Melissa Wu had come into his life purely by accident.

He had been the brand new bad boy at her school where she was considered a model student and a good girl. She was the clumsy, shy one in a fractured group of friends consisting of a dark skinned guy with a personality as big as his hair, a wiry blonde who seemed as stupid as she was fake and a fiery red-head who was competing against the big haired guy to become class president. Of course, then there was the blonde boy, who was as much idiot as he was sarcasm. He may have had the bad boy wannabe look with the baggy shorts and the hats but underneath it, he didn't have the brains to match the brawn.

She was the dark, shy enigma of the group. With long black hair, big almond shaped brown eyes and full, pink lips, she was beautiful and a complete mystery. She spilled sarcastic comments as easily as the blonde-hat-wearing bad boy wannabe and always had a sarcastic retort when necessary. Other than that, she remained a complete mystery to him. He knew nothing about her other than the fact that she had pulled a few strings to get him on the trip - at the time, he hadn't known exactly how many but now that he knows, he wonders what made her think he was worth it.

Then the plane had crashed.

There was the start of the disaster. Then the enigma that was the shy, clumsy one exploded in a burst of bright, bubbly giggles that was completely contradicted by her sarcastic comments. She was a walking dictionary of contradictions. She was sweet yet sarcastic, shy yet loud and obnoxious and good girl yet there was also a hint of fiery bad girl that was incredibly sexy when she let it show. She was something else that girl, and she had done something that no one else had ever done.

She had turned his world upside down.

After a few days on the island, they spent more time together getting to know each other and he discovered the enigmatic girl underneath the shyness and the clumsiness. The enigma that was his best friend had started unraveling and revealed to him - to all of them - the beautiful, spunky, sarcastic girl that was Melissa. She was an artist. She took charcoal and paper and out of that came beautiful works of art that looked better suited for an art museum than for people stranded on an island.

He had found her in the plane one night, asleep on her sketch book with a light dusting black charcoal on her fingers and a gorgeous sketch of a bouquet of wild flowers underneath her arm. He knew that under any other circumstances, the drawing would have been splashed with color, a truer representation of the wild flowers found on the island. He knew that she was a talented artist and when it came right down to it, the girl could draw anything she set her mind to - she could do anything she set her mind to for that matter. She rarely ever drew for more than few minutes at a time but when she was bored, she could draw for hours and never once get tired of it. By the time she finished, he would have to help her scrub the charcoal off of her fingers with saltwater. The water would swirl black around her hands from the charcoal powder that had stained her fingers more than once.

Sometimes, he'd just sit and watch her draw. Watch the careful way she smeared the charcoal on the page, the twist and twirl of her pencil, the skilled flicks of her wrist. It was easy to get lost in the graceful artistry of Melissa and often times, he found himself thinking about her just to relax. Just so he'd be able to get some sleep. She'd draw him into the web of dreams of a better life, a way out of the life he had lived before she had brought him with her on the trip. He dreamt about the future more than once. His future and how amazing it would be with her in it. He wanted her in his life for a long time to come whether he'd ever tell her, he couldn't say.

On more than one rather embarrassing occasion, he's taken advantage of the fact that when he pushes her away emotionally, she won't push him back. He always thought he could get anything past her and she'd never bother to find out what was going on but he came to find out that the backlash of doing so was far worse than anything she could have inflicted if she bothered to find out what he was about.

The whole debacle with Taylor Hagan was all it took for him to know that he shouldn't take advantage of her naivety any longer. It wasn't long before he realized that thinking that he could just dump her for Taylor without explanation wouldn't get very far. She caught on and caught on fast. He nearly lost his best friend because of his idiotic belief that he could use her naive nature to his advantage. The awkward mess that their relationship had turned into because of what he had done had nearly been his undoing. The blonde girl meant nothing to him. He knew that but he thought for a while that she cared about him when she didn't and in hindsight, Melissa had, had every right to get angry with him.

It had taken them a long time to mend the cracks in their relationship. It hadn't broken but his little thing with Taylor had definitely cracked it. It was only when they were back home, safe and sound did he realize how much he needed. His parole hearing and subsequent release had been a victory he wanted to celebrate with her and her alone. They had kept it between them until their return to school. The one place he had considered a hellhole had given him the very girl for whom he was extremely grateful. The girl who had been at his parole hearing and had been waiting for him outside of the courthouse when he emerged with his case worker after his release. She was the girl who had held his hand when he returned to school.

She was fierce, feisty and independent. She was shy, beautiful and artistic. She was a multitude of things, of little traits and quirks that fit her. She could never say a word all day or have a sarcastic comment for everything. She was as protective of him as he was of her and nobody questioned them. She was a sketchbook full of charcoal sketches, a canvas splashed with bright colors and in every song he wrote. She was his other half, his better half. She completed him. She loved him. That was more than he ever could have asked for.

She was simply Melissa.

An enigma that had unraveled in the best of ways under the worst of circumstances and had splashed his dark, morose life with bright, cheerful color. She brought out the best in him and saw through the worst. She picked up the pieces when everything around him shattered. Made him feel whole for the first time in a long time and had given him a reason to keep going, despite the curveballs that life tossed him. When he really took the time to ponder her, Melissa was really the only one who could do it. She was the complete opposite of what he was and that was what kept him balanced. Melissa was the light to his dark, just what needed, what no other person had ever been to him.

Melissa Wu was his best friend.

And for that, Cody Jackson could not have been more grateful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TheOnceAnonymous14, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! A few days early but what the hell! I know you've been waiting for this story so here it is! I hope you enjoy it! You're my best friend, my twitter buddy and the only who truly knows me but still likes me anyway :-D So, yeah, here's the deal, I could be really sweet and touching but I have a little something else in mind. HAVE A TOTALLY ROCKING, KICK-ASS BIRTHDAY because you, my friend, are awesome and I don't want to hear a damn thing about anyone who dare says any different! LOL!

Love ya,

RobertDowneyJrLove