We all sat in silence for a while. You could practically see the steam coming out of Kelly's ears. Melanie was just glaring at her. Then her anger dissipated, and she fell into deep thought.
Melanie turned to me, and asked: "Can lightning strike twice?"
I didn't have to think about it. "Yes, it can. If something is really tall or made out of metal, it is more likely to be struck by lightning."
"Will you two stop it?" commanded Kelly. We did for a while, but Melanie was not one easily sated.
"What got into her?" asked Melanie, acting like she was years older than her behaviour usually indicated.
It was then it dawned on me what had been bothing her all this time.
"You miss your boyfriend, don't you?" I asked, concerned.
"He's not my boyfriend," clarified Kelly.
"Kelly has a boyfriend?" laughed Melanie, bemused. "I can't believe Kelly has a boyfriend. Who the hell would like her?"
"Now Melanie," I corrected. "It's not nice to use that word."
"But you use it all the time!" Melanie pointed out.
"I'm older than you are," I said. That didn't satisfy Melanie at all. What a pathetic excuse, I'm sure she thought. I tried to deflect her rage back at Kelly. "Kelly uses lots worse words than that! But then again, she's been under a lot of stress lately."
"Where's your boyfriend? Did he dump you?" asked Melanie to Kelly.
"No," I said. "Kelly dumped him. He's really sad now."
"Who's her boyfriend?" persisted Melanie. She was one determined little child!
"He's not my boyfriend!" persisted Kelly.
"His name was Tony," said I.
"I got to get a smoke," said Kelly. She reached into her bag, pulled out a small box of cigarettes and left without saying a further word.
"Kelly smokes?" asked Melanie.
"Yeah," I said. "She does now, anyways."
"Smoke is yucky," said Melanie.
"Yeah," I said.
"Who was her boyfriend?" asked Melanie.
"He was just some guy," I said. "Not worth a heck of a lot. He seemed like a nice guy to most people. I think I was the only one who could spot it. It took me a while, but, there was always something about that one. I'm not sorry at all that Kelly broke up with him. Lord knows he wasn't as good as he says he was."
"What happened to him?" asked Melanie.
"She broke his heart," said I, "so he spend's all his time by himself. That's the last I heard about it all, anyways."
"Poor Tony," said Melanie.
"Don't feel sorry for him!" said I. "He had it coming. Some people liked him but... he was a... bad, bad man."
"Why was he bad?" asked Melanie. "What did he do that was so bad?"
"Something really bad," I said. "Something you or me can never do." Melanie thought about this for a moment. Just then I got up, saying: "I got to go see Kelly."
I got up and walked outside. There was was, smoking. A great cloud had arisen all around her, as she stood in the corner, alone.
"Melanie was asking a lot of questions about Tony," I said. "For your sake, I decided not to persist."
"You don't have to go out of your way to protect me," said Kelly.
"I'll make sure to remember that next time," said I.
She put out the fag, pressing her heel onto the dirt. "We got an essay to finish." I followed her inside.
When we returned, we found Melanie looked at something I had written. I walked quickly to her side and pulled at the sheet, saying: "Hey, that's not yours."
"What's it say?" asked Kelly, interested.
"Something about a man named Joshua... and blood... and a land called Canaan..." said Melanie. "I think it was a poem."
"Really?" asked Kelly. "What else did it say?"
"It said that a good father would die to save his child," said Melanie. "So would a good mother."
"That's sad," said I. "That if you had a good parent, they would die in that way."
"Your not going to start talking about her again, are you?" asked Kelly.
"I can't help it," said I. "I only joined this stupid group so I could be with Jessica. But now that she's gone, I'm starting to have second thoughts..."
"Well," said Kelly. "What's done is done. You can't change the past, now, can you?"
"No," I said. "Actions are the only permanent effects on the world." I thought about this for a moment, and then I asked Kelly: "Are you sure you don't know where she is?"
"I got no idea," said Kelly, but I could tell she was lieing. So I persisted.
"But you two were such good friends," said I. "She took you under her wing. You got along so well."
"Nothing is ever as it seems!" said Kelly.
"In that case," said I, "what's the point of anything?"
"I guess life is pointless," said Kelly.
"Some peoples lifes are just a big waste," said I. "They start off good. Lots of them do. But many just waste away into nothingness. Kelly, I'm being honest now, I don't want that to happen to me. If you know where Jessica is, then tell me."
"No," said Kelly. "I don't know."
"Why did you have to tell her I was so bad?" I asked Kelly.
"I said no such thing!" Kelly tried to defend herself. "I was just telling her the truth about you and Jen!"
"That wasn't so bad," I said. "We were just a couple of young kids acting stupid. It was nothing!"
"That's not what Jessica thinks!" said I. "And why did you have to tell Michelle? Now she's confused."
"What are you talking about?" asked Melanie.
"Nothing!" I said. "Forget about it."
We all sat down. I looked through it all, the notes, the work I had done. But I just couldn't stop thinking about Jessica!
"Do you think she likes me?" I asked.
"Jessica?" asked Kelly.
I thought about this for a moment, "Well, yeah, I did, but what about Michelle?"
"Well, which one do you like?" asked Kelly.
"Tell you the truth, both of them," I asked with a shy grin.
"Neither one of them likes you," said Kelly.
I knew, then, that she was lieing, and I could never trust her again. I just wanted this useless essay to be done with.
"It's your fault I'm not with Jessica right now, anyways," I said. "She should be with me right now."
"You can't blame me for her actions," said Kelly.
"Sure I can," said I. "And I'd be right in doing so as well. I know the types of things that you were telling her. You made her run away from all this, didn't you? I'm sorry I ever voted for you."
"Well, I'm class president now as it is!" said Kelly. "You can't take your vote back."
"Wishes are pointless things, then," said I. "They never come true, anyways."
"Do you have a wish?" asked Kelly.
"Yes, I wish I was with Jessica right now," I said.
"Don't be ridiculous," said Kelly. "You don't know the type of girl she really is. You don't know the types of things she's done in the past."
"I don't care!" I said. "I love Jessica! All I want to do is be with her!"
"I wasn't even sure you even liked her!" smirked Kelly.
"I didn't say I liked Jessica!" I said. "I said I love her! Right now, this day and forever, I love her, and you will not forever tear us apart!"
"You can't make those promises!" Kelly said.
"It's not a promise!" said I. "It's deeper than a promise. It's the truth. I love Jessica and, darn it, I love Michelle too! I just can't decide which one I like better."
"It's obvious," said Kelly. "If a guy or a girl likes two guys or a girls, surely he will favour one more than he favours the other! It's the natural way of things."
"That's not the point," I said. "The fact of the matter is I love Jessica, and, one way or another, I will be with her again. There are just something things you can't stop from happening."
Kelly didn't say anything for a while. "It was a very bad thing you did, keeping us two apart. In fact, it was the worst thing you've probably ever done, isn't it Kelly?"
"You don't know much about my past, do you?" scorned Kelly.
"You fail to understand," said I. "People are responsible for all sorts of actions, but sometimes, a very small action, that seems insignifant at the time, can start a chain reaction. It snowballs and starts whilst we are unawares, and then turns into something much larger than we can handle. And then what happens?"
"I've never met an obstacle I haven't been able to cross," said Kelly.
"Now that's a lie as much as I ever heard one," said I. "The truth of the matter is, you've never faced an obstacle that you weren't able to overcome or turn back, and that's true for everyone. Otherwise, they'd be dead."
If Kelly ever bothered to come up with an intelligent answer to that, to this day, I never knew it. Melanie started to stir. "Can we go home now?"
"We're busy," said I.
"No you're not!" snapped Melanie. She stood up now, as ferocious as any ten year old girl. "All you two have done is argue since you got here! None of you has been able to get any real work done! All you two are doing is wasting your time and mine! Now if I don't get home soon, I'm going to start getting really, really mad! Mad like I've never been before. I mean it, this time!"
"Oh, shut your little mouth," snapped Kelly.
"No, you listen here," said Melanie. "Neither of you two are growing any younger! This is boring! I could be watching cartoons, and instead I got to listen to both of you argue over stupid things! This is just dragging on, and on, and on. Kelly, if you know where Jessica is, why don't you just send her over to our house so she can give Angelo a big hug? And send Michelle over, too. I'm sure she'd love to hug them both! If you only did this, you'd have finished your essay by now, instead of just sitting there, suffering. You're causing us all a heck of a lot of pain."
"You don't understand," said Kelly. "You're just a kid. We're doing things that a lot more complicated than you can understand."
"Maybe I can't understand what you're saying," said Melanie. "But I know this. You two are both trying to do something and it's not getting done. Face it, both of you. Your dreams won't come true! It's not going to turn out the way you want it to or even the way you'd like! Both of you are old. Time is not on your side!"
"The child's right," said I. "It's kind of like Kelly has some kind of master plan she's up to, like she's trying to achieve something. Why keep Jessica and me apart? It doesn't make any sense at all."
"I'm sick of you accusing me for something I didn't do!" Kelly was speaking louder now. "It's not my fault!"
"Yes it is," said I. "It was in everyone's best interest that she be here with me, but you had other plans. And now those plans are ruined, and those plans were your own."
"Please Angelo!" said Melanie. "Please, can we go home?"
I looked at Kelly. "Can I go home with Melanie."
"We have an essay to finish," said Kelly. "How do you expect me to finish it if you're not here?"
"Maybe I can't do it," said I, smiling. "But I'm sure you can."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, you'll see. And I'll promise you one thing, it isn't going to be pretty."
