Melody's head swivels around, and she paints a crooked grin on her face to offer Phoebe, as she leans her back against the building. She holds it between her shaking fingers, "No need to yell at me like I'm going anywhere!" Melody retorts to Phoebe's panic, hoping to get her to smile, too. Melody's exhausted eyes squint at Phoebe, looking at the way water paints her legs and boots. Mud cakes the edges of her boots, and her curls are damp and slick with rain. Melody's face drops as Phoebe starts to speak, her perfect expression drawn in ink starting to smear with the rain beating down her face, and with the weight of Phoebe's words.
Melody likes to pretend she isn't smart. Feigning an exasperated sigh as she throws her head down against a desk at school, rolling her eyes as she exclaims that she simply doesn't understand a concept she gets in mere seconds of it being explained. Right now, though? Melody's face twists in real, unbridled confusion, and then, disgust. Her head spins, and her gut twists. She uses her elbows for balance, as Phoebe's words drift in one ear and out the other. Melody swallows the sickly bile that rises in her throat, and, in one swift motion, strikes the match against the striking strip. She presses it against the cigarette, and inhales the smoke, bloodshot eyes fluttering in relief as the smoke hits her lungs.
Melody coughs a little, letting the smoke out of her mouth and scoffing, "You-- sound batshit fucking insane, Bee. What kind of sick joke are you playing on me?" Melody interrogates, the world shifting in and out of periphery as her body wobbles, leg that was once propped up against the drywall now on the floor in attempts to steady her swaying form. She wheezes out another weak noise, that may have very well been an attempt at a laugh, before anger rises in her chest like fire, as she dangles the match up. "S--so, what? You only became my-- friend because you met me as a ghost? You only started--"
Melody trails off, looking down before her eyes snap back up wildly, pinching the match between skinny fingers. "You think this match kills me? Because you emptied out a stupid matchbook from eating here so damn much? I- You're just obsessed with me!- You visit me during work-- So of course you ended up getting one of those at some point!" Melody raises the match higher up, like something precious she needs to protect as she takes another shaky drag of her cigarette. "You have a disgusting sense of humor sometimes, Bee. Just- go home!- We can hang out after my shift."
