"It's you and me. Together," he says. "Us against the world."
*****
All my life, I've never trusted men. The image of them planted in my head is the figure of my abusive stepfather who has made my mother and I live in hell.
But then, an encounter w...
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Melanie's voice echoes in the air, "Jake, I heard you're at home. With Lais?" Her voice is filled with excitement.
Jake smiles, laying down beside me on the couch. Vaughn leans against the window, listening to her voice.
"I am," Jake says. "She's here."
He stares at me, as if cueing me to speak to her.
"Hi, Melanie." I smile. "How are you?"
"Lais! I'm doing good," she exclaims. "I miss you."
Aw. This girl always makes people have a soft spot for her. "I miss you too, Mel."
"Enjoying New York so far?" she asks. "I wish I could be there with you guys, but you know, things are pretty hectic these days."
It's not that hard to notice the expression on Vaughn's face as he listens to Melanie's every word, which shows just how much he wants to hear her story, how eager he is to know whether she's doing okay or not.
Before I can respond to Melanie, Jake beats me.
"Everything's splendid here," he says. "What about you, Mels? How's it going there? How's college?"
"Everything's good," Melanie says. "The lecturers are wonderful although they give us a lot of assignments, as usual." We can hear her blow a sigh. "You know what? I've decided to try the orchestra this time. They are so good. There's this violin girl who plays like that famous musician -- I forgot her name -- do you remember the concertmaster we saw in Vienna a few years ago? She reminds me of her. And sometimes they play outdoor here. It's wonderful. This town is peaceful --"
She keeps rattling, spilling out her experiences to her brother, and I notice a soft smile on Vaughn's face, relief in his eyes.
"...and about that laboratory assignment, my friend is coming over to my apartment later to help me..."
Vaughn and Jake frown.
"A friend?" Jake repeats the information. "A guy? Or a girl?" There's protectiveness in his voice.
Melanie laughs. "Duh. A girl. Don't start again, Jake." She huffs.
Oh, little does she know that there's someone else here who wants her to clarify that information.
"What about you guys? How's internship so far?" she switches the topic to focus on us.
"Great. We're going to pass with flying colors," Jake says. "I'm gonna have to go back to Boston soon, though. I can't believe that it's only one and a half year until graduation. Vaughn, however, decided to do it even faster. He plans to accelerate his study, so most likely, he'll graduate a semester earlier."
Again, Jake is dragging the conversation as he wishes.
I don't know whether Melanie gets the hint or not, but there's definitely a hidden message as to why Jake highlights the information that Vaughn is going to graduate earlier than the rest of us.
