The Perfect World (The Perfect World Series Book 1) (19 page)

The red-haired girl just smiled back at him, showing all her teeth. “I don’t know,” she said as she turned her back and started walking out of the bathroom, “yet.”

“Melody!” he called out to her, feeling annoyed that she was teasing him.              

“Don’t worry, we’ll talk again soon,” she assured him, not skipping a beat as she walked away. “Later.”

“Mel—” he tried, but she was gone. Cyrus, try though he might, couldn’t figure out how they might communicate to people inside the Quarantine Dome. He could only hope that whatever idea she had was a good one.

As Cyrus sat down in his seat at school the next morning, his green eyes focused on Melody, willing her to look at him. After a few minutes she did so, a sneaky smile on her face. He raised both of his arms up with his palms flat out, hoping she’d get the idea that he had no idea what she was thinking. Seemingly she understood the gesture, but she only shrugged her shoulders in reply.

Prickly annoyance ran through his lanky form as he crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows. Melody’s expression softened and she mouthed, “Later,” at him before her blue eyes focused back on their teacher. Cyrus dropped his arms and sighed. He supposed the promise of information later was better than nothing.

Fortunately for Cyrus, later wasn’t that much longer at all. When his door clicked open after school, he found Melody waiting for him. He stopped when he saw that she was practically bouncing in place.

“I’m assuming something good happened,” Cyrus said slowly, wondering why she seemed so pleased with herself.

“It did.” Her voice was bright. “I managed to make a rope out of my bed sheets.”

Cyrus just stared at her dumbfounded. She laughed at his expression as she took his wrist in her hand.

“It’s going to make sense soon, I promise,” Melody said as she started to pull at his arm. “Now, let’s go.”

“Go where?” he asked, staying put until she gave him a little more information.

“My room,” she told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“What?” Cyrus was startled enough that he allowed himself to be pulled and began walking.

“My room,” Melody said again slowly. “You know, the place where I sleep. I think you have one too.”

“I know what a room—”

“Here it is.” The redhead stopped in front of door 307. She let go of his wrist, opened the door and stood in front of it. “Go on in,” she commanded with a wave of her arm.

“All right,” Cyrus decided to just go with whatever Melody had planned. As he stepped inside her room, he noticed it was a bit smaller than his own, but otherwise the set-up was exactly the same. Cyrus turned back to Melody and asked, “Now what?”

“Go to the window. Look down and tell me what you see.”

Cyrus did as she asked and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Her side of the building faced a lot of tall buildings that blocked the view of anything else.

“I see a whole lot of dull looking buildings. There’s a street down there.” He turned back to her with a shrug. “Nothing else though.”

She shook her head, her wavy red hair bouncing off her shoulders. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. Try looking down and to the right side of this building.”

He thought about telling her to be more specific with her instructions next time, but he decided the words wouldn’t help either one of them. Cyrus turned back to the window and did as she asked. This time, he saw exactly what Melody wanted him to see. Just a short ways down and to the right of her window was a black landing with stairs going up and down from it.

Cyrus turned back to Melody in amazement. She, in turn, looked very pleased with herself. “You see it now?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“It’s a fire escape. At least, that’s what Ms. Linda told me when I asked her.”

“And it leads to the ground.”

“Yep, it goes all the way down and up the building.”

Excitement was building in Cyrus’s chest, but there were still a few questions that needed to be answered.

“But how will we get to it?” Cyrus asked, judging the distance from the window to the fire escape. It was too far to jump on to that was for sure.

“If you’d hold the door for me, I can show you.” Cyrus quickly switched places with Melody, who knelt down beside her bed and pulled out a long white rope made out of her bed sheets. She slung the rope over her shoulder and went up to her window.

The excitement building in Cyrus’s chest immediately fizzled out. Even if the rope could reach the fire escape, all the windows in their rooms were locked. Or at least, his always had been. Her knuckles went white as Melody went to her window and began to tug at it. Then, with a short grunt, the window slid back and the way was completely open.

“What?” Cyrus gaped at the sight. “Your window isn’t locked?”

Melody was grinning like a fool. “It was
supposed
to be. A few years ago, I wanted to get some fresh air into my room, and I started pulling at it. I pulled at it so much that the lock must have broken. Of course, I never told anyone about the incident.”

Cyrus was now grinning from ear to ear back at her. “You’re amazing.”

A little red colored Melody’s cheeks as she muttered a quick thanks. Pulling the bed sheet rope from over her shoulder, she dangled it out the window. She gave it a little bit of slack at a time until she was satisfied. Then, she tied the remaining bit of rope in a tight knot around her sink’s pipe.

Picking up her stool, Melody approached Cyrus and motioned him to move. She put the stool in front of the door to hold it open, allowing Cyrus to leave his post. They walked to the window together, and Cyrus looked down to see that the white rope just reached the black fire escape. They would have to swing it a little to reach it, but it wasn’t impossible.

“So,” Cyrus pointed at the rope, thinking aloud, “we climb down this bed sheet rope and reach the fire escape. Then, we can head down the stairs. And then we can …”

“We can head for the Quarantine Dome,” Melody said with confidence. Her blue eyes met Cyrus’s startled green ones. “You wanted to find a way to talk to Scott and Ms. Linda, right? This is a way we could do it.”

Cyrus was so overwhelmed for a moment, he didn’t know what to say. It was something he had wanted so badly, but he hadn’t thought it possible. Now it was. Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. He felt her stiffen a bit before she relaxed and wrapped her arms around his back. Melody rested her head on his shoulder as they both relaxed against the other’s body. Cyrus was enveloped by her warmth and distracted by her hands as they ran down his back.

Cyrus, though he was loathed to do so, broke the hug as a question came to his mind. “But what about you? Is there something you want to do when we’re out there?”

Melody shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing special. I just want to go out there without anybody watching us. See what it’s like out there for myself.”

He nodded, then tilted his head as he thought it over. “We won’t have much time to explore though. I mean, we have to go to school and then Ms. Mary comes in here three times a day, so …”

“So, we just won’t go to school.”

Cyrus blinked at the words and then he caught on. “We get declared sick. Then, we won’t have to go.”

Melody nodded. “Ms. Mary comes in the morning and doesn’t come back until after school. It’s the longest time that we’re left alone. That’s our best chance.”

“When should we try to become sick?”

“Next week,” Melody said firmly. “We should give ourselves a little time to think of anything else we might need to do before we go.”

“Right,” Cyrus said as Melody hoisted the rope back through her window and shut it. “How about we get sick next Monday? Then we can go to the Quarantine Dome the next morning. Does that sound good?”

“Fine by me,” Melody said as she untied the rope from her sink’s pipe.

Cyrus moved towards the door to hand her stool back to her. As she took it, he said, “I should probably go. We’ve been talking for a while.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Melody said as she put the stool back.

As he lingered by the door, he felt a bit of tension between the two of them. It wasn’t a tension that came from being angry with one another or uncomfortable. It was the same feeling that had made him hug her just moments before, but more demanding this time. The pair of them stared intently at one another, but Cyrus didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

Breaking off his gaze first, Cyrus waved to her and said, “Talk to you soon,” as he walked into the hallway. Melody’s door swung shut, and Cyrus let go of the breath he had been holding. Excitement at Melody’s plan soon overpowered his feelings of confusion over the incident. There was a spring in his step as he went back to his room. It had been a while since he had anything to look forward to, and he had Melody to thank for it. 

The next day at school, he spent much of his time miming and gesturing at Melody. He looked across the room at her, and their eyes met. She started doing an impression of their dull, frog-like social studies teacher and his hunched posture. She leaned over her desk and made her eyes half-lidded. She made her mouth as long as possible and mimicked his words in a long drawn out way.

Cyrus couldn’t help but laugh at the image presented. The sound caught the attention of their teacher, who stopped his droning to stare over in Cyrus’s direction. Cyrus immediately sat up and stopped laughing, smiling over at the teacher apologetically. That was enough for their droning teacher to go back to his readings.

Cyrus looked back at Melody, who mouthed an apology at him. He shook his head and mouthed that it was fine. She nodded and turned her eyes towards the teacher, probably figuring it was best if she didn’t continue her little charade. Though it disappointed Cyrus to lose his source of entertainment in the class, he had to agree that it was probably for the best. He didn’t want either one of them to get in trouble, at least not yet.

He thought about turning his eyes towards his teacher like she had, but something stopped him. The sunlight had hit her hair and it was almost like it was making it glow. The red hair seemed to come alive and dance in the light that shined on it. The light moved to her blue eyes, making them a deeper blue. A sparkle seemed to appear in her eyes as the light moved across her.

The sight moved something in him, something he couldn’t describe. He had been looking at her for years and yet he felt like this was the first time he’d really seen her. It was like he hadn’t really noticed her until that very moment. The color of her hair, the way her eyes shone in the light, the contours of her face and body suddenly came alive to him. He’d never thought of her that way before. He wondered why he did now.

Cyrus didn’t know what brought about this change in him. All he knew was that he liked it and that he wanted to be closer to Melody. He spent the rest of the school day gazing at her every so often and remembering how the sunlight had danced off her red hair. A fire had been lit in his heart as he left the school to return to his room. A fire that he didn’t want to put out.

In the days leading up to Monday, Cyrus received visits from Melody at least once a day. Every time she came to see him, he noticed something new about her. He paid attention to the way she talked, her expressions animated and lively, and how she moved. He was happy to listen to her thoughts and was happier each time he saw her. The young boy started to long to see her when she wasn’t around. He had never longed for anyone in that way before. He had always wanted to see Scott and Ms. Linda, but it had never been this urgent.

The days passed quickly until it was Sunday evening, the night before the pair of them had decided to get declared sick intentionally. Melody had already visited him once in the afternoon, and he was a little surprised to see her standing by the sinks that evening.

“Hey, there. Happy to see me?” she asked with a smug smile. It seemed she already knew the answer.

“What? You? Never.” He waved her off, not wanting to inflate her ego. She pouted at the response and turned her back on him.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I’ll just go back to my room. Bye,” she told him flatly, without even looking back at him. He grabbed her wrist as she started to move away, and she turned to face him.

“All right, I’m happy to see you, and I don’t want you to leave. There, that better?”

“Much,” Melody replied with her smug smile increased tenfold. He took a moment to study her before he tilted his head to the side with a half-quirked smile.

“What?” she asked him, not liking the silent treatment.

“You’ve gotten taller,” he noted, putting a hand on her head. It rested about level with his shoulder. “You didn’t use to go up this far.”

“You’re one to talk,” Melody told him slyly. “You’re taller every time I see you.” She placed a hand on her own forehead and sent it up to his, showing how tall he was compared to her. “I wonder if you’ll ever stop growing. If you don’t, your head will probably hit the ceiling.”

“Funny,” he remarked with a grin at her teasing. “If I did that, I’d probably end up with a lecture every day about how everyone else is just as special as me and that my tallness is a sign of ‘sickness.’”

Melody rolled her eyes. “More than likely. Ms. Mary complains about my hair all the time.” She pulled it over her shoulder to show how long it had gotten. It was down to her mid-back at this point. “She says my hair is an unusual color, and it could make other people feel bad about themselves. She keeps telling me I should dye it, but I don’t want to. I like it the way it is.”

She flung her hair back over her shoulder and said in an aggravated tone, “After I tell her that, she always lectures me about the importance of positive emotions. Creating positive emotions—”

“Is the most important thing in our society,” Cyrus recited from memory, having heard the speech many, many times in the past. “Trust me, I know how annoying that is. And what does she know anyway? I think your hair is very pretty.”

The words had left Cyrus’s mouth before he had really processed them. He felt his face go red, and he saw that Melody’s face had gone a little red too. She twirled her hair around her fingers and looked away from him with a small smile.

“You really like my hair?” she asked him in a small voice.

“Yeah, I do,” he said honestly, feeling his heart beat faster inside him. Before anything else could be said on the matter, he decided to change the subject to assuage his nervousness. “So, is there any reason you came to see me again? Is there something you want to talk about?”

“I didn’t have a reason,” Melody admitted with a shrug, looking away from him. “Do I need a reason every time I want to see you?”

“Well, no,” he said quickly, hoping he hadn’t offended her. “It’s just that you usually do have a reason, that’s all.”

She didn’t say anything, just twirled her hair around her finger and looked to the side. Her mouth twitched as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.

“Actually, we should talk about tomorrow,” Cyrus said quickly, trying to fill the awkward silence.

“Right. Tomorrow. So ..?” She trailed off and waved her hand in a circular fashion that told him he needed to continue.

“I think we should try to get sick during our PE class. That should be the easiest one.” Melody nodded. “And then the morning after that, we’ll be off. Is everything ready for when we go to the Quarantine Dome?”

“Yeah, nothing’s changed. It’ll all be ready when it’s time for us to leave.”

“Good.”

The conversation came to an abrupt halt, and Cyrus didn’t know what he should say to get it going again. It was Melody who broke the silence.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked with some concern. “You do still want to go, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do!” Cyrus exclaimed in surprise.

“Oh,” Melody said and looked away.

“Do
you
want to go?” he asked gently, wanting her to know that it was okay for her to say no.

“Yes, I do. I was only asking because you got so quiet. I thought maybe you didn’t want to go anymore.”

Cyrus was quiet for another moment, before he clenched his fist and made a decision. He looked up and met her eyes. “It’s not that. It’s more that I just don’t know what to say to you. I wanted to go see Scott and Ms. Linda so badly, but I never really thought it was possible. I never even wanted to tell anyone what I thought about them being in a better place because I know it sounds crazy.”

“It’s not crazy at all,” Melody responded quietly. “I’d never thought about another place where we could go. A place that was better than this, but when you said that about Scott and Ms. Linda, I thought maybe it is real,” she said something else, but it was too quiet to hear.

“What?” he asked, coming closer.

She looked at him with blue eyes that shone with conviction. “That’s why I love talking to you. You give me hope, and seeing you makes this place easier for me to live in.”

Cyrus wanted to tell her that he felt the same way about her, but his voice was caught in his throat. Instead, he reached out to take her hand in his. She gripped his hand tightly and Cyrus loved how warm and soft it felt. Both of them gazed into each other’s eyes, suddenly feeling an intense draw. He wanted to be closer to her somehow. Melody was looking at him with a faint blush, clearly struggling with the same feelings.

Once more, Cyrus was amazed by the beauty of her hair and the fullness of her eyes. He ran his fingers through her hair with his free hand, then ran his finger down the side of her face. She felt very warm to the touch and the draw he felt increased. Giving into his growing urges, he leaned down and pressed his mouth against hers.

For a moment, he didn’t know why he was doing such a thing. Then, he felt a warmth spread through his body, igniting a need he had never known before. Melody’s free hand wrapped around his waist as she pulled closer to him, pressing harder against his mouth. Closing his eyes, he pressed back and just held together with her. He pressed his lips against hers a few more times before they separated.

Cyrus and Melody looked at each other breathlessly. Melody’s arm was still around his waist, and her hand was caught in his. Both parties were silent as they continued to study each other, wondering how the other had taken the action. Finally, a small smile appeared on Melody’s mouth and a broad smile appeared on Cyrus’s.

Melody took her arm from his waist, and he released her hand. She took a few steps back from him, studying him with a faint redness in her cheeks. She looked at him as if she didn’t know what to say. Then, she spoke in an emotional voice that said everything that was unsaid.

“See you tomorrow, Cyrus,” she told him softly, her eyes glowing brightly. She looked at him not with uncertainty or regret, but with warmth and affection.

“See you tomorrow, Melody,” he told her with an equal warmth.

She turned away from him, and he almost wanted to run over and stop her. He let her go only because he knew that she had to leave. He didn’t want her to, but he controlled himself and let her go. He went back to his room after she had departed, feeling as though he was walking on air.

Waking up the next morning, after dreaming of a certain red-haired girl, Cyrus felt a rare excitement about the drudge to school. Today was the day he and Melody would enact their plan. Getting declared sick hadn’t been at all difficult. They were playing soccer again in PE, and both Melody and Cyrus were placed on the same team. All it took was them taking the ball for themselves and scoring a few goals for Mr. Warden to inform them that they were sick. Ms. Mary visited them that afternoon to inform them both that they had to stay away from school for three days. Cyrus could barely contain his grin when she told him.

Monday evening passed extremely slowly for Cyrus, especially after he had spoken to Melody to confirm their plans. Cyrus eventually managed to fall asleep and was startled awake by the sound of breakfast being dropped into his food slot. As he glanced out the windows to see sunlight peeking through, he saw the glowing, colorful wall of the Quarantine Dome.

And today I’m actually going to see it for myself, he thought with excitement, not even minding that today was another oatmeal day. I’m going to see Scott and Ms. Linda again.

Cyrus hopped out of bed and pulled on his required clothes for the day. He endured his typical visit from Ms. Mary, helping her with her menial tasks so she could leave as quickly as possible. Then he waited for his lock to click open, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

The lock had barely clicked open before Cyrus thrust it open and rushed into the hallway. Practically running around the hall, he almost collided with Melody, who was standing in the bathroom’s entry way.

“Whoa!” she said as she took a step back. Cyrus muttered a quick apology. “Never mind that. Come on.” She grabbed his hand and escorted him into the last stall in the bathroom. She hung her “Out of Order” sign up and then they both went inside. Melody locked the door after them and placed the lid down on the toilet. She gestured that both of them would have to stand on it and, after a brief balancing struggle, they managed, though Cyrus had to crouch down a bit. 

The pair waited somewhat impatiently for the sounds of everyone lining up to go to school. Cyrus, whose back was starting to ache from being hunched over, gave a small sigh of relief when he heard the sound of shuffling feet in the hallway. Melody put a finger to her lips to admonish him, and he grinned an apology.

They waited until they heard the door to the stairwell shut behind the other students on their floor, then they exited their stall. Melody grabbed her sign off the door as Cyrus enjoyed a nice long stretch.

“Are you ready?” Cyrus asked as she turned to him.

“Yep. The rope, the window and the climb down are all waiting for us,” she said counting the items off on her hand. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Cyrus said as they reached the entry way, “just one last thing.”

Melody turned to face him, and he leaned down to quickly brush his lips against hers. Or at least, he intended it to be quick, but as soon as Melody wrapped her arms around him he found himself wanting to draw it out a little bit more.              

“What was that for?” Melody asked when they finally broke apart.

“Just my way of thanking you for this.”

“Hmm, well, I was going to say that you could have just used your mouth to say that, but you kind of did, so …” She ended with a shrug.

“But you liked this way better, right?” Cyrus asked with a grin.

She gave him a little huff and an eye roll, but she didn’t deny it. “Enough of this. We need to get going.”

“Yeah, let’s—” Cyrus broke off abruptly as he heard the sound of the stairwell door opening again.

Both of them stopped in their tracks and immediately strained to listen. At first, Cyrus thought that perhaps Ms. Mary had come back up to their floor. Then he heard the sound of heavy footfalls echoing through the hallway. And they were getting closer.

Wide-eyed, Cyrus motioned for Melody to stay put while he pressed himself against the entry way and peeked around the corner. He pulled back just as he saw two black armored guardsman turn the corner, both of them carrying the weapons with the long black barrel.

Panicked, Cyrus hastily went back to where Melody was, and they both pressed themselves against the wall as they heard the footfalls go past the bathroom.

What are they doing here? Cyrus wondered, his heart hammering in his chest. And why are they carrying those weapons?

He turned to Melody as she squeezed his hand to get attention. She looked as panicked as he felt. “What do we do?” she whispered into his ear.

“We need to get back to our rooms.”

“But what about going to the Quarantine Dome? Should we still try to make it?”

Cyrus bit his lip. He still wanted to go, but he was also afraid. Those guards showed up on their floor mere moments after the other students left on the day that he and Melody had planned to leave. He didn’t think it was coincidence, and he didn’t want to risk getting them both hurt or worse.

“No, we can’t,” he whispered back adamantly. “Not with them here.” Cyrus took her hand as he prepared to move. “Your room is closer to the bathroom than mine. You should be able to make it.”