Dream Haunter by Shayna Corinne Page B

sun at its highest point; it’s noon and is beating
mercilessly down on the un-air-conditioned town. Sam strolls
through the small isles, feeling the beady eyes of the gas clerk on
the back of his neck as he grabs a bag of potato chips.
    Melody wakes up to the tapping sound of
a crow dropping seeds on the orange hood of Sam’s car. She
stretches her neck around, taking in her surroundings, trying to
remember how she got here. She moves her arms, stretching them
above her head, before looking down at Sam’s jacket.
    Her heart slows, for a moment the world
slips away as she runs her fingers across the frayed edges where
the jacket shows the most age. Her lips slide into a smile as she
remembers the first time she’d worn this jacket: after their first
date.
    They were exiting the wooden
doors of a small café where Sam was playing his first solo
performance, walking around the building to the side walked. They
walked in uncomfortable silence; Melody’s apartment was another
three blocks and she was trembling so hard from the late night fall
air that her teeth were hitting each other. Melody had jumped when
she felt something heavy and warm being draped across her
shoulders. She felt up her arm, her fingers finding the frayed ends
of the sleeves before she slid her arms into them.
    Sam had stood next to her,
staring down at his feet, seemingly unfazed by the slight ice wind
slapping against his sleeveless arms like knives. Melody had
smiled, stopping at the intersection; the little red hand across
the street was holding its hand up at her to stop.
    She looked Sam over. “Thank
you. I'm not used to Wisconsin falls yet.”
    He smiled back at her, only
a few inches between them, their breaths turned into vapors as it
hit the night air and intermingled with each other.
    To this day she doesn’t know
what had made her kiss him that night. Maybe it was the caffeine
surging through her veins or maybe it was the air that settles
itself around Sam, so safe and warm .
    He smelled like ink and
musky deodorant as he veered closer to her. Her heart pounded
beneath his leather jacket, it had never beat like that before, and
it scared her.
    “ Sam…” It almost sounded sad
when it made it past her lips, which was odd because sad wasn’t
even close to the cornucopia of feelings brewing within her
stomach.
    He kissed her, he was
actually kissing her. Something inside of her sang with joy. She
had never been kissed like that before.
    Melody unlocks the car door, blushing
as she stretches in front of the car.
    Sam walks over to her, leaning against
the hood of the car, Slurpies in each of his hands, one blue and
one red. Melody reaches out and takes the red one, thinking that
the lid is fastened. She squeezes the cup too tight, sending the
syrupy ice sloshing over the rim of the cup and onto Sam’s white
shirt.
    She slaps her hand against
her mouth. “Oh my gosh! I am so sorry.”
    He smiles, holding the stained part of
his shirt away from his chest. “There are some napkins in the glove
box, can you go get some?”
    She leans her shoulder on the passenger
seat, shaking her head at the napkins and paper bulging out of the
cracks of the glove box before pulling the plastic handle. A pile
of take out menus, paper, straws and eating utensils fall out onto
the seat beside her. She rifles through the mound, searching for a
napkin, but instead finds a box, small with black felt stretched
around it. Melody glances up at Sam, who is still holding his shirt
away from his skin and taking a quick gander around the gravel
parking lot. She sticks her thumb nail into the seam of the box, a
creaking noise sounds as it flips open.
    Melody’s breath catches as the diamond
ring stares up at her, catching the sun light and showing all of
its intricate details of vines and leafs around the band of the
ring.
    She stares at it for what seems like
forever, when Sam leans into the car behind her.
    “ Hey, what’s…?” his gaze
falls on the ring,