The Burning of the Palace at Versailles (or, Butterfly) [REWRITING]

Chapter 17 - Autumn in Michigan

Diana grinned. "Twenty-three."

"Then you can't call me 'kiddo.' I'm older than you."

Key giggled, actually giggled, with quick little breathy laughs. Then he saw Melody wasn't laughing. "Hold up, you're serious? How old are you?"

"Twenty-four."

Key burst into another fit of giggled, his skeletal frame shaking with the effort. He laughed until tears fell from his eyes. "That's the best thing I've heard all day. You're older than Diana. And here I thought only Puzzle and Jordan had the guts for that."

Diana scowled from the doorway. "Whatever," she said. "I'm just here to tell you guys to go to your rooms. Jim's going to start nighttime checks soon."

"Okay. Thank you, Diana," Melody said.

Diana seemed angry about being dismissed, but left.

"Keegan?" Melody said. "How old are you?"

All of the happiness Key had just moments before suddenly vanished. He sighed and swiped the bangs out of his eyes. The thin hair immediately moved back to the same place. "I'm twenty."

Twenty. The number seemed so young, so childlike. Melody thought back to when she was twenty years old. She was in her junior year of college, living in a dorm with a couple of roommates with whom she had icy relationships. Every Friday night there was trivia in the restaurant in the Commons on campus, and she hated her required Literary Theory class. For a time, she was borderline normal.

"How old were you when you got arrested?"

"Seventeen."

When Melody had been seventeen, she hated waking up in the morning. But at least she had not even known about places like Versailles. She had never considered she could end up in one.

"What happened?"

Key shrugged. "You know. The same thing that happened to all of us. We messed up. Hurt someone, even if we didn't mean to."

"Where is Hartley now?"

Key picked up the pencil, which had been abandoned on the table a while ago. He tried balancing it on its tip. "He moved to Boston. He has family there, apparently. Everyone wanted him to get away from Michigan. Or me."

"Is he okay?"

"I guess." Key finally looked up from the pencil to look at Melody. "He'll be okay. We used to send letters to each other but stopped a long time ago. I think everyone wants him to forget me."

"What does he want?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure anyone let him decide what he wanted." He lifted up the pencil again and it fell with a loud clatter. "I want him to be happy. If that means he forgets about me, then fine."

A slight ache was making itself known in Melody's wrist. She twisted it, but the pain didn't lessen. "You love him." She meant to phrase it as a question, but the statement from her lips.

He nodded. "I guess." Key jerked his head forward. "I like your drawing."

Melody looked down at the paper and saw she had sketched a night sky. Little stars covered the paper and the rest was shaded in. The side of Melody's hand was smeared with shiny graphite.

Key stood up. "Come with me," he said. "I want to show you something."

He grabbed the paper and pencil and led them out of the room. As they walked past the kitchen, Melody jumped when she saw Heidi standing in the kitchen.