You're Not Alone

Chapter 5: Fatigue

The next morning, Brendon woke up and noticed Melissa was absent. He initially brushes this off as her being an early bird, which was in character for her. So after a few minutes, the boy got out of bed and stumbled into the hallway. "Melissa..?" He yawned, still half asleep. "She's asleep, Brendon." Paula whispered from behind, scaring him at first. "Sorry to scare you, Brendon." She said, Brendon approached his mom's room and saw Melissa tangled up in the bedsheets, implying that she had been in a deep sleep. Brendon finally came to his senses and shared a confused glance with his mom. "What's going on here?" He whispered. Paula sighed and rubbed her already baggy eyes. "Melissa... Had a rough night." She said, trying to explain to Brendon. "I'm not sure what happened, but maybe she'll give us more info later." Brendon was worried about his friend upon learning this, could this have been something related to her behaviors yesterday?

"I'm gonna get started on breakfast. If Melissa isn't awake by then, just leave her be. She could sure use the rest after last night." Paula then walked downstairs while Brendon stared at his friend. He was a mix of confused and concerned. Melissa's behavior had taken a massive 180 since the fire. He took this as something that would only last a few days, knowing that the events didn't affect him all that much other than giving him inspiration for the PSA he'd be filming later that day. He hesitantly tiptoes into his mom's bedroom and stops when he hears Melissa starting to wake up. Brendon stops in his tracks, standing on one foot as he darts his eyes to the bed. "Brendon...?" A weak voice whispers. Brendon turns around after hearing his name, he then realized it was just Melissa. "Well good morning to you too." Brendon mused playfully. Melissa rolled her tired eyes, not expecting an unfunny joke THIS early. "So what are you doing in my mom's bed? Did you sleepwalk or something?" He asked. Melissa quickly panicked, trying to come up with a good answer.

"Yes, Brendon. I did sleepwalk. That just...Happens from time to time." Melissa answered awkwardly. The kids then heard Paula calling them down for breakfast and they headed for the kitchen. When the kids entered, Paula greeted both of them and served them their breakfast. "Couldn't do pancakes today, kids. So I hope eggs and toast is good enough." She said before grabbing a plate for herself. "So Melissa. You feeling any better?" Melissa was about to answer before Brendon cut her off. "She's fine, mom. Melissa told me she was sleepwalking last night." Paula obviously knew this was not the case. She turned to Melissa to hopefully hear the truth from her, but Melissa was silent. "Well if you ever wanna talk about it, I'm all ears." Brendon looked at his mom with a confused look on his face. What was his mom talking about? Sure, she mentioned Melissa had a "rough night," but to him that could have been code for "she's too embarrassed to admit she was sleep walking." He cracked a smile and turned back to Melissa "You don't need to be embarrassed that you were sleepwalking, Melissa. We're all only human." Melissa shrugged it off and focused on eating her breakfast.

Afterwards, the kids got dressed and Brendon told Melissa to get Jason so they could start filming another portion of the PSA that afternoon. Melissa agreed and left to go find Jason (since he was only a few houses down), while Brendon got his filming equipment, Melissa stepped outside to find Jason. It felt good to finally get some fresh air since recent events. She hoped this would help clear her head of any pent up stress. Just as Melissa was about to start walking over to Jason's house, she heard the screeching of bike tires and someone falling onto the grass. "Oh my God, are you ok?" The girl asked, rushing to the scene. "Ugh. Maybe watch where you're walking next time." A voice moaned, Melissa looked and noticed it was Shannon. "Oh...Well hello to you too, Shannon." She mumbled, crossing her arms. Shannon got up and dusted himself off. "I assume you're probably looking for the fat one...What's his name again?" The school bully mused. "First off, his name is JASON, and secondly, yes. I was looking for him. Brendon has been wanting to focus on that PSA of his." Melissa replied. Shannon responded at first by rolling his eyes. "So he really is going through with that?" He mumbled. Melissa looked closer and saw Shannon had slightly bloodshot eyes with bags under them, almost as if he didn't sleep.

"Shannon...Are you alright?" Melissa questioned. The boy quickly realized Melissa was onto him and he needed to act FAST. "Oh yeah. Never been better." He chuckled, trying to hold in a yawn. "You just look really tired, okay?" Melissa replied, still sure that he was hiding something. "Yeah, it's just allergy season for me. You know how that is." Shannon said before getting onto his bike once again and peddling off before Melissa could say another word. By that point, Jason had arrived and greeted his friend. "Hey, Jason." Greeted Melissa. "Brendon is just setting up in the backyard. Maybe we should head over and see what he has planned?" Jason agreed and followed Melissa into the backyard and saw Brendon setting up his tri-pod. "Hey, Jason! Hey, Melissa!" Brendon said from a distance, waving them over. The two kids approached their friend and were given instructions as to what they'll be filming.

"So we're gonna do a scene about OUTDOOR fire safety!" Explained Brendon. "I was gonna use the old grill my mom has stored in the garage, but I'm not so sure how she'd react to that." He said. "I'm sure we could use something in place of a grill." Jason pondered, scanning the backyard to see if he could find a similar prop. That is before he found a few glass beer bottles sitting under a tree. "Where did those come from I wonder?" Melissa questioned, picking up one of the bottles. Brendon was then reminded that Coach McGuirk was at his house yesterday for reasons he didn't know about. "You know, Brendon. We could use these bottle for our video!" Melissa said, going onto explain the dangers of leaving a bottle out in the sun. Jason and Brendon were on board and got themselves camera ready. "Annnnd ACTION!" Jason said before Paula entered.

"Melissa! Your dad is here to pick you up!" She called, causing Melissa to lower her head, feeling bad she couldn't film with her friends. "Ok, Mrs. Small! Tell him I'll be ready in a minute!" Melissa responded, excusing herself from the backyard.