Chapter Two

Chapter 2

Marley spent the majority of her first two classes thinking about the boy whose name she still didn’t know.  As her teachers passed out their syllabi and went on about what they expected out of their students she found herself antagonizing about the exchange between them.  Whenever he saw her crying he didn’t ask what was wrong, like she knew other people at the school would, he somehow understood that she needed to be alone to deal with her feelings.  He’d returned, just as he said he would, but he didn’t say a word; he just held open the door for her. 

Something must have happened to him, she thought. How else would he know to leave me alone?

Marley felt a subtle nudge from the student sitting behind her and a note appeared on the arm of her desk.  It was Addy.

Are you okay? You’re being way to quiet.

Marley smirked and began to write back.

I’m fine. People just keep staring at me and stuff.  They’re just curious.

She heard her friend scoff.

Just curious? HA! More like they’re nosey b******s. People here are so stupid. Who’s bugging you? I’ll let them have it.

Just let it be Ad.  They’ll stop once something else happens.

Marley paused, her pen hovering above the paper, and pushed herself to add more.

Speaking of something else, has everyone started talking about the new guy yet?

Before Addy could respond the bell rang.  Marley felt herself blush when her friend cocked a curious eyebrow at her, clearly in response to her inquiry.

“So you were checking him out!” she bumped Marley’s hip as the two trekked down the crowded hallway.   

“I was not!  I just was wondering what people are saying about him.  You know how people in this school talk,” pressed Marley as she dodged the elbow of a jock who clearly wasn’t paying attention to where he was going.

“How about you watch where you’re going jerk!” Addy cried after the boy. He didn’t hear her.

“Honestly Ad,” began Marley. “you don’t have to jump to my defense all the time.”

“If I don’t then who will?  You are way too nice; we both know you’d never say anything to that guy or anyone else for that matter.”

“I’m just trying to make it out of this place alive,” Marley joked before adding in a mumble “being invisible seems to be the best way to do that.”   

“I hate to break it to you but you are hardly invisible.  Just because you don’t see the way the guys around here look at you doesn’t mean that they aren’t.”

Marley just shook her head and snorted sarcastically.

“We have got to work on your self-confidence, girl,” was all that Addy said in reply.

“What do you have next period?” Marley attempted to change the subject.

Addy’s face fell. “Chemistry” was all she could manage to get out.

“You say ‘chemistry’ like how most people say ‘giant man eating worm’ or ‘mystery meat’” Marley laughed loudly.

“Well it’s horrible and stupid and needs to die.  It hates me, I hate it; we live in mutual hatred,” Addy complained.

“It hates me too,” Marley said sympathetically. “I had it first period.  We’ll make Seth tutor us; it loves him.”

  Addy brightened at the prospect and asked, “What do you have next?”

“Art,” said Marley, her face beaming at the sound of the word.

She loved everything about art, even just the word.  Art.  Marley loved the way it tasted in her mouth, like sunrise after a long, difficult night.  She loved the way that paintbrushes felt in her hand and the way that it made her feel safe and brave and just right.  Marley, who usually shied away from any kind of attention, wanted to be seen with her paintings; she wanted the world to know that she was the one who created them.

Addy shook her head at her friend’s blissful expression and said, “I’ll save you a seat at lunch, okay?”

“Sounds good.”

Marley made her way down the crowded hallway and up a flight of steps, her head down the entire way.  She felt herself let out a small sigh of contentment when she entered the art room, her sanctuary.

The air smelled like paint and wet clay, just the way she remembered it.  The walls were a bright yellow and sunlight seemed to bounce off of them.  Marley remembered when Cali, the art teacher who refused to allow her students to call her by her professional name, had painted the room without the school board’s permission.  They were beyond furious but Cali had talked them down. “The yellow just promotes the students’ creativity; can’t you feel it?” she’d told them in her dreamy voice.  Cali’s innocence made it hard for anyone to stay mad at her.

Marley walked passed a group of broad shouldered jocks, who no doubt thought that this class would be an easy A, when one of them reached out and grabbed her arm.  She jumped back, dropping her books, in surprise.

“Easy there, Hart,” began the boy, his voice sounded tender and innocent but Marley felt a sharp edge behind the words.  “I heard about your mom.”

Marley stepped back a few paces.

“Aw, the little mousey is scared,” she heard one of his lackeys call out.  The rest of them laughed.

“Listen, if you ever wanted to talk,” he fingered her hair possessively “we could take a drive up to The Hill,” he closed the space between them, his face was inches away from Marley’s “maybe we could do a little more than talk.”

A hand suddenly grabbed the back of the boy’s neck and spun him as if he were a ragdoll.  The boy placed himself between Marley and the jock, his hand still wrapped on the back of the boy’s neck. She didn’t need to see his face to know who the boy was; the shock of curly black hair gave him away in an instant.

Her savior pulled the boy into him, if Marley hadn’t known better she’d think he was going to embrace him.  With his lips by the boy’s ear he said in his rough voice, “You like messing with girls, don’t you, you pathetic piece of crap.  If I catch you pulling that s**t again I’ll kill you and I’ll enjoy doing it.” He pushed the boy away from him and walked to an available seat.

Marley, still shaking, picked up her books and scrambled to a seat next to the boy.  He looked at her, his mouth beginning to open as if he were about to say something, but it was then that Cali chose to enter the room.

“Everyone please take a seat,” she said dreamily as she sashayed to the front of the room and plopped on her desk. 

“Hello, I’m Cali and I will be you’re art teacher this semester.  Now, the purpose of art is to show the world how you see a particular thing, whether it be a person or place or whatever it may be, because each of us, in fact see things completely differently.  Our eyes cannot be trusted; the world around us is subjective.” Marley felt herself calming as her teacher went on.

“Let’s look at people,” Cali pushed her long silver hair behind her ear and continued, “my husband has a long scar from his left eyebrow all the way down to his chin and when people first meet him they find it frightening.  I, on the other hand, find it beautiful because it’s a part of him.  Here’s another example, an NBA star would find a man who was 5’10 quite short, wouldn’t he, but if you place that same man with a dwarf you would view him as extremely tall.  This is why I love art so much; it allows you to learn so much about a person just by looking at what they create.”  Cali smiled broadly at her students.

“For today’s assignment I want you to show me something that is dear to you, I don’t care what it or who it is.  Feel free to use whatever you wish; we have canvas, plain paper, charcoal, paint, pastels and clay.  I don’t mind if you talk amongst yourselves or listen to music as you do this just as long as it doesn’t disturb the creative process.”  She gestured for the students to begin.     

At that, Marley stood and walked toward the wall of easels, grabbing paint and a large canvas as she went.  She sat, staring at the blank canvas in front of her, trying to decide what to paint.  Images flew past her mind’s eye: the tree house that sat in the old oak tree in the backyard, Addy and Seth, her mother.

No Marley thought defiantly it’s too soon for that.

Eventually, she settled on the view of the Lake Eerie that she had from her window at her family’s lake house.  Every year (excluding this one) her family would spend the last week of summer there.  Marley smiled as she remembered watching parents walk down the beach with their hands clasped tightly; they were so happy.

When she had a good portion of her painting finished, Marley forced herself to walk over to the boy who’d helped her earlier.  He sat where she’d left him, his hands now covered in charcoal, as he drew furiously on the page.

“What are you drawing?”  Marley felt her face heating up.

The boy looked up at her with an expression of muted surprise. “Just someone that I knew once,” he said simply.

Marley looked at the picture and was pleasantly surprised at what she saw.  A little boy looked up at her from the page, clutching a ratty blanket.  In his eyes, she saw fear and shyness and hope.  The lines of the young boy were clean and fluent; this boy clearly had talent.

“That’s beautiful,” said Marley breathlessly.

For a moment she thought she saw a blush creeping up the boy’s face but it was gone so quickly that she was sure she’d imagined it.

“Thank you.”

“I’m, um, Marley…Marley Hart,” she said awkwardly.

“I’m Chase Calhoun,” was his only reply.

“I just wanted to thank you for just now,” Marley’s blush grew larger with every syllable, “And for earlier.”

“It’s no big deal,” he murmured his eyes softened slightly when he saw her obvious embarrassment.

“Um, okay, well it was nice meeting you.  If you, um, need anything I’ll be right over there,” she nodded toward her easel.

“Okay.” He was obviously amused by her ramble.

“Right,” replied Marley and with that she spun on her heel and walked quickly back to her painting.

            Marley returned home from school, placing her backpack on the floor next to the door.  She sighed, the kitchen looked just as it had before she’d cleaned it this morning; there were liquor bottles and broken glass everywhere.  Marley walked into the living room, vowing to clean it later.

            She found her father lying passed out in the recliner.

            “Hi Dad,” she said quietly as she sat down on the couch. “So school was good today.  I don’t think I’ll have much trouble with my classes, except for chemistry of course but you know how bad I am at that.”

            “Addy and I are going to get Seth to help us with it,” she continued, imagining his responses. “People were staring at me, because of what happened with Mom, but most of them didn’t say anything, that was nice of them.  Oh and there’s a new boy too. His name is Chase; he drives a motorcycle!  Now I know you think they’re death traps but he seemed to handle his pretty well.” 

            Marley felt herself longing for the way things were the year before; when she would return home to a clean house and her parents would ask her endless questions about her teachers and the events that had occurred at school.  Back when she was a part of a real family and not this sickly, broken thing.

            “I miss Mom,” she whispered. “I need you, Daddy.  I can’t deal with this without you. Please come back.” her voice broke.

            At that, Marley shook her head, wiped a tear from the side of her face, and went to clean the kitchen.

            He sat at the booth, waiting for her shift to end.  He watched her long blonde hair sway to and fro as she bounced from table to table. She tilted her head to the side, exposing her slender throat.  How he longed to wrap his long fingers around that throat, to watch the fear in her eyes as he did so.  It would be so easy.  She was small; there’s no way she would be able to fight back.

            He’d tried to stop the hunger, he’d spent years trying.  But ever since that day when he’d lost his temper, the day when he’d made his first kill, he’d lost the desire to resist; something that felt so right couldn’t be wrong.

            She caught his eye from across the room and smiled brightly in anticipation.

            He smiled back and thought, I’ve got everything ready for you, baby.

            He remembered the exact spot in the woods where he hid the knife.  He knew the story that he would tell to get her there.  He was ready.

            “Thanks for waiting,” she said happily as she removed her apron.  “Sorry it took so long, the couple at table five refused to leave!”

            “No problem,” he plastered a charming smile upon his face. “You ready?”

            “Mm-hmm” she said with a nod.

            “Then let’s go.” He reached for her hand and the two raced out the door.

            It was time.

Author's Note

Any sort of comment would be appreciated!

Reviews

[AJ Davis]

Rachel,

I liked that you continued to build the main character, adding the art piece and that creative side of her personality. The first part of the chapter flowed very well and I found myself getting caught up in the dialogue, which is good for a reader but not so much if your trying to offer comments ;) I also enjoyed how you're introducing more and more of the mystery guy. His reaction was a little intense, but I think you are going for that with him. Also on that point, I almost couldn't believe the jock's comments. He just seemed incredibly cruel and insensitive.

As for things to think about, I liked that Marley is having a one sided conversation with her passed out father, it really paints a wonderful picture of their relationship and characters. But I would have liked the transition into that take a little longer. Maybe just more of her sitting down, looking around, waiting patiently for her father to wake up even though she knows he's not.
Secondly, the last section with the new character felt very suspenseful and intriguing. However I'm not sure how I feel with it being the tail end of this chapter. It left me asking, does this go here? It's certainly not an entire chapter on it's own. Obviously I don't know where you are heading with any of it, but I'd think about moving this to a different place or revealing it in a different way.

Overall, great writing. -AJ

[Rachel]

Hi AJ,
Thanks for reviewing again! It's hard to find someone who's willing to read story chapters on this cite so I really appreciate you :). I'm glad that you liked this chapter-the first was super easy but they're starting to get more and more difficult as the chapters progress! I really liked your input on making the transition longer-I never would have thought to do that but it would reveal a lot about Marley! I wanted to give the reader a little peek into the killer's mind in this chapter to keep them interested but at the same time I want to leave them with a "what.the.hell" feeling...do you get what I mean? In like the fourth of fifth chapter I plan on having the police talk to Marley and her dad about finding the body and how they believe the same person did it- that way the reader has some closure. But my big question to you is do you know who the murder is? I've put enough clues in these first two chapters to figure it out but I'm starting to worry that it's too obvious!