His Melody

Chapter Six - Stirring Up Trouble

To Melody's frustration, the evening had rolled around much faster than she had anticipated. Leonardo sped down the motorway, battling against time as the couple were running late to meet their friends - shortly before they were supposed to leave the house, Melody had taken a firm stand that the dress she wore was, in fact, appropriate. Leonardo had scoffed at her stubbornness, he knew the small girl would get cold in the chilling night's air and he would end up lending her his jumper. She had put up a considerably long argument that Leonardo became too weary to continue - he had learnt to pick and choose his battles. Unsurprisingly, Melody sat in the car, only twenty minutes into the journey, wearing his jumper - she was now perfectly warm and oblivious to Leonardo shaking his head at her predictability.

Struggling to contain her excitement, Melody bolted from the car just as it came to a stop, but the girl had been too consumed by enthusiasm to remember the fairly large drop between the car and the floor. She fell out of the vehicle and hit the road, hard. Melody whimpered as she felt the gravel underneath her knees and silently cursed herself for being so forgetful.

Leonardo felt his heart plummet as he had watched the incident. In a panic, he rushed out of the car and sprinted over to the girl who laid sprawled out on the road. He picked her up by her underarms and cradled her into him, frantically checking over her body for injuries. "Does it hurt?", he asked her, softly.

"No. I'm okay," Melody tried to appear confident in her answer, not wanting to worry the man, but ultimately failed to do so as she whimpered and jolted in his hold when his hand touched one of her knees.

"Well you're clearly not if you're flinching away from me," he glared, angry at her for lying to him.

"Leo, I'm fine. It's just a little bruised," she dismissed, wanting to be done with the conversation.

Leonardo rolled his eyes and, reluctantly, placed her down on the floor. "You should have let me open the door for you", he scolded and Melody felt increasingly more embarrassed as he spoke to her like one would to an irresponsible child.

"I know, I'm sorry but I swear I'm fine! Can we go in, now?" she whined impatiently, pointing towards the restaurant doors.

"Next time, you wait for me", he spoke in a stern voice before taking her hand in his and guiding her towards the entrance.

As the couple entered the restaurant Leonardo was immediately conscious of the lustful stares his girl was receiving. Possessively, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her impossibly close to him. Melody, however, was completely oblivious to the attention she was getting as she was too busy absorbing the building's beautiful architecture and intricate decorations - from its appearance the girl assumed that the restaurant was incredibly expensive and she felt slightly out of place. She leaned into Leonardo for comfort.

Upon seeing their friends already seated at a table in the centre of the restaurant, Melody, hurriedly, skipped over to them as a huge smile spread over her face. Leonardo glared at the girl's back, frustrated that she had left his arms and he made a mental note to scold her for it later.

Shortly after the couple had first met, the man had introduced his Melody to his friends and she had warmed up to them almost instantly. Despite their obvious differences, Nyla and she had immediately clicked and got on like a house on fire. Similarly, by the end of the day that she had first come into contact with Dylan, the girl could barely contain her laughter at his effortlessly funny persona - Leonardo didn't love that.

Lastly, there was Kai, and though she would never admit it on the chance it would offend him, Melody had, initially, found him incredibly intimidating. His figure was well-built and he was undeniably huge, but it was his nearly emotionless expressions that had scared her the most - to the girl, he was unreadable.
Kai had been very reluctant to meet the girl that appeared to have stolen his closest friend from him. In the few weeks after the couple had met, Kai had seen Leonardo less and less and he had formed an internal grudge against her before they had even been introduced. To his surprise, Melody's kind heart and resilience eventually wore him down and he now felt incredibly protective over the small girl - he considered her a little sister. Though Melody had continued to require most of Leonardo's attention, Kai was no longer bothered by it and instead looked forward to the times he would spend with both of them - sometimes Melody more than Leonardo. Secretly, Kai was, undoubtedly, Melody's favourite out of the three - she treasured their close relationship.