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morbethgames · 15 hours ago

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Love In Stasis - Chapter 1

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Chapter 1

The radio inside the dark blue Volkswagen was playing nineties rock hits, if only to drown out the doom that Madeline felt about finishing the project for her immunology course. One hand was on the steering wheel while her head leaned on the other, which was propped up on the inside of the car door. Luckily she wasn’t paired with just some random person, or else the stress of it all would no doubt be amplified by an amount that she didn’t even want to comprehend.

People walked through the crosswalk of the main street in front of her, just north of the dorms of Scribe City College. It wasn’t the biggest campus by any means in the U.S., but it was close to a strip of restaurants, a shopping center with a movie theater and a bowling alley, and a couple of bars. So it’s not like there wasn’t anything to do here at campus.

A horn suddenly beeped behind Madeline, grabbing her attention. “Shit-” she muttered and sat up, pressing on the gas to make her car begin to roll through the now green light, which she hadn’t realized had changed colors from its previous red hue. The long-haired brunette put up a hand so the car behind her could see. “Sorry!” As if they would have a chance of hearing her in mid-november when everyone had their windows rolled up.

She had a lot distracting her as of recently. As an animal science major and immunology minor, there was no shortage of assignments and presentations the woman had to do. This was made doubly sure by the fact she was in her junior year, which was infamously known as one of the busiest times in a college student’s life. Even now, she was headed to the Grayson Library to meet up with Melody to work on this project, which focused on MHC cross-translation for exogenous antigens.

College was hard. Medicine was harder. She wanted to do this, but sometimes she felt like she didn’t want to do this. But, whenever she felt like that, all she had to do was think about Jeremy.

That normally got her motivated again. It helped remind her of why she was here in the first place, at this college, in this major.

As Madeline pulled into a parking space on the side of the building, she got out of her car and opened up the back door. Her hand grabbed one of the straps of her backpack, making a motion to lift it. “Oof!” She stumbled, not moving from the spot and being pulled back towards the car. The strap of the backpack got stuck on a loose piece of plastic underneath one of the seats of her car.

“Ugh, come on!” The last word was strained as she exerted herself to free the heavy bag from its entrapment. “I just wanna- ngh!” She pulled the backpack again, getting it loose this time and slinging it around her shoulder, exhaling as she did. “Get this project over with.” And get out of the cold. She was wearing jeans with a crop top, and the large, thick button up black and white flannel didn’t really help keep the bitter fall air from nipping at her skin.

As Madeline pushed open the doors to the library and stepped inside, her walking pace was a little faster than normal. She scanned her student ID card to get past the checkpoint to enter the main portion of the building. As she did, a voice called out to her.

“Hey Mads, what’s up?” Luz was standing by in her campus security uniform. She was only a couple inches shorter than the six-foot cardboard cutout of the founder of the library. It was always so weird to Maddie that they had that. Like, just- why?

Madeline looked Luz’s way, offering her nothing much more than a friendly half-smile as she kept walking. It was always kind of awkward around her.

Luz is a criminal justice major, but more than that, she’s Melody’s ex-girlfriend. From what Madeline knew, they were still on friendly terms, and even hung out sometimes, but she just had this way about her. Like a naturally charming attitude, in a flirtatious sense of the word. There have been a couple times where Melody had to come over to Madeline’s dorm this past year to give Luz the privacy she needed for her ‘dates’.

Which Maddie didn’t exactly find fair. They requested the same dorm because they were together at the time, but now it’s like it gets shoved in Melody’s face whenever that happens. Granted, it doesn’t happen often, but it’s still kind of a shitty thing to do. Luz wasn’t a bad person, and Maddie knew that. She’d known her since high school. Luz was one of the people that was there for her when Jeremy died.

But, Melody is her best friend, so it’s just a really complicated situation.

Madeline opens the door to the quiet room that they rented out, walking in and closing it behind her. “Hey, sorry I’m late. I had some orgo homework I needed to work on and time just got away from me.” She huffed, letting the backpack slide off her shoulder onto the floor, sitting down and beginning to rifle through it to pull out her laptop, textbook and notes.

Melody pushed a few strands of her auburn hair behind her ear. “Oh, trust me, you don’t need to tell a Pre-Vet major the woes of orgo.” She leaned forward, placing her hand overtop Madeline’s and speaking overdramatically. “I was forged in the fire. You merely bathed in it.”

Madeline looked at her with faux sympathy, putting her other hand over Melody’s, gently patting it a couple times. “Is it that time of the semester where you begin incorrectly quoting Batman movies already? You poor thing.”

For the next two hours, Melody and Madeline worked together on their project. It was a grueling process that was only cushioned by the jokes, quips, and suffering shared between close friends.

Madeline and Melody had known each other since elementary school. They were assigned to sit next to each other in Mr. Thompson’s class, which Madeline then took the opportunity to scribble all over Melody’s cursive homework the first chance she got. Melody proceeded to cry and throw her applesauce all over Madeline’s clothes.

Later, when a meeting was called and both families were sitting in the principal's office, both of them were told to apologize to each other. To everyone’s surprise, they looked at each other and just… started to laugh. From that point on, they were practically attached at the hip.

“Uuuugh!” Melody sat back and stared up at the ceiling.

Madeline did the same, only instead of groaning she just rubbed her eyes. “Is it cones or rods that cause sight related headaches?”

Melody shrugged, turning side to side in her seat. “I dunno.”

“Well whichever it is, I’m politely requesting that mine either be replaced or removed.” Madeline sat back forward, looking at Melody who couldn’t help but crack a smile and chuckle at the statement.

They both raised their heads and looked towards the door that was opening, seeing the long-pixie cut, or bixie cut as some would call it, of Luz. “Hey, M n’ M, how goes the studying?”

M n’ M was her nickname for them since forever. A play on the candy, since their names were Madeline and Melody.

Melody sighed, “Not studying; project. And it’s finished. Finally. But now I have to get into my animal disease homework, which means I’ll be here for a little while longer, unfortunately.”

Luz stepped fully into the doorway, pointing her thumb back towards the direction of the front desk. “My shift’s about to end, but I can wait around if you wanna have somebody to walk you home.”

Melody scrunched her face, holding up a hand in refusal. “No no, you head back to the room. You still have that case to write up a summary on, right? What was it…?” She trails the last word, snapping her fingers a couple of times before pointing towards Luz. “DeShaney v. Winnebago, right?”

Luz grins and nods a little, “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m reviewing my analyses on the mother’s deposition. Shit can get kinda rough.” She lets out a depleted sigh. “But, gotta stay objective. That’s what the law is all about.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where you’d be putting in the work to study law.” Madeline begins gathering her things as she speaks, closing her laptop and shoving it in her backpack.

Luz smiles, leaning against the door frame and crossing her arms. “Oh, I’m sorry, are you saying I don’t put work into things?” The security woman looks down to the front of her body, chuckles, and looks back up. “Cus’ I have a few examples I could give to prove you wrong, cariño.”

Maddie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, but does so with a smile. Luz and Melody just look at each other and laugh a little before Luz pushes herself off of the door frame. “Alright, if you’re sure, Melody, then I’ll see you back at the dorm.”

In response, Melody holds out her hands, as if over exaggeratingly releasing something into the wild. “Be free, my butch stallion. Roam back to the savanna.”

Madeline stops what she’s doing to look and raise her eyebrows at Melody, and Luz just breaks out into a wider smile and shakes her head. “Alright girl, see you at home.” With that, Luz walks away and leaves the other two in the room, letting the door close behind her.

It takes a couple of seconds of Maddie giving the disappointed best friend look for Melody to defend herself. “It was a joke Maddie, I’m tired- leave me alone!” The redhead brings her hands up to her face and leans back in her chair.

“You are so not over her.” Madeline retorts as she finishes putting the rest of her things back in her bookbag and settling back into her seat.

“I know.” Melody sits back up, putting her hands flat on the table, “I’m trying, but like, it’s hard.

Her friend stares back, unimpressed. “Mel-”

“I mean, she talked about putting in work and let me tell you; she puts in work.”

Maddie held out her hand and stood up, “Okay, way too much info, girl.” They both laughed a little as Madeline began to gather her things, continuing to attempt to be the voice of reason. “Look, all I’m saying is that nothing good can come from swooning over an ex. Trust me, you saw what happened with me and Ahmed.”

Mel nodded, “Okay, true. I just- it’s hard, y’know?” She slouched forward, leaning her chin on her hand. “We live together, and I see her every night. So not having the space away is just- It’s difficult to keep my mind focused on other things.”

“You haven’t like,” Maddie lowered her voice, even though she didn’t have to since they were in a literal quiet room. “benefited with friends’d her, have you?”

Melody smiles, “First off, that’s the weirdest way of asking if we’ve had sex or not. Second, no, we haven’t. At least not since breaking up.”

“Good.”

“But I totally want to.”

“Mel!”

“Maddie!” Melody answered with a smile and a mock tone.

Madeline rolls her eyes and shakes her head, becoming minorly annoyed at this point. Noticing this, Melody follows up her statement with a more sensible, less thirsty take on the situation. “I want to… but I won’t.”

Madeline eases her expression, having empathy for the exhaustion in her best friend’s tone as she continues to speak. “Like I said, living together is hard, but I’ll get over her eventually. I think it’s just harder because we’re still friends, and sometimes,” She shrugs half-heartedly, “I just see the way she treats me and it’s pretty much the same as when we were together. So I’m left to wonder if her feelings ever changed, or if I was always just, I dunno,” she pauses for a second, trying to think of the right way to phrase it. “A friend?”

A short beat of silence lingers in the room, then Maddie walks over to Melody’s side of the table. “Mel, why don’t I get a dorm room senior year?”

Melody’s brow furrows, a small amount of guilt already lacing it. “What? Maddie, no-”

“I can live here and you can request a transfer to my room. We wouldn’t have to meet at the library, and you’d be able to get some space away from Luz.”

Melody leaned against the back of the chair. “I appreciate it- really, I do. And I know I have to put more space between her and I. But I would just feel bad, y’know? She’s my friend, and we’ve been sharing a room for three years.”

“You’ve been sharing a room for three years, while dating.” Maddie adds in the important detail.

“I know, I know. But you know what her home life was like. She finally has something stable, and I don’t wanna make her feel like shit because I can’t get over my feelings.”

“I get that. I do.” Madeline puts a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “But just remember, you have to take care of yourself, too. You’re gonna be applying for vet schools next year and taking your capstone. You don’t wanna be bogged down by this stuff.”

Melody looks up with an appreciative smile, putting her own hand over her friend’s. “I know. I promise, I won’t let it stop me.”

“Good.” Maddie says, then makes her way towards the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow for the presentation. Don’t stay here all night, alright?”

As the door starts closing behind her, Melody shouts back, “No promises!”

Then the door shuts. Melody is left in the room alone. She thinks about pulling up her animal disease homework, but it’s like there’s a force stopping her. Some urge that she has to just get up and go home. To talk to Luz before she loses her nerve. Because Maddie was right; they had to talk about it. She couldn’t keep going and just pining over her ex. Even if Luz wasn’t doing anything to antagonize those feelings, maybe there was something they could work out by just talking to each other. It was worth a shot.

So, she gathered up her things and left shortly after her friend did, hopefully heading home in time to have the conversation over dinner. She was starving.

A half hour later - Mel and Luz’s dorm room

Mel walked up to their third floor dorm room, reaching into her pocket to fish out the key card. As she was about to hold it up to the door, she stopped for a second, listening with furrowed brows.

“Oh fuck, Luz! Mmm… Anh…!”

Her expression became dejected as she recognized the familiar sounds of a woman’s moaning and groaning. Luz must’ve thought Melody was going to be longer in the library, which was fair since staying and doing work was what she originally said she was going to do.

Mel goes to put her keys back in her pockets. She could go out for a couple of hours. Maybe head over to Maddie’s and spend the night there.

But she just froze.

Melody knew she should just walk away. Just go somewhere else and give Luz the time she needed with whatever hookup was with her. To give her time to finish things up.

So why was she opening the door, then? Jealousy? Probably. It was at least half the reason. The other was the hurt she felt. And the hurt made her mad, if only a little.

As she stepped inside, she heard the noises from the other room stop.

Luz, who was currently overtop of her panting partner, turned her head to the side. “What was that?” Her voice was a bit raspy itself.

The woman pulled Luz’s face down and planted a kiss on her lips. “I don’t care.” She said, breathing heavily, “Just keep going!”

Luz wasn’t about to let the dopamine cloud her cautiousness, though. She shifted and swung her legs out of bed, picking up her button up shirt from the floor. She hadn’t gotten her pants off quite yet, but they were also unbuttoned by this point. “Just stay here, I’ll be right back.” The more muscular woman’s tone was cautious.

Her partner looked disappointed, and her tone matched it, but she tried to hide it through a pout. “Don’t keep me waiting…”

Luz looked back with a cocky grin, then leaned down and gave her another kiss. Her coarse black hair was barely long enough to hang in front of her face before she slicked it back. “I won’t. Do us both a favor,” She looked down at the woman’s body, trailing a finger partway down her chest and looked back into her eyes. “Keep yourself busy ‘til I get back, yeah?”

With that, she headed toward the door, her shirt still unbuttoned and exposing her toned abs and the middle of her chest.

As she poked her head out, she saw a familiar head of auburn hair. Embarrassment hit her almost immediately as she carefully closed the door behind her. “Mel? I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.” Luz began walking towards her, hurriedly working on buttoning up the top of her shirt while she did.

“Well,” Melody shrugged with a half-hearted, tense smile. “Here I am.”

“Yeah, um,” Luz sighed through a nervous smile of her own. Normally Melody would hear what was going on and give her some time to wrap things up, but that didn’t seem like it was the case this time around. Mel was just standing there uncomfortably, retracting in on herself.

One thing Luz was good at, which Melody both hated and loved while they were still together, was picking up on people’s moods and emotions. It was obvious to the criminal justice major that something was just off tonight. Melody’s posture and the way she was acting just started setting off alarm bells in Luz’s mind. “Are you-” She looked at Mel, concerned. “Are you okay?” The awkwardness in her voice was still very much apparent.

Melody took a deep breath and crossed her arms. “Not, um,” A single, nervous laugh left her lips, “N-Not really.” Luz’s expression became even more concerned. “Can we, um, talk? Maybe?”

There was a heavy silence that took over the room for a couple of seconds. Things hadn’t been this heavy since their breakup. That being any indication, Luz definitely knew it was something that couldn’t wait. She needed to make time for her ex. For her friend. “Yeah. Yeah, sure thing. Just-” She took a single step towards the hallway, pointing her thumb in the direction she was moving. “Gimme a sec.”

Mel watched as Luz warily walked towards the door to her bedroom and headed inside.

A moment of quiet passes in the living room.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

Melody flinched at the shouting coming from the bedroom.

Luz cringed as she stood on one side of the bed and her date started getting dressed on the other side. “Look, I’m really sorry. Something really important came up and-”

“Oh, so I’m not fucking important then, Luz?! Are you serious right now?!” She angrily pulled up her underwear, then started throwing on her shirt.

“I-” Luz had to take a breath and stop herself from snapping back at the presumptuous comment. “I never said that, Beth.”

“Yeah? Well you’re sure as hell not denying it either!” Beth got all her clothes on, and Luz walked around the bed next to her.

“My roommate came home and they need to-”

“So what?!” Bethany shouts, moving to exit the room and grabbing her purse on the way past.

“Beth, hold on!” Unfortunately, Luz couldn’t get to the irate woman before she opened the door.

Bethany had already started making her way down the short hallway outside the room, walking backwards, holding her hands out and facing Luz, who was still in the doorway behind her. “They can either go somewhere for like, an hour, or they can sit out here and listen to the fucking show for all I care!”

Luz walked after the blonde, her own tone now started to get irritated. “That’s not happening.”

Melody stood there, motionless, wide-eyed, and practically holding her breath. She secretly hoped she might just disappear until all this was over. Like not breathing would somehow make her invisible.

Bethany pointed to the extremely toned woman who was supposed to be her partner for the night. “No Luz! There’s no excuse! Kicking me out while you’re practically still knuckles deep in me is fucked and you know it!”

At this point, Luz raised her voice back. “Hey! Can you watch you’re fucking mouth, please?!”

Bethany paused, looked back at Melody who was standing there frozen, then looked back at Luz, shaking her head in disbelief. She stepped forward and pushed her, making the stronger woman take a couple steps back. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?! Is that what this is?! You double booked?!” Bethany turned around and started walking towards the door leading out of the apartment.

Luz continued to follow her to the door. “I already told you, that’s not it!”

On her way past, Beth spit at Melody.

Mel flinched violently, being snapped out of her frightened stupor, and immediately began to wipe away at her cheek.

“Have fun with your whore!” It was the last thing Beth said before opening the door to leave.

“HEY! ¡¿Qué carajo fue eso?!”

“No, don’t!” Luz stops in her tracks as she hears Melody’s interjection. Her voice almost trembles as she says it.

Luz looks at Mel, then at the door, which just finished shutting on its own, then back to Mel. She had a pretty strong sense of justice. It felt wrong to just let Beth walk away after what she did, but she had to weigh which one was more important to her right now. Her desire to see Beth face consequences for what she did, or her friend’s feelings.

It was an easy answer.

Luz covered her thumb with her sleeve and walked over to Mel. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think she’d flip out like that.” She wiped Melody’s cheek a couple of times, slowly, then put both hands up to cup her face. “You okay? Lemme look at you.”

Melody looked up, and immediately her eyes met with Luz’s. She was lost in them. In the care. In the tenderness. In the protectiveness. She wanted to move her hand up to grab Luz’s. She wanted to beg her to take her back. She wanted to scream and shout and tell her to stop being her. But most of all, she just wanted to know why.

Why wasn't she what Luz wanted?

Luz’s expression only grew more concerned when Melody began tearing up. “Mel?”

The sound of her name was enough to snap her out of the depressive trance, and she promptly turned her head away and walked a few paces back. “No, I’m- I’m sorry.” She paused for half a second, stammering over what she wanted to say. “I just shouldn’t have-” Mel interrupted herself again, letting out a single breath. She was having trouble getting the words out.

Some of Luz’s concern turned to confusion, but she gave Mel her space. “Shouldn’t have,” she paused, “what?”

“I shouldn’t have come over tonight!”

Luz’s confusion only deepened. “Melody, this is your dorm room too. You can decide to be here whenever you want.”

“No, Luz!” Melody snapped, turning to look at her. A few tears rolled down her cheeks.

Luz, in response, took a step back. Her eyes could only be described as that of a dog who felt like they did something wrong. Those two words made her feel like she lost her footing a lot more than Bethany’s shove did.

Mel shook her head and looked down. “I can’t. I really, really can’t, Luz.”

“Mel…” Her voice was soft. Fragile. She thought if she spoke any louder that Melody might shatter like a pane of glass. “This-” she reached out. Not to actually touch her, but to show she was trying to comfort her. “This isn’t your fault.”

That only seemed to draw an audible sob from the pre-vet major. “Yeah.” She brings one hand up to her forehead and nods, outwardly crying now, and barely able to get the words out. “Yeah it is.”

Melody pushed past Luz, heading a couple steps down the hallway and fast walking into her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.

“Mel!” Luz followed, attempting to open the door, but to no avail. She knocked on it with her open palm a couple of times. “Melody!” Inside, she could hear her ex’s sobs. It sounded like she was crying into her pillow to try and muffle the sounds, but they were still just loud enough to be heard through the door.

Luz stood there for a few seconds, wondering what the hell even happened tonight. What did Melody want to talk to her about? What got her so emotional? What could she do to make this right; whatever this was?

“Shit…” Luz sighed, then walked further down the hall to her own room. Before entering, she looks back one more time at Melody’s door.

She just stops and stares, then bows her head and walks in, closing the door behind her.

#original story #original character #serialized fiction #serialized novel #serial fiction #love in stasis #author #reading #books and reading #writing #romance #wlw #mystery #murder mystery

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