Her Last Letter

Chapter 3- Haley

Chapter 3; Haley

       Jasper and Pete were hauled up in Jasper’s bedroom, eating M&Ms and contemplating the letter. Jasper had explained everything to Pete, who had cried for five hours, after throwing up. It was crazy how one letter could change a person's life, and make a person regret so much.

     Melody had that affect on people. She had touched people with her words, her poems that she always wrote, the songs that she sang, and the short little emails that she wrote to everyone. Melody could make or break someone's day, Jasper decided. 

       “She wasn’t in love with me anymore”, Pete wiped another tear from his wet face. He didn’t usually cry, but he had let himself on that day. Pete had neve talking about how he felt with Melody, and he regretted not talking to her. Jasper roled her eyes, thinking that this was the least of their worries. She nodded calmly. 

         “She thought she owed me something," he said. 

      Pete had protected Melody from so much; from other kids at their school, cyberbullies, and even teachers that would confront her, 

       Jasper nodded, unsurprised by his reaction. “That’s the way Mel was, always wanting to “repay” people to the point where she realized she couldn’t.

Maybe that's why she was so miserable, maybe she thought she owed the world something that she could never repay.

Jasper's thoughts were overwhelming her to say the least. 

         “So, let’s think about the clue.” Pete opened the letter again.  “The first time I held her hand was sometime in 5th grade, like she said. But I don’t remember the stuff about the flower. Its amazing how she remembered all that.”

“It was really special to her.” Jasper added. The two spent about ten minutes brainstorming moments where Melody had held Pete’s hand. Pete remembered nothing. The moments to him had felt like flashes of lighting, one moment they’re there, the next they’re not.

         Because they weren’t getting anywhere, Jasper decided to open the third letter and send it off to the next person. It was addressed to Haley.

        That’s weird, Jasper thought to herself. Haley Liston was everything about people that Melody hated rapped into one, 95 pound fifteen year old. Loud, cocky, popular, demanding, and jealous, Haley had often attacked Melody and Jasper for doing one little thing that she considered wrong. It wasn’t that Melody wasn’t popular-she had been, but there had been days where speaking her mind got Melody to the bottom of the social ladder only to be targeted by Haley.

Although Haley was stunning, confident, and self-centered, she had had secrets of her own that Melody knew.

        Actually, it made sense that Haley was getting a letter. Pete went home and promised to text Jasper if he thought of anything. Meanwhile, after dropping the letter off in Haley’s mail, Jasper read Skye’s letter.

        

Dear Haley,

 

         You’re probably thinking that I’m going to write you a hate letter and blame you for my desire to commit.

      Well-you thought wrong. I’m actually going to thank you. Ever since the day we were little, you had always seen me as competition. I don’t know if it was that you thought I wanted to be social queen like you, but you always seemed to make sure that my inner flaws were revealed so that everyone would like you better. Well, you succeeded. I guess I should congratulate you.  But the fact is-this didn’t even bother me the most. It was that day during summer camp in Lake Tahoe. Everyone was napping because of the long hike, while I took out my diary You woke up and saw that I was keeping secrets, so immediately charged for the diary. You didn’t see sentences, only words and fraises thank god. But you wanted to make me think you did, so you threatened me, and used this to your advantage. You made sure that I lost my self confidence. That night, I burned my journal during campfire. I decided to let my secrets fill my head instead. It’s always been that way now. But I want to thank you for putting me down. It made me realize that I needed to be more careful, and that I needed to conceal everything I thought or I would hurt people that I loved.  You helped me not hurt others. For that, I can thank you. No one understand what I mean right now but you will soon.

By the way, I started cutting the day that you told the class I was weird because I told the health teacher that I thought gay people were just fine.

They are just fine, and I stand by my comment. Bummer you can't do anything about that now!

Ask Jasper and Pete what this means.

Here's your clue:

I'm a little acorn round

Sitting on the cold cold ground

Everybody steps on me

That is why I'm cracked you see

I'm a nut (tsk tsk), in a rut (tsk tsk), I'm crazy

 

 

I’ll always be there,

 

Xoxo, Melody