Dreams of You
Fragment///001 โ Just about enough
Each ticking second felt like it was growing closer to a light year.
The dread of how much more to endure was almost parallel to finding what useless thing could be said next.
Melanie gave a weak smile as she snapped out of disassociation to rejoin the tables atmosphere and conversation.
Kate gave a quick questioning glance before laughing at a joke thrown to the table by her date. Ever the most polite one.
Melanie shook her head and took a deep drink of her fizzy spirit.
Just a little more to go.
Looking up with a plastered expression of neutrality.
"Do you always do that?" The boy across from her asked.
"Excuse me?" Melanie's under eyes pulsing a quick squint that briefly flickered judgement.
"Uhโjust, it looked like you were on another planet for a second. Sorry?" Donny gripped his drink, taking a nervous sip, and looking down the table at his friend Gerard.
"Oh. No... just on double dates." Melanie replied with a sarcastic smile. "โOw!" receiving a quick kick under the table from Kate.
"Kidding." Melanie added quickly.
Kate's gaze hardly left Gerard.
Melanie sighed with a smile. At least her dearest friend was having a great time. But her patience was beginning to spread thinner by the moment. She had just about enough of faking it this long.
Donny cleared his throat and looked like he wanted to speak but nothing came out.
Kate finally broke divided attention with Gerard and looked down the table. "I'm glad we could all do this!"
"Yea! However, I want credit for these two hitting it off though." Gerard's tone was somewhere between aloof and teasing.
"Com'on now, we've barely just met." Donny chuckled and rolled his eyes at his friend.
Kate gulped her sip.
Melanies gaze snapped up from her glass, flowing from Gerard to Donny.
He didn't remember her.
He didn't remember tormenting her as children.
He didn't remember being a bullyโto none other than his current double date.
"Oh is that so?" Melanie's mood ran cold, to the point where she could no longer contain herself.
Kate was about to interject but was cut off.
"You're telling me... you don't remember the way you put gum in my hair in the second grade?!" Melanie's tone laced with poison and disdain.
Kate covered her eyes with one hand, already embarrassed.
Gerards eyes widened and filled with curiosity.
Donny squirmed in his seat under the sudden direct pressure.
It felt like the radius of silence expanded around their table. Nearby conversations becoming faint whispers.
"Wait, no, of course not! You never even apologized, or card about the people you bullied back then. Not enough to even remember them, apparently." Melanie rolled her eyes before taking a sip of her drink to cut the tension.
A pause.
A sigh.
"WellโI didn't know that was you!? You look so different now?!... How was I supposed to know? Plus, we were just kids back then!" Donny tried to defend.
Gerard took a drink as well and glanced between his friend and Melanie "Well this was unexpectedโow!"
Kate hissed something inaudible to him after also kicking him under the table and began to gather her purse and sweater.
"I'm going to call a cab." Melanie looked at Kate before getting up from the table. "I need the restroom."
As she walked away from the table she could hear Donny and Gerard already beginning to argue.
Author note: this is a chapter fragment from the story I'm writing called Dreams of You! It is apart of chapter 6... I will definitely be sharing more fragments soon so stay tuned for that if you like this style of writing :)
