The next day was a terrible one. Heavy thunderstorms and rain all day. Melody could hear it when she woke up that morning. She could hear the thunder during class, the lightning scaring her countless times when it showed itself out of the corner of her eye. She could feel her cheeks flush in nervousness, anticipating when the next surprise would come and show itself. She hated thunderstorms. It had often reminded her of the quarrels between her parents, the storm only had made Melody’s hopelessness worse as it mixed her parents stormy marriage troubles into its own song and dance.

But Melody kept her poker face for the rest of the day, trying not to focus too much on the storm roaring around her during school. But at the end of the day, the storm was still outside, as strong as could be. 

Even though today wasn't a day for Melody and Mateo to meet up for their tutoring session, Mateo couldn’t help but to greet her, after seeing her pass by his locker after school. He shuffled around the clusters of students rushing to leave the school, and met up with her around a less populated corner of the hallway, towards the library wing of the school. He had snuck as close as he could behind her without her knowing, and quickly poked her sides. Melody easily jumped inches into the air, stumbled on her landing then quickly turned around to see who the culprit was.

“Oh my God,” she said, placing her hand on her chest to catch her breath. “Fuck you.”

“Woah,” Mateo said, taken aback, “watch that dirty mouth of yours,”
“Why did you scare me like that?” she said, raising her voice and pointing a finger at him.

“I didn’t know that you were gonna act like that. I shouldn't have done that. I’m sorry,” he said, looking at her sincerely.

“It’s okay. Just don't do it again, at least when it's storming outside like today.” she said, immediately jumping as a bolt struck outside, watching it through the window. Mateo looked at the storm through the hallway window then at her.

“Wait, you’re scared of the storm outside?” he said, coming closer and pointing at the heavy rain outside. 

“It's more thunderstorms than just heavy rain,” she said, looking back at the library. “I have to go now, I have a project I have to do in the library.”

“Yeah with your science geek friends,” he chuckled. “Yeah I get it,” as he turned around to go out of the school, and Melody to the library. He stopped and turned around before she was out of sight. “You're taking the bus after this right?” He yelled, it echoed in the silent hallway.

“That’s the plan,” she half yelled, making sure that she kept a bit of her inside voice. “I got an umbrella in my bookbag, so it’s not that bad.”

Mateo nodded in her response and went about his way. Melody stayed in the library, completing part of her massive science project with her group, with them all chatting and having a decent time doing so. It wasn't her favorite subject ever, but she was grouped up with some smart people in that department, so whatever she couldn't manage, they could take over that part of the project. Together they had managed to do a lot of work in the span of an hour and a half, during that time Melody thought that the storm would calm down at least a bit so that she wouldn’t fight it so hard. But as they all left the library and out of the doors of the school, they were surrounded by the gustling wind and heavy pour of rain. It was relentless, by the time Melody had pulled out her umbrella, half of her team had rushed off into the storm, led only by the headlights of cars that were presumably their ride home. Melody looked at the other half, distracted on their phones inside of the school and protected by the rain, also waiting on rides that weren't there yet. But Melody knew that there was no one waiting for her, so she made the trek to the bus stop. 

Melody had fought against the wind, constantly shifting the umbrella against the direction of the wind so as to not destroy it, feeling her shoes slowly becoming corrupted by rain water, soaking it up every chance they got. She took deep breaths at every lightning she saw, exhaling roughly at every thunder that accompanied it. She was only halfway to the bus stop, only a row of houses left to go.

She typically stayed away from the edge of the sidewalk where it met the road, because there was almost always a chance that a car would come by a massive puddle that would soak her if and when they ran over it. It happened before, she knew that it was only a matter of time until it happened again. As cars sped by, splashing the unoccupied side of the sidewalk, she was constantly reminded of her smart thinking. Unless the threat of being splashed was imminent, she didn't really pay much mind with the vehicles passing by her. Her focus was to make it to the bus stop with minimal water damage on her. 

It didn't take her long to notice that one car was driving particularly slow. Usually she would hear the roar of the engine speed past her, but this one seemed to take forever to pass her. As she peaked out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that it was slowly trailing behind her, the driver not visible enough due to the conditions outside. She quickened her pace, wondering if they needed to pull into a driveway or maybe trying to find someone. But she also wondered if they were looking for her, a vulnerable girl to take advantage of. She wasn't going to ask, so she hurried along. It was when she was approaching the intercession that the car sped up and turned to block her way. It startled her, wondering if she should just walk around it or back away when the person in the driverseat rolled down the passenger side window. It took a moment for Melody to realize that she knew them. It was Mateo.

“Get in,” he said, tapping the steering wheel with his finger. Melody gripped the umbrella even tighter as a gust of wind almost lifted her up.

“I’m fine, Mateo. The bus stop is just right there,” Melody said, pointing over to a small bus shelter barely seen through the fog.

“I’m not leaving you alone at that stop. Especially since you’re scared,” the low beats of the radio were muffled from the heavy rain at Mateo looked on at Melody.

“I’m not scared,” Melody said, turning away, watching the rainwater rush down a sewer drain like a draining bathtub. “I got this. But tha-”

“-Just get in the car, Mel. It’s not bothering me to give you a ride. Promise.” he pleaded. Melody looks around, at the never ending pour of rain, feeling the water soaking into her socks, making her even more uncomfortable. But then she took a chance. She trusted Mateo so far, and she didn't really want to wait for the bus all alone during the storm. So she stepped forward, opened the car door, and sat down.

She dropped her half drenched bookbag onto the car floor in between her legs and buckled up. As soon as she closed the car door, Mateo zoomed away then slowed down to a stop at a redlight. She noticed the weed smell almost immediately, as her sister habitually self medicated from it. She was somewhat surprised by the discovery, given that people who smoke would talk about it to any one who listened. Maybe there was still more to learn about him than she thought.

“Where are we heading?”  he glared at her. She was practically soaked. She hated the feeling of her toes sloshing around in her shoes.

“It’s 1347 South East street,” she said, adjusting in the seat. She looked around, noticing the candy bar wrappers and soda cans that littered the interior of the car. But she tried not to be bothered by it.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, panning over to her and the road whenever he could. “My grandmother used to live around there, I didn’t know you lived on the East End.”

“Yeah that's where I live with my sister and my niece and nephew.” she said, looking through the window and observing the storm continuing on. East end was known to be one of the rougher parts of the city, but in actuality, Melody found it to be safe, as long as you knew who was in the neighborhood. All the weird shady stuff happens behind closed doors, mostly at night, so Melody always found it safe to take the kids out to the park or walk home when she could.

“I remember when my dad would take me to her place and she would just stuff me with empanadas and spanish rice. You know how grandma’s are, they feed their grandkids well. She had a fat little terrier she would feed her scraps with too,” he chucked, Melody grinned at him before going back to the window.

“I wouldn’t know much. My grandmother on my mother’s side died before I was born, and the one on my father’s side wants nothing to do with his children.”

“Damn, Mel. I’m sorry,” he frowned, switching between watching her reaction and the road. “Are you hungry? I can stop by the Burger Queen coming up.”

“I’m fine,” she said grinning at him, “but thanks for asking,” she looked down at the radio, which was only playing so low that Melody could barely hear. She turned the volume up to hear an unfamiliar beat. “Who were you listening to?”

“This?” He said, taking a moment to listen to the song. “It’s nobody that I know the name of. You can change it if you want.”

“No, it's okay. And thank you for the ride,” she said looking at him. He glared back to her, completely missing a pothole.

“Damn it,” he said, responding to the sudden dip that shook the whole car. “Sorry about that. And it’s no problem, think of it as payback for the cookies you made me.”

“But that was a gift,” she responded, out of the corner of her eye a bright bolt of lightning touched the ground, causing her to jump and shift in her seat. Mateo looked at her, then at the radio, and turned the volume up to the point that when the thunder came, she didn't even notice it. 

Minutes later they had finally arrived on the street. Mateo slowed his driving to a crawl as Melody pointed out her apartment building. He turned his crawl into a stop as Melody prepared to get out of the car, making sure she grabbed everything she had on her. As she got out and extended her umbrella open for the short walk she would need, she tossed her backpack behind her and waited for Mateo to just drive off.

“You can get in there right? I don't want to drive off and you find out that you can't for whatever reason,” he said, leaning over to the passenger’s side to look at her.

“I can get in,” Melody nodded as she approached her apartment. She dug her keys out of her bag and opened the door with ease. She turned to wave back at Mateo, exposing the ajar door, in which she saw him wave back before he rolled up his windows once more and speed off. She got in and quickly took off her soaked shoes, thankful that it was the only clothing of hers that got soaked. She was also thankful to have Mateo as a friend of hers.