𝑨𝑪𝑻 𝑶𝑵𝑬 ━ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑬𝑬

𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐔𝐏 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 she had ever had. She went to bed really late last night and hadn't slept well either. Her thoughts were only filled with her heartaching childhood memories and the moments she lived through here. She didn't know what else she could do to make the nightmares go away but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, she got up from her bed and went to the bathroom to get ready.

Walking down the polished stairs Melanie made herself known to their mothers by shouting a 'Good Morning' as she walked into the kitchen.

The sunrise showed itself pretty early on, showing its bright yellows and reds through every window , Melanie was pretty sure it had awoken her mothers' sleep. She knew her mothers might have woken up at an hour ago and had been cleaning up a bit of the untamed mess from them moving back in. Melanie walked to the fridge and started rummaging through it, her appetite only growing by the minute.

"Melanie I think your mother and I are going to get some groceries since we don't have a lot," said Maria as she walked towards the counter to grab her keys and purse, "So how about you make yourself a coffee and we'll be back in a few hours okay!"

Melanie replied with a nod and smiled at her mothers. She took out the milk and coffee from the fridge, they had gotten a few things on the way here yesterday. The sound of the door being shut was heard after a few minutes which alerted Melanie that her parents had gone out. Melanie had no idea what to do today, she didn't want to go out but she didn't want to stay here as well.

The living room was full of sunlight, Melanie walked towards the couch and sat on it as she went through T.V channels her coffee in one hand. Melanie wasn't interested in any of the shows so she went on her phone. She was debating wether she should contact one of her friends, Sarah or Kiara.

She had heard that the two had fallen apart and that Kiara was now part of the pogues. Melanie never understood the concept of pogues and kooks unlike her ex boyfriend who hated pogues. Melanie never had a problem with any of them, actually she found them really nice. She got along with them fairly quickly.

Melanie wanted to be with them since whatever they would do looked more fun than playing golf with arrogant people, even her parents didn't really like the idea of pogues and kooks. Her mothers always said that it was stupid and that she could be friends with them either way. The Fortinis were considered kooks, as their money took the title. But the Fortinis were known around the outerbanks as the friendliest out of all the kooks. Maria and Railey would often visit a few of their pogues friends which meant that Melanie was familiar with a few faces that roamed around the bays, she was always welcomed there by the various people and families.

Melanie had been on her phone for a good hour scrolling through her social media, having the sight of many teenagers her age having the times of their lives wasn't the best way for her to have a bit of entertainment. Seeing all of these kids having fun made Melanie's heart ache for some fun, she hadn't felt happy for the last year having not yet moved on from the cursed day which wasn't very healthy for her.

She was bored out of her mind whiles Melanie didn't know this but something was going to changed her boredom really quickly. A knock at door tore Melnaie's eyes away from the brightly lit screen as she looked towards the wooden door, she didn't know what to think of the sound of knocking, maybe the neighbours wanted to say 'hi' to the Fortinis. She stood up and walked towards it to see who was there. Maybe it was her parents but surely they weren't here yet.

Melanie opened the door letting the cold air brush against her skin immediately and without realising she gasped at the sight in front of her. She could believe what she was seeing, maybe she had manifested a bit too much, maybe her wishes were coming true or maybe it was just a coincidence that one of the old friends had knocked on her door.

The sight of a curly brunette who stood on the front porch had made Melanie's heart jump in excitement of seeing a familiar face. "Kiara!" exclaimed the blonde as she threw her arms around the girl who was a bit taller than her although none of them noticed.

Kiara Carrera had seen the blonde walking back yesterday as she came back from surfing with the Pogues, she hadn't believed the rumours of the Fortinis being back from England, she thought they were joking but seeing the blonde had taken back all her negativity towards the rumours and had made her take a mental note to go talk to her the next day which only meant that she would be asking the blonde to hand out with her and her friends.

She was excited to see Melanie again, it had been so long. Kiara would never admit it but when the blonde was here, she was one of the only people she would trust, Melanie had been there for Kiara a lot while in freshman year. The Carrera girl never forgot all the late night talking and walking along the beach, the lunch dates they would go on to cheer one another at the Wreck. Maybe they would find the same person in each other again.

Back in freshman year, both girls had gotten boyfriends. Kiara's biggest regret was dating Jayden Martin, one of the biggest assholes in the entire Outer Banks region, he was always commenting about everything that the couple would do, he would be jealous over some of the smallest things and would complain about nearly everything that didn't concern him.

But Kiara had overlooked all of these red flags that were basically always signalling the danger in which she would be heartbroken from, she had been happy for most of their relationship and maybe it wasn't supposed to be this way but she didn't realise that she wasn't really into him.

Melanie had always told Kiara about her toxic relationship but she would never admit that she was also in a toxic relationship with none other than the kook prince, Rafe Cameron. He was a bitch, that was the only word that would describe him perfectly, yes he was hot but he would never be anything other than toxic to Melanie.

He would follow her, threatening everyone, always watching her, always stalking her in some way but of course to her Rafe was being overprotective and dramatic. She never realised how bad his manipulation had gotten over the time they had spend together and truth be told some part of her still wanted him in her life.

Kiara hugged the girl tightly — having not seen her for a year had bottled up mist of her friendship with Melanie wasn't the greatest thing she could do but when you don't see someone who had a huge impact on you isn't the greatest outcome. "What are you even doing here beautiful!?" asked Melanie as she retracted from the hug to look at Kiara who smiled gently. "Come in, you have to tell me about what I missed!" said Melanie as she invited her friend in.

Kiara walked in closely followed by Melanie who turned to close the door and walked in front of Kiara to lead her to the living room where she offered her a seat and drinks — which was really only water and orange juice. The two girls sat and talked for about a good half an hour, Melanie's boredom slowly getting buried down in her mind.

"You know what you could do?" asked Kiara. "You could come with us for a while, you know surfing and talking, there is a party tonight on the beach!" said Kiara in a drastically high pitched voice which showed how excited the girl was as her friend sat next to her contemplating the offer. On one hand it had been a whiles since she had fun with a lot of people but on the other hand she didn't want to bother them with having to hang out with her which wouldn't be a burden to them.

Kiara sensed her debate on the subject, knowing the girl wasn't sure about her offer, she said, "Maybe later, you don't have to if you don't to but I honestly think some fun would do you some good, sweetheart." Having heard the voice of her friend, Melanie came back from her thoughts that were clouding her mind.

She nodded, "You know what! I'll text you tomorrow or maybe even later and I'll be happy to come to the party !" Kiara smiled enthusiastically and added, "Great, give me a call and I'll come with youu from here to the beach."

And for the first time in almost a year, Melanie Fortini smiled — a genuine smile and not the fake ones that would be too obvious to the Carrera girl. She genuinely was happy and wanted to go, but maybe it would be nice if she asked her parents maybe just inform them just to make sure it was ok for her to go out.

It would make her life so much easier to have a few friends to hang out with so she could get her mind off of the cursed day, maybe it would have a good impact on her sleepless nights — she wanted her nightmares to go away and maybe doing something else would have her dreaming about other things.

𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 of the bay making her smile — maybe going out would be nice for her. It had been over a few hours since Kiara had come by, Melanie had been debating whether or not she should give her a call. It would to nice to have fun for a while since she came back to only nightmares and memories which she would love to free her mind from that would make her breath a sigh of relief.

The sun was still bright but dimmer than before it still lit the whole house making the white walls brighter than usual, the house was eerily quite but Melanie had gotten used to silence while in England — her mothers were almost always out of the house, leaving Melanie alone most of the time. Melanie was in her bedroom, unpacking a few more boxes and neatly placing items on shelves, on her vanity or in her closet.

A few more boxes sat on the top of the stairs but Melanie knew her mothers were going to take care of those since she wouldn't really need them. Melanie could hear the tv turn on in the living room which was situated right underneath her — her mothers were watching a show and Melanie had thought that tonight might be too boring for her, it would be to routinely for her.

She looked at her phone that was sitting on her perfectly made bed, she had just finished putting the last box away — she looked at the clock on the wall next to her, it was 6 in the afternoon. Her mothers had come home exactly at noon so the family had already had lunch.

She decided that she should have some fun and grabbed her phone from her bed and ran downstairs. "Mums! Can I go out today? There is a party going on!"she asked as she ran towards the living room where her mothers were watching tv.

"Oh sweetie, um sure to be back before dinner or at least come back before 9 o'clock, you know...you know I don't anything happened to you and don't you drink a lot," said Railey as she looked at her daughter sternly but smiled gently while Maria nodded towards Melanie.

Melanie nodded and said, "Thank you! I'll be back at 9!" She walked towards the door while simultaneously texting Kiara to come meet her in front of the path that connected the main road and the path to her house.

The curly brunette replied a few minutes later saying she was already close by so she would be there in a few minutes. Melanie smiled at her phone then started looking around — birds were chirping just like the other day when Melanie had gone to the cave, the sound of the waves were surrounding her ears as she walked quickly but not enough that it would be considered running or jogging.

She saw a few people that were either walking down the path towards the beach or jogging the other way, she smiled politely that them almost every one smiling back in surprise at the sight of the Fortini girl.

She had gotten used to the frowns and weird faces that people would make while seeing her now, she had changed a lot since she was here — maybe the surprise and confusion would fade always as the days would go by each quicker than the other, the sunrise and sunset making it seem like a cycle being tempered with.

Melanie wanted the weird stares to go away after all she had been living here for her whole life maybe being gone for a year wasn't the best way to leave but she had thought maybe people would understand her family's pain — but she knew how to put on a facade that people would mostly see whenever she would look at them, it was a neutral face and sometimes she would find herself scared that people would spread rumours or even just be embarrassed by some family friend.

After a few minutes of walking calmly lost in her own thoughts, she saw Kiara waving at her from a few meters away in front of the end of the pathway. She smiled as she saw the brunette and ran towards her as Kiara whisper-yelled, "See! I knew you needed something to cheer you up! The party is this way, My Lady!"

Melanie laughed making her way to Kiara's right side as she hooked her arm with the brunette. "Oh my god, you know you could have said 'I told you so' instead! You were right, I do need a party to cheer me up, I haven't been happy lately."

"Oh sweetheart," mumbled Kiara, knowing what the hill was talking about — she knew the girl was still grieving. Kiara felt sorry for the blonde but she knew that saying that would only anger Melanie, nobody saying that helped.

The girls walked together towards the beach knowing they were going to have a good time but they didn't know that something would go incredibly wrong.

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❪ ៸ 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ━━━━━ ! ﹆◞ ❫
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^^ Me when Kiara kept calling her sweetheart or My Lady

❪ . . . the third chapter everyone! ❫
❪ . . . MY BABIES HAVE FINALLY METTT, IM SO HAPPY SO PKEASE ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL CHAPTER <33❫
❪ . . . PLEASE tell me how you guys feel about it ??❫
❪ . . .PLEASE don't be a ghost reader, comment and vote, I love to reply to everyone and interact with my readers, love all of you darlings <33 ❫
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