Feelings: Received

Prologue

It all started when Melody Diaz died.

She was Jackson’s girlfriend since seventh grade, and they were never without each other. Believe me, I was there to witness it all, as their constant third wheel. Melody eventually became a good friend of mine, but it was Jackson who had been my best friend from the very start. Our parents were friends; we were born in the same hospital. Even before Melody, Jackson would come to our house and eat my mother’s cooking. We would play games tirelessly.

That all changed when Melody came along. Melody lived an affluent lifestyle, but was so down to earth and kind that you would never have guessed her father was a famous business tycoon.

Melody moved to our school, and her popularity quickly won her the position of class vice president. That was when she got to know Jackson, who was then class president. We may have been childhood friends, but Jackson was always the type of kid who was in the spotlight. He was a star player, an A+ student, and handsome and popular. I was always the quiet supporter at the bleachers, the lanky brunette who had too many freckles. It seemed reasonable that Jackson would end up with someone like Melody instead.

Melody was everybody’s dream girl, at a time when we were all just starting to find out about crushes and love. It was around this time that I also pieced together my feelings for Jackson, and I was prepared to tell him about it, too. Except, one day, he told me he liked Melody Diaz. It wasn’t such a big deal to me. My world just happened to collapse at that point.

But I didn’t stop hanging out with Jackson. Things just went on as if nothing happened. If anything, I couldn’t bear to lose his friendship. They began dating, and I watched, constantly cheering them on still from the sidelines.

Nobody expected that Melody would die in our junior year. The news was everywhere – the Diaz’s plane crashed on their way back from a family vacation. Nobody took it harder than Jackson. He stayed indoors. He didn’t answer even my messages. I called him every day, invited him to eat outside, but even when I dropped by at his house, his parents would tell me that he had been locked up in his room all day.

That was when I devised a plan. I would message him as Melody, so he would miss her less. I called him up the day after I hatched my genius idea, and for the first time, Jackson showed signs of life.

“Are you crazy?” was the first thing he asked me.

“It’s a crazy idea, but it might help you. Let me try,” I said. I heard nothing but static for a long time over the phone. And then, my cellphone rang with a text.

Hey Mel, how are you? – jack

If you were me, what else would you have done?