A Secret Melody

by Hanleigh Bradley

  Melody’s tongue tickles the roof of my mouth. My hand holds her face in place as I pull her body closer with my other hand. We only pull apart when we’re both breathless. Melody leans against her door, trying to get her breath back.

  “See you in the morning,” I tell her. “I’ll walk you to breakfast.” I’m not sure why I’m telling her the obvious. I always walk her to breakfast.

  “Night,” she says, as she steps up on her tip toes to kiss me one last time.

  Knocking on Melody’s door the next morning, I have almost completely forgotten about the raised voices we heard the night before. It’s clear that Melody hasn’t though when she opens the door. Her eyes are bloodshot and there are black marks under them that I’d never tell her about.

  I open my mouth to say she looks tired when I realise that might be slightly tactless. Instead, I pull her out the door, taking her school bag and swinging it over my shoulder.

  “Good morning,” I say cheerfully.

  “Morning.” Her response is more of a grumble.

  “Didn’t you sleep well?” I ask.

  She then goes on to tell me that she had a nightmare about the ghost at the window.

  “Babe, it wasn’t a ghost,” I tell her gently. When we finally get outside, the sun is out and its surprisingly warm for spring.

  “I’m telling you, it was,” she replies.

  “What you two arguing about?” Alex asks as he and Ben fall into step beside us.

  “A ghost,” I sigh. “Melody thinks she saw a ghost last night.”

  “No way.” Ben chuckles. I slap him round the head because even if my girlfriend is talking crap, I don’t want him laughing at her.

  “Strangely enough, someone else said they saw a ghost a few days ago,” Alex tells us, “and Katie Michaels said she heard someone having an argument in the Mathematics building and when she went to check who it was there was no one there.”

  “See!” Melody says pointedly, her eyes demanding a retraction of my disbelief. “Tell me about the ghost.” She returns her focus to Alex.

  “Well it was late and Marley, Lucy, Kevin and Jack saw two ghosts in the grounds. I think the lads took the girls out purposefully to scare them though so I’m not sure it counts.”

  “See Zach!” Melody says triumphantly.

  “See what?”

  “I’m not the only one!”

  “Yeah but it was probably just in their imagination.”

  “Argh!” Melody stomps her foot in a cute display of irritation.

  “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

  “I don’t believe in you but yet you’re still stood right there,” she retorts crossly.

  I chuckle quietly.

  “I know what I saw.”

  Mrs Partridge is in a particularly foul mood today. She looks just as tired as Melody. We make our way into the classroom quietly, mostly because Melody is still cross that I don’t believe she saw a ghost. Mrs Partridge demands that we work in silence which works for me because my girlfriend isn’t talking to me anyway.

  Melody does the questions quickly and then requests to go to the bathroom.

  Mrs Partridge dismisses her and then Melody is out the door like a shot, leaving me sat alone. I tap my pen on the desk in frustration. Why the hell am I the bad guy? Just because I don’t believe in ghosts!

  Mrs Partridge calling my name causes me to jolt to attention. “Mr Mulligan would you please stop fidgeting!”

  “Yes Mrs,” I reply, ceasing the tapping of my pen.

  When Melody returns she doesn’t look at me and when Maths class comes to an end, she doesn’t walk beside me as we walk to our next lesson. Instead, she purposefully puts Abby in the middle of us.

  Chapter Thirteen – Melody

  He thinks I’m crazy. He doesn’t believe me and I guess it is a bit farfetched but I know what I saw. I saw a ghost, a ghost with track marks down her face, where she’d been crying, a look of abject desolation in her features.

  I’m tired and it’s making me testy, perhaps that’s why I’m so pissed with him. I mean, realistically if he told me he’d seen a ghost I’d have laughed in his face so I know I’m being a two faced bitch – massive double standards. Except I’m too tired to give a rat’s ear.

  I spend the whole day angry with him but he barely reacts. It’s not until our friends are planning our evening at the dinner table that he finally cracks.

  “Melody is going to bed,” Zach tells them without consulting me. Our friends seem to find it hilarious but I’m livid. How fucking dare he decide that I need to go to bed. Sure, I’m bloody exhausted but still it should be my fucking call.

  He takes my hand and drags me out of the canteen, leading me back to Wilberforce house.

  “You can’t just decide,” I begin to complain.

  “I can because you’ve been a complete bitch all day.”

  “Hey!”

  “Just calling it how I see it.” He barges into my room, pulling my pjs from under my pillow. He throws them at me and pushes me towards the bathroom.

  When I return a few moments later, changed out of my uniform, he is comfortably sat on my bed, my laptop on with The Simpsons playing.

  “Bed,” he demands.

  I curl myself up in the bedding and snuggle into his side. If this is my reward for being a pain in the arse all day, I might play up more often. I get an evening alone with my boyfriend.

  The warm feeling that surrounds me lulls me to sleep. Somewhere in the distance I can still hear his gentle laughter every time something funny happens on the show.

  When I wake the next morning, I’m fully refreshed and alone, Zach having left some time around curfew. The first thing I will need to do today is apologise for being a bitch.

  Zach Mulligan is the best boyfriend ever! He comes to pick me up for breakfast with a crème egg in hand.

  “Chocolate for a smile?” He smirks and I give him the biggest smile possible before apologising for yesterday.

  He shrugs it off though as if my bad mood is irrelevant. I think I might love this boy. He’s far too good to me.

  Our friends on the other hand, are less good to me. They are quick to comment that my mood seems to have drastically improved.

  “Managed to leave your resting bitch face in your room today?” Ben messes but Zach quickly cuffs him around the back of the head.

  “Leave my girl alone.”

  “Prince Charming to the rescue.” Alex smirks with a wink.

  Zach Mulligan might actually be perfect.

  When rumours hit us about a year ten that has seen a ghost, he still doesn’t believe me though.

  “But we can’t all be wrong,” I tease him.

  This time it had been a boy outside the history building. He’d seen a ghost at Mr Hurst’s classroom window. Several of the younger students were animatedly discussing it, some making plans to go on ghost hunts while others were panicking about the idea of having to go to history class in a haunted classroom.

  I tell Zach that we should go on a ghost hunt with a cheeky grin which he returns wholeheartedly.

  “Sure, babe.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Alex shakes his head. “We all know ‘ghost hunt’ is code for ‘let’s go and make out.’”

  We don’t deny it.

  Chapter Fourteen – Zach

  This ghost hunt idea was brilliant. We’re currently walking through the grounds, hand in hand, just the two of us. We stop intermittently to make out. The brief moments when we actually get time alone are like heaven. I love our friends but sometimes I just want to be with Melody and not just so I can kiss her, although that’s good too. It’s also because more than anyone else I love her company, I actually enjoy talking to her.

  We stop when we reach a bench. I wrap my arm around her, pulling her closer. I kiss her sweetly, allowing my lips to move with hers. She’s cold. Her lips are like ice and I work hard to warm them.

  My attention is so focussed on Melody that I fail to notice the t
ale-tale signs of people approaching until I can clearly hear their voices. Only then do we pull apart.

  “I’m not going to keep arguing with you,” Mrs Partridge says angrily.

  “I don’t really understand what the problem is,” Mr Hurst replies.

  “I’m not going to marry you.”

  “Why the hell not?” Mr Hurst sounds hurt now and I feel guilty listening in to their private conversation. Melody and I are both staring at each other, too scared to move, unsure where exactly our teachers are.

  “I just don’t want to get married.”

  “Fine.”

  Mr Hurst storms off and we watch in shock as he momentarily comes into view before disappearing again into the trees. Then, more shocking than anything else, we hear Mrs Partridge burst into tears.

  Melody being Melody, she jumps to her feet and moves to approach the teacher. I try to stop her but she’s having none of it.

  Instead, she lunges out of my reach.

  “Mrs Partridge?” She calls out and the tears come to an abrupt stop.

  “Miss Peters, what are you doing out here at this time of night?” A glance at her watch seems to remind her that it’s not as late as she might have imagined and her face furrows.

  “Are you okay, Mrs?” Melody asks.

  “I’m fine,” Mrs Partridge replies tersely. “Why do you ask?”

  “You seem sad.” Melody takes a deep breath. She’s apparently completely forgotten that this particular teacher hates her. “Mrs Partridge, may I ask you a question?”

  “I’m sure you will anyway. Just get on with it.” Her tone is clipped, impatient.

  “Why won’t you marry him?”

  I can totally picture my girlfriend getting murdered right here and now by her math teacher. What the hell possessed her to ask that?

  “You’re being highly impolite, right now,” Mrs Partridge rebukes her.

  “I know it’s none of my business,” Melody is quick to say, “except I remember when you used to smile every day. You must miss Mr Partridge an awful lot.”

  The teacher looks both shocked and stricken.

  “But,” Melody continues, “if you love someone else, it doesn’t mean you love him less. It’s okay to be happy. It would be nice to see you smile again.”

  Then taking us all by surprise she wraps her arms around Mrs Partridge. Before the teacher can react, she pulls back, taking my hand and together we walk back to Wilberforce house.

  My girlfriend is a freaking force of nature.

  The next morning in Math class, Mrs Partridge is still as moody as ever but I don’t miss the little smile she offers Melody. The night before I’d asked Melody a million questions. She’d told me that Mr Partridge had died not five years ago but he’d been sick for several years before that. It had been really hard for Mrs Partridge losing her husband. She’d smiled less, laughed rarely and whatever life she seemed to have had seemingly been extinguished.

  The stories of students seeing ghosts died down over the next few days until the gossip was completely replaced with a new topic. Mr Hurst and Mrs Partridge had been found making out in a cupboard, like students and were rumoured to be engaged. Ghosts completely forgotten, the whole school began planning their teachers’ wedding for them. The girls ohhed and ahhed and the boys huffed at all the talk of wedding dresses and tiaras.

  Melody didn’t mention to our friends the part she had played in Mrs Partridge’s acceptance but I knew and I couldn’t help but think she was even more amazing because of it.

  As Easter break approached, I grew irked at the idea of having to go back up to Scotland for the holiday. The sun had finally started to make more of an appearance and as a result we were spending more and more time outside. Currently sat out on the lawn, the five of us are studying for our Math exam but I’m not really paying attention to the question I’m supposed to be answering. I’m in a miserable mood because the Easter break is barely a week away and the last thing I want to do is say goodbye to Melody for two whole weeks.

  Melody breaks the silence a moment later.

  “What are you all doing for the holidays?” She asks.

  “Dunno,” Alex shrugs.

  “Going home I guess,” Ben replies.

  I stay quiet, simply responding with a shrug of my shoulders.

  “Fancy coming to mine?” She asks us all, completely taking me by surprise.

  The others are quick to agree. I’m slower. Not because I don’t want to but because I’m a little surprised. Does she even realise that she’s asking her boyfriend to come home with her?

  “Sure,” I reply, trying to act cooler than I feel. I’m a bit scared to be honest. I’ve heard a lot about her brothers and her parents. But more than the fear, I feel relief. I don’t have to say goodbye for two whole weeks.

  Chapter Fifteen – Melody

  I didn’t think it through. All I thought about was the fact I didn’t want to be away from him. I didn’t think that that would mean introducing him to my parents. What the fuck was I thinking? Holy shit! I really didn’t think this through at all. Inviting friends home is one thing, inviting my boyfriend is something else all together.

  My parents aren’t really the problem. It’s my brothers. They are bound to ask Zach a million questions, threaten him more times than I can count and leave the poor lad scared out of his socks. No joke. Landon is insanely protective. He has the big brother thing down to a tea. He’d threatened to castrate Harry after catching him climbing out of my bedroom window over Christmas break and my family had known Harry for years. But they don’t know Zach from Adam.

  As we sit in the back of the black Audi on our way around the M25 I consider lying. We could just keep our relationship a secret. Except I don’t want to do that and more than that I’m a shit liar. My brothers will see right through it.

  The best thing I can do is make sure that Zach doesn’t spend so much as a second alone with either of my brothers. I clear my throat.

  “Guys, I need your help,” I say to the others in the car.

  I tell them all about my brothers and Abby nods her head in agreement.

  “They have a habit of going a jot over the top,” she says as confirmation.

  Zach just grins and tells us not to worry, except that isn’t an option.

  I quickly instruct our friends that Zach is not to be left alone under any circumstances. Zach seems to find the whole thing highly amusing.

  “You just wait,” I tell him, as he pulls me closer to his side and drops a kiss on my cheek.

  I’m never prepared for the reactions that I get whenever my friends see my house for the first time. It doesn’t matter who it is, they all react the same but I’m always caught out. See, I forget that the house is massive and that most families aren’t as crazy rich as mine. To me this is normal.

  Ben and Alex are stunned to silence as my mum gives us all a tour. They literally seem to be in love with my indoor swimming pool and the cinema room. Alex even makes a joke that if Zach doesn’t marry me, he will.

  I always forget that this is how people respond to money until I see it AGAIN. But Zach is different. He doesn’t get excited. His eyes don’t bulge. He just smiles happily at my mum and tells her politely that she has a beautiful house. It’s not that his family are as rich as mine. From what I understand they’re not. It’s not that he’s used to the luxury that I am. It’s simply that it doesn’t impress him the way it impresses others. He doesn’t want it the way others do. And that makes me like him that much more.

  “Is Landon home?” I ask mum as the tour comes to an end and we crowd round the patio table for homemade lemonade. My mum makes the best homemade lemonade.

  “Yes. Your brothers are at the stables. They’ll be back for dinner.”

  I can’t believe they went riding without me. Jerks.

  “Dad?”

  “At work.” Two words. That’s all that’s needed. My dad is a bit of a workaholic. I think it must be hard for mum but she’s never
once complained, at least not in front of me. Although I’ve heard the arguments enough times – when they think I’m out of earshot – to know that they are far from happy. Mum quickly starts up a conversation, asking us all about our school work. It’s deadly dull but my friends are all super polite and answer her honestly.

  After about twenty minutes my brothers bundle into the backyard, their riding hats in hand, looking every bit the jockey. They look our way and their faces light up when they see me.

  “Mel!” Ayden charges at me, engulfing me in a bear hug that threatens to steal my breath.

  Landon is more reserved. “Angel.” He’s always called me that, for as long as I can remember I’ve always been the Angel to his Devil. He’s says where I’m light, he’s dark. He definitely thinks I’m better than I am.

  I make quick work of the introductions. They know Abby, of course. She’s been my best friend since I started at Chelston back when I was only nine years old. They greet her as if she’s an adopted sister, although the way Ayden looks at her, I don’t think his thoughts are particularly brotherly. They shake hands with the guys but they scrutinise Zach before offering him their hand. Landon’s eyes are dark and foreboding and I wonder if they are about to start another pranking war and this time their victim instead of being each other, might just be my poor boyfriend.

  However, they shake his hand and ask a few inane questions and I begin to allow my shoulders to droop. Perhaps I’d been overly concerned. But then I notice the sideways glance they exchange and I realise that my twisted pair of brothers are simply lulling us into a false sense of security.

  Chapter Sixteen – Zach

  Melody is worried. She’s barely left my side all evening. It’s pretty cute to be fair but it’s completely unnecessary. Her brothers have a plan, that much is clear but they are unlikely to put it into action when everyone is around.