MELODY (Book 1) ✓

chapter 16 (Spitting Cobra)

I tuned the rest of the day out. Mostly.

My mind wanted to just zone out and relive what happened at the park this afternoon. Minus the humiliating part, of course.

Taking the subway back to the shelter didn't sound like  such a bad idea in this case. I wasn't ready to be hit by a car in the middle of Tenth Avenue just because my mind put the conversation I had with Akram on replay. The memory kept rewinding like a movie in my head. As if some incorporeal version of myself was still there on that bench under the elm tree in the meadow, sitting beside Akram and feeling warm and fuzzy.

The Intensity of his eyes kept haunting me as I tried to focus on reading through chapter eleven in the crammed train on my way back to the shelter. But my efforts were to little avail. Even the normal discomfort I used to feel in the metro was the last thing on my mind as I visualized his radiant smile, his twinkling eyes, the cute lines of his face, his musical voice. And I realized what a complete airhead I was.

Why the heck did I leave so soon? It was only half past two! It wasn't that I had anything better to do.

When I arrived at the shelter, my mind was still elsewhere, refusing to return to my real world. My thoughts were swimming in a sea of liquid cinnamon and sunshine as I headed to the front office and absently signed in before I rushed in long strides towards the stairs.

My dorm room was in the third floor and I just wanted to be left alone with myself. Who would take the elevator to the third floor any way? I needed the exercise and the solitude.

It could've been a completely blissful evening if it weren't for the fact that Ms. Voldemort was still creeping and crawling on planet Earth.

I knew I'd made a mistake coming back this early. I should've stayed a couple more hours dawdling away until she was gone. I should've taken my time walking back from the park instead of taking the sub, but the winds don't always blow as the ship wishes, if that's a real proverb . Because I'd be the unlucky ship in this story. And obviously, ship happens all the time. Especially to me.

"Sup, roomie!"

That was Vivian, greeting me for the first time in months and making my heart leap into my throat as she came out of the showers across from our room , a creepy grin plastered on her full lips. Her dirty blonde hair was still wet and a darker shade of honey that complemented her bronze skin. A scanty towel covered nothing but one fourth of her slender figure while she paraded through the hallway in shiny black heels?!

Are you kidding me? Who wears heels to the shower?

She seemed completely aware of her beauty, like a confident model on the catwalk. She looked flawless. Yeah. She was as beautiful and spooky as a slithering Cobra.

And for some reason, the pretty Cobra decided to spit her greetings at me? Something about this felt totally out of place.

"Are you talking to me?" I asked cautiously, freezing in the middle of the hallway, a dozen steps away from Vivian while a million suspicions kept storming inside my head.

"Sure, hon. Aren't we roommates?" She said sweetly, her hand on the door handle of our room while the other hand held the folds of her tiny towel.

I cringed.

"Okay..." I murmured.

"Aren't you coming in?"

"Um! Actually, I... was heading downstairs. "

"Are you shy of me, hon?"  Vivian laughed. A sweet-sounding laugh for sure, but something about it made my skin crawl. I wasn't normally one to judge others but... It was difficult for me to tolerate this person.