Melody takes my arm as we head towards the doors, and Mr. Carter sees us as we pass by. "Where are you two going?" he asks.

"We were headed out." I give Mr. Carter a hopeful grin. "Any chance you'd let us spend the rest of the night alone? I'll get Mel home safe, I promise."

"Well..." Mr. Carter rubs the back of his neck and sighs.

Melody gives Mr. Carter her best puppy-dog eyes. "Please? We'll be careful."

He lets out a deep sigh before nodding. "Alright, make sure she's home by one," he finally says with a slight chuckle. We walk with Mr. Carter to the elevator. A soft chime and a glowing arrow pointing downwards lights up. "By the way," Mr. Carter says as he steps in and turns around, "that was very sweet, Cole, what you did for Ms. Aria back there. I'm happy she has you."

I raise my eyebrows. That's rare, a genuine compliment from him. "Thank you, Mr. Carter."

He gives me a smile and small wave as the doors slide shut. I glance at Melody, it looks like she's trying, but failing, to hide a giddy grin - I can't help but smile as well.

I realize it's been hours since we've had some quiet time alone. I take advantage of the peace to finally get a proper look at her outfit. We were talking on the phone this morning and she suddenly had to go. Apparently her mom sent a whole team of people to get her ready for tonight without warning her and Melody did not sound happy about it.

"You look amazing by the way." Don't get me wrong, I've always thought Melody was pretty, but she's a different kind of pretty right now.

She's wearing a long and flowy silver-ish gold-ish dress with tiny diamonds and sequins. Her light makeup makes her eyes look even more round and doe-like, while her lips and cheeks are a subtle soft pink. Around her neck is a thin gold necklace with a tiny music note pendant. Her hair is in a soft looking bun. Probably one of those "effortless" hairstyles that actually take a ton of effort that the sorority girls are always talking about.

Her cheeks turn red and she giggles. "Not too bad yourself, Cole. I've never seen you dressed like this."

My feet are getting sore from my dress shoes, and I feel like I'm being strangled by my tie. I'm never going to get used to dressing like this. "Actually," I say with a smirk, "you have. The first night we met, I was wearing this exact same outfit."

She wrinkles her nose. "I wasn't exactly focusing on your outfit that night."

I recall our awkward three second encounter. I can't say I remember what she was wearing either. "Fair enough." Just as I press the button with the up arrow, I hear someone call my name. Jake is coming down the hall towards us.

"Hey Cole, leaving already?" He gives me a friendly pat on the shoulder. "People are looking for you. The executive committee is supposed to socialize a bit with everyone, remember?"

I groan. "Can't I just sneak away?" As if on cue, the elevator doors suddenly slide open. Part of me is incredibly tempted to just hop in and leave. The freedom is tantalizingly close.

He chuckles deeply. "I'd love to bounce too but you already know Luke would give us crap for it."

Luke's a nice guy and all, but sometimes I wish he wasn't so nice. He made that policy to reduce the chances of anyone feeling left out. "Ok, ok," I grumble. I watch in pain as the elevator doors slide shut.

A girl wearing a glittery black gown and tall black heels comes from around the corner. "Oh there you are Jake." She approaches him and he wraps his arm around her waist. "Hi Cole," she greets me cheerfully.

"Hey Ophelia." Jake's girlfriend is from one of the smaller sororities, I don't know much about her. She visits the house every once in a while though, she seems really sweet.

Her eyes widen when she notices Melody. "Oh hi, Melody was it? That was such a lovely performance."

Melody blushes a little. "Thank you."

Without warning, she quickly takes Melody's hand. "Come on, let me introduce you to some of the girls."

"O-oh um, ok." Melody's eyes widen as she gets tugged away.

"We'll see you later boys!" Ophelia calls as they disappear around the corner.

The both of us laugh as we take our time walking back to the ballroom, stopping by the bar to get some drinks. Jake orders wine while I get an old fashioned. As I take my drink, I notice him looking at me curiously in my peripheral vision. "So about Melody, was Carmen being dramatic like usual? Or is she actually famous?"

"She's uh..." Part of me wants to share what an amazing person Melody is and all of her unbelievable achievements. If you were to ask me a few months ago, I'm sure I absolutely would've loved telling people I was hanging out with someone famous - regardless of what that would do to them. The idea of doing that now makes my stomach lurch. "She's written a couple of classical songs, that's all."

"Ah, I see." We take our drinks and head back to the ballroom. "So she's the one you used to get up at six in the morning to go see?"

"That's her."

Thank god Melody got the piano when she did so I could go to her place after class instead. The sleep deprivation from morning sessions was eating away at my sanity. I probably slept through more than half of my classes and meetings.

It was worth it though.

"Seems she's been good for you," he chuckles. "It's been a while since we've overheard girls sneaking out of your room at six in the morning."

I give him a shove, careful not to spill my drink. "What happens in my room stays in my room you creep."

"Hey I'm serious," he snorts. "It's nice to see you finally acting like an adult instead of a desperate-for-sex-teenager. You were worse than an unneutered dog."

I guess I've been so preoccupied with everything that I hadn't even noticed a change in myself. The impulse to hookup and keep things casual with an indefinite number of girls has seemingly disappeared. I thought I'd be old and miserable by the time this happened.

Maybe growing up isn't so bad after all.

-----

The DJ is playing some upbeat music, most people are either dancing or socializing. We take our time, walking around and talking to people. I'm glad to see that I haven't lost my touch - my charm and smile still work the same way on everybody else.

Not that it matters or anything...

After we've spoken to pretty much everyone, we take a seat at an empty table. Jake finishes the rest of his drink. I'm amazed at how slowly he's paced himself. He's normally a three-shots-of-vodka-right-away kind of guy at parties.

He gives me a sly grin. "So, are you and Melody dating?"

"No, she doesn't see me like that." I grimace as my brain suddenly forces me to relive every embarrassing time I tried bringing it up to her. Luckily it's dim in here, I'm sure my face has turned red.

I subtly look around and spot her across the ballroom. She's sitting with Ophelia at a table with a bunch of other girls. I'm glad that it looks like she's enjoying herself. They're all smiling and laughing, talking about whatever it is girls talk about. As if Melody can sense me looking at her, she suddenly turns and sees me. She gives me a soft smile and wave.

I realize I've fallen for Melody, so badly, but I can't do anything about it - she won't let me.

No one ever warned me how much love hurts.

Love kind of sucks.

Jake luckily doesn't notice. He laughs and shakes his head. "I don't know about that, man. You didn't see the way she was looking at you while you guys were playing."

"What do you me-" I suddenly feel someone rest their hand on my shoulder, and I immediately recognize the feeling of those claw-like nails. I'm more used to feeling them digging into my back though. "What do you want Laura," I grumble without looking up.

She takes a seat next to me and rests her hand on my thigh. In her other hand is a glass of red wine, the same deep shade of red as her nails. "I thought you'd be happier to see me," she whispers, smiling at me coyly.

I turn and my eyes quickly skim over her. Laura's outfit doesn't exactly scream winter formal. Her wavy red hair stands out against her short grey dress, and her green eyes look extra bright in contrast to her dark, smoky makeup.

"You thought wrong." I down the rest of my drink, feeling the strong burn sting my throat. I know I'm going to need alcohol to make Laura more tolerable. "What are you doing here anyways? How did you even get in?" Maybe she snuck in - I wouldn't put that past her.

"I'm here as someone's date," she scoffs. I feel bad for whichever poor guy she tricked into bringing her here. She crosses her legs and leans closer to me so that our knees are touching. There's a faint scent of tequila and lime coming off of her. "I wanted to talk to you, Cole."

Jake clears his throat. "We were kind of having a conversation, Laura."

She ignores him and continues. "I've missed you Cole," she hums breathily and slowly trails her fingers up my arm. I swallow the lump in my throat and do my best to maintain my composure. It's ridiculous, the things this girl can still do to me. It's starting to feel uncomfortably stuffy and my tight tie isn't doing me any favors. She lowers her voice, leaning close enough for me to feel her warm breath against my neck. "Remember how good we were together?"

I take a deep breath and scoot back, widening the gap between us. "Laura, we were only together for a few months. I've moved on, you should too."

She scoffs and leans back in her chair. "Does this have to do with that poor, helpless girl that was on stage?" She pretends to tremble, mimicking Melody's nervous expression.

I feel my blood boil as my brain quickly snaps back to reality. "Don't talk about her like that," I snap, pulling my arm away.

She raises a perfectly penciled eyebrow and laughs dryly. "Oh, I see how it is." She smirks and suddenly stands up. "Bye Cole," she chirps and flips her hair over her shoulder.

That was... easy? She starts strolling across the room towards Melody.

That can't be good.

I quickly get up to follow her and stop whatever the hell she's scheming. Jake gets up too and puts his arm out in front of me to stop me.

I scowl, trying to push past him. "What are you doing?"

"Just wait," he says excitedly, keeping his eyes glued on Melody's table. "I know Ophelia and her friends. You're going to want to see this."

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I love how soft and sweet Cole is getting 🥺

Thanks for reading!