book

can someone be brutally honest and tell me if my chapters 1-2 are decent?

For my sister,

who inspired me to
even write this book

without you, I may be somewhere else.

The most important thing is that we have each other. Because we're all in this together.

- Newt, Maze Runner

Chapter One

MELANIE

I

don't understand why you're so obsessed with this game. What's the point in even going?" Alek snapped her pencil lead as she spoke, letting out an inaudible scoff, and threw the piece of lead elsewhere. She looked up to her, her eyes peering around for a moment before settling. Melanie gave a stiff shrug, unsure.
"Well, I don't know--why are you so nosy?" Melanie said, her mouth tightening in a thin line.

Alek snickered. "Because you've been non-stop talking about this bum game for a week. Literally, that's all I've heard out of your lips. Are you even going to go?" She exclaimed in a tired, mocking tone as she slumped against her desk, her eyes lowering to reveal her exhaustion.

Melanie scoffed, opening her mouth to reply, but Roscoe beat her to it.

"Alek, you don't even go outside," Roscoe said from his own corner of the table, laser-focused on his work in front of him, as if Alek wasn't worth looking at.

Alek clenched the pencil in her hand. "Who the hell are you talking to right now!?" She barked, shoving herself out of her seat and moving to where Roscoe was sitting, planting her hands firmly against the desk as she let out instigating remarks towards him.

Oh My God.

"Can you shut up?" Melanie hissed through her teeth to the two of them, who, at this point, were now at one another's necks.

"Tell him to stop being an ass," Alek demanded, eyes narrowing.

"Tell her to quit being lazy." He retorted coolly.

Alek's teeth ground together; her hand twitching upward, her fingers curling as if she wanted to reach for his throat-

But the sharp ring of the bell cut through, snapping the tension and saving Roscoe from his doom.

"I know where you live." She whispered, her eyes narrowed, backing away to her desk and retrieving her bag, throwing all her belongings into it with careless force.

Melanie exhaled heavily, swinging her bag over her shoulders and shoving her seat in with her foot. The three of them flooded out of the room-Alek ranting beside her about something she didn't remember, but Melanie nodded nonetheless, and Roscoe trailed behind quietly.

The hallway was flooded with voices and lockers slamming shut, bodies pressed so close together that it was oddly uncomfortable and warm. Melanie tightened her bag straps, dodging and swerving through the crowd, Alek pushing through ahead of her with her large build.

"Move out the way!" She beckoned to a poor freshman, who squeaked and cowered out of the way.

"Don't be an asshole." Roscoe couldn't help but say from behind, shaking his head disapprovingly.

Alek shot her head around, glaring daggers right at Roscoe, who hid behind Melanie and continued to walk.

"I swear if I hear your voice again-" She angrily said, jabbing a finger toward Roscoe, who held an unreadable gaze. "I might actually kill you. Like, really kill you. None of that "Oh, I'm sorry, officer, I didn't mean to' shit."

Melanie pressed her lips together, eyes flicking to Alek and the floor so as not to trip. "Alek, oh my god-"

"Don't give me that! Look at his damn face. All smug and shit, like he thinks he's immune to my fist punching his face. Ugh, why do you even talk, Ross?" She said, whirling around mid-step, almost making a freshman run into her bag.

"You're doing enough talking for everyone in this school." He snarkily said, shrugging his shoulders as he clicked his locker open, grabbing his belongings, and neatly placing them into his organized bag.

Alek let out a strangled noise, somewhere between a laugh and a groan, her hands clenching her jacket at her sides.

Melanie opened her mouth, getting a partial word out, before she closed her mouth. Her heart started to race rapidly, suddenly feeling like she was on the edge of a cliff. Her cheeks felt hot all the sudden. Every word she wanted to let out became stuck in her mouth like a dam. She wanted to say something, but nothing came out except air.

Alek stared curiously, a smug look on her face as she snapped her head around, a confused look replacing it in an instant.

Him.

Him being Eduardo Morien.

"Oh?" Alek whispered under her breath as she wiped her head back around to Melanie, pressing her eyes into a thin line.

Roscoe coughed, clearing his throat, "Someone's got a crush."

"Shut up, Roscoe!" Alek yelled at him, lifting her fist to smack him upside his head.

Melanie didn't care. She tuned the two of them out as hard as she could, her eyes staring at nothing else except Eduardo. He'd been her long-time crush since she could remember clearly. Maybe since the fourth grade, when he helped her pick up her pencils after Lewis Sargent shoved her like the asshole he was. It was like love at first sight for her when she locked eyes with those blue eyes that never seemed to escape her mind. Was it a little ridiculous? Maybe. Eduardo had no clue who she was, let alone what her name was. He'd been Mr. Popular since he could practically walk; everyone looked up to him like he was some Greek god straight from the book.

She would have stared longer if she could've, but the bell ringing snapped her away from her dream world, causing her to jump a little. She let out a small, inaudible gasp as she looked to Roscoe and Alek, then back to Eduardo-

The hallway seemed to stretch out in a blur of movement-students bobbing and weaving in and out, the slam of lockers like thunder cracking. To Melanie, it all dissolved into background noise the second her gaze caught his own: Eduardo.

He was standing on the far side of the wall, his shoulder casually against the cool metal of the locker, hand at his side, his head bent as he spoke to someone-Kansas, his closest friend-but that didn't matter to her. His hair fell perfectly into his face, catching the late-afternoon sunlight slanting through the windows in the hall. It made him look sharper, almost unreal to the human eye, like he'd been cut from the purest of purest apples.

Melanie's pulse quickened, every thump sending a pressure against her ribcage as if her body was going to implode on its own.

The glance was quick, his eyes just barely lifting and absently grazing over her, as though he were scanning the entire hallway just for a moment, but then they stayed. For a split second, she forgot how to breathe correctly. His eyes were hard yet warm in a way that seemed out of place in the crowded, fluorescent hallway. They didn't just dart away like they usually did; No, they lingered. It was as if he was actually seeing her, not just glancing at her. He was seeing her.

The sounds of the hallway only dulled more than before; her whole body had tunneled in on the connection she felt at that second. She felt her stomach knot with nervous heat, her throat tightening, as if she were caught between a laugh and a scream of pure joy. Her hands turned white as they tightened around her bag strap, pulling it any tighter, and her bag may rip in half right there.

Eduardo's expression shifted-just barely, but she caught it. His mouth opened, a hint of words begging to escape. Still, nothing happened. He'd somehow noticed the flush rising in her face, or maybe that she was stiff in terror, or perhaps that she was blatantly staring at him like she was witnessing God be resurrected right in front of her eyes. He knew something. Her heart burned.

Inevitably, she tore her eyes away, heart hammering so hard it almost pained her. She looked down at the tiled floor, at her laced shoes, at anything that wasn't him. But even as she did that, she could still feel his eyes burning into her, like they were about to laser through her.

Alek's monotone voice finally stabbed through the fog. "Why the fuck are you staring into space like some psychoward patient? What's wrong with you?"

Melanie shook her head instantly, forcing a scoff at Alek's remark and turning to her now. "It's nothing." It was more than nothing, but that's all she needed to know at the moment.

"If nothing means Eduardo, then sure." Alek retorted.

She turned on her heel to walk to her next class, ducking her head, arms crossed. Alek obviously knew; she knew everything about Melanie. Why wouldn't she? Roscoe knew more than anyone else. He was too smart not to know. She never needed to tell him things because he already knew.

But all she knew was that she felt something. But she didn't know what it was. It burned inside of her, though; it sent fireworks through her entire body like the Fourth of July.

She wanted to feel that again, but surely, he wouldn't reciprocate.

Chapter Two

EDUARDO

"This is unfair!" Kansas screamed across the gym, throwing a basketball toward his teammate.

The sound of sneakers rubbing against the gym floor was rhythmic to his ears. The sound of basketballs rapidly thudding against the court, echoing high off the barely painted walls. The basketball slamming into his hands, Eduardo pivots, dodging a player, and shooting the ball into the hoop, watching it glide through cleanly.

"Quit showing off, moron!" Kansas screamed from the sidelines, his voice echoing off the walls like the basketballs.

Eduardo grinned without even looking, catching the pass and driving it in with a clean shot that kissed the rim and fell through, once more. "Not my fault you can't keep up, Alaska!" He shot back.

Kansas groaned very dramatically, yanking a ball from the rack and logging it toward him full force. "You think being captain makes you the king of every sport, huh?

"I don't think," Eduardo paused, flicking the ball to Kansas, "I know so."

"Cocky bastard," Kansas muttered under his breath, taking his shot and missing.

Eduardo didn't try to hide his grin this time. "You're very consistent, I'll give you that point."

"Consistently cool."

"Consistently annoying and trash."

Kansas went to shout at him, but then the buzzard blared, and soon after, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

"Hit the lockers! Let's go!" Coach yelled over the sound of everyone grabbing their things.

Eduardo grabbed his backpack from the bleachers, slinging it over his shoulder. Kansas fell in step beside him, still ranting about something random about a new girl in his class.

"You're coming over Saturday, right? Don't tell me you got somethin' better to do."

Eduardo narrowed his eyes. "We'll see."

"You say that, and then you still show up like you own my house," Kansas retorted in a tired voice, shaking his head.

Eduardo just shrugged, fixing his hair. "I'm just that amazing, KanKan."

"Don't call me KanKan!"

The two of them pushed open the heavy gym doors, the hallway noise instantly washing over them as soon as. Eduardo winced at the sound of it all, sighing inaudibly as he and Kansas pushed through the crowd toward their lockers. In an instant, Kansas began to ramble on about some incident from a while ago, but Eduardo just acted like he was listening-when in reality he was in his own head.

"And then she actually threw it at me, you know?" Kansas said, hands flailing around as he spoke. "Like a cup full of ice and everything. I had to walk to second period looking like I pissed my pants until Theo let me borrow some clothes."

The hallway was too loud today.

Lockers slamming shut, voices talking over one another, shouting, the smell of food and breakfast still lingering in the air. Eduardo opened his locker right beside Kansas, half-listening to his boring story of his adventures and the new girl in class, going through it and grabbing any book he thought he was going to need for the rest of the day.

"And, and! Not to mention, she did all of this just because I didn't answer her texts! Like I'm swamped! She didn't even give me a day to respond!" He dramatically went on, gritting his teeth.

Eduardo let out a soft, almost inaudible laugh, shaking his head to Kansas once he finally began to pay attention. It was entertaining to listen to him, but sometimes he wondered how he became friends with him.

He adjusted the strap of his bag, easing the weight from his shoulder and letting his head rest against the cold metal of the lockers behind him. The bell was close to ringing, just a few minutes before class. The hallway was backed up and slow, like it was slowing down in real time, everyone shifting around and dodging elbows. Normal day. Same noises. Same faces.

Until someone caught his eye from the corner.

He didn't mean to look at first; his gaze just naturally swept across the hallway until it stopped on her.

Her being... Melanie.

It took him what felt like days to recognize her. She was just standing a mere few feet away from him, caught between her friends-he guessed-bag slung over one shoulder, her hand gripping her straps so hard he could see the blood pooling in her knuckles. She wasn't doing anything to stand out, just standing against the lockers like everyone else. And yet somehow, everything around her seemed to blur in a thin line.

It was strange how her name just came to him, like it had been waiting in the back of his mind for years, waiting for him to see it. It had been years since he'd seen her face, but now seeing her again, it was as if every memory attached to her simple name rose inside of him.

Eduardo didn't mean to stare.

Well, he couldn't help it.

Everything around him seemed to dim like a stage, the spotlight on her. He couldn't say what it was exactly-but it was there. Maybe it was the way she had her head slightly tilted as her friends spoke, or the curve of a half-smile that slowly faded that didn't quite reach her eyes. Or maybe it was just her.

Why was he acting this way all of a sudden?

He felt a tingling sensation in his body, his heartbeat quickening, his thoughts falling silent. Her head moved, and suddenly, he wanted to fall as her eyes landed on him for a time. Her eyes-God, he didn't even know what color they were from this distance, but they looked so soft and familiar. There was something in her gaze, like she, too, wasn't sure what to do, but she couldn't quite look away either.

He felt it everywhere-in his pulse, his heart, his back, his arms. A rush of something, but it was deep and warm.

And then she looked away with pink-tinted cheeks.

And everything around him came splashing back in like a wave.

"Are you even listening to me, dude?" Kansas barked, nudging his arm roughly.

Eduardo nodded rapidly, swallowing his thoughts. The sound of lockers and chatter finally registered with him. His heart was beating too fast now. "Yeah. What?"

"Yeah? What did I just say?" Kansas insisted, crossing his arms.

Eduardo blankly stared, narrowing his eyes and furrowing his eyebrows, trying to come up with a simple lie, but nothing came. He sighed in defeat. "I wasn't listening."

"I know you weren't, you're too busy ogling over some chick." Kansas retorted finally, a tiny, yet cocky smirk forming on his face as usual.

"I wasn't ogling." He bit back quickly. Too quick.

"You totally were. Who was it? Was it her?" Kansas said, proceeding to point directly at the girl, Melanie, who-thankfully-wasn't looking anymore.

Eduardo scoffed at his nosiness and slapped his hand down. "None of your business, Kan."

A smile came across his face in return, dragging out a hum. "Definitely her. Someone's crushing." Kansas said a little too loudly.

Eduardo didn't respond to that. He just shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and looked away, pretending to check out a cool poster on the school walls-looking anywhere but back at her.

He could still feel the way her eyes lingered on his skin, the way her eyes darted to a few parts of his face until they settled on his eyes. It hadn't been anything. He knew it hadn't. And yet, his heart told him a different story.

"Eddie," Kansas said, still using a teasing tone. "If you're going to fall in love, at least give me front-row seats to see this go down."

Eduardo huffed, a laugh escaping his lips involuntarily, shaking his head. "You're such a freak."

"An observant one, if you must." Kansas claimed.

Eduardo just rolled his eyes as the bell rang, turning on his heel as he began to walk down the hallway, Kansas rushing to come up to his side, the two of them blending into the flow of students heading to class.

As he passed the locker she'd been standing at originally, his eyes darted back-just this once-praying that she was there so he could see her once more.

But she was gone.

Still, he found himself almost smiling, something tugging at his chest. He didn't know what, but deep down, he probably did. It was nothing but a quick, long, sensational glance. That's all it was-just a glance, just a face in the crowd of thousands of others. Eduardo could not convince himself that it was just a glance, though. The warmth resting in his chest told him otherwise. It lingered like sunlight that refused to fade.

And for the first time in a long time, Eduardo realized he wanted to actually know someone, not just remember -- so he tried to remember her.

He wanted to feel that again, but surely, she wouldn't reciprocate.