Melody Burning Read Online Free PDF Page A

aware of our changes?”
    Nobody says anything. We’re all afraid of Ted. He doesn’t exactly carry a horsewhip like directors supposedly did in the past. Instead, he whips with sarcasm.
    Ted gives me a long look. I feel like a butterfly about to be pinned. “She’s SHINY!”
    That brings a distant crash, and a couple of seconds later, a huge figure looms past the window and comes around the edge of the set. This is Martin, and he powders my immense forehead yet again. Shine is a no-no, but I’m not sure exactly why. I mean, I’m sixteen years old and therefore an oil factory, right?
    So we take our positions, and Ted says “action,” and all of a sudden I’m not Melody or even Melanie anymore. I’m Babsie, and I’m full of flutters because Seth—that’s Alex—wants to kiss me and we’re at my house and my dad is suspicious of him. Last week, when I brought Seth home for the first time, Dad asked to see his driver’s license. Dad is out back cooking steaks, though, and Mom is in the kitchen, so this is Seth’s chance.
    Ted moves his hands, encouraging me. I’m supposed to flutter at Seth, which I do.
    Seth paces in front of the fireplace. He looks at me. His eyes look kind of odd, actually.
    The way the scene works, Seth kisses me, Dad comes in with the steaks, and Seth panics and jumps out the window.
    I sit and turn into Babsie. I look down, sort of smiling. Babsie wants this—she wants Seth to just hurry up and do it.
    So Seth takes a step closer. And another. I say my line: “I think you’ve got something on your cheek.” I smile and pat the place beside me. “Come on, let me look.”
    Seth trips over the coffee table, which collapses. (It’s balsa.) Frantically, he tries to put it together again. I say, “Dad’s not gonna like that.”
    He stares at me like I’m totally insane, and there it is again, that weird look in his eyes—vacant. He’s not Seth at all, he’s Alex all the way, and he makes my blood run cold.
    Now the kiss. I say, “Oh, Seth.”
    He grabs me and embraces me, and here it comes—but his mouth is not closed like it’s supposed to be. He is into this; he’s kissing me for real.
    I’m furious. Ted needs to control Alex. Now he’s pushing against me and jamming his face into mine, then we go off the couch and I hear Ted somewhere in some other universe yelling, while Alex keeps at me, and I can’t get out from under him; he’s like some kind of machine made of iron.
    I have so many dreams of guys, but not this one—this is the nightmare that no girl ever wants to think about, and it’s happening to me right in the middle of a television studio filled with people.
    Stop him, somebody!
    And then there are voices, shouting, Ted’s voice above them all as he shouts himself crazy. The weight is gone, Alex is off, and Ted and our assistant director, Sam Dine, are holding him. But he’s like some kind of animal, and they almost can’t keep him under control. His eyes are really scary.
    I get up, and Mom is there. She puts a towel around me, and I realize my blouse is all torn up, but at least it’s just my costume.
    Ted is in Alex’s face. They stare each other down. Then Ted turns away, disgusted. “He’s high,” he says to Sam Dine. Then, louder, “We’ll move into the kitchen. Thirty minutes—get it lit!” The kitchen scene is me and Mom and Dad, no Seth. More quietly, he tells Sam, “Whatever it takes, bring him down. And find whatever it is he’s using and get it the hell off the lot.”
    I am sick to my stomach, trying to hold it in, and all I can think of is my trailer. I knew this would happen, I just knew it. He’s always icked me out, and now I know why. I’m not a smoker or a drinker. A lot of kids at Calabasas High smoked, and there was every kind of drug you might want there, mostly prescripts, though. Not whatever this is, which is probably something harder.
    On the way to the trailer, a papi I know named Brandon Carcelli comes out of nowhere