Chapter 16: Chapter 16. Questions

PROSE MODE.

Seth and Melody relaxed under the beach umbrellas.

She had put on her sunglasses and he helped her rub sunscreen on the parts her hands couldn't get to on her back.

They'd both played in the cool water as it coursed up the sand and receded. Melody had ordered another drink, while Seth ate some brownies they'd bought earlier.

"Babe, aren't you getting bored?"

Her eyes glanced at him, his mind was occupied by some race car game on his phone.

"Not really. Are you getting bored? We could head on to the spa or go surfing."

He paused the game and held up his shades so he could meet her gaze.

"Wanna play a game with me?"

She sat upright and ate the brownie he held up to her lips. Her tongue lightly caressed his thumb, it made him happy for some reason so he fed her another one.

"What kind of game?"

"Not anything arduous, just asking seven questions?"

Seth wondered how that would be more interesting than surfing, but he said nothing. He wanted to give it a shot before concluding.

"Okay, but let's make a bet."

She sensed mischief in his tone. What was he up to this time?

"Okay, I'm listening."

"If you fail to answer the other person's question, you have to do whatever they ask of you for the rest of the month."

Melody gaped, wide-eyed.

It wasn't a bad bet but what if she loses, she's not about to lose her freedom to some bet for the next twenty-eight days.

"So are you in?"

She nodded anyway, she doesn't turn down a challenge. And I mean, Seth is so sweet he couldn't possibly ask her something too confidential.

Right?

"Are we taking turns or should I just ask all of mine then you afterwards?"

Seth pondered on it for a moment before nodding.

Melody cleared her throat and sank back into her chair.

"Do you like it when I make the first move?"

Seth almost choked on a brownie, his chair squawked in protest to his sudden jerk. Melody doubled up in laughter. Seth reached for her drink and took a few gulps.

"I think I'm gonna win this bet."

She lobbed back at him, brimming with confidence.

Seth's eyes narrowed.

"Is there any guy that doesn't like that?"

"Hey! You can't answer a question with another question."

Seth sighed softly and leaned back in his seat.

"Of course I do, I love it when you make the first move."

He responded with a tender expression shot in her direction. Her cheeks filled with color. She fanned at her face. Seth smirked triumphantly, very much pleased with her reaction.

Really? He likes that?

So many other questions pulsed through her mind.

"What do you think my worst quality is?"

She looked at anything else but him when she asked this. She knew she hadn't been giving it her best in their relationship from day one. They had been so much school work and less dating time, she suspected he would answer that she makes too little time for them.

"The fact that you think I'll stop liking you just because you may not be the perfect girlfriend."

Her head snapped to meet Seth's eyes, they were filled with fondness not the displeasure she'd imagined. Did he really just say that?

"I like you a lot more than you think, I don't know if I've ever given off the vibe that I don't care but if I did I just want you to know that I didn't mean it, you mean a lot to me Melody."

Seth noticed the little beads of tears shimmering at the base of her eye sockets. They threatened to fall out but she blinked them back repeatedly. It made him even more glad he'd been honest about his feelings.

"Do...do I have any annoying habits?"

Seth rubbed his chin. Hmm... nothing she did really annoyed him. A few seconds went by. Melody looked at him, he was still staring at the sun through his shades.

"You don't communicate your feelings properly. I think there are a lot of misunderstandings that could have been avoided if you'd just told me your side of the story. I'll always listen to you and put your opinion first before mine, I just wish you'd believe me when I say that."

He didn't look up at her either. He reached for a brownie but his hand swept across an empty plate.

He beckoned to a nearby waiter, so he could order something else.

"I believe you Seth. Thanks for always listening to me and for also trying to help out my Mom."

Seth had already contacted the police department of Janelle City. It'll take a few days to round up the paperwork against a Mayor but it was better than being helpless.

Melody couldn't think of anything else to ask. She pondered on some of the replies he gave her while the waiter served the snacks he'd ordered for the both of them. Some whole grain pretzels with peanut butter and beef jerky.

Melody reached for the cooler and took out a glass container filled with frozen grapes.

"Do you want children?"

Melody was expecting another over-the-top reaction from him like the last time, but he just nodded while holding up a finger, telling her to wait for him to finish chewing.

"Maybe five or six."

Melody almost swallowed a grape seed, she didn't expect him to answer this one so quickly.

"Boys or girls?"

"Is this another question or...?"

"No, it's not okay. I still have two left. So...um... have you ever had your heart broken?"

Seth stilled. The question had caught him off guard.

Melody studied his expression with curiosity, what was with his sudden stiffness?

"Would you believe that you're my first girlfriend?"

Melody's eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"What? Nooo. Stop lying to me babe, even a love confession that didn't go as planned counts or a crush, unrequited love maybe."

She danced around with her shoulders enjoying the refreshing feel of the cool grapes on her tongue.

"Babe."

Melody turned to meet the resolute expression on Seth's face.

"I wasn't allowed out much because of my darkness, my parents didn't want me to hurt people incidentally. I haven't really been around girls unless it's at debutante balls. So yeah, I've never really had a crush before. Unrequited love is mostly directed towards me and not the other way around. And you can ask Sage if you don't believe me but you're my first girlfriend. I have gone out on dates before but we didn't progress passed the first one."

"Wow. With every reply I just realize how lucky I am to meet you. Guys like you are like one in a million. Most guys just want to sleep around or play with girls' feelings."

She wanted to ask a fun question to end her turn.

"What's the hottest you've ever looked?"

Seth smiled smugly and took a sip out of her drink again.

"You tell me."

"Really now? If I answer it myself then this question doesn't count, I'll ask another one."

"Sure."

Melody took the bottle out of his hand and sipped out of the bendy straw.

"To be honest. You're always good-looking, sometimes I can't help but stare at you but I think I had a nosebleed when I saw you dressed up for that movie premiere."

Seth collected the drink back, he slouched into his chair a big smile plastered across his face.

"Okay, so last question. Who's the most beautiful person you can think of?"

He arched an eyebrow at her.

"Is this a trick question? It's obviously y..."

"Apart from me."

"Huh?",

"Apart from me, who's the most beautiful person you've met?"

She wanted him to think long and hard about it.

"My Mom, obviously."

Melody gaped at him and he pretended not to see it.

She couldn't even argue with him if he wanted to. Seth's Mom was just so so... She's not sure she could pick out the right words to explain just how attractive she was.

Her figure was second to none, she had hair black as the ebony, glistening like obsidian, dewy jade green eyes that were so entrancing it could transfix you to a spot and her face was just...

Melody dropped the idea of arguing with him completely.

"When was your first kiss?"

Melody chewed the inner part of her lip in playful annoyance. Why couldn't she think up a juicy question like that?

"I was thirteen, I kissed some cute werewolf kid after he confessed his feelings but that didn't even count as a relationship."

Melody watched Seth's reaction. He just blinked and adjusted his shades to the shifting in the light as the cool breeze slanted their umbrella a bit.

"What challenging experiences have made you stronger?"

Melody turned her whole body on her deck chair until she was completely facing his direction. Where was he going with this?

"Um, I..."

She wanted to just give some random answer but she thought about how Seth had been giving genuine answers to all her questions.

"Don't you think your question is too deep, I wanted this game to be fun, but you've made it all serious and stuff."

There wasn't a reply immediately. Her eyes set on Seth's profile, he had long lashes. He closed his eyes for a few seconds.

"I could just skip the question, you don't have to worry about the bet, I just said it in the heat of the moment."

He didn't look at her while he said that. Melody felt a little bit guilty.

"I won't say I've been through a lot, but I survived growing up without my family's support. I didn't leave with them since I graduated from elementary school. I'm surprised at times that I didn't go through depression or some sort of rebellious phase. I was happy to be healthy with a place of refuge, I could have been on the streets. Knowing that I kept pushing forward. I've been in four relationships. The first one was because of a bet the guy made with his friends, the next two were abusive and my last one is something I don't want to tell you yet. It was also toxic but... It's not that I don't trust you, I just can't believe that I was stupid to think that we'd actually work out our differences. Despite all that stuff, I believe in love, or that it exists somewhere and luckily I met you. I couldn't ask for anything more in a boyfriend, thank you, Seth, for liking me."

Seth just stared at her, he was just stunned. Wow, she's been through so much and yet she still shines so brightly.

She's so mesmerizing to him, so how could someone bare to mistreat her and not regret it immediately after?

"Seth?"

She noticed he'd been staring at her for quite a while.

"Sorry, it just took a while to process all that."

He wondered what to ask next, he earlier had quite a number of them in his head, but they'd escaped his mind.

"What is the lamest pick-up line anyone has ever used on you."

Melody started laughing again, and Seth laughed along obliviously.

"You're the girl from my dream, that's the lamest line I've heard."

She burst laughing once more. Seth cringed in embarrassment.

The laughter piped down after a while, his face assumed a serious expression as he concluded he'd ask her about the next thing on his mind.

"What if I got you pregnant? Will you keep it or abort it?"

Now he was the one who turned to face her first. She couldn't lie that the question didn't catch her off guard. Like dude, where are your questions even coming from?

"Be honest with me."

He wasn't joking.

She didn't know how to reply. She knew she'd likely abort it silently because she didn't want anything to affect her school and/or future work life. She planned on having kids later when she was successful and completely out of the slums. She doesn't have to tell him that but... His gaze remained fixated on her, cautiously taking note of her facial expressions.

"I-I I'll answer if you answer something first."

He nodded.

"If it's a child out of wedlock, will his/her name still be documented in the royal family's genealogy?"

"Of course, my parents won't even dare object to that. But I'm asking you what would be the first thing that'll pop into your head if that happens."

Melody shifted uneasily in her chair. She brought a bottle of water out of the cooler to her lips and slowly sipped out of it.

Melody avoided his eyes. Seth sighed.

"It's okay, we'll skip that one. But that was my third question I'm not replacing it. Um... Who usually said 'I love you' first in your past relationships?"

Melody tried to ignore the piercing feeling in her heart. She must have hurt him more with her silence, feeding the worst to whatever assumptions he'd come up with.

"I said it first in my last one but the guys before that said it first."

She fidgeted with her arms.

"I love you."

She hoped she didn't hear that clearly but...

"I love you a lot."

She wasn't shameless enough to say 'I love you too'.

The tears burned at the back of her eyes, still she didn't let them fall. Why now? How could he say that after she couldn't answer that question. She never thought she'd meet someone who looked as far as that point, especially with where they were at right now. How's he so confident about things like this?

"What scares you most about our relationship?"

Seth's gaze still lingered on her. She was the one who chose not to look back at him. He could answer this question himself. He's scared she'll think of him as a monster, she has barely seen him when his darkness is at its peak. What if she doesn't want to continue at that point? Maybe she'll even become terrified at the very sight of him. But he waited earnestly for her response.

"I'm scared that...I don't want you to feel like you're the one always doing everything in our relationship, I may not be able to express my feelings clearly but I do like you a lot. I can boldly say that you're everything I've been looking for in a guy."

A teardrop fell out and she wiped it away immediately.

Seth stood up and handed her his handkerchief. She didn't collect it. She wouldn't turn to face him either.

He bent down to her level.

"Melody, I'm sorry if I asked that out of..."

She cut him off.

"Just ask your last question. I wanna know what you planned on asking."

"I feel like I don't support you enough, am I just being too paranoid or..."

Melody couldn't believe it. But she knew that if she didn't reply, he'd ask again. She sniffled. Wiping her eyes with the back of her palm, she turned to face him.

"Seth, why do you feel like that?"

He maintained their proximity, still trying to catch her eye. He replied when they were finally eye to eye.

"I don't know, I just think that maybe sometimes I press you for answers when I'm not supposed to, or that maybe I'm always getting into your personal space. I don't want you to ever be uncomfortable around me."

She choked back a sob. Looking at her hands in her lap, a tear landed on one of them.

"No, I don't feel uncomfortable around you at all. I just don't want you to find out about some things in my past that I'm not so proud of. You actually make me feel loved and appreciated, I..."

Seth tipped his head forward, his lips caressing hers. Her lips were warm and soft, they parted lightly allowing his tongue to slip inside.