Oh no he didn't! I fumed silently at the computer monitor, my blood pressure keeling over like a pot of boiling hot water. What a jerk! I was going to give him a piece of my mind. I pounded at the keyboard with overpowering speed, my focus on beating the life out of him with typed vocabulary.


~senorita~ - how could u say dat, jerk!
*Jeremy*- It was a mistake
*Jeremy*- I didn't mean 2 type dat
~senorita~- puh-lease...
~senorita~- I wasn't born yesterday, Jeremy
*Jeremy*- No, really...
*Jeremy*- my fingers slipped
*Jeremy* - I didn't mean to call u a ho
*senorita*- i dont believe u
*Jeremy*- u have 2
*Jeremy*- i didnt do it on purpose
*senorita*- y should i believe u
*Jeremy*- bcuz i care
*senorita*- u care?
*Jeremy*- yeah, i do
*Jeremy*- i really do
*Jeremy* - *kiss*


I practically swooned, when I saw the tiny red kiss emoticon pop up onto the screen. It was getting harder and harder for me to resist Jeremy's charm. He kept touching all the right buttons. I could see why so many girls were in love with him. He was a real sweetheart.

Still, I had to control myself. I didn't want to like him. I couldn't. Not after what I had heard from the girls at church, about his playa status. I knew better than to fall for his sugar-coated lines. Lines he probably used on every girl. It was a strategy that worked really well. But it wouldn't work on me. I wasn't about to let him play me like that. I knew better. Still, quite a large portion of me wanted his words to be real. I wanted them to be the truth. I had liked him for a long time now. Ever since I could remember. I liked everything about him, from his smooth cocoa brown skin. His intense brown eyes, so divine that in the sunlight, they turned a lustrous green. Although, sadly, most of the time they were hidden behind squared full rim spectacles. He was smart; a straight A student, very popular among the girls, and was cool with the guys too. Even all of the parents who ever knew Jeremy, were fond of him. Including mine. What wasn't to like? He was absolutely perfect.

Maybe that was another reason why I felt I couldn't trust him. No one could be perfect. There had to be something wrong. I had finally found it. He probably had never been truly honest, with me or anyone. All of his words meant nothing. He just liked to play with girls' hearts, and discard them whenever he felt like it. I knew that. Most girls knew that from experience. I didn't want to be another sorry victim, so I had to make sure I didn't fall for any of his games.


~senorita~- I don't care

I closed his conversation box, and ignored anything else he typed from then on. It was marring to the bone, but it had to be done.


The phone rang shortly afterwards. I made my way downstairs, grabbing the phone in the kitchen.
"Hello?"
"Hello." A deep guttural voice boomed into my ear.
Click.
I hung the phone up necessarily, when I realized it was the good-for-nothing Jeremy.
I didn't think I was being harsh about it. I was just trying to protect myself from getting hurt. There was nothing wrong with that.


Throughout the next few days, I received emails, phone-calls; which I hadn't been around to get, and a message from a friend online, relaying the message that he cares about me. I didn't believe any of it. Why was he doing all of this? It was getting harder and harder for me to understand, why he wouldn't give up. Was this how it had been for all the other girls, who had really believed they were the one he wanted? If so, I could then understand why he had so many victims. His magic and charm were working way too well. I felt my defenses crumbling expeditiously.

* * *

"Melody! We'd all like to get to church today please." My mother called out to me so loud that although I was in the upstairs washroom, with the door firmly shut, my earlobes throbbed mercilessly.

"I'm almost done!" I yelled, opening the door for a brief ten seconds. Then I shut it closed, and turned my attention to the mirror in front of me. With great care, I took my Maybelline Intense XXL mascara wand, graciously applying it to my bottom eyelashes. "I don't know what everyone is talking about. I don't put that much mascara on. It's barely noticable." I placed the wand near the sink, and studied my face in the mirror, paying particular attention to my eyelashes. "Hmm...maybe just one more layer." I resolved, as I picked up the wand and doused my eyes with the black liquid. It was only after five more layers that I was completly satisfied. Hurridly, I pulled my twisted hair into a ponytail atop my head. Finally, I swept a bit of transculent gloss onto my lips, then exited the bathroom.

I met my mother downstairs, who looked at me disapprovingly. I knew it was about time for one of her thirty-minute lectures again.

"Just once, it would be nice to get to church when Sabbath School is still in procession."
So as not to stir up any more trouble needed, I simply apologized and hastily made my way to the 2003 Kia Sedona mini-van parked in the driveway. My whole family was already inside--my dad behind the wheel, my ten-year-old sister Rachel in the passenger seat next to him, and my five-year-old sister Samantha in the middle row. I took my seat in the back without hesitation, and soon we were on the road headed for our Seventh-Day Adventist church.

Alot of people attended Roledale SDA church, which got to be a little crowded. We actually shared the building with another church as well. The TGC Seventh-Day Adventist church had their weekly services on the left side of the building, while we had ours on the right side. It was a tricky situation, but we all coped. The only time when conflict seemed to arise, was with the issue of who could use the gymnasium at whatever time. We had a schedule, which organized a particular day in which each group would get to occupy the gym. This didn't always help much.

I usually enjoyed going to church, because it was a big break from all the heartache and trauma that school throughout the week could bring. However, today I dreaded going there, for the obvious reason that Jeremy was going to be there. I didn't think I was up to facing him for a long while. But it was now or never. I let out a troublesome sigh, and gazed out the window at the many arrays of houses and condomiums we passed on the way. Just ignore him. Pretend he doesn't exist, I thought to myself with renewed determination. Still, I had a feeling that wasn't going to be too easy.



"Hey Melody." One of Jeremy's good friends; Tyler, and mine as well, greeted me a little while after I had made my entrance into the church. We had arrived when Sabbath School had come to a close. As usual. Every child under the age of fifteen was piling out of their classes busily like a herd of battling elephants. Unfortunately, I was standing in the middle of all the chaos, and I had to fight to get out of the way.

I smiled, and opened my mouth to justify a response, but before I could say a word, his tone shifted from friendly, being reduced to a sarcastic spiteful level.
"Oh, wait, you probably won't say hi, right? 'Cause you don't care." With that comment, he brushed past me.
What was that all about? It couldn't have anything to do with what I said to Jeremy, could it?

"Mels! Over here!" Distracted, I turned in the direction of the voice. It was Angella. My best friend. Relieved, I walked over to where she stood next to the huge wooden doors leading to the sanctuary.
"What's wrong?" She looked in concern at my troubled expression.

"Oh...nothing!" I said quickly, but I found my gaze landing on where Jeremy stood with Keisha and Yvonne a couple of feet away. It also came to my attention, that they kept looking in my direction. Were they talking about...me? My eyes locked with Jeremy's, and even behind his glasses, I felt the intensity of his stare. It was like he had exposed my every thought, and placed it on an examining table for a thorough inspection. As if he could read right past my futile attempts to resist him. As if he knew how my heart seemed to be speeding out of control, and my body temperature increasing with each minute that went by. But most of all, I feared he could see that I was falling for him.

"Well you know what I think?" Angella's almond brown eyes danced mischeviously. "I think you love Jeremy."

"No!" I said a little too quickly. "Of course not!"
Angella fixated me with a knowing smile. "Sure, that's why you're staring at him so hard."
I tore my gaze away from Jeremy; embarassed. "I wasn't looking at him."
"Whatever! You don't have to hide it, you know. I understand." She pushed me in Jeremy's direction playfully. "Go talk to your man."
"Nooo..."
"Oh, well he's coming over here anyway."
"What?" I tugged at Angella's sleeve pleadingly. "Let's go."
"You have to stay, Melody. He wants to talk to you."

"But I want to go inside now." I persisted, although I obviously just wanted to avoid talking to Jeremy. I didn't feel like talking to him right now. In fact I didn't think I'd ever be ready for it. He was one of those guys, who wouldn't give up until they had their last word. I had to get out of another long lecture from him, if possible.

"How's it going to look, if you turn away now? Especially with Keisha and Yvonne watching too. You know how they all are. They'll never let you live it down."
Boy, did I know how true that was. Although, both girls knew how much of a heart-breaker Jeremy was, and had experienced the feeling once or twice before, it didn't matter. No matter what he did, they always ended up crawling back to him. Over and over again. If you hurt Jeremy, you also hurt them. That was their secret motto. Another motto of theirs was: Hate whomever Jeremy liked that wasn't them. They could get to be really confusing people.

Same went for Jeremy's other friends. They would all purposedly make it their duty to make sure you gave Jeremy the respect he deserved. But none of that really mattered now. What mattered was the fact that Jeremy was now picking up speed in my direction. There was no way I could leave now. I was trapped.

"Hey Melody." Jeremy said, as he walked right by me into the sanctuary; Keisha and Yvonne close behind. I was struck dumb. No evil stares? No long lecture? What's going on? Not that I was complaining. Yet, it was quite a surprise to see him walk by like that, as if nothing had happened. It definitely wasn't like him, to pass up on one of his long talks. Especially in cases such as mine.

"Angella...did you see that?" I scrunched up my eyebrows, in deep thinking mode.
"Yeah..."
"Don't you think something's wrong?"
"Yeah. He must be having a bad day."
"Oh. Well, I don't care anyways. The less I see of him, the better."
But I didn't really believe that. And that was the sad part about it.

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