The very next day, while stumbling around the school, completely avoiding whatever class he was supposed to be in, Mateo spots Melody in the library, her face half turned to a paper at the side of the desk. She was on the computers on the side of the library, gathered with other students doing the same. As Mateo approached further, he could see her focused on a site with a bunch of students, with backpacks strapped and books in hand walking on an open field. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a University website. 

“Whatcha you get there?” he asked, towering over her, practically whispering in her ear. Melody jumped at his unexpected presence, and glared at him.

“What are you doing here,” she said, focusing back on her computer screen, clicking and bringing her to the site’s major list. She started scrolling down the list, slowly reading the branches of colleges the school provided before being interrupted again.

“I saw you out in the hallway, so I just wanted to say hi,” he said, looking at Melody’s focused face, then at her computer. He had looked at the notes beside her, it was a list of universities, ranked by Melody by most desired. “You looking for colleges this early, what are you? A junior?”

“Does it matter?” Melody said, whispering. “I don't want to wait last minute to decide what colleges I want to attend, plus the school district is wavering three of my applications, so I want to make sure I apply to the right ones for free.”

“Oh shit really?” he said, looking again at the list she had created. He looked beside her, as another student was doing the same thing. Everyone on the computer was doing the same thing. Researching universities. “Hey, what class is thi-,”

“Excuse me, Mateo,” an authority figure said, making Mateo jump and quickly turn around to see them. It was an old lady, her blonde hairs were almost indistinguishable from the gray hairs that were coming in. Mateo struggled to figure out where exactly he had seen this teacher before. “You may not care much about your education, but you won’t rally my students behind you. So, go! Get to whatever class you’re supposed to be in during this time slot! Before I call security.”

“Ouch,” Mateo said, satirically. “My bad. I understand, miss,” he backed away from the teacher, who had been staring daggers into him, waiting for him to finally leave the library. Before he had left, he had given Melody a playful tap on the shoulder before rushing off. Melody, besides a few glares off to the side, remained focused on her efforts of research. 

Later on, as they both were in their tutoring session, Mateo looked on as Melody was nose deep into her laptop, the silence broken up by periodically typing. He looked on at his packet, wanting to do more work, but something was bugging him. Something was eating him up that he wanted to let out. Why did she seem so focused on getting a university picked out right now?

“You're still looking for colleges again,” He said, leaning his head on his hand in curiosity. “I thought you did that earlier today.”

“Yeah,” she said, peeking over at him then back to her laptop. “It's usually the time where students who want to go to college, look for ones they want to go to. I wasn't the only one looking today.”

“Yeah I know that, I just didn't know it was so serious,” Mateo said, smiling.

“Well, if everything goes according to plan, I can keep my grades in an excellent position so that I have more options to where to go. Most colleges look for a good GPA, so I want to make sure that I have as many options as I can. I’m looking to be at least an hour or so away from here.”

“Why don’t you go to a community college, stay around here for a bit.”

“Why would I stay around here? Still stuck with my sister and her shitty boyfriend. If I thought that my grades were bad before, imagine that with all the other things I’ll have to do.”

“What about your nephew and niece?” he said, stopping once he noticed a change in her face. A hint of sadness came on as soon as he said it. He wanted to take what he said away. He wanted to ask about him as well, would she miss him? They were friends, at least that's what Mateo thought at least. She seemed comfortable enough with him that he thought that they were friends. So would she ever miss him while she was off at college, if even a little bit?

“I don’t know,” she said, stopping typing, looking away. “I haven't thought about that. Hopefully my sister will get her shit together and start acting like their mother, not their babysitter.”

“I mean, what are you trying to study for? You want to be a nurse? Or maybe president of the United States. I think you would do great in the latter position.” He said, glaring at her. A slight tease never hurted anyone.

“No!” she said giggling, “I want to be a teacher. And not a high school teacher, I know how people our age act. I just want to be an elementary school teacher.”

“Oh, how noble of you? You know what? I respect that.” He leans in closer. “If you can deal with those little monsters who still have the habit of eating their own boogers, I’d congratulate you for your choice.”

“I don't know,” she teased, “If I could handle someone like you, I think that I’ll do a great job with little ones like you.” They continued to tease each other on the fact that Melody thought that she could be a good teacher.

A while later, Mateo managed to finish his work a bit earlier than usual, looking on to a sight to see. Melody was nose deep into her phone. If it wasn't for the fact that she sometimes used it to check the time during their sessions, he would have thought that she did even keep it around her. But here she was, texting someone. He just had to ask who had all of her attention at the moment.

“Hey,” he said, scooting over to lean at her phone. “Who ya talking to? New boyfriend?”

“What?!” Melody blushed. Mateo couldn't hold in his smile. “No. It's a couple of friends I see in a couple of my classes. We’re doing a group project for science so we’re scheduling a time to meet up and do it.”

“Ah,” Mateo said, somewhat disappointed at the answer, “how boring.”

“Pretty much,” Melody mumbled, “Can't really go anywhere but the library because the only one with a car has it at the mechanic. But it's no issue anyway, it's more convenient for all of us to just get it done while we’re at school,” she stopped, turning her phone off and set it on the table in front of her. “It won’t affect the tutoring sessions, we scheduled it for other days of the week.”

“That’s great,” he said, beaming a smile at her. “I thought for a minute that you would want to get rid of me.”

“No. I mean, we still have an obligation to be here. I wasn't going to reschedule our time if I could do the project another time.”

“So you’re saying that if you had the option to stop coming here for the sessions, you wouldn’t?”

“I mean, if we’re being honest here,” she said, slouching back and crossing her arms, “You purposely skipped the first one, didnt you?” Mateo’s eyes widened.

“I’m sorry I did that,” he said, looking for more words to say.

“It's okay,” she chuckled. “I would have if I was you too.”

Her phone vibrates twice, Mateo feeling it through the table. Melody picks up her phone and grins. Texting ensues.

“Is it your science squad?” he teased.

“No, it's another friend. We sometimes meet up at the bus stop and talk for a bit.”

“That’s good,” he said, genuinely happy that she started to form connections with other people. “What’s their name?”

“I think you know them. Emilio,” she said, distracted on her phone, typing away. But she didn't see Mateo’s jaw drop. She couldn't feel his heart race harder as she continued to be on the phone with his friend. He knew that Emilio was up to something. And now he was slowly but surely making his way towards her.

“Do you like him?” he blurted out before he even realized, shocking even himself. Melody glared at him with worrying eyes.

“I like him as a friend,” she made that clear enough for him to hear. “I don't have time for anything else,” she mumbled, going back to her phone.

“He hasn’t tried anything, has he? Or send you some weird texts?” he tried to calm himself down, breathing in and out. In. and. Out. He didn't want to control who she talked to, but he knew that Emilio was up to no good. His house was just around the corner from the school. Mateo knew he didn't need to take the bus. 

“Are you okay?” Melody asked, searching desperately into his eyes to figure out why he’s acting so strange. “We’re just friends, we talk about anime and send each other funny memes. Other than that, nothing. No weird messages.”

“I only ask,” Mateo said in the calmest voice that he could manage. To him it seemed believable that he was okay. “Because Emilio has been one of my best friends for years, I know that he can be a bit weird at times. I’m fine with him sending me half-hour length videos of porn, I just hope he wasn't sending you that shit.”

“Oh, no.” Melody nervously chuckled, “He hasn’t sent me anything like that.” She pauses for a 

minute before smiling. “How often does he send you stuff like that?”

“Every once and a while,” Mateo answered nonchalantly. “Like if there’s a particular video he likes he just sends them to me. I’ve seen some weird shit.”
“Is that what boys do? Just send each other porn to watch?” Melody said, her face wrinkled up in disgust. 

“Yeah sometimes,” Mateo shrugged. “When we were younger we’d spend the night at each other's houses and just watched that shit together.”

“That’s weird.” Melody said, looking completely disgusted. Mateo leaned in smiling.

“That’s just what guys do,” Mateo said. That was educational for him and the boys. She would have never understood it.

“Okay,” she chuckled, looking at her phone. “I think we’re done here for today.” She tossed her backpack to her side and got up. “I’ll let you know if he starts sending me those weird videos, okay?”

“Thank you,” he said, getting up and grabbing his bag. “You taking the bus home again?”

“Yeah,” Melody nods, “My sister is inconsistent as hell when it comes to picking me up, so taking the bus is easier for me.”

“Just be careful. Don't talk to strangers okay?” he said, walking towards her and poking her forehead. She smacks his hand out of the way before he continues some more.

“Sure thing,” she gives him an annoyed look before smirking, sliding past him towards the door. “You too.” she said as she waved goodbye before leaving.