called out to them. She waved a hand for attention and they turned to look at her. “Yeah. Hi. I’m standing right here, and if you’re talking about me I can hear every word even if none of it makes any sense.”
Athan pressed a hand to his chest and bowed his head. “Forgive me,” he said, “we did not mean to appear rude. I will endeavor to explain. Please note that everything I say to you now is truth, not a fabrication. It is no ‘joke’, as you called it – in fact, it is a matter of dire importance. I will preface this explanation with an apology for the way my friend here treated you; I am afraid he is lacking in the areas of grace and good manners.”
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