Melinda’s Story
At some point during the evening, Pat’s agent introduced him to the casting director for In the Running. I didn’t pay much attention to the conversation, but I understood enough that Pat’s performance had impressed them. They wanted him to audition in the morning.
We had been at the party for a couple of hours when Walter found us again. He was alone and looked very distressed.
I put a hand on his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Walter just shook his head and turned to his brother. “Pat, I really need your help. I need to find one of the camera crew. Marisol’s mom. Her last name is Acevedo.”
Pat made a face. “I only know people by their first names. But I think.” He jerked his head as he walked away. I watched them disappear into the crowd.
“Hey, roomie,” giggled a voice behind me.
I turned to find Matt’s sister behind me. Lily had spent a day shadowing me at school a few weeks ago. I smiled.
“Hey. You having fun?”
“It was a blast, as usual. We’re getting ready to go. I was looking forward to hanging out with Wally, but I haven’t seen him all night.”
I shrugged, glancing in the direction the boys had disappeared. “Honestly, neither did I. I’ll tell him you were looking for him, though.”
“Well, it was good to see you again.” Lily gave me a quick hug before disappearing back into the crowd. It had thinned. The party was winding down.
Pat and Walter were talking to a woman in the corner. I had no idea what they were saying, but the woman looked unfazed. As the boys headed back toward me, Walter looked thoroughly shaken and Pat looked ready to hit someone. I just hoped they didn’t split up because they both needed me at that moment.
I tried to keep my tone as lighthearted as possible when they reached me.
“Hey. I think I’m ready to call it a night. What do you think?”
Walter nodded absently. Pat said nothing as he marched toward the elevator. We rode down to the first floor in silence, though I did see Walter texting someone. When we got outside, the limo was waiting for us. I climbed in while Walter held Pat back a minute.
Eventually, the boys joined me. I looked between Walter across from me and Pat beside me.
“So, anyone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Walter shrugged. “I was just offering to give you guys some alone time.”
Despite Walter’s smirk, I could tell he was still upset by something. Pat must have seen it as well. He nodded toward his brother as he put his arm around me.
“You ready to tell us what happened after you left with what’s-her-name?”
As the car pulled onto the freeway, I snuggled close to Pat as Walter sighed and sunk deeper into his seat.
Walter followed Marisol toward the elevator bank and didn’t pay attention to the buttons she pressed. He was enjoying listening to her.
“I really like gymnastics. I’m not all that good at it, but it’s a lot of fun. I was super excited to make the team this year, even if it is only JV.”
They exited the elevator and ambled down the corridor. Walter reached for her hand, surprised when she took it.
“What other sports do you do?”
Marisol shrugged. “I don’t do other school sports. I like to swim at the rec center. And I love running.”
Walter beamed. “Yeah? Me, too.”
Marisol had a gleam in her eye as she stopped beside a door. “Let’s go for a run.”
Walter raised his eyebrows. “What? Now?”
“Why not?” She twirled a plastic room key between her fingers for a moment with a sly smile before she held it against the door. The lock clicked and flashed green. Marisol turned the handle and pushed the open door.
The lights turned on automatically and Walter recognized the fitness room. Marisol went to the corner to kick off her shoes.
Walter was dumbfounded. “You’re serious? You’re running in that dress?”
Marisol rolled her eyes as she reached behind her back. “No, silly.” A moment later, her dress fell to the floor. Walter immediately covered his eyes and turned around.
Marisol giggled. “You can look. It’s okay. I’m not like naked or anything. This is what I normally wear when I work out.”
Walter turned slowly, breathing a sigh of relief to see Marisol in a sports bra and leggings. It was the same outfit his sister and mother wore when working out at home. He was still uncomfortable, but at least she wasn’t naked.
Marisol crossed to Walter and began loosening his tie. “Come on. Get comfortable.”
Walter gently removed her hand. “Um, I can do this myself.” He placed his tie in the pocket of his blazer before removing his shoes and jacket. After a quick internal debate, he also removed his dress shirt. If he was going to work out, he knew he would be more comfortable in his undershirt.
Marisol pointed to the lone treadmill. “So, should we go for a run?”
“Um, we can’t both run simultaneously.”
Marisol giggled. “You can have the treadmill. I’ll use the elliptical.”
“That’s not running.”
Marisol shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Then, what about a push up contest?”
“Am I supposed to let you win?”
She shook her head, taking his hand and leading him to the mats in the corner of the room. Marisol went first, doing ten pushups with her knees on the ground. Walter said nothing, although he felt that leaving her knees down didn’t count as a true pushup. When she sat back, he did eleven of his own. He knew he could do more, but he didn’t want her to think he was showing off. It didn’t matter. After he won, she sat on his back.
Maybe he could show off a little. He did one more with her sitting there. She giggled before rolling on the floor beside him.
“Crunches.”
She laid on her back and curled her legs to her chest while raising her shoulders off the floor. She extended her arms toward her feet, parallel to the floor. In a quick motion, she extended her legs while leaning back slightly, then just as swiftly brought her knees back to her chest in the starting position. She did twenty-five before stopping. She wasn’t even winded, and Walter knew she could have easily done another twenty-five.
He smiled at her. “I’ve never done those before.”
“It’s easy. I’ll show you. Lay down.”
He did as instructed and she held his legs, showing him how to perform the move. He did about ten on his own before giving up. He put his head and feet back on the ground.
Marisol sat on his stomach. “You gonna try to do crunches like this now?”
Her tone was playful. Walter did the best sit up he could, reaching out to pull Marisol toward him. When their lips met, he pulled her with him as he lay down again.
Walter wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, motionless but for their kissing. Long enough for the automatic lights to turn off from disuse. When Marisol finally sat up, the lights turned back on. Walter had to blink a few times at their sudden harshness. Marisol traced a finger along Walter’s hand.
“It’s getting a little late. You want to walk me to my room?”
“Sure.”
Walter put his shirt and shoes back on, carrying his jacket over his arm as Marisol carried her dress and shoes. She held his hand on the quick elevator ride.
As she unlocked the door, she turned to Walter. “You want to come in?”
“I should get back to the party.”
She entered the room, leaving Walter in the open doorway. She headed to a dresser drawer and pulled out a small clear bag. She held it out to him, making the small pink circles inside it dance.
“We could have our own party.”
Walter narrowed his eyes. “What is that?”
“Just a little something to make these dull events less boring. Try one. You’ll love it.”
“No. I don’t think so.” Walter took a step backwards. “You shouldn’t either.”
Marisol popped a pill into her mouth, swallowing it with ease. “Whatever. Are you coming in or not?”
“Not.” Walter took another step backwards, the door closing in front of him. He knew he needed to find his brother.
When Walter trailed off, Pat finished the story for me. “When we found her mother, she couldn’t care less. I got the impression she gave her daughter the pills.”
“That’s—” I couldn’t find the words. I turned back to Walter. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Getting there.”
When we returned to the house, Shelia, the housekeeper, was waiting up for us in the living room. The boys quickly introduced me before heading upstairs.
“Are you going straight to bed?” Walter asked as we stood in front of his bedroom door.
Pat frowned. “I’m tired, but I’m not sure I want to go to sleep yet.”
I reached up to undo my hair, which was still perfectly coiffed. “I need to take a shower. Get all this stuff out of my hair. And take off this makeup.”
Pat kissed my forehead. “I’ll meet you in the playroom.”
“That means I need to stay up, too, doesn’t it?” Walter was smiling, despite his grumbling.
I was tired, but the blast of warm water gave me a quick burst of energy. I took a long time in the shower, having to wash my hair more than once to fully remove all the hair products. I worried the boys would be sleeping when I finally arrived in the playroom, but they were sitting on the floor, playing their favorite vocabulary game. I sat between them.
“There is no way your brain is still functioning enough to play this.”
“That’s what makes it fun.” Pat smiled as he pulled me close. I shook my head and watched in silence. A short time later, Walter won.
“Another round?” he suggested.
I shook my head. “Nah. It’s past midnight. We should go to bed.” I leaned over to give Pat a gentle kiss, but he pulled me close.
“I’m leaving,” I heard Walter announce as Pat pulled me to the floor. “You guys have ten minutes. You better be in your own rooms when I get back.”
Pat’s Story
“Patrick McGregor!” shouted my agent half an hour later.
I shook his hand. “How’s it going, Dave? This is my girlfriend, Mae. Mae, this is my agent, Dave.”
Melinda and Dave shook hands before he turned back to me.
“You were incredible tonight, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Patrick, I’d like you to meet Karen Drummond. She’s the casting director for In the Running.”
The middle-aged woman smiled at me and spoke in a raspy voice. “When Dave told us you were interested, I must admit, I was hesitant. You’re not known as a dramatic actor. But watching you this evening? That was an incredible performance. We’d like you to do a reading tomorrow with the director.”
I was elated, of course, but I tried to keep my tone neutral. “I would love to.”
“Fantastic. Nine am. ZigZag studios. I’ll leave your name at the gate.”
“Thank you very much. I really appreciate this opportunity.”
As the night went on, I introduced Melinda to a lot more people, although rarely as my girlfriend. A couple of hours later, I was growing tired and thinking about leaving when Walter returned.
He no longer looked like the confident jock I had grown so accustomed to seeing the past few months. For the first time in a very long time, he looked like my scared little brother. Melinda must have seen it, too.
She placed a hand on his arm. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t even look at her. “Pat, I really need your help. I need to find one of the camera crew. Marisol’s mom. Her last name is Acevedo.”
I thought for a minute as I looked around. “I only know people by their first names. But I think.” There had been three women on the camera crew, one of whom looked similar to the girl Walter had been with. I scanned the room, and I thought I saw her.
I signaled for Walter to follow me as I headed across the room. The woman was speaking with one of the assistant cameramen. I interrupted them.
“Excuse me, but do you have a daughter named Marisol?”
The woman looked annoyed that I was bothering her. “Yes. I have no idea where she is at the moment.”
“I just walked her back to her room,” Walter said. “I thought you should know. When we got there, she took something. Some sort of little pink pill. It didn’t look like it was a prescription.”
The woman waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, she doesn’t really care for these events. The pills help her enjoy it a little more. She’ll be fine.”
I could tell Walter didn’t know what to say. I took over for him.
“Well, we just wanted to make sure you knew.” I wanted to smack this woman for encouraging such behavior in her daughter. Instead, I put a hand on Walter’s shoulder to guide him back toward Melinda. She immediately suggested we leave.
Walter and I were silent as we headed to the elevator. I saw Walter text the limo to meet us in front. I wasn’t even thinking clearly enough to do that. I was about to climb in behind Melinda when Walter grabbed my arm.
“Thanks. For helping me out back there.”
I sent him a reassuring smile. “I’m your big brother. It’s in my job description.”
Walter sent me a mischievous smile. “You want me to sit in front with the driver? Give you guys a little privacy?”
It was extremely considerate of him to offer. And part of me was dying to say yes. My girlfriend and I alone in the backseat of a limo? But underneath his smirk, I could see he was still upset about the girl upstairs.
I smacked his head. “Just get in the car.”
As I followed him in, Melinda asked what was going on. I put my arm around her, and she got Walter to tell us what had happened when he went missing.
Apparently, he and the girl had found their way to the fitness room. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. I was a little annoyed that he and this girl had stripped into their underclothes to exercise. That was dancing a little too close to the chastity line. But since technically they had still been dressed, I didn’t chastise him too badly.
Instead, I listened to him explain how he had turned a fitness contest into a make-out session. If he weren’t my little brother, I probably would have been pretty impressed.
When he brought her up to her room, he realized he was in over his head. She definitely wanted him to join her. At least he had the sense to say no. When she took the little pink pills, he freaked out and came to find us. I ended the story, telling Melinda about the mother’s reaction.
“That’s—” She shook her head and turned back to my brother. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Getting there.”
“Good. So, when you went off to find Marisol’s mom, I ran into Lily King.”
How would Melinda know my costar’s older sister? Before I could ask, I remembered Lily visited Hartfield last month. She had shadowed Melinda for the day, then gotten snowed in at our house during the long weekend.
Walter’s face grew red. “Yeah?”
Melinda rolled her eyes, but I wasn’t sure what she was saying about my brother. “She was asking about you.”
“You think I should text her?”
“Definitely.”
When we got home, we introduced Melinda to the housekeeper before heading upstairs. I wasn’t ready for bed yet. Melinda wanted to shower all the gunk out of her hair. I suggested she meet me in the upstairs playroom when she was done. Walter grumbled about staying up, but I knew he would join us.
I was glad to take off my suit. I took a quick shower before throwing on a tee shirt and flannel pants. When I got to the playroom, Walter had done the same. He nodded toward me.
“Weddas?”
I glanced at the clock. It was getting late in LA, and my body was still three hours ahead on Connecticut time. I shrugged. “Until Melinda gets here.”
We were sitting on the floor, about halfway through the vocabulary game, when Melinda finally arrived, in disbelief that we were playing. I pulled her close as I placed some tiles on the floor, and she watched us silently as we finished the game.
Walter beat me a little after midnight and wanted to play another game. Melinda, however, decided it was bedtime. She tried to give me a kiss.
However, I wasn’t ready to let her leave yet. I pulled her close. As our lips met, we tumbled to the floor. My brother left the room, although not before muttering something about coming back to check on us. I ignored him.
I pulled Melinda as close as I could. She willingly complied. Once again, it wasn’t quite enough. When my hands wanted to wander. I rested my head against her forehead.
“I love you,” I whispered as I tucked her damp hair behind her ear.
“I love you, too.”
I couldn’t quite stifle a yawn. She giggled and sent me to bed, kissing me one last time at my bedroom door.
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.
Hartfield Chronicles 