Chapter 25: That Feeling : Part 2/2 :

There was a draft coming from the garage door, as I stood there trembling. The vibrations of voices transuded through my fingertips as I waited beside the door, touching the door, listening, waiting, and listening.
It was obvious a girl was talking, and she was clearly confused. "I don't understand what's going on" She said.
Silence quickly came along after she spoke. "Where is she?!" She asked. I envisioned her looking straight at the garage door that I was stealthily standing beside, like a statue.
Finally David spoke and tried to calm down whoever was speaking. It was obvious he knew how to tell people what they wanted to hear. "She's in the garage-" He hesitated. "Look, can you please just do me a favor and take her home for me? PLEASE!" He pleaded, nearly begging her.
"Fine" She said before quickly warning him again. "You better not do this again-You promised me"

Before I could even think any further David sighed, "I know-I know! And I promise it won't happen again okay."
The door swung open, I jumped like a rabbit. It was David and...*Drum roll please* Casey! This girl needed a standing ovation. She looked like she was about to walk a fucking runway, and she had the attitude too.
God only knew what was going through her head, let alone my own. "It's pretty late, you should leave with Casey." David said swiftly as he placed his hand on her back and gently eased her forward, through the door.
She should've been slapping me across the face, she should've been pinning me to the ground, pulling on my hair. She should've been yelling at me and insulting every inch of my being, leaving me withered and dry like a flower- a useless one.
But nope instead she was asking me "Are you ready?" I turned towards the back door, taking in all the dark images.
I looked back over, watching David touch her shoulders and whisper something in her ear. I shouldn't have been jealous, yet I was.
 Squeeeaaak! He quickly shut the door and then it was just me and Casey despite my glaring eyes that burned through him like lasers.

"What time is it?" I asked slowly.
She looked at me like she was worried. "Well, it's 5-" Her voice cracked a little bit and she looked at me, intensely. "How long were you guys here?" She pondered.
Oh God, here comes the confrontation.  My eyes looked all around, at the studio equipment, to the stone wall. "I'm not sure maybe like an hour or so, we got here at 4." I said quickly, with speed of an auctioneer. We definitely had been here way before 4.
"Oh, okay well I should take you home before your parents flip their shit." There was an awkward silence after she said that but she made a face, that eventually made us both laugh.
"Okay- Now calm down! Come on let's go." She said gesturing towards the backdoor, once she realized I wouldn't stop laughing. She seemed kind of weird-ed out by the fact that I was still laughing.

Casey, led me out to the back and we passed the pool and for the first time I noticed something I never did before. David's parents had a hot tub right over the pool. he had a lot of nerve, criticizing me for my skirt yet his pool wasn't even covered up yet.
Creeeak, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the fence opening.
The door swung forward from Casey's gentle touch, it was obvious she had snuck in or snuck out of here many times before.
I hated how dark it got outside during this time of the year, it was like living in a totally different time zone or perhaps another planet where the sun barely shined.
It had only been a few seconds or so that I was with Casey and I was already feeling like shit. First off, I just kissed her fucking boyfriend! Secondly, she was about to take me home and now that meant I was going to have to come up with mini-dialogue scenarios in my head.
I knew they would be waiting for me at home and I honestly felt bad about it, just a little bit.

We made it out front and my feet tracked along the dirt. Jingle, jing jing, the sound of Casey's keys dangling in the air reminded me of sleigh bells and Christmas. I know that's odd to say but that's what it reminded me of. Maybe it was the weed?
She unlocked the doors to the car and the locks popped up like groundhogs, jumping out of underground holes.
I followed her lead, swinging open the car door as my fingers gripped the smooth, pink handle of her Jeep.
The seat was warm, when I sat down a look of shock sprung across my face as my eyes shot wide open. "I guess not everyone likes heated seats" she said, laughing at me.
Turning to her, I said "No! I like it-I can't stand being cold! I just wasn't expecting the seat to be warm like that" I said reassuringly, as I tried smiling at her but it was just too hard to do so.
She didn't say anything after I said that, she just smiled some more and started backing out of the driveway and onto the road.

Once we were onto the road, the sound of the tires against the pavement was like a never ending waterfall, a highly advanced and man made, and man controlled one.
My eyes were like mini-magnifine glasses, taking everything in. Casey had a very specific taste in her colors, she was clearly very organized. Purple and pink pastel tones colors filled the entire inside of her Jeep.
Two pom-pom like pink die, dangled all over her rear-view mirror. A stick of lip stick was resting inside her cup holder, along with the travel-sized can of hair spray. "So what were you guys doing?"She asked, turning the wheel as we went down another street.
I focused my eyes on the road, "Nothing. He just wanted to show me something" I lied.
She laughed, "Oh please! I can smell the weed on you!"
Every hair on my body stood up, my lips trembled as I tried to come up with something to say but nothing would come to me. She lowered her eyes at me and then turned her head, facing the road ahead of us.
"It's okay, I won't tell anyone" She said, reassuringly but I don't think she realized the fact that I kind of didn't care right now, she wasn't the one that I was thinking about right now. "You know I light it up occasionally- But that's not really my thing, ya know?" She said.
I wasn't going to say anything until I looked up.
She was about to make another turn, and drive down 'Willy Road.'

"Stop!" I screeched, it was like my voice was a stop sign.
Casey slammed her foot against the breaks, turning to me. "What?!" She asked frantically.
I felt bad for making her scared like that, but I didn't want her to miss the turn either. "I, umm- I uh-" I wanted to say I don't live there anymore but then this would probably turn into a game of 21 questions and that was the last thing I wanted right now. "I'm staying with my uncle for the ummm-the holidays!" I said quickly. "I didn't want you to miss your turn" I smiled.
She looked at me like she might want to slap me, I did deserve it. "Okay, don't do that again" Her arms gently curved to the side as she held the steering wheel and turned down the street. "You know, there's a little thing called reverse" She laughed, tapping me on the arm with her hand closest to me. I still wasn't listening to a word she said.
My eyes nearly became blind as I stared at her hand, enchanted by the gleaming, icy rock on her finger. I had never seen it on her finger before, and I didn't want to ask questions.
No, fuck that I wanted to know- besides, it was just a question. "I wish I had a ring like that" I said, trying to hide my resentment, watching the white lines on the road move with the motion of the car. There were alot of trees on this particular street, sometimes I hated hearing their branches scrape against the cars on the street and other times I loved watching them sway in the air like a hula dancer.
Her eyes were like the sun, radiating with sunshine. She was quick to answer, and proud too. "Oh yes! It's quite stunning, huh?" She couldn't stop smiling and blushing. "Someone lent it to me-for tonight." She said that like she was reluctant to say more.
I could sense the awkwardness in her voice but I sat there, still listening. "David was supposed to take me out tonight , so I should return this ring since that clearly  won't be happening anymore."
What did she want from me? Did she expect me to say sorry? Because I wasn't saying shit besides "Oh, well he didn't say anything about that." I looked over at the road, we were here. "You can stop now."

The tires started to slow down and she pulled off to the side of the street, in front of the house.
"Of course he didn't say anything about it! You know, that's just like him- he never remembers anything." She said, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up in the air before slamming them on the steering wheel again.
I was quiet, thinking about things. If only she knew. "Well, I guess all guys are like that" I lied. David remembered my favorite quote, if he could remember all of that, then he could remember that he made plans with Casey.
Casey grabbed the lipstick from her cup holder and started applying some more onto her lips as she looked straight into the rear-view mirror, inching her neck up like a Caterpillar, just so she could see her lips. "No, David just doesn't have his priorities straight, that's all." She mumbled.
If only she knew, I laughed inwardly.
I noticed she was looking over at the house that was shining in the dark. "Is that your uncle's house? It's beautiful...You know I've always wondered what it was like to live in a 2-story house yet here I am looking at a 3-story house." She said, clearly reminiscing about something as she stared into empty space.
The sky was growing darker and darker, and it was obvious someone was home. "Thanks for the ride" I said, reaching for the door before she stopped me.
"Wait!" She shouted, and reached over, grabbing her bag from the back seat and then pulling out a bottle of perfume that I couldn't pronounce the name of even if I tried my hardest. The letters had a bunch of accent markings over them.  "Close your eyes" she said gently.
I did as she said and closed my eyes. She misted me with perfume, and I felt the wet floral scented beads of liquid fall against my bare skin and some of it fell onto my legs.  "Your neck is like...umm, never mind"
She wasn't dumb, she could put 2 and 2 together. She had every right to curse me out but, she didn't do it. A slap to the face would've served me right but, she didn't do it.
"Bye" She said quickly, moving her hand over to switch gears, getting ready to drive off.

***

There was nothing but silence and the scent of garlic in the air as I walked through the door. I peered around the room, no one was down here, and it didn't seem like anyone would be coming down here.
I could hear the sound of plates clinking and heard Adrianne's voice, I wasn't sure who else was up there but it sure sounded like they were having a good time without me.
Why didn't anyone text me or call me? It was pretty fucking late, I should've been home 3 and a half hours ago.
My heart started racing. Shit!
I traced my fingers all over my body, from my hips to my neck. I left my phone, my scarf, and all my notebooks, everything- my backpack, it was all in David's room.
Talk about being a dumb ass.
There I stood in the living room, smelling like musky weed smoke and expensive perfume, I needed to change that ASAP.

I rushed into my room, locked the door and went into my bathroom, looking at the bathtub hopelessly. I really wanted to take a shower, not a bath.

My hands gripped the handle next to the bath faucet, and twisted it. I watched the water tumble down into the bath, rumbling in a steady rhythm like a marching band. So much for trying to lay low.
It felt like a year passed as I stood there watching the water, inch up closer and closer to the rim.
My skirt fell to my knees, along with the rest of my clothes.
The water sucked my feet down all the way to the bottom of the bathtub as I dipped my feet in, and eventually sat down.
Shivers coated my whole body even though the water was anything but cold.
I sat there for several minutes, rubbing my skin and thinking about what had just happened, I wasn't really worried- I was just a little irritated and I really had no reason to be.
I pinched my nose with my fingers and submerged myself underwater, feeling the water rest all around me, distinctly wrapping around every arc and curve on my body.

The cold air slapped me in the face as I rose up, taking slow breaths. Somehow I found that relaxing.
A slow rumble worked it's way through my stomach, I guess that meant it was time to get out.

***

Swissshhh Swissssshhh!  The faucet sang out, as I walked into the kitchen in my pajamas, finding one plate on the table still full of food and the rest of the plates in the sink, getting washed by Allyson.

She noticed me, standing there by the plate of food. "Hey! Come help me out with these dishes, twerp...Or should I say tramp?" She sneered.
"I will not be helping you with those dishes and I'm not a twerp nor a  trap-it takes one to know one " I snapped back at her.
"Says the girl with a hickie that looks like the Galapagos Islands on her neck!" She fired back, like a bullet-quick and blind to whoever it was directed towards.

Before I could even say anything, before I could even sit down and calm the raging thunderstorm going on in my stomach, before I could even think, before I could even breathe, before I could even blink. We were interrupted, Adrianne came down the stairs in a gray camisole and grey shorts and my uncle was standing beside her, wearing some navy blue shirt and ugly floral shorts. Him and Adrianne were in some awkward relationship phase where they liked buying ugly clothes for each other. Why? I had no idea, but they seemed to enjoy it.
"Girls, cut it out! Allyson, don't even speak to Melody...Just finish washing the dishes like I told you to do earlier" Adrianne said, coldly.
But I wasn't off the hook, my uncle eyed me up and down. "Where were you?!" He questioned me. Thank god he wasn't standing close enough to see the color of my eyes or the mark on my neck.
Be quick! Say at least some of the truth! I reminded myself of what Allyson had told me, as much as I hated lying I kind of needed to right now. "I was with David- he was showing me what I missed in Bio"
"Oh yeah? Well did he tell you that the tongue was a muscle?" Allyson said over her shoulders, as she laughed.

"Allyson, shut your mouth! And wash those dishes!" Adrianne shouted, but it was too late, she already said her rude remark.
I stood there rolling my eyes at her, and fidgeting with my face. Adrianne and Allyson were getting on my nerves, if it wasn't for them, they wouldn't have known about anything that was going on between me and David- if that was even considered a 'thing.'

He looked at me, clearly unimpressed but all he said was "Okay well that's still no excuse not to come home on time for dinner-Why didn't you answer my texts or my calls?" Damn, he really was practically cornering me with these questions.
"Well, um you see- my phone died and there was alot of stuff to read about the joints-" I froze, trying not to laugh at how ironic my statement was. "The joints, the skeletal system, and all of the other crap he showed me...And now I think I forgot it all" I said, lowering my voice, and trying to get some sympathy out of him.

"I love you Melly, but you know and I know that you're more responsible than that so start acting like it." No fucks were given, not even one. He looked around from me, to Allyson, and to Adrianne. "Tomorrow, we will have a family discussion- I feel like we all need to talk to each other and get some things straight."

And that was the end of it,  Adrianne and my uncle went up stairs after they said goodnight and I walked over to the table and ate my dinner, that was now cold. Allyson finished washing the dishes and left me there on my own, trapped in my thoughts.
        There really was no way to describe how I felt, my mind was all over the place. Was I a bitch? Was I a loser? Was I a slut?
        If someone would've displayed a scenario like this to me a few months ago, without a doubt I would've said 'Yes the girl is a slut, a loser, a bitch, and all of the above' but now...I wasn't so sure anymore.
I was irresponsible today, but we all have our moments, right?