Melody's Muse ✓

19. Confident

Cole

I hand Luke and Jake glasses of water across the kitchen island before taking a seat. I tiredly rub my palm against my jaw as Luke hands us binders identical to the one open in front of him. I skim through the pages of finance records. It's color coded and everything - how the hell does he have time to do this? I wish someone had warned me about how much work being vice president was going to be before I accepted the position.

"Can't we use the den for this?" I groan and rub my lower back. Whoever bought these stupid bar stools apparently had no understanding around the shape of a human's spine.

"The event committee is using the den for their meeting right now," Luke reminds me.

"Fine," I sigh and open the binder.

When we combined forces with ADPi for the winter formal, I thought it meant that we'd have less work to do. But oh boy, was I was sorely mistaken. The preparation work has somehow doubled.

We barely get through figuring out the catering budget before something catches my attention.

"Do you hear something?"

We all pause. It sounds like there's some sort of commotion down the hall. It's not really out of the ordinary though. The event committee's meetings can get a bit out of hand sometimes, especially with Chris as their head. That guy doesn't exactly scream leadership or cooperation. Something is different though, I think I hear a female's voice. I swear to god, I'm going to lose it if that's Laura.

Curiosity gets the best of us and we head towards the noise.

"If my cousin says it's important, then it's important!"

Is that Alyssa?

We reach the entrance of the den and look inside. That is definitely Alyssa. She's almost a foot shorter than Chris, but she's stepped right up to him and is yelling straight at his face. Her normally pale skin is flushed, and her pupils are so dilated that her bright green eyes appear nearly black. The rest of the team looks absolutely terrified as Chris and Alyssa's equally stubborn personalities chaotically clash.

"For the last time, I said he's in a meeting," Chris growls back. "For god's sake Alyssa, just come back tomorrow, it's so late."

"No!"

Just as it looks like Alyssa is ready to start swinging, Luke rushes past Jake and I and steps into the den. He lightly touches Alyssa's shoulder. "Alyssa? What's going on? What's wrong?" 

"I'm looking for Cole," she says, suddenly seeming much calmer when she sees Luke. Understandably, Chris doesn't often bring out the best in people. "My cousin needs to talk to him."

I follow Alyssa's line of sight towards the side of the room. My eyes widen when I spot her. I didn't even notice Melody cowering in the corner of the room, hiding partially behind a houseplant. I don't blame her, Alyssa can be pretty scary when she's mad.

"Mel?" I say softly as I enter the room.

She glances over at me and cautiously steps out from behind the plant. Her eyes dart around the room and her cheeks turn pink when she notices everyone is watching her. I try to avoid eye contact with the guys as I walk over to Melody. They're cool for the most part, but they can also be annoyingly judgmental sometimes.

"C'mon," I murmur and place my hand on her back, quickly leading her out of the den.

-----

"That was... quite an entrance," I chuckle as we enter my room.

I'm glad I cleaned up a bit in here this morning. I smooth out my grey covers and gesture towards the bed. She takes a seat while I sit at my desk's chair and roll it closer to the bed. She gently swings her legs back and forth with her hands tightly clasped on her lap. My bed is high, and she's so small that her legs don't completely reach the floor.