Chapter Seventeen
A long, black shadow is cast over the two of them. Sam looks up to see Jet leaning against the car window, a metal bat swinging in his right hand. Sam grips Melody, pressing her face into his shirt as he turns the key in the ignition. The car thankfully starts on the first try, with the gas pedal to the floor board it jerks to thirty mile per hour, and then stops. Sam turns the engine over, making a sad clicking noise, but doesn’t start.
“No gas,” Sam says, his tone apologetic.
He runs his fingers through his hair, grabbing a fistful and giving it a quick tug as he looks in the rearview mirror, Jet is fast approaching, base ball bat ready.
“Run,” he says, pushing Melody towards the door.
Melody looks at him like he’s gone crazy, digging her nails into his soft cotton shirt. “No!” she cries.
He pushes her away from him, his body already aching from the slight distance. “He just wants his revenge on me. Go, I don’t want you to get any more involved in this then Jet has already put you in.”
He kisses her upper lip before reaching over and opening the passenger door for her. “Please,” he begs, “Go.”
Soon as her feet hit the mulched grass she breaks out into a run, away from Jet, away from Sam, while Sam slowly climbs out of the car, casually walking to Jet.
He stops a few yards away from him. “Why did you bring her into this, Jet?” Sam shouts.
Jet makes his way over to Sam, panting as he leans over his knees. “Don’t call me that. I’m Adam. And I didn't try to, I loved her before I even knew that she was yours,” Jet pants.
“But when you found out about us….” Sam says, his fists at his side.
Adam smirks. “That was just the icing on the cake. I got a girl and revenge, all in one swoop.”
Memories of he and Jet, the real Jet, fill Sam’s mind; all the times they had snuck out for a concert their parents didn't approve of, playing guitar together. Sam pushes them away, coming back to the current conflict they are having, who Jet really is: Adam.
“Would you die for her?” Sam asks.
Adam’s eyebrow rises in an arch. “What? Um…well…”
Sam clinches his fist, his nails digging into his palm. “Would you die for her?” he demands.
A branch snaps under someone’s foot by the car, drawing Adam and Sam’s attention away from each other. Adam stomps over to where Melody is crouched beside Sam’s car, grabbing her by the crook of her arm and dragging her to where Sam stands. Sam thinks through a plan, trying to figure out how to get Adam to stop touching her.
Adam pulls out his pocketknife and puts it to her neck. “Would you die for her, Sam?” he asks.
Sam’s eyes stare at the way the little light shining through the clouds bounce off of the sharp, wooden handled, knife and onto the skin of Melody’s neck.
Sam steps forward, puffing his chest out. “Yes, because I truly love her,” he says confidently.
Jet’s eyes become panicked as his mind tries to grasp onto something that would get him out of the situation, scotch free, while still pissing off Sam. He thrusts the end of the bat into Sam’s side, right below his ribcage, while sliding his tongue down Melody’s throat.
Her skin feels like it’s being peeled from her shaking bones as she claws at his chest, screaming and grunting until she slips free of his arms.
Sam straightens up, grunting at the pain that throbs in his stomach and steals his breath. He lets his fist fly through the air before it smashes into the side of Adam’s face. He grabs a fist full of Melody’s t-shirt and he pulls her against his chest; she thuds against his chest as Adam takes off down the hill, tripping over his feet before turning the corner.
Sam wraps an arm tightly around Melody’s waist and places his other hand on the back of her head, hugging her as close as he can. She sobs against his white cotton t-shirt, wiping her eyes against the shirt before looking up at him.
“You would die for me?” she asks sheepishly.
He rests his chin on top of her head, feeling like he is breathing for the first time in months. “Any day.”
Melody’s heart leaps, trying to break through the thin barrier that is keeping it from Sam’s.
………………………………..
Melody and Sam fall asleep on the beat up orange couch in Sam’s apartment.
Something heavy and hot burns its way into Melody’s lungs, awakening her from her comfortable sleep next to Sam. Her eyes burn against the heavy smoke that is blowing its way through Sam flat; Sam moans in his sleep, not being jerked awake by the heat of the yellow-orange glow. Melody’s eyes find the source of the smoke: a small note slid under the door. She jumps from the couch- her heart pounding with panic due to her lungs filling up with smoke- running to the smoking paper as she screams at Sam to wake up.
Sam jerks awake, suddenly alert, as he takes in the smoke and fire that are climbing its way through his apartment. Melody stomps out the paper, coughing and eyes burning, but the fire has worked its way across the apartment from randomly tossed papers on the floor. She throws wet towels on some of the flames while Sam runs down the hall and pulls the fire alarm; bells ring throughout the building as water rains down from the ceiling. Sam runs back in the room watching Melody throw water and wet blankets on just about everything in the apartment that is near the flames.
“Melody!” Sam coughs, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, “I’ll do that; pack some of our stuff up!”
She throws a few of his cloths in to a bag, and then grabs his guitar, cameras and portfolios, their cell phones and a few of her cloths. She runs back out to him, the flames still fighting against the water as Sam stands coughing before he pulls her out the apartment. A note, about the size of a playing card, is pinned over the peep hole.
“This guy is a psycho!” Sam croaks, his throat swollen shut, as he pulls it from the door.
She takes the note from him, reading it in almost disbelief.
Adam WAs HeRe.
Sam pulls on Melody’s arm as the fire department runs down the hall into Sam flat.
………………………………………………..
They arrive at Melody’s apartment around six in the morning, tossing their bags at the door and sluggishly walk down hall to the bathroom. They scrub each other’s faces free of soot, splashing cool water on their skin before making their way to her living room. Sam laces his fingers with Melody’s pulling her to the couch.
“Maybe we should make it out to your parents’ house tomorrow; far away from here. Does he know where that is?” Sam asks.
Melody shakes her head, playing with the hem of her shirt. “No, but… are you sure you’re up to the drive? I mean it’s like a two day drive and last time you whined the whole way there.”
He leans forward, that boyish grin smeared across his face. “I’ll survive.”
He kisses her, soft and sweet, right as the room goes black. Sam looks around the darkened room; something is just off putting about the lights being shut off suddenly.
“How about we leave right now?” Sam proposes.
Melody smiles, standing to her feet. “Sounds good.”
She packs the rest of her clothes, throwing her bags in the back seat of the station wagon.
Melody sits in the passenger seat, talking with Sam about random things like the weather and how she’s disappointed that it’s physically impossible to lick her elbow, so he won’t fall asleep. The sun intermingles itself in the brown/ gold hairs of Sam’s head. She smiles as she reaches her fingers out, running them across the top of his head.
Sam’s eyes flicker over to her, if this was a month ago, before all of this, the slightest touch from her would make his heart flutter, but right now all he can think about is: did she do this to him too? He leans his elbow against the window. “Um, I'm wide awake so you can go to sleep if you want.”
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Melody nods, rolling up against the passenger window.
So Sam sits there, hands loosely holding the steering wheel, all alone except for his thoughts. Melody shivers in her sleep, moaning a little as she wraps her arms around herself. He wonders if this is what Adam got to see every day, and if he felt the same way he feels for Melody now; maybe Adam had loved her to some degree.
Sam reaches in the back seat for his jacket, gripping the soft leather as he delicately lays it on top of Melody. He swallows; he is so uncertain if taking her back so fast was wrong. His right hand slowly runs up and down her back sending her into a deeper sleep.