—

Mel blinked harshly, clearing her thoughts of her first 'friend date' with Hannah and Jessica.

She remembered the time where the three girls reminisced  about their first time meeting, laughing about how stupid they were.

Melanie felt that she wouldn't be able to have those moments ever again. Not only because one of the three musketeers was no longer living, but because she felt that even if she tried to rekindle things with Jess, it wouldn't be the same without their curly haired friend.

She was snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Clay Jensen's voice. He was calling out to one of the two people who crowded her thoughts.

"Jessica! Hey, Jessica!"

"What, Clay?"

Melanie furrowed her brows, pushing herself off the wall to follow behind the two.

"Why are you avoiding Mr. Porter?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jessica tried to brush him off.

"You took off when you saw him." The Jensen teen pointed out, "Does he know? About the tapes—"

Melanie's eyes widened at the mention of the one thing Hannah left behind.

Jessica froze in her tracks, her head snapping back quickly, "Are you crazy? Shut your mouth."

"I'm just trying to figure this out."

"Then listen, don't talk."

"But... what happened to Justin? Why isn't he here?"

The girl sighed out, "I don't know. Mr. Porter pulled him in yesterday, then he walked out of Porter's office and walked right out of school and vanished."

"Was everything okay with you guys? You're together, right?"

"Yes, we're together and we're fine." Jessica seemed offended that he even asked, "Thank you, Clay."

Melanie was so focused on the conversation in front of her that she didn't notice the teen watching her curiously before he began to approach.

"What are you doing?"

Mel jumped, her eyes wide as she turned around quickly, pressing a hand to her chest,

"Jesus, Scotty, you scared me."

Her ex boyfriend gave her an apologetic smile before his eyes attempted to look behind her.

Melanie knew how Scott was. And while he wasn't one for drama, he didn't pass up the opportunity to have a gossip session with his teammates.

Something told her that, given the chance, Scott would have no problem telling them that he saw Clay Jensen and Jessica Davis having an intense conversation.

"Why aren't you in class?" She ushered out quickly, his blue eyes immediately landing on her.

He lifted his hand, a hall pass clutched by his fingers, "Bathroom."

She blinked, "Right. That makes sense."

He furrowed his brows at her, "Are you okay?"

She inhaled softly, her eyes glazing over at his words.

—

"Are you okay?"

Tears flooded her vision, leading Scott to believe that the girl was in fact, not okay.

"Melanie."

Her eyes closed, her voice coming out much angrier than she intended, "What, Scott?"

The music blaring, along with the chattering of their classmates nearly drowned out the sound of her voice, despite the couple being two of the few people outside.

He reached out to touch her, Melanie flinching away from him the second she saw his hand move.

"Don't touch me." She stood up from the chair, her voice shaky, her firm.

Scott pulled away, his face falling at the way his girlfriend spoke to him, "Babe—"

Melanie watched his expression change, she wished her tone with Scott received the same reaction from the boy inside the house.

"Melanie, what happened?"

His words went ignored as she kept her distance from him, making her way indoors so she could leave.

"Oh, hey, Mel." A happy voice called out, one that sent shivers down her spine, "You headed home?"

She swallowed thickly, her eyes cast downwards as she brushed past Bryce and his friends.

"Alright, well. Be careful."

His words were taunting.

After what he did, Melanie knew her making it home safely was the least of Bryce's worries.

Her thoughts had taken over, leading her to forget to pay attention to where she was going. She ran into a second person. They quickly steadied her, removing their hands the second she was upright.

"Sorry, Mel." Mattias De La Cruz muttered. His brows twitched at the sight of her distressed look, though he could tell she didn't want to be bothered, so he sent her a closed lip smile, brushing past her to find his brother and demand to be taken home.

As they walked in opposite directions, Melanie was unaware of the curious gaze that followed her until she left the house.

—

"Mel?"

The girl in question cleared her throat, smiling quickly at the Reed teen before stepping out of his way, "You should go to the bathroom."

"Wha—?"

"I'm gonna go."

When she saw him going to open his mouth, she spoke again, "I'm okay, I'm fine. I promise. I'm gonna leave."

She didn't give him the chance to respond before she was walking away, only to get stopped in her tracks by a body slamming into hers.

"Jesus Christ."

"Sorry."

The familiarity of the voice was enough to calm her down, though the racing of her heart hadn't slowed down.

"God, Clay." She blew out a breath.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm trying to get to class."

He pointed behind her, "Class is that way."

And he was right.

She forgot this was a period they shared together. And while she wanted to be embarrassed for walking the wrong way, she knew Clay was the last person to judge her for anything like that.

"Right."

The two stared at one another for a second before Mel was turning on her heel.

"Actually, Mel, can i ask you something—?"

"Mr. Jensen."

Melanie had never been so thankful for an interruption.

She slid past the teacher, catching him letting Clay know he was needed at the office before she made herself comfortable in her seat. Or, as comfortable as she could get in the small, rather hard, school desks.

Shuffling next to her let her know that she wasn't the only one who hated the pain that came with the piece of furniture.

Though the sound of the movement was slowly starting to irritate her.

"Can you sit still?"

Mattias, who sat behind the girl perked up at the of the same voice that had been going through his head since that morning.

He had no intentions of saying anything until the football player Melanie was talking to simply scoffed, rolling his eyes at her as he continued to move around.

The eraser on Mattias' desk was hitting the boy in the back of his head seconds later.

"What the hell, man?"

"She said sit still."

"Yeah, I heard her." The unnamed boy shrugged.

Mattias glared, "So sit still."

The boy had half a mind not to respond back, already knowing how the De La Cruz brothers were. One wrong word and he'd be out of school with bruised ribs and a black eye for two weeks.

So he turned in his seat, facing the front of the classroom, body still and mouth shut.

Melanie didn't say anything to Mattias but he caught glimpse of the small smile on her face and knew that she wouldn't have to say much for him to know his actions were greatly appreciated.

—
A/N: i love this show