Stolen

Part 5: Out of Character

She heard the door lock behind him and immediately felt panicked. There were already voices at the door, ones that belonged to Des and Carl and Sofia, people she saw regularly but whose voices Marilynn could hardly recognize outside of the context of their school.
She looked around the office room, and it wasn't a clean one. There was only one window, an unopenable rectangle of sky placed high on the wall. A desk sat under it, decorated with a computer system and eBay login credentials taped to the desk along with a fragile vanity dresser on another wall.

She walked up to the vanity, blinking at her reflection in the mirror in an attempt to hold back tears. She couldn't afford to ruin her mascara and be seen by her classmates. She had to be perfect like they were, and they would look down on her if she was anything but that. It made her wonder whether she would ever be enough for them.

She hated these shitty over-the-top standards.

Marilynn looked away from the mirror and slumped against the wall, staring at the ceiling as she tried to erase anything that came up from her head. Every thought she could have right now would only make her cry.

The door was unlocked and opened before Everly walked in, his cape billowing behind him and blocking her view of the doorway. He hooked her arm through his and led her into the living room, where too many sets of eyes landed on her.

There had to be at least ten other people in the room, all dressed for a costume party, including Davis and Marcus, who each turned to face them. She quickly looked to the ground as Everly spoke loudly to the amassing of people, saying, "Hey guys, thanks for coming."

He continued, putting his other hand on her shoulder, "Marilynn could be here because she ran away from her father to be with me."

Someone she didn't recognize asked, "Why didn't she show up at school for the past week?"

"Well, the school can't know, or they'll tell him, obviously," Everly said. "Then she would have to go back and stay there." He gestured to the snacks on the table. "Anyways, dig in. And someone put some music on."

Marilynn looked up at them. They couldn't possibly believe him; it would be completely out of character for her to do anything drastic like that. Did they not know her well enough for that? Although... they probably couldn't tell any different; she would have to have been at a high enough point for anyone to notice a difference when she reached rock bottom now.

That must mean they did believe him. As people dispersed to their groups of three or four and the beginning of a song started to play from speakers this reality sank in.
Two people disappeared into a closet for a game of seven minutes in heaven, one group was drinking and talking loudly, and the rest, led by Everly, left out a back door into the woods behind the house, and Marilynn was finally left alone.