Chasing Memories

[24] Pricked

    Deep grooves darkened the length of Melody's brow. "Well? I'm waiting. What do you want?" she asked as she tapped her pearl-white fingernails against her hip. "Is this a joke? I bet Matt put you up to this, didn't he? Look, I don't care what he told you – I've moved on. He needs to accept that and leave me the hell alone."

    A sting hid in the tail of Melody's words, and Elise's nails pressed between her stiffened hairs into the skin of her neck. "No, that's not it," she said with a start, clearing her throat in an effort to raise her voice above a mousey squeak. "I don't blame you for wanting nothing to do with Matt, but I'm not here with him. I came with Cade."

    "Wait, Cadie's here?" The composure that had defined Melody's every move dissipated in an instant. Her eyes widened as the light of her phone screen clicked away, her gaze lassoing around Elise's captive form. "Fucking unbelievable. Trust Cadie to turn everything into a fucking drama. How the hell did she even find me?"

    "Social media's a bitch," Elise muttered, shrugging off the searing heat of Melody's devoted attention. "I swear, she was totally okay with leaving you alone. But then we found something, and she really wanted you to know about it."

    Melody tucked her phone into her clutch bag. "Seriously?" she scoffed as she took slow, firm steps forward, peering down her nose through Elise's personal space. Every word she spoke robbed another inch of Elise's height, until the girl threatened to tumble away on the next stiff breeze. "What could possibly be fucking important enough for that two-faced bitch and her quirky cringefail sidekick to crash my team's party? And why should I even care? Because I stopped caring a long time ago, and I never want to hear anything that toxic parasite has to say again. Not now, not – "

    "Mel!" Popping up behind Melody's back, Cadence clasped the girl's shoulders and sighed with relief. "Nice work tracking her down, killer. Listen, I've got something wild to show you. It blew my mind when I saw it."

    "Get. The fuck. Off me." Melody tore herself free of Cadence's grip and turned to face her former friend, puffs of super-heated frustration swirling from her nose. "What is this, Cadie? Besides the power couple of pathetic and desperate."

    Her easy manner remained, yet the soft twitches of Cadence's lips betrayed the alarm the girl's words stirred behind her mask. "I know it looks bad, and I wouldn't be here at all if I wasn't sure this was big," she said, gesturing through the outer fence towards the carpark. "But if you just let me show you one thing, I promise it'll be worth it. One minute to run to my car, Mel, and I can fix everything that went wrong. We can go back to how we used to be!"

    With a puzzled stare, Melody shifted her bag in front of her and studied Cadence's swaying stance. "Are you drunk? Do I need to get someone to throw you out?"

    A girl in a black-and-white striped top swept past Cadence's side, a tumbler of effervescent amber liquid with a looped straw in her hand. "There you are! I can't believe you're still sulking out here," she said as she wiggled the drink by Melody's side. "Look, we were just fucking around, alright? We'd never literally force you to make out with anyone, obviously. There are other ways to get back at Matt, like dropping the queen bitch act and coming back inside. It's a party, M. Forget about that asshole, take this drink, and have fun!"

    Snatching the glass from the girl's hold, Cadence tossed the straw on the ground and downed the drink in one breathless swig. She shuddered and pressed the empty glass back against the girl's chest, jabbing her finger into the stranger's shoulder. "A Long Island iced tea? You mean you don't even know Mel's favourite drink?" she asked as she huffed clouds of alcohol-rich air into the girl's face. "She likes a basic bitch vodka martini, and she'd never drink it with a stupid straw. Know how I know? Because real friends remember shit like that."