Melinda’s Story

 Pat brought me to the top of the staircase on the right, leading me a couple of steps down a corridor before stopping to face me. He ran his finger through my hair. “I missed you, Daphne.”

Leaving his hand behind my head, he pulled me close. Before his lips could reach mine, I placed my hands on his chest and gently pushed him away.

His face was full of concern. “What’s wrong?” 

I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. “So many things.”

Pat looked around. Taking my hand, he led me to the opposite end of the house.  After passing an elevator and a corridor that overlooked an indoor pool below, we turned a corner near a staircase, stopping at a closed door at the end of the hall. Pat entered without knocking.

“I’m cleaning.” Walter jumped off a chair. “Oh, it’s you.” He sat back down, but didn’t pick up the remote control he had obviously just dropped.

“We’re not here.” Pat glared at his brother as he led me to some bean bag chairs in the opposite corner of the room. I looked around. There was a large television on one wall with more bean bag chairs scattered around. Remote controls and video game cases were scattered all over the floor, and some plates and cups stacked on a table.

Walter turned to me with a pout. “What’re you doing here?”

“Your mom thought maybe you’d clean your room if you knew I was here.”

“She must not know me. But, why are you here? Like, at our house?”

I looked cautiously at Pat. “Well . . .”

“Oh, man! You came to see him?” Walter did not hide his whine.

“No. Your mom called mine last night to invite me over. To have a playdate with you.”

Walter raised his eyebrows. “She didn’t.”

“Well, my mom didn’t call it a playdate, but yeah. She pretty much did.”

“So, why did she send me up here and make Pat stay?”

“Because I had already told my mother about me and Pat and she was uncomfortable. So, we just had to have a really awkward conversation with our moms.”

“Okay. Never inviting a girlfriend over. That’s good to know. Who’s up for WTTE?”

“Not now, doofus. Go back to your game.” Pat glared at his brother before turning to me. Taking my hand, he gently pulled me into one of the chairs as he sat in another. “What’s wrong, Daphne?”

I kept my voice low. “Did you get my text?” 

Pat shook his head. “When?”

“Last night.”

Pat checked his phone, again shaking his head. “Nothing. I saw you had tried to chat, but when I called back, there was no answer.”

“My phone died. What’s going on with you and Poppy Sommers?” Tears were stinging my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

“Poppy? Nothing. Why?”

There was something in Pat’s expression that I had never seen before. He was hiding something from me. A pain stabbed through my heart and I kept my voice whisper quiet. 

 “My mom’s right. You are a good actor. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“Daphne, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can you please start at the beginning?”

I pulled out my phone,  showing him the image Joey had shown me last night. Pat gave it a cursory glance before returning it with a shrug.

“Poppy and I were together this past summer. You knew that.”

“No, I didn’t. But, this isn’t from this summer. This is from the other day.”

Pat looked at the article more carefully, scrolling slowly enough that I realized he must be reading it. Walter must have been eavesdropping because he came to read over Pat’s shoulder.

Pat muttered a curse under his breath before grumbling. “I’m gonna kill Cynthia.” Without saying anything to me, he stormed out of the room.

First Poppy Sommers, now Cynthia. I tried not to let my voice betray me as I turned to Walter. “Who’s Cynthia?” 

He sat beside me. “Our agent. You okay?”

I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just shook my head. Walter put an arm around me, pulling me close. “He’s crazy about you. He would never cheat on you.”

“What’s going  on?” 

I glanced up to see his sister standing above us. She pointed over her shoulder. “I just ran into Pat and he looked ready to kill someone.”

Meghan, an eighteen-year-old version of her mother, gracefully folded herself into another chair. Walter passed her my phone. After reading the article, Meghan rolled her eyes.

“That twit. I warned Pat she was bad news, but did he listen? Nooo.”

“It says they’re . . .” I couldn’t bring myself to quote the article.

Meghan glanced at the phone. “They’ve rekindled their romance after a five-month hiatus.”

I nodded. “What’s high-ate-us mean?”

Walter smiled. He was always translating vocabulary words for me. “It basically means a break in a routine. It’s a common term in Hollywood and appropriate for this article. Except for the fact that it’s a lie.”

Meghan sent me a sisterly smile. “Lemme guess. You saw this and thought Pat was back together with Crazy Poppy?”

When I nodded, Meghan turned to her brother. “Go. It’s girl time. I suggest you go find Pat. He looked a little unhinged when I passed him in the hall.”

Walter squeezed my shoulder before following his sister’s instructions. Meghan took her brother’s seat.

“I’m not about to gossip about my brother’s previous girlfriends. But, I’m pretty sure he’s confided in me about all the girls he’s liked, both crushes and actual girlfriends. He and Poppy were spending a lot of time together when they filmed Romeo and Juliet.”

I frowned. “I thought they were dating. Romeo and Juliet,” .

“Jarrod and Poppy?” Meghan shook her head. “The producers thought it would make good publicity to have a real life romance between them, and they got along okay enough. But, Poppy had her eyes on Pat. And, I think he liked that she was going out of her way to spend time with him. I warned him she’s crazy. Literally crazy. But, he didn’t listen to me. After the movie wrapped, they kept spending time together.”

This was a lot of information to digest, but I didn’t want Meghan to know it bothered me. I tried to keep my voice light. “How long were they together?” 

Meghan shrugged. “You have to understand. Poppy’s not completely right in the head. She gets these strange ideas and believes they’re true and tries to convince everyone else they are, too. Her mom is her agent and tries to keep a lid on things, but every so often, Poppy’s crazy side comes out.”

I sniffled but managed to hold back my tears as I listed to Meghan. “Pat always insisted he and Poppy weren’t serious. But, they hung out a lot for a few weeks. Despite whatever he told me, I was never convinced he liked Poppy, just the attention she gave him. He tried to break it off not long before he left for Hawaii.”

“Tried to?”

“I’m not sure of the details. We were at this party. They had disappeared for a while. When they came back, he told me he had broken up with her. A few minutes later, she walks right up to him, wraps herself around his arm, and starts talking to someone as if she had been part of the conversation all along. It was as if they hadn’t broken up.”

“So they got back together?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

Meghan giggled. “No! Pat wanted nothing to do with her. But, I’m not sure Poppy figured that out. My best guess? Poppy needs attention so she leaked this story to the media. She probably believes it, too.”

“Does he still care about her?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Meghan smiled. “If he even thinks about her any more, my guess is that he pities her. He has never cared for a girl as deeply as he cares for you. He’s crazy about you.”

“That’s what Walter said.”

Meghan frowned. “Sadly, I think Pat’s starting to confide more in Walter than me. Probably because they’re at school together and I’m not. But, when Walter was still ignoring Pat, he called me. Invited me to come to campus for the day to see a ballet.”

I smiled as Meghan continued. “Pat and I had a long talk the next day. I could tell how much he cared about you. I’ve never seen him this happy with anyone before.”

Walter returned with a still-fuming Pat behind him, each of them flopping into the bean bag chairs.

Pat glared at the floor between us all. “I tried to contact Cynthia. She’s probably still sleeping. Stupid time zones.”

Meghan rolled her eyes. “We’ll call her later. I need to have a few words with her myself.”

Walter turned to his sister. “About this Poppy thing?” 

“No. Nightshade.” Meghan spit the word out like she had eaten something disgusting.

Walter tried to change the subject. “Well, since we’re waiting for LA to wake up, who’s up for a game of WTTE?”

“What’s WTTE?” I turned to Pat.

He shook his head. “It’s easier to show you.”

I followed them to a room next door. It had a pool table and a tall bookshelf full of board games. The boys went straight to a large octagonal table, wordlessly lifting the green-felt top and flipping it over to reveal a wooden surface. While we all sat down, Pat walked to the bookshelf, returning with some pencils, lined paper, and graph paper.

I looked around. “What’re we playing now?” 

“Weddas, the Travel Edition.” Walter sounded proud.

“Someone,” Pat glared at Walter, “forgot to bring home Weddas. So, we created a travel version.”

I raised my eyebrows. At the beginning of the school year, I had explained to Walter how I kept a vocabulary journal to learn new words. After his first visit home, Walter introduced me to Weddas, a game his family had invented. It involved using letter tiles to create a crossword puzzle of words.

After returning to school, Pat had often joined in. The boys loved to play it during their free time and would play several times a day, if they had the time.

I rolled my eyes. “You couldn’t play a regular board game like normal families?”

Meghan laughed. “That was my suggestion. My brothers are obsessed with this game.”

“So, how do you play the travel edition?”

Pat held up the graph paper. “Well, when it’s your turn, you write a word on the page. You can only write seven letters, as if you had tiles, but you can write any seven letters you want. Each letter gets its own square. On this page,” he held up a sheet of lined paper, “we write everyone’s words and keep track of which letters are used. You can only use a letter six times.”

“Wow. That is . . .”

Pat smiled. “Inventive?”

“Ingenious?” Walter wiggled his eyebrows. 

I shook my head. “Pathetic.” 

Meghan burst into laughter.

It took a few turns to settle into the game, but I quickly realized I liked this new version better. I could just think of any word I wanted, instead of trying to make words using the letters in front of me. For once, I found it easy to hold a conversation while playing the game.

I turned to Meghan as I waited for my turn. “So, when are you going back to New York?”

“My roommate went home for Thanksgiving and I didn’t want to stay in the apartment alone all week.  I have to go back for a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, and I just plan on staying in the city.” 

Pat turned to me. “So, did your mom say how long you’re visiting?”

I shook her head.

“She left,” Walter said. “When I went to find you, I ran into Mom. You can spend the day and we’ll take you home after dinner.”

“Sick.” Pat smiled at me before turning to his sister. “Did you say you needed to talk to Cynthia, too?”

Meghan rolled her eyes. “Nightshade.”

Pat and Walter both shuddered. When they said nothing, I looked between them all. “What’s Nightshade?”

“My agent passed me a script. She does it all the time and I’m not sure Mom even knows I have it. So, I read through it, and it’s just wrong on so many levels. First of all, there’s a ton of cursing. I don’t swear. Like, ever.”

“She’s like you.” Walter nodded in my direction.

Meghan smiled as she continued. “I would possibly, probably not, but maybe, consider the movie if that were its only flaw. But, there are so many things wrong with it. Like, there are multiple scenes where I would be . . .”

“Naked.” Pat smiled. “The word is naked.” He turned to me. “She thinks that’s a bad word, too.”

“She’s like you.” Walter again nodded at me.

I smiled. “Does your agent know how you feel about those kinds of movies?”

Meghan shrugged. “I thought she did. But, she still sent me this. When I told her I didn’t think it was for me, she said that now that I was eighteen, I should consider—how did she put it? Basically, I should be in movies that are for an adult audience, not a kid audience. Shed my good-girl image.”

“But, it’s not an image, right? I mean, I get the impression you’re like your brothers. You really are a good, wholesome girl. And I don’t mean that to be insulting. It’s something to be proud of.”

“Is she this insightful with everyone?” Meghan smirked at Walter.

“Pretty much. Except when it comes to boyfriends. She has a horrible track record there.”

“Ouch!” Pat put a hand to his chest, pretending to be insulted.

I shook my head. “No. Walter’s right. I told you about my disasters.”

Pat sent me a sly smile as he played with my hair. “Actually, you never mentioned why you broke up with Townie.”

“You looked at me.” I couldn’t help but smile, remembering how my ex was jealous of the time I spent with my guy friends.

Pat smiled back. “No, seriously. Why’d you break up?”

Walter looked at his brother. “She is serious. He got jealous you looked at her.”

“Wow. You really do have horrible taste in guys. What does that say about me?”

Pat’s Story

I slid out of the bench and waited for Melinda to do the same. Taking her hand, I led her upstairs, toward my bedroom, but only so that we could have a little privacy in the hallway. I ran my fingers through her hair, excited to be close to her again.

“I missed you, Daphne.” I pulled her close to kiss her, but she put her hands on my chest and pushed me away. “What’s wrong?” 

Melinda closed her eyes. “So many things.” I could hear the pain in her quiet voice.

I looked around, considering the best place to have this conversation, then led her to the video game room Mom insisted on calling our playroom. I opened the door and Walter jumped off a chair, dropping the controller he had just been holding.

“I’m cleaning. Oh, it’s you.”

“We’re not here.” I glared at him as I led Melinda to the bean bag chairs in the back of the room. Walter sat back down, but turned to his friend.

“What’re you doing here?”

“Your mom thought maybe you’d clean your room if you knew I was here.” I could tell she was trying to sound lighthearted, but there was still some pain in her voice.

“She must not know me. But, why are you here? Like, at our house?”

Melinda looked at me.  “Well . . .”

My brother could be such a baby. He started whining. “Oh, man! You came to see him?”

I wanted to jump in, but Melinda was quicker than me. “No. Your mom called mine last night to invite me over. To have a playdate with you.”

Walter couldn’t quite hide his surprise. “She didn’t.”

“Well, my mom didn’t call it a playdate, but yeah. She pretty much did.”

“So, why did she send me up here and make Pat stay?”

“Because I had already told my mother about me and Pat and she was uncomfortable. So, we just had to have a really awkward conversation with our moms.”

“Okay. Never inviting a girlfriend over. That’s good to know. Who’s up for WTTE?”

I glared at Walter. Melinda was one of his best friends. Couldn’t he see she was upset? “Not now, doofus. Go back to your game.” 

I took Melinda’s hand and, sitting in one of the chairs, I pulled her into the one beside me. “What’s wrong, Daphne?”

“Did you get my text?”

I shook my head. “When?”

“Last night.”

I checked my phone again to be sure. “Nothing. I saw you had tried to chat, but when I called back, there was no answer.”

“My phone died.” So, my brother had been right. It irked me he knew my girlfriend better than me. Melinda’s eyes welled with tears. “What’s going on with you and Poppy Sommers?”

I tried to hide my surprise. My first thoughts were the rumors my brother and sister mentioned to me last week. Melinda didn’t need to know about that, though. 

“Poppy? Nothing. Why?”

Her face fell. “My mom’s right. You are a good actor. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Ouch. That hurt. She was right, of course. I wasn’t sure what hurt more. The fact that she could tell I was hiding something or the look she gave me when I didn’t succeed.

“Daphne, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can you please just start at the beginning?”

Melinda passed me her phone. I glanced at it long enough to register a paparazzi photo of me with Poppy. I passed the phone back to her.

“Poppy and I were together this past summer.” I shrugged. “You knew that.”

Melinda replied slowly, as if she were choosing her words carefully. “No, I didn’t. But, this isn’t from this summer. This is from the other day.”

I took the phone back and read through it carefully. I could feel Walter reading over my shoulder. I should have been upset that he hadn’t been minding his own business, but I was so mad with what I was reading, I couldn’t spare any energy for him.

I got to the end of the article and swore. I scrambled to my feet and stormed out of the room, muttering something about killing my agent. I nearly bumped into Meghan.

“Whoa. You okay?” I couldn’t imagine what must have been on my face for her to ask that.

“No, I’m not. Leave me alone.”

My phone was charging in my room. I found it and had nearly dialed Cynthia’s number when I realized I needed to cool down a little. I paced back and forth a long time. Probably a good minute or two.

I had the phone back in my hand, looking up Cynthia’s number again, when Walter came in.

“You okay, dude?”

I swore at him, telling him to leave.

“I’ll take that as a no. Want me to call Cynthia for you?”

I thrust the phone at him and resumed pacing. He might be my little brother, but sometimes I wondered if he was more mature than me. I was starting to calm down when the call went to voicemail. Walter inclined the phone toward me.

“This is Patrick McGregor. Have you seen the rumors going around? Fix this. Now!”

Walter ended the call before I could start the litany of threats that were running through my head. 

He returned the phone to my desk. “You realize it’s barely sunrise there, right?” 

No. I hadn’t. Time zones made my head hurt.

I followed Walter back into the playroom. Meghan was sitting with Melinda on the chairs. Way to go, Pat. Abandon your girlfriend while she’s upset. Leave your siblings to pick up the pieces. I tried to explain away my behavior.

“I tried to contact Cynthia. She’s probably still sleeping. Stupid time zones.”

Meghan stood. “We’ll call her later. I need to have a few words with her myself.”

Walter sent Meghan a curious look. “About this Poppy thing?” 

I held out a hand to help Melinda to her feet, then just held her close a moment while Meghan replied.

“No. Nightshade.”

Walter grimaced, then tried to change the subject “Well, since we’re waiting for LA to wake up, who’s up for a game of WTTE?”

Melinda looked at me quizzically. “What’s WTTE?” 

I shook my head. “It’s easier to show you.” 

Walter had been extremely upset when he realized he had forgotten to bring Weddas home, so he created what he named Weddas, the Travel Edition, or WTTE. It essentially used paper instead of tiles. The advantage was that we could pick whichever letters we wanted to use when it was our turn.

While we were playing, Walter mentioned running into Mom, who told her Melinda would be spending the day. I felt significantly better after hearing this and turned to Meghan, finally registering what she had said earlier.

“Did you say you needed to talk to Cynthia, too?”

Meghan rolled her eyes. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. “Nightshade.”

Walter and I gave involuntary shudders, but Melinda was obviously confused. “What’s Nightshade?”

Meghan explained, with help from Walter and I, about the inappropriateness of the movie and how Cynthia thought it was time for Meghan to shed her good-girl image.

“But, it’s not an image, right? I mean, I get the impression you’re like your brothers. You really are a good, wholesome girl. And, I don’t mean that to be insulting. It’s something to be proud of.”

Meghan turned to Walter. “Is she this insightful with everyone?”

“Pretty much. Except when it comes to boyfriends. She has a horrible track record there.”

“Ouch!” I tried to mask my feelings, but that one kind of hurt.

Melinda shook her head. “No. Walter’s right. I told you about my disasters.”

Curiosity got the better of me. I put my arm around her and played with her hair. “Actually, you never mentioned why you broke up with Townie.”

“You looked at me.”

Her smile was almost as infectious as mine. “No, seriously. Why’d you break up?”

Walter smirked. “She is serious. He got jealous you looked at her.”

I thought about this a moment. This jealous Townie was the guy she had dated after the guy who made a bet with his friends about kissing her. “Yeah, you really do have horrible taste in guys. What does that say about me?”

Attention Hammerheads

Melinda is always trying to build her vocabulary. What were some words in this episode that were new to you? She will add them to her vocabulary journal.