Melony and Alex: Back to Her Place
Melony started to unlock the door and then stopped when she realized something. "Uh, my place is kind of messy... Just giving you a heads up." When she'd asked Alex if he wanted to come back to her apartment and talk more, the state of it hadn't really come to mind. The invitation itself had been kind of an impulsive idea that arose when, after they were leaving the restaurant on their second date and he said he really liked spending time with her and wanted to see her again.
Alex and Melony had met at her friend Sharon's birthday party. Sharon and Alex worked together and Melony had been her friend since they were in high school. They were both able to survive the party when they realized their mutual interest in The Mothman. After bouncing theories off each other all night (Alex said it was a time traveler in a super suite and Melony thought it would be better if it was some kind of faerie creature), he finally asked her for her number.
The first date was a trip to the local science museum where they walked around the exhibits and mostly talked about how they knew Sharon and what they were currently doing with their lives. The entire time Melony had been a little quieter than normal, worried that she would say something about a dinosaur or optical illusion that would reveal how much of a dumb blonde she had convinced herself she was, but what had truly sealed her certainty that she would never see Alex again was near the end when she blurted out they couldn't do anything after because she was on her period. After going home alone, she drowned the rest of the night in music and cookie dough.
To Melony's surprise Alex did call her again, despite the Crimson Museum Massacre, and wanted to meet up with her for dinner a few nights later. Despite her nervousness at showing her face, the date had gone rather well. For most of dinner Melony was able to keep herself contained and not spout anything too weird. Alex seemed genuinely interested in her stories and she genuinely laughed at his jokes. Now that Aunt Flow had left town for the month, she couldn't help herself from inviting him over to see where else the night would go.
"I'm sure I've seen worse," Alex replied, trying to be nonchalantly reassuring. Internally, Melony was willing to take him up on that bet. She opened the door and led him inside what must appear to most outsiders to be a fresh crime scene, either burglary or a horrible murder. Empty Amazon boxes had begin to build a city in the far corner, her table was covered in at least five different unfinished projects, and she just realized that there were, in fact, two meals worth of dirty dishes still sitting on her coffee table.
"Eeeyeah, so this is it," Melony spread out her arms in a "Ta da!" motion with her purse, still dangling from her arm, smacking loudly it against the wall behind the open door.
"Okay," Alex gazed over the clutter and scratched the side of his dusty brown haired head, "I
have
still seen worse. There's no vomit in the middle of the floor."
Melony tried to hide her blushing face by brushing her shoulder length locks behind her ear. Thank god she'd taken the time to clean up the mess her cat had left this morning. "Well, shove some of the blankets and pillows out of the way and have a seat on the couch. Silly String is probably hiding somewhere but she'll come out after we stop moving around." At least he already knew that Silly String was her Persian mix or else that would have sounded rather insane. "You want anything to drink? Water? Beer? I've got plenty of orange juice." She did in fact have three full containers of orange juice because she kept forgetting that she had already bought some the last two times she went to the store.
"Water's fine, thanks," Alex replied while digging out a spot on the sofa and doing his best to clear off space next to him for her.
Melony came back in to the living room and placed Alex's water and her orange juice on the table (hey it wasn't gonna drink itself) and tried to stealthily gather up the plates while he was looking directly at her. Returning to the kitchen she realized she still hadn't taken off her jacket and almost tried to do it while still holding the dishes. Luckily she was able to stop herself (this time) and get her mind in order enough to follow the proper procedures of putting the things in her hand on the counter before trying to use them for something else.
"What are you working on, if you don't mind me asking," Alex's voice came from the living room, hopefully referring to the projects on the dinning table.
"Oh, a few things. I kind of got stuck on a couple of them and tried to start something else to clear my mind and then got stuck on that trying to do the first ones." This was not a new situation for Melony, as she'd had trouble staying focused on one things at a time her whole life. "You know how it goes." She was pretty sure he didn't.
"Yeah, I feel ya..." Alex replied, unconvincingly. Melony came back in to the living room and put her jacket on a hook by the door. Alex glanced down at an accumulation of unopened mail and bills on the edge of the coffee table. "I don't think I've ever seen Melony spelled that way before."
Melony sat beside him. "Yeah, it actually kind of funny. It means black or dark in Greek. Both my parents have really dark hair so I guess they figured I would turn out the same way but they got this," she pointed to her light blonde head. "Interestingly enough, blondes have the most hairs on their head because they are the thinnest strands, followed by red, and black has the thickest. It's why blonde hair is the softest." She unconsciously began twirling her own with her finger, "So I guess I'll always have more hair than both of them. Unless I go bald or have to get chemo or something." She suddenly realized she was rambling again and stopped, taking a big gulp of her juice.
"Oh yeah? You studying cosmetology or something?" Alex inquired, leaning back and letting his arm stretch over the back of the couch behind Melony.
"Ha, no," Melony chirped. "I went to school for a history major but couldn't keep up with the work so I had to take 'an extended break' that hasn't ended yet." She had to stop herself again. 'What are you doing Mel??' She screamed to herself after realizing what she had just admitted.
"That sucks," Alex let his arm get a little closer, "Any history in particular?"
"Uh, yeah. Victorian era British expansion..." her voice got noticeably quieter and she looked down at her knees. "But I guess I got in a little in over my head..."
"What happened? Money stuff or getting invited to too many parties?" Alex said the last part with the joking intention of it being a compliment, but Melony was very much not wanting to travel down a path of her many many failures.
"Um, no. I'm just stupid I guess." She suddenly stood up just as a brown fluff ball came trotting in from the hallway and stopped to stare at this new human that had dared to enter it's domain without permission. "Oh look, Stringy's come out to say hi. Any particular music you're in to?" She hoped that if she threw out enough statements it would create a smoke screen for her escape from the current topic.
Alex was a little taken aback by the sudden shift but said, "Uh no, anythings fine." Melony picked up a remote from the table and turned on her TV. Humming something that no human on earth would be able to pin down to a specific song, she buttoned over to her playlists and squeaked out loud when the first one to pop up was titled boldly across the screen "Music 2 Fuck 2".
The list of music was not, in fact, intended to be played during sex, but was meant to be listened to while she bounced around the apartment doing chores. Her finger seemed to have developed a grudge against Melony for continuously sticking it inside her pussy every night and tapped the play button. A reggae version of Katrina and the Waves' 'Walking on Sunshine' started blaring out of the speakers of her television.
Melony stood frozen to the spot as Silly String jumped up to take over her spot on the couch in order to sniff the intruder and determine if he was to be claimed or despised, all while the sexual implications of "Cause I just can't wait till you write me you're coming around" filled the air.
