And now, I present to you, the readers. The long awaited first episode of "Afterglow."

Season 1, Episode 1 - Life's Little Secrets

"Oh come on Matty, show me your tongue..."

Mel sighed and shut off the TV in her bedroom, upon which she had been watching "13 Going on 30" for the past however-many minutes. Flopping back upon her queen-sized bed, she dropped the channel changer on the floor and reached her hand towards her phone which was on the nightstand.

After fumbling for it she finally grasped it and held it with her left-hand and dialed a number then brought it back up to her ear.

"Hey Mel." Wyatt answered.

"Yeah, about that. When are you going to get the hell home? I'm like really really bored."

"Isn't Chris supposed to be there? And besides the fact, you're seventeen. Forget you can drive, and that you have a car?"

"You know what? I'm feeling pretty stupid right about now."

"I would too, now I'm going to have to let you go, I'm going into some Chinese place to pick up dinner."

Mel said her goodbye then hung up the phone, then getting up off her bed and putting it in the charger she grabbed a pair of keys that were sitting on her dresser and left the room.

She checked her wavy blonde hair in the foyer mirror before heading out the front door. Locking it behind her she headed down the stone steps of the Manor and into her Storm Gray Saturn Vue.

Half an hour later she arrived at the nearby mall, grabbing her purse from the seat next to her, she got out of the car, locked it, stashed the keys in her purse and headed towards the entrance. Upon entering she headed towards the food court and looked around.

"Hey! Halliwell!" yelled a man's voice from a nearby table.

Mel smiled and went over to the table, the raven-haired man pulled over an extra chair and she sat down with him.

"So what're you doing here? I thought you had some sort of lonely chick-flick thing planned for this afternoon."

"I thought Adam Jennings would've known better by now. I get bored with chick flicks."

"True." Adam said, "You know I know better."

Mel laughed at her friend's blunder before looking up and noticing that someone was standing behind him. The wavy haired brunette arrival flashed a small smile at her before pulling up another chair.

"Hey didn't know you two were together." she said as she took her purse off her shoulder and placed it beside her feet as she sat down.

"Very funny Van." Mel said as she stole one of Adam's french fries.

"Just checking." Van replied as she picked a piece of string off her camouflage skirt then stole one of Adam's fries.

"The girls like to steal my fries. If I plastered myself in them, you think I'd be going too far?" Adam said as her handed the rest of his fries to Mel and Van.

"Uh huh." Van managed to get out through a mouth full of french fry.

"How far?"

"To the point where the conversation goes nowhere." Van said, smiling as she put her purse back on and got up, grabbing her two best friends' arms. "Come on, I wanna go see a movie," she said pulling them out of their chairs.

Mel made sure she had her purse and then allowed for herself to be pulled out of her chair then they made their way into the mall theater.

"Come on, gimme the popcorn! I paid for it!" Adam said, as he reached towards Van and Mel, attempting to grab the popcorn from in between them. It was half an hour into the movie and he hadn't even gotten any yet.

"You bought the popcorn, we eat it. That's life dear Adam." Van said as she popped one in her mouth.

Mel smiled at her and handed him the bag.

"Halliwell. You surrendered the corn." Van said with a view of mock horror on her face.

"Yeah," Mel replied lowering her voice, "we better keep it down before that woman down there reports us or something." Mel pointed to a middle aged woman who was staring at them with a look of distaste from a few rows down.

Van smiled at the woman, "Sorry lady. But Mel surrendered the corn."

The woman shook her head and turned back around.

"She just doesn't get it does she?" Van whispered after taking a sip of her soda.

"I guess not." Mel said smiling as she took Van's soda from her and took a sip.

Van looked at Mel, "Mine. Hello!" she said taking the soda back from her friends.

Mel stuck out her bottom lip, "But I'm thirsty."

"Fine then." Van said, giving in and handing the soda back.

"The bottom lip thing always works.." Mel replied.

An hour later, the friends parted ways at the mall exit and went home.

Pulling in the driveway of the Manor, Mel parked her car behind Wyatt's, locked it and went in the back door.

"Hey Wy! Where are you?" Mel yelled through the house.

"In the living room." Wyatt yelled back.

Mel made her way into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Wyatt, who had a container of Chinese food in his hand and a spoon in the other.

"M:I 3's on." He said gesturing towards the TV, upon which Tom Cruise fighting various villains could be seen.

"Nice." Mel said, grabbing a fork off the coffee table, and a container of General Tso's chicken along with it.

"So where were you? As your brother I have a right to know." Wyatt said smiling.

Mel poked around in the chicken with her fork and speared a piece on the fork, "At the movies with Adam and Van."

"Sounds fun." Wyatt replied as he ate some rice.

Mel nodded as she ate the chicken that had been on her fork.

After they were done eating Mel helped Wyatt put away the leftovers and clean up. They were in the kitchen when Chris walked in the back door hung his coat up and attempted to escape to the stairs.

"I'm just going to go upstairs, to my room. Right now, and I'm not telling you two anything." He said as he made his way out of the kitchen.

Mel looked at Wyatt and he nodded, "Um, no, you're not." She replied as she moved her hand in a small arc motion, her palm facing Chris. Magic was evident as he turned towards his siblings and stated blankly, "I was on a date, with Layna, my new girlfriend."

Chris then shook his head and returned back to his normal state, his eyed immediately focused upon Wyatt and Mel who were smiling widely.

"It sounds like a stripper name. Layna, I mean seriously. Come on Chris!" Wyatt joked as Chris sighed and sat down at the kitchen table, defeated.

Mel slid into a seat across from him, and Wyatt next to her.

"She's smart, and definitely not a stripper. She's studying forensic sciences at the University. We went to that restaurant, Magnifique. She gave me her address tonight, phone number last week. I really like her."

"Well that's good. I mean, now I can take Allie and we can go on double dates and stuff." He said looking at his younger brother, "The Halliwell Boys, taking the female world by storm!"

Mel let out a fake laugh, "Don't do that again. You've got a sister, it's strange."

Chris turned to Mel, "Fully agree with you sis. Now if you two don't mind I'm going to bed. I have to wake up at six to go run over inventory at the club."

Wyatt looked at Chris as his little brother got up from the table, "Remind me again why you wanted P3. You didn't have to take it when mom offered it to you."

"I wanted it, it's been in the family for awhile now and it's a popular hang-out spot, good revenue. I couldn't possibly give that up, and I love it. Now leave me out of the questioning, I'm going to bed." Chris said before he went out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room.

Mel got up from the table afterwards, "I'm going too. I have homework to do in the morning if I want to graduate. See you," she said as she too left the room.

Wyatt sighed and went back to the living room, flopped back onto the couch again and continued to watch Mission Impossible 3.

Meanwhile Mel had gotten changed and was sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I need to tell you something. I can't..." she said to herself as she got up and put her hands through her hair, trying to think of things to say in the inevitable conversation she was going to have at school on Monday, only two days away, and she needed to figure it out now. She made up her mind, she already felt scared, and sad about what she was going to do.

Suddenly, the sound of a demon shimmering in could be heard from the corner of the room. Mel turned towards the sound.

"I can't live with this, it's not going right, I have to leave you." Mel said to the source of the sound, her voice shaking with the evident wish that what she was saying wasn't being said at all. Then she sat down on her bed, and tears came to her eyes. Lazily she lifted her hand up and waved it in an arc motion, her palm towards her closed bedroom door, so that no one could hear what was happening.

"Why are you doing this? We've kept it a secret this long, Halliwell. It never seemed to bother you before, not to mention earlier." Said Van's voice as she stepped out of the corner and sat next to Mel.

Mel looked at Van, "They were talking, about their girlfriends. I can't even tell them about mine, not to mention the fact that you're half-demon."

"That's my father's fault Mel. We can get past that, they won't mind. You told me your Aunt Phoebe married a demon once."

"That was different. He was a guy. It's not easy for me to keep this from everyone when everyone around me, at school, and at home is talking about their love life. I have to pretend like I don't have anybody, when I have you." Mel said, more tears came to her eyes.

Van looked at Mel, with compassion and put her hand on Mel's, "It's not any easier for me. It's bad enough my mother is weary of me being part demon. We can get through this together, I know we can." She finished as she took a tissue off the nightstand and wiped Mel's tears.

"You don't hate me, for wanting to break-up do you?"

"Not at all." Van replied as she finished wiping her lover's tears, then tossing the tissue into the trash.

"I love you." Mel said as she looked into Van's eyes.

Van just smiled; then they leaned in towards each other, Van placing her right hand on Mel's cheek, Mel placing hers on the small of Van's back, and kissed.