Discovering Melanie Ch. 14.1

Standing there in the small study room in the library, Melanie felt Sarah’s hand on the small of her back as she looked at Brian sitting there. Sarah had asked her help for tomorrow’s exam, but that appeared to be just a trick to get her there. Cohen hadn’t gone home either. Melanie guessed that he’d done the same to Brian, who seemed not at all happy to see her.

“What is this?” Brian asked bluntly, looking at Sarah.

“We don’t know what happened between you two, but it’s obvious you two have been avoiding each other. You’re staying here till you talk it out,” Sarah said, before opening the door again. “We’ll be outside.”

Sarah left, closing the door behind her.

“Those guys…” Melanie said, amused.

“I’m not in the mood to talk and I’m not amused,” Brian said, turning away from her.

Typical, stubborn guy, Melanie thought, and she sighed. “Brian, I’m sorry about Saturday!” she said. She wished Sarah had given her a heads up, so she could have rehearsed what she wanted to say, even though she had done exactly that multiple times the past few days. “My behavior was unacceptable.”

She waited for him to say something, but he kept quiet, didn’t even give an indication he’d heard her. Why is he like this? He’s acting like he’d been slighted in the worst manner possible.

“Can we please talk about it?” she begged.

Again, she waited. This time she saw his shoulder twitch.

“You can’t do that to a guy,” he finally said.

“I know, my behavior Saturday was awful. The alcohol… I shouldn’t drink that much,” she said.

“Don’t blame it on the alcohol,” Brian said, turning back to her before continuing, “Holding my arm, asking me those questions. If you had any idea… I thought Josy was the tease, lifting your skirt and embarrassing you. But the park. And Saturday. You and Josy, are you together? No, I don’t even want to know. You’ve been playing with my feelings. Saturday. How could you do that to someone? Josy knew, she told you, and then you did that to me. Cohen, he tricked me, asked if I could help him for tomorrow’s exams.” He kept talking throughout, giving her no room to respond.

Everything he said, it was too much to process. It left Melanie speechless.

Brian stood up and walked to the door, opened it and was about to step outside, not even bothering with his stuff. He was stopped in his tracks by Sarah and Cohen blocking his path.

“Talk it out,” Sarah said, directing Brian back to a chair and closing the door on him and Melanie.

Melanie sat down on the opposite side of the table. She looked at him, but he was just looking down at the table.

She felt grateful for Sarah’s and Cohen’s intervention, since it appeared that if it were up to Brian, he might have avoided her for weeks, if not more. When he had left her room that Saturday, she didn’t know what to expect next time they talked, but it wasn’t this.

“I don’t understand all that you just said, but Josy and I are not together. I don’t know where you got that from,” she said.

He looked up and studied her face.

“I will say, I’m sorry for my behavior,” she continued, and then raised her voice, “but you’re an asshole. You’re making me out to be the worst kind of person and it’s insulting.”

After a moment of quiet, he said, “Say I believe you, how do you explain the both of you behaving as you do?”

Though she had to admit that she and Josy didn’t exactly have a normal friendship, she didn’t know what exactly he was referring to. “I’d like to explain, if you’ll let me,” she said. Then she asked, “Are you going to apologize?”

He looked pissed and glared at her. After what felt like a long time, he said, “Fine, but you’ll have to explain a few things. When Josy lifted your skirt, was that planned?”

“I had no idea she would do that,” she answered, blushing at the memory.

He studied her face again, and then asked, “She does that to you, her friend? So casually embarrassing you?”

“Yeah… she does that,” still blushing.

He continued in a softer tone, saying, “But she knew you were… I mean… you had no panties on. I knew for sure you two were together then.”

Melanie blushed furiously. He had noticed and even remembered that she’d been bare beneath her skirt. Indeed, Josy knew, but not for the reason Brian was thinking of.

“Yes, she knew,” she admitted, looking away.

“So, why did she do that to you?” Brian asked, going back to a harsher tone. “Why does she even know that?”

How can she tell him the reason behind it? How to even begin to explain? “It’s complicated,” she said.

“Try me,” Brian responded.

She thought about it for a moment. Why indeed? She wasn’t sure herself and couldn’t exactly answer for Josy’s motivations. Josy breaking up with her boyfriend half a year ago, catching Melanie in her backyard, that morning in the field… So much had happened the past weeks, and Melanie and Josy had already bent or perhaps broken some friendship boundaries. She couldn’t tell him all that and didn’t even know how to describe her current relationship with Josy. Maybe if she just told him some of her high school history, it would be sufficient explanation.

“I was a late bloomer in high school. Girls would tease me for it, and for years I was insecure about my body. Still am,” she said. Remembering her drunken ramblings about her butt, she added, “It’s why I asked you those questions Saturday.”

“When we were walking, those questions?” he asked.

More blushing. “Yes.”

“Do you even realize how strange it is to ask such things?”

“I guess I am a bit strange,” she admitted.

He was quiet for a while. At least he didn’t seem as upset anymore, and continued to say, “I guess I’m a bit strange as well.”

“I’m glad you’re aware of it,” she said, unable to resist taking a dig at him.

“Saturday…”

“I’m sorry. That went too far,” she said, then looked down at the table and continued, “And I’m glad you held back… Thank you for that.”

“You’re such a tease,” he said.

As she looked up again, he turned away and she thought she saw a smile break through on his face. “Yes, you said that,” she responded.

He seemed to be doing his best to suppress the smile and Melanie wondered why. After a moment, the smile was gone again, leaving a neutral expression. It bothered her.

“You called me an asshole,” he said, and the smile broke through again, or was it more of a grin this time?

“Yes,” she said. Wait, why is that funny to him?

“You know, what I said about being more careful…” he said.

More careful?

He continued, “With your teasing… you might be showing more than you realize.”

Melanie’s eyes went wide, suddenly realizing what he was talking about. Josy’s pictures! She couldn’t face him anymore and squeaked as she turned away from him, covering her face with her hands.

After a few moments, she dropped her hands, but continued to stand there for a long time, feeling her heart rate gradually return to normal.

“You were thinking about it, weren’t you?” she asked, still facing away from him.

“I can’t answer that,” he said.

She turned and yelled at him, “Asshole!”

“Yes,” he responded flatly.

She slumped in embarrassment, unable to look at him.

He stood up, walked over to her and patted her on the back. “Don’t worry Melanie…”

She looked up at him.

“It was a good show,” he said, grinning.

Melanie didn’t respond. She was beyond embarrassed.

He walked back to his chair and sat down again. After a few moments, he broke the silence. “It doesn’t explain why, though,” he said.

“Sorry, why what exactly?” she turned back to him.

“Why everything,” he said, exasperated.

She sighed. Communicate already, is it that difficult? She rolled her eyes at him, but he was looking the other way.

“Look, there’s more we need to talk about, but I want to get out of here,” he said. He then looked at her and asked, “Just… can you answer me one thing?”

She wanted to make this right and understood that there was still a lot of air to clear. Obviously, he had many of doubts milling through his head. “Yes,” she said.

“What you did Saturday… was that planned? To mess with me?”

“No, absolutely not,” she answered, unwavering.

Brian looked her straight in the eyes, and she held fast.

After several seconds, she blushed and began to explain, “I…” She had to turn her eyes away and hoped he wouldn’t ask if she had teased him on purpose. It wasn’t planned, and she couldn’t explain what had made her do it, but at least after getting the water she had enjoyed teasing him and seeing his reactions.

She forced herself to look him in the eyes again.

“I forgive you for Saturday and I’m sorry for accusing you of all those things,” he said, still holding his gaze.

“Oh… okay,” she said, taken aback. She had no doubt that what he said was sincere, even though he delivered it in such a strange manner. He obviously still had questions and she didn’t know if she could answer them, but at least the major issues bothering him were out of the way.

Unsure what to do now, she asked, “Shall we shake hands for Sarah and Cohen, so they let us go?”

He nodded and said, “Obviously we’re not telling them what happened.” He went to the door, opened it, and then extended his hand to Melanie.

She shook his hand. It felt otherworldly, as she had a strong desire to either go in for a hug or slap him in the face. Feeling lightheaded, she said to Sarah, “We talked it out. Let’s go home?”

“You sure took your sweet time,” Cohen said, frowning. “But at least you worked it out. Mind you, we’d have locked you in there the whole night.”

“Now tell us what it was all about,” Sarah said. “What happened Saturday?”

“Uhm, tell you another time, okay?” Melanie asked. She didn’t want to ever tell Sarah and Cohen, and hoped they’d let it go for now.

“Hmph, fine,” Sarah said, looking at Brian and Melanie critically.

“Brian, you forgot your things. Melanie, your bag,” Cohen said, pointing back into the room.

Sarah laughed, and said, “You two are the weirdest.”

“We know. We already agreed on that,” Brian said, packing up his things.

~~~

Sometime during the night, Melanie woke up to pee. Absentmindedly, she neglected to put on a shirt or robe and just stepped into her slippers. After peeing, washing up and exiting the small room, she bumped into someone.

It was dark, but it was still possible to make out shapes.

“Sorry,” someone said. Melanie recognized the voice as belonging to Reese.

“Sorry,” Melanie responded on autopilot, and started moving past the other girl to make her way to her door, which was just a few steps away. Though she held her hands up between herself and Reese, the other girl did the same and she felt hands touch her arms and shoulders. She could tell that Reese hadn’t moved yet when she slipped back into her room.

As she lay in bed, she wondered how much Reese had seen, and whether Reese had noticed her nudity. She hadn’t had much interaction with Reese yet since moving in, but Melanie liked her. The quiet girl seemed nice. Thankfully, before long she was sound asleep again.

~~~

Friday morning after her alarm went off, Melanie again thought about running. She hadn’t spoken with Brian since they left the library, but perhaps they could go running the next day. She planned to ask him about it after today’s exams.

Although he had said there was more they needed to talk about, he seemed to have forgiven her for her behavior last Saturday. She was happy to have her friend back.

After a quick check of the hallway, she walked over to the bathroom, naked with her towel over her arm. It was becoming a habit. However, as she was getting ready to get in the shower, her bladder was telling her that she should pee first. Unfortunately, in their apartment, the toilet was in a separate little room next to the bath and shower room, accessible only through the hallway.

It was still early. She’d been setting her alarm a little earlier to minimize the chances the bathroom would already be in use, so she decided to risk it in just her slippers. There was no door directly from the bathroom and the toilet, but it was just a few steps through the hallway. As she walked over, she reflected on the fact that every time she walked nude through that hallway was exhilarating. After peeing she walked back, facing her roommate’s doors, while forcing her hands by her side. She made it back to the bathroom unseen.

As she stepped into the shower, Melanie thought of Alani and Paige. If they caught her in the hallway like that, could she still convince them she wasn’t a nudist? Of course, she didn’t need to convince herself she wasn’t a nudist. There’s a big difference between walking nude through your own apartment, even if it is shared with others, and walking nude outside in a nudist resort. Even so, she thought she should look into nudist resorts some time. Would she be able to fit in there, given her strange fascination with nudity?

~~~

The last exams of the week went well; Melanie had successfully navigated her way through the first exam week of college.

“Yay,” she said happily, standing with her friends outside the exam hall.

“So, as Melanie so eloquently stated, now that our exams are done, do you guys want to go to a party this evening?” Sarah asked the group, playfully poking Melanie in the ribs.

“Absolutely,” Cohen said, “I need to unwind.”

“I suggest Marcus’ party,” Sarah said.

“Who’s Marcus?” Brian asked.

“Tall guy, usually sits next to the redhead.”

“Oh, from our class?”

“Do you not pay any attention to others?” Sarah rolled her eyes at Brian.

“Whatever,” Brian said. “Where is the party?”

Sarah named the address.

“Oh, that’s my building,” Melanie said.

“That’s settled then. If necessary we can all sleep at Melanie’s,” Sarah said.

They laughed at Melanie’s wide-eyed expression.

“You didn’t notice?” Cohen said, elbowing Brian, “Sarah attacks you for not knowing Marcus’ name, but she doesn’t even know the name of the redhead.”

“Shut up,” Sarah said, laughing.