January 22nd. Monday, 4:23 AM.
Malakai was sitting on the floor of a dorm living room. It wasn't his own dorm living room, though. It was someone else's.
"Why did we have to build this in your dorm again?" Malakai asked, rolling a plastic piece between his fingers.
"Because I don't want to be seen with you", Melody replied, keeping her eyes on the instruction sheet.
"You've already said that ", Malakai plainly said, "But I actually wanna know why we're here".
Melody paused mid-assembly and looked at him, deadpan.
"Because I don't want to be seen with you", she repeated a little harsher this time, with her eyes narrowed.
Malakai hysterically smirked, "Bro, you're acting like being seen with me will bring down your reputation. It ain't that deep. No one cares", he said, throwing and catching a plastic piece in his hand. "We could've gone to the library or found an open space or something".
"I'd rather be here", Melody said, connecting two pieces. "I feel safer here because my roommate is here. So if you try anything, I can scream".
"Nah, what the fuck?" Malakai said, hurt, stopping everything he was doing. "What do you mean if I try something? Who do you think I am? I know you don't like me, but that's taking the piss".
Melody lowered her eyes and continued to connect plastic parts, silently.
Malakai watched her for a moment, "Why do you hate me so much?" he asked, feeling like the hate was unjust.
"Do I really need to answer that?" Melody replied, furrowing her brows and staring at him like he was stupid.
"…Yeah", Malakai cluelessly said, blankly looking at her.
"You nearly killed me!" Melody snapped, as all the anger started to resurface.
Malakai instantly smirked, knowing she was talking about the second challenge, "Aryt, let's clear this up now innit", he said. "You were not close to dying".
"Yes, I was!" Melody firmly shot back.
"How? Your car was never going to crash into ours", Malakai confidently said.
"It would've if Fabio didn't brake in time", Melody argued, putting the pieces in her hand down.
Malakai lightly shook his head, "Even if he didn't brake, you wouldn't have crashed into us", he said. "I had the whole thing under control".
"My face smashed into the seat because of you", Melody said, pointing at her face. "My glasses nearly broke".
Malakai bit his tongue to stop himself from smiling. "Because of me? If your driver didn't brake, that wouldn't have happened", he shrugged. "He should've just kept driving at a low speed".
"You still brake checked us. That's illegal", Melody said, now pointing at him.
"Why am I not arrested then?" Malakai smirked with his arms out.
Melody rolled her eyes dramatically. "Shut up!" she said spitefully.
Malakai picked up a plastic piece before saying, "Aryt, you can have that reason. But even still, that reason isn't enough to hate me".
"Yes, it is", Melody petulantly said.
"No, it isn't. You can dislike me, but not hate me as much as you do".
Melody scoffed loudly, "You want another reason? Fine", she said. "You don't even say my name, you call me Ryan's fangirl".
Malakai paused and looked at her to see if she was being serious.
"...It's not that deep", he casually said.
"It's annoying", Melody sharply said, making it clear.
"… Am I wrong, though?".
"Excuse me?" Melody asked, raising her voice yet again.
"You're always around him innit", Malakai said. "It just looks like you're a fan".
"We're friends!" Melody replied, frowning.
"It don't look like it", Malakai mumbled under his breath.
"What?!" Melody snapped, not hearing him properly.
"I'm just saying don't beg it off him innit", Malakai said.
Melody glared at him with disgust. She left him hanging again and let him sit in the silence she gave him.
But Malakai wasn't done.
"Have you two done it?"
"Huh!?" Melody's head snapped up so fast her hair bounced.
"Have you slept with him?".
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WIT-".
"Aryt, aryt, aryt. My bad, my bad, my bad, my bad, my bad", Malakai cut her off quickly with repeated apologies, waving his hands in surrender. "I shouldn't have said that. That was too far".
Malakai instantly regretted letting that slip. His jokey, unserious attitude wasn't going to do him any favours here.
"You're disgusting", Melody coldly told him. "Don't talk to me. As soon as we finish building this, I want you to leave".
Malakai silently accepted. No response was needed from him. He messed up, and he knew. He thought he could try to talk Melody into being friendly with him, but he only made it worse.
The two continued building in heavy silence.
5:02 PM.
Malakai touched his phone to check the time.
"We've been building for about an hour, and we've still got more left.... Long day", he thought. "Half an hour and we should be done. I'm bored as fuck though. Should I try talking to her?... Fuck it. I need to try and make her hate me less".
"You know you could've just let me build the whole thing", Malakai said, breaking the silence. "You could've let me do everything".
Melody was reluctant to reply, but she kinda had to.
"No, I couldn't do that", Melody replied in a low tone. "I don't like you, but leaving everything to you would've been too mean", she continued, her tone loosening a little. "It's a challenge. I have to do something. I want to get points", she said, briefly glancing at what he was doing. "I could ask you the same thing. I'm surprised you didn't leave me with everything".
"Surprised?" Malakai asked, surprised. "I wanna build this. I wouldn't have minded if you let me do everything I can't lie".
Melody looked at Malakai's face for the first time in a while.
"Were you going to hide it too?" she asked, curious.
"Yeaahh", Malakai replied, uncertainly. "I have an idea, but I need to check it out proper first".
"Where?".
"There's a couple of abandoned rooms near the nurses' office", Malakai said, connecting two plastic pieces together.
"Is there? I've been to the nurse's office and haven't seen any rooms like that", Melody replied.
"Nah, it's not near the nurses' office, but it's around them sides", Malakai said. "The rooms aren't abandoned, but they're not used that much. I need to go there and check".
"How are you going to do that?" Melody asked. "A lot of people will be watching you".
"Yeah, I need to go when no one's watching".
"That's near impossible", Melody said. "Going around the nurses' office is already a little sketchy because that side of the building is empty".
"True, I'd probably need to go around 3 AM or some shit", Malakai smirked, leaning back.
Melody looked at Malakai's face to see if he was joking or not. The smirk was confirmation of the joke. Seeing his smirk did incite a little smile from her. Luckily, Malakai noticed the smile.
The atmosphere shifted. The tension from before dissipated. The vibe was back to neutral, which is a massive improvement.
After easing the tension a bit, Malakai's eyes wandered around the room. He didn't really get to have a look around before. As soon as he entered, they got straight to building.
The dorm was arranged differently, but it felt familiar. His gaze drifted from the curtains, shelves, small decorations, and the walls. He wasn't trying to find anything, but he wanted to find something at the same time. It didn't look like he was going to see anything until he found,
"A guitar?" Malakai said, sitting up slightly. "You've got a guitar?".
Melody worriedly looked up to see where Malakai was looking. Her eyes quickly locked onto the guitar leaning against the wall.
"Is it yours?" Malakai asked, pointing at it.
"N-no", Melody answered, looking away.
"So it's your roommates", Malakai said, looking at her.
"Yeah", Melody nervously replied, looking down.
Malakai watched her as she hurriedly tried to connect pieces. Her tone and body language were too obvious.
"You're lying. It's yours innit", Malakai said simply.
Melody took a while to respond, but eventually, "Yes, it's mine", she shyly admitted.
"Can you play it?" Malakai quickly followed up.
"No", Melody quickly replied, her eyebrows furrowing.
...
"...Can I play it?".
"What?".
"I wanna try playing it", Malakai said, nodding to the guitar.
"No, you can't", Melody defensively replied. "You're going to ruin it".
"How'd you know?" Malakai asked. "You said you don't play it. So what's the point of having it?".
"It looks... cool", Melody shrugged, glancing away.
"If it's that cool, why is it in the corner like that?" Malakai said, pointing at the guitar. "You said I'm going to ruin it, but look how it's leaning against the wall. It's not even in a good position".
"Ughh, fine. I can play", Melody frustratedly admitted defeat.
"Really?" Malakai said with a smile breaking across his face. "Are you good?".
"I'm…", Melody trailed off, looking away, not knowing how to respond to that.
"Play something right now", Malakai said, excitedly. "I wanna hear something".
"What? No", Melody refused, shaking her head. "We're building this".
"It's fine. We're nearly done anyways", Malakai said, brushing that off. "Wait!" he suddenly had an epiphany. "Your name's Melody. You can deffo play".
"Finally called me by my name", Melody mumbled.
"That's cold, you know. Your name's Melody, and you can play the guitar", Malakai said. "You can sing as well innit. All girls can sing lowkey, but you're probably sick (great)".
"Let's just finish this", Melody replied, looking down and wanting to move on.
"Nah, c'mon. Play a little bit. I wanna hear it", Malakai said, urging her. "I ain't gonna laugh. I know you're gonna be good".
Melody's mind was telling her no. But her heart was wanting. The feeling she was feeling in her chest was too hard to ignore.
"...Fine".
She pushed herself up before she could change her mind. The guitar was leaning against the wall because Melody forgot to bring it back into her room after taking it out for a bit. The guitar's body was smooth with faint scratches.
Melody picked it up carefully. Her fingers slid beneath the neck, and she gently lifted it.
As Melody came closer, Malakai could see that the guitar was not cheap. It was high quality with warm wood, a clean fretboard and polished tuning pegs.
Melody returned to the floor and sat cross-legged, positioning the guitar gently across her lap.
"I haven't played in a while", Melody said, her voice shaky. "And I don't play in front of people".
"That's calm", Malakai replied, excited to hear a live performance.
Melody's hands hovered over the strings. She stared down at the guitar nervously, shoulders tense.
"You said you weren't going to laugh, right?" Melody said, flicking her eyes to Malakai and back down to the guitar, "Don't laugh".
"Why would I laugh?" Malakai genuinely asked.
Melody tried to force a smile to ease her nerves, "You laughed in my face when you nearly killed me. You hyena".
"I haven't heard that nickname in time", Malakai smirked. "Aryt, fair enough. That's different though. I know this is gonna be serious".
Melody faced the guitar. Head bowed. Eyes staring at the strings. Her heart was sprinting. The feeling of the guitar in her hands was familiar, but weirdly unfamiliar. She slowly put her fingers in place. Everything was set.
Deep Breath.
Melody started playing.
Her fingers delicately brushed the strings like testing the temperature of water. Melody played a slow melody. A simple one. A safe option.
🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶
The room started to shrink due to the sound. Melody's heartbeat stopped running. Her heart slowed down, but her fingers began to pace faster. Her shoulders loosened. Her eyelids slowly lowered as if she were falling asleep. And the end of lips curled into a small calming smile.
Melody was in flow state.
Her hands dance. The rhythm grew faster. It was no longer safe, slow and simple. Melody was playing like she'd done this a thousand times, like a professional.
She ended on a clean final strum. Melody slowly lifted her eyelids as the sound of the last strum faded away. She huffed, gave her guitar a small, satisfied smile. However, the smile didn't last long as she remembered the situation.
Melody's head jolted up. She had totally forgotten that she was playing with Malakai. She had forgotten he existed. In fact, she had forgotten that anything else existed, that's how deep in a trance she was. During her performance, she blocked out everything. For her, it was only her and the guitar.
She looked ahead and saw Malakai with his mouth in awe.
"Aye, that was sick!" Malakai said, applauding. "Why were you tryna hide that?".
"I-I don't play in front of people", Melody replied, her cheeks burning up, embarrassed by the compliments.
"Nah, that was too good. I'm not even gassing", Malakai said, shaking his head.
"Thank you...." Melody shyly replied, hiding her face.
"Yeah, you can deffo sing if you can play like that", Malakai said. "Ah! Why don't you play the guitar and sing something? That will be siiiick!".
"No. No", Melody refused, shaking her head.
"It's gonna be good though. Your name's Melody", Malakai said. "Cmon, Melody, sing me a Melody".
Melody couldn't help but smile at the corny joke.
"No, I can't", Melody replied. "Playing the guitar is fine, but singing is too embarrassing".
"Oh shit, fair enough", Malakai realised he might have been too pushy. "You're mad talented though. You should make music. Or have you made music already?".
Melody scrunched her fists. Two voices were talking to her. One was saying,
"Don't tell him! Don't tell him!".
The other was saying,
"Tell him! Tell him!".
It's clear which one was the mind and which one was the heart. If this were asked at the start, the voice Melody would've listened to would've been obvious, but after getting a feel of the music, all the cells in her body were dancing.
"Yes, I have", Melody said timidly.
Malakai's face lit up, "Can I hear it?".
"Yeah", Melody answered.
"Oh…", Melody thought.
Melody's mouth moved on its own. Her body completely took over and answered for her.
"I need to tell him no. I didn't mean to say yes".
Melody's thoughts knew what she wanted to say, but her body was overpowering them. This feeling she had was too strong. A joyous feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. It was too nostalgic to ignore. A feeling she didn't think she would feel again.
Melody stood up, "Follow me".
She got up, still carrying her guitar, and walked away. Malakai swiftly got up and followed her down the short hall. Melody stood before a door and slightly opened it. She peeked inside and then closed it shortly after.
Melody turned to Malakai. "I don't know why… but I'm trusting you", she said, sincerely. "Please don't make me regret this".
"Don't worry, I won't", Malakai replied with his hands up.
Melody had seen Malakai pose like this before, but this time she actually trusted him.
"Okay", Melody said, before opening the door.
Melody entered first, and Malakai slowly followed.
"This is my room", Melody said, stepping aside to let him look.
"Rah (whoa)", Malakai reacted with his eyes widening.
The room was a regular bedroom with a bed and desk, but it wasn't. It was a music studio and a concert combined that had a bed and a desk. The LED lights around the room were switching colours. The walls were covered with album covers and posters. Her desk had school books all over it, but on the side of the desk was a keyboard. Not a computer keyboard, a piano keyboard. That wasn't the only instrument lying about. There was an electric guitar next to the bed, a few drums tucked in the corner and a couple of empty guitar cases and stands scattered around.
This room was music.
"Is this your bedroom or your studio?" Malakai joked, turning in a slow circle.
"Heh, just my bedroom", Melody replied, placing her guitar gently on her bed.
She really wanted to say both, but couldn't get the word out.
Melody took a seat on her bed and pulled out her phone. "Take a seat", she said, pointing to the chair near her desk.
Malakai took a seat, spinning it around to Melody's desk and then facing her. "Isn't your song on your laptop?".
"No, it's on my phone", Melody replied, not looking at him, scrolling her phone.
"Isn't it easier to make songs on a laptop though?" Malakai asked, confused.
"I don't make songs", Melody replied.
Malakai raised a brow. It didn't make sense. His eyes flickered around the room again. She had everything she could have to make music, but she said she wasn't making any.
"Here", Melody said, handing him her phone. "This is the first song I made when I was thirteen".
Malakai grabbed the phone and saw the music file. The file was labelled Paper Heart.
Malakai pressed play, and a slow piano beat started. As the beat built up, Melody's hands fidgeted even more, fingers tugging her sleeve.
"I fold my heart like origami,
Trying not to let it tear.
You smile and suddenly I'm flying,
But you don't even know I'm there.
You talk and the world gets quiet,
Every word feels like a spark.
I keep a flashlight on in my chest,
Caught you light up all my dark.
I don't know why I feel this way,
Why your name echoes every day.
I'm scared I'll break if I confess,
So I write it down instead.
I'm holding a paper heart,
Fragile and falling apart.
You don't know, you don't know".
"Okay! That's enough! That's enough!" Melody yelped, snatching the phone off Malakai and spamming the pause button.
The room awkwardly fell quiet. That was the first time in years Melody had heard that song. The whole time, her body was cringing.
"That was good", Malakai honestly said.
"Stop lying. You don't need to be nice", Melody said, embarrassed to look at him and hugging her knees. "Just say it's terrible".
"Nah, I'm being serious", Malakai replied, leaning back. "If you want me to be honest, I think you can do better. But you said you were thirteen when you made that. For a thirteen-year-old, that's good".
"Did you not hear the lyrics? They were so cringe", Melody said, her face showing she was still cringing.
"You were thirteen. That's normal innit", Malakai said, shrugging. "Forget the lyrics. Your vocals were good, and you were flowing on the beat nice".
"My flow was terrible", Melody muttered, critiquing her song. The song was playing clearly in her head.
"It was your first song. No one's first song is a hit", Malakai said, trying to cheer her up. "Do you have any other songs?".
"Yeah, but they're just as bad", Melody replied, hugging her knees tighter.
"Nah, I mean songs you made recently. Like the past two or three years", Malakai said.
"I don't have any recent songs", Melody replied, dropping her head.
"What? When was the last time you made a song?" Malakai asked.
"When I was fourteen", Melody quietly replied.
"Fourteen?! Why?" Malakai asked, surprised.
"I stopped making music", Melody said, the words hurting her as they came out.
"Look at your room, though", Malakai said, gesturing around at the posters and instruments. "What do you mean you stopped?".
Melody's lip quivered. The sad truth hit home harder when someone else pointed it out. She was surrounded by what she loved, but she wasn't doing what she loved.
"Haah..." Melody exhaled, dropping her knees and sitting normally. She tilted her head back and stared up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly. She was doing everything she could to stop tears from dropping.
"I might as well tell you my life story".