Night.

Who knew going for a walk in a strange neighborhood at night would end up having a positive ending?

Mel decided that she needed some fresh air. There seemed to be a tangible negative energy in the house that she had to get away from for a bit. She didn’t even care how long she kept Kelly and her friends waiting downstairs. How did she really expect Mel to have a good time after that Alaina fiasco?

 

She decided to sit on the bottom step leading up to Kelly’s front door. Mel almost felt like calling her mom to check in, but figured she wasn’t in the right mood or mindset to talk to her. How would she even explain this situation to her mother? She couldn't think of a way.

 

“Screw this,” she muttered as she stood up and began walking out into the street. She stopped for a second and turned around to look at Kelly’s house, debating turning around and going back. Nah.

 

She kept walking past the houses that lined the street, noticing how they were practically all replicas of each other. She also noticed that she was walking right down the middle of the road, but no cars were coming; it didn’t seem to matter. She felt like being somewhat rebellious. If Mel had her iPod with her, this would be the perfect time to just block everything out, but it was inside her suitcase. Ironically, the only person she felt like listening to at the moment was kind of the source of her problem.

 

Headlights appeared about 20 feet in front of her, so she figured that walking along the side of the road would be a much better idea. Getting run over would just be the perfect end to the perfect day.

 

The headlights came closer, causing Mel to want to shield her eyes, but she didn’t. The car seemed to slow down as it approached, which she was thankful for. Then the car just suddenly stopped along side of her. All of Mel's muscles began to tighten until she saw who the driver was.

The car's window rolled down. “Melanie? What are you doing, walking back to Pennsylvania?” Marshall asked with a somewhat amused expression on his face.

 

“Yup! How did you know?" Mel sarcastically retorted.

 

“No, seriously, what’s going on? You sounded mad weird on the phone.” He turned the car off. The complete darkness she was now in made her even more uncomfortable.

 

“Oh, you noticed that, huh?” she tried not to sound embarrassed. “I’m just trying to clear my head and get some fresh air. It’s been a…weird night, I guess,” she continued honestly and zipped up the hoodie she’d taken out of Kelly’s closet.

 

“Do you want to sit down an talk about it?” It was hard for her to make out in the pitch black of the night, but Marshall seemed to be motioning to the passenger seat of his Tahoe.

 

“My mom told me not to get in the car with strangers,” Mel replied with a laugh, but then began walking around the front of the car.

 

“How do you know I’m not dangerous?” Marshall asked loudly out the window, trying to sound serious.

 

Mel couldn’t help but laugh again at his question. “I just do,” she answered simply and opened the door to the passenger’s side.

 

“Can I ask you somethin'?” Marshall turned the car back on as soon as Mel sat down in her seat, realizing that it being so dark in the car was somewhat eerie and awkward. 

 

“I guess so, yeah,” Mel replied, uncomfortably shifting in the leather seat to face him. Why am I sitting in Eminem’s car right now?

 

“What the hell happened in that party that made you walk up out of your friend’s house and start wandering around at night?” He looked genuinely concerned when Mel met his eyes.

 

“I just got a little shaken up over something someone said. It’s whatever, though. I’m actually kind of over it now." Mel debated stopping there, but continued talking anyway. "I felt like I needed to get out of there. It was…stuffy,” Mel quickly sniffled and placed her hands in her lap.

 

“Stuffy? You’re gonna have to do better than that. I’m pretty good at reading people, and you’re not telling me the whole truth, are you?” Marshall asked and tilted his head slightly to the side.

 

“If I tell you, you’ll probably react really weirdly, and I don’t want that.” Mel broke eye contact and looked out the window.

 

“Why would I react weirdly? It can’t be that bad, can it?” His voice suddenly became quieter. You could practically hear a pin drop in the car.

 

Mel decided to continue looking out the window. It'd be extremely weird to look at him while saying what came next. “Alaina thinks you hit on me earlier,” She replied so quickly that it sounded as if she’d only said one long word.

 

Marshall scrunched his face up in confusion. “What?” He put one of his hands back on the wheel.

 

“Yeah, she was saying how you, um, "operate" a certain way in front of her friends and that it makes her uncomfortable.” Mel slapped her left hand over her mouth. Maybe I should not have said that last part.

 

Then he did something unexpected. He let out a loud, throaty laugh. Mel’s snapped her head around to look at him.

 

“What’s so funny?” She couldn’t help but ask.

 

“She’s so full of s**t sometimes, man,” Marshall put the other hand on the wheel and turned to look back at Mel.

 

“About what? You being a smooth operator or you hitting on me?” She was actually almost afraid to hear his answer.

 

“I don’t hit on all of her friends. Not seriously, anyway. I can’t even believe she said that to you,” he replied vaguely, not exactly answering her question. Great.

 

“Well, she had some help. I don’t think she would’ve said it if she hadn’t been…” Mel decided to stop while she was ahead. She didn’t want to talk about Alaina anymore.

 

“Drinking? Yeah, I’ll have to talk to her about that,” Marshall sounded slightly pissed off, but not altogether surprised. “Speaking of Alaina, we should probably get back to Kelly’s house.” He put the car in drive and it started moving.

 

“I hope she’s not standing outside when we get back. I’m sure she’ll be absolutely thrilled to see me get out of your car,” Mel muttered under her breath.

“You can walk back alone if you want,” Marshall joked, putting the brake on suddenly. She smirked and shook her head signaling that she wanted to stay.

 

“Don’t even worry about her. Trust me, I’ll take care of it,” He assured her. It literally took 30 seconds to get back to Kelly’s house.

 

The car stopped and it seemed like something invisible was preventing Mel from touching the car's door latch.  “I’ll just…go inside and get Alaina, then.” Mel sighed and reluctantly opened her door. Wow, is this the last time I’m ever going to see him? She felt a wave of sadness rush over her. “It was nice meeting you, Marshall. I don’t even know if I’ll ever see you again, so I guess this is--"

 

“I’m sure you will. You're here a whole week, right?” He cut her off before she could finish her sentence. Why would we see each other again? It’s not exactly like me and Alaina hit it off. She nodded and gave him a half-smile before hopping out of the car, but couldn't bring herself to say goodbye.

Mel started walking up to the house when she heard Marshall’s voice call out to her. “Tell me something, Melanie. Did you even have any fun tonight at all?”

 

She turned around. “You know what? I actually did," Mel replied with what she considered to be a mysterious smile. "And you can call me Mel," she waved goodbye quickly before opening Kelly’s front door.