Chapter 7

“Coming!” I yelled across the hall and shuffled my feet to the door.

Gabe was standing there with the tiny boxes of red geraniums in both arms and two tiny shovels.

“Perfect!” I squealed. “Why didn't you just walk in though?” I asked while taking some of the flowers out of his large hands.

“Because it was locked,” He shrugged and we started planting the flowers into the ginormous rusty pot. 

“Guests are hear,” I nodded toward the orange car that was speeding towards the house making an acute turn at the edge of the street. Probably Jake's high school sister that just got out of he driver's ed class.

Gabe looked back and we hid the rest of the flower boxes that weren't planted behind the the large pot.

“Hey guys!” I called to Christine, Jake, and Melanie hopping out of the car. Steph, Jake's sister sped back down the rode.

Christine was a very talkative and bubbly person. She could cheer anyone up with her gleaming smile spread across her face at all times, and she'd always give you great advice when you're down. She was slender and short and had strawberry blonde hair with a couple of cherry red and white highlights. Christine was paired with Jake, a slight football jock with shaggy brown hair that swept across his face. He was muscular and cute, but you could tell he was “changing” because zits were starting to bloom around his dark eyebrows.

Melanie had more of a shy personality, but she was very sweet. I could talk to her about almost anything, and she'd always devout her heart to the situation. Yet, she still hadn't found out about the secret of my dad- I hadn't told her yet. She was extremely slim and tall with natural black hair and purple rectangle glasses.

“Hey Anna, hey Gabe! What's up?” Christine called back with Jake's fingers weaved with hers. Melanie shuffled behind with a bag of marshmallows, a package of Hersey's, and a box of graham crackers.

I replied in a strange voice mocking the hosts on HGTV, “We were staging.” I said while flashing a cheesy smile and fluttered my eyelashes.

“You're so weird, Bel, do you know that?” Melanie gave me a dainty hug and handed me the marshmallows. I ripped the plastic open and shoved four of them down my throat. 

“Save those! I thought we could make s'mores!” 

“Too late!” I laughed, but all four marshmallows that were now dripping in saliva exploded out of my mouth and into Gabe's hair.

Jake started laughing and fell to the floor. Christine tumbled on top of him with Melanie following behind. Gabe was in shock and starting throwing the goopy marshmallows at me.

“Hey! It was an accident! I scream while sprinting out the door and running around the house.

“Come back here!” Gabe shouted back. He was obviously faster than me because he caught up to me within two seconds. 

I dove to the ground which ended up being wet because it was foggy that day and Gabe tackled on top of me. 

My face was just inches from his. We stayed there for a second but then a plopped one of the slimy marshmallows that was stuck to my shirt into his mouth.

“Still good!” He commented. 

We stood up and with mud spread all across our backs as we shook the little bits of grass from our jeans.

The girls were inside finding some more snacks to munch on as Jake was searching for a good movie to watch.

Once everything was in place, we started to watch “The Messengers” chose out by Jake. The s'mores were on a ceramic green plate with the popcorn in a large white bowl to the side of it. Sitting next to eachother were the lovebirds on the couch at the left end with Melanie in the middle and Gabe on the right end. I was in Phil's smelly worn out chair because I didn't want my friends to notice the stinky bitterness of it. I tried to hold my breath, but it wouldn't work because the combined smells of s'mores and popcorn smelled so delicious. Except for the barf and beer part.

Just as we were about halfway into the movie, where Kristen Stewart goes downstairs, we heard a noise.

“What was that?” Melanie asked worriedly and paused the screen.

Christine giggled cheered, “Oh, it's probably nothin', Mel, lets just keep watchin' the movie!” 

“Okay..” Melanie sat cautiously on the sofa.

Just as we started the movie up again, the front door flung open. Christine whom was confident and proud a second before, jumped into Jake's lap and dug her face into the nook of his neck. Melanie covered her eyes and sunk into the couch in freight with her arms around her knees. Gabe and I looked at eachother, scared, knowing it was Phil.

Phil stomped through the hall and yelled louder than I've ever heard him yell, “YOU IDIOTS GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!!” He angrily came toward us and threw the ceramic green plate full of s'mores at Melanie's head. She shrieked in pain with her hands over her wound as Gabe knelt down by her to help keep the blood inside. 

Jake pulled a can of pepper spray out of his pocket, and he sprayed it all over Phil's eyes as Phil punched and kicked the T.V. Christine hid behind the couch with her purse over her face and dialed 911 on her cell phone as Jake and Phil had their duel.

Phil flung his fists toward Jakes nose but Jake was too quick and he dodged the punch.

He sprinted to Christine who was on the phone, scooped her into his arms, and dashed out the door.

Gabe was still crouching over Melanie protecting her with his arms. 

Phil was shoving all pans out of the cupboards and found the largest and more intimidating one of them all. He flung the pan and Gabe's leg, and it smash right into his shin. It started the bleed, but Gabe was strong and didn't cry.

“Gabe! Get the phone and call 911! Melanie's loosing blood! GO!” I screamed. Gabe pulled ran over to the nearest home phone, yanked the cord out of the wall, and went inside the bathroom for safety.

“It's going to be okay, Mel, shhhh... calm dow,” I crooned Melanie and rubbed her shoulder. “The doctors will be here right away. Shhh.... calm down.”

She was shaking on the couch leaving a puddle of blood under her and cried into my sleeve.

A few minutes later of intense violence, the ambulance came and I had to lie about how Melanie (and all the rest of us) got hurt.

If they knew the truth, Phil would kill me. If I lied, there'd be serious pain.

I was stupid, and chose the pain.

As the ambulance drove off to the hospital with Melanie strapped into her bed, I started to cry and hid in the bathroom with Gabe.

Well, there went my secret.