IN THIS SKIN -- CHICAGO FIRE

13;

Marley was thankful that the party was going smoothly. So far, no one had made her feel uncomfortable and she'd managed to keep to herself. She would have loved the company of either Elliott or Leon, but Elliott was too busy drinking and smoking with the other cheerleaders and football players, and Leon was too embarrassed to even look at the girl after his previous announcement.

It reached 10:30 and Marley was beginning to get bored. She had managed to avoid contact with everyone up to this point.
"MARLEY!" Cleo shouted, waving her over. Marley sighed and stood up from the seat, walking towards the large group. Someone thrust a drink in her hand in a red plastic cup. She brought it to her nose and it smelt strongly of alcohol. Feeling all eyes on her and not wanting to give them anything else to make fun of her for, she gulped the drink down. One drink wouldn't make her drunk, after all.

Five minutes later and Cleo had sat everyone in a circle to play spin the bottle. They played this for 10 minutes, purposefully choosing the people either side of Marley when the bottle went anywhere near her. Soon enough, however, Cleo had span the bottle and it had landed undeniably on Marley. At first Cleo looked annoyed, but her look quickly changed into one of happiness with an evil glint in her eyes. Cleo turned to her friend and mumbled something quietly before pulling Marley by the arm and into her body. Marley hesitated but didn't move her arm, she was scared they'll make fun of her if she didn't do this. Slowly, Cleo brought Marley's face to hers and kissed her for a few seconds. Without warning, Cleo was screaming and Marley jumped back quickly. Cleo got up and ran, her friends following her, all giggling at something. Everyone else was just smirking whilst Marley just sat there dumbfounded.

It only took a few minutes for the events to bee forgotten, and Marley was handed another drink. She pretended to drink this one, rather than actually drinking it. Marley knew Kelly would get annoyed if she broke his rule and got drunk, and if she was honest, she hated getting drunk because she liked to be in control of her mind. She'd managed to locate Elliott in that time and pull him aside. She was disheartened to see he was drunk- beyond a glass of water to sober him. She sighed, wanting to be able to have a proper conversation with someone who was once her best friend, but knew she wouldn't be able to with him in this state.
"Happy birthday Ell." She said, offering a small smile.
"Thanks boo. You enjoying-" he was cut off by Ethan (a cheerleader), shouting his name and waving him over. Elliott grinned.
"Gotta run. Thanks for coming."
That was the last straw for Marley. She had made the effort to go to a party that she didn't want to attend for the sake of her best friend, but he didn't even appreciate it. She frowned and marched over to Leon, who was sat with some people she didn't recognise.
"Leon, I'm leaving." She stated, and Leon frowned.
"Is everything okay?" She nodded in response, not wanting to make a scene.
"Do you want me to come with you?" But Marley shook her head as she saw Leon enjoying himself, and said she'd call Kelly.

After 5 attempts, Kelly didn't answer and she cursed. After Kelly, she tried Matt, Peter, Otis, Shay, Gabby, Joe and even Devin, but all of them must have fallen asleep. She hesitated before trying Christopher, knowing he had kids and didn't want to wake anyone up, but she wanted to go home and was growing uncomfortable. After 2 rings, he answered the phone.
"Marley! Is everything okay?" Marley smiled at his fatherly nature.
"Hey, everything's fine. I'm sorry for bothering you. But I really want to go home. And Kelly said he'd pick me up if i wanted to go earlier, but he isn't answering me and neither is Matt, Peter, Shay, Joe-" Herrman cut her off.
"You should have called me straight away sweetie. Where are you and I'll be there as soon as I can."

After reciting Elliott's address to Christopher, she sat on the wall surrounding the garden and waited.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" Elliott's voice interrupted her silence. Marley couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Why do you care?" She snapped. She was angry with Elliott for making her come then ditching her.
"There's no need to act like a bitch Marley. Let's not forget who your only friend is." Elliott snapped back, narrowing his eyes at her. Marley scoffed.
"'Friend'? Some friend you are Elliott. Everyone at this party hates me and treats me like absolute crap. I came here tonight for you, but you barely spoke to me."
"What are you on about?! They got you involved and they're just making jokes with you." Elliott defended. Marley knew he was drunk, but this still hurt her.
"Jokes? Calling me ugly, fat, making fun of me for having no mum and my dad nearly killing me? That's not joking, that's bullying." Marley whispered the latter of the sentence, almost trying to convince herself of it. Elliott let out a cruel laugh.
"You're right. They're not jokes, they're facts." Smirking at his statement, despite seeing a tear fall down her cheek.
"You're drunk." She mumbled.
"You know what they say, a drunk mind speaks sober thoughts." and after that statement, Elliott walked off, towards a group where Cleo and some of the other cheerleaders were laughing. Cleo flipped her hair and waved at Marley sarcastically.

Marley grunted and tried to blink away her emotions as she saw Christopher pull up. Immediately, the group that were laughing at her dispersed and went inside. Christopher frowned when he saw Marley quickly force a smile on her face as she got into the passenger seat.
"Hey sweetie." He greeted. She smiled in response, not trusting her voice to not break.
"Good party?" She hesitated but nodded making him frown.
"Marls kiddo, what's wrong?" By this point, she couldn't hold back the tears. Immediately, Christopher pulled over and pulled her into a hug.
"I'm sorry, we had a fight."
"You and Leon?"
"No, me and Elliott." This shocked Christopher. He couldn't think of a single time they'd even had a disagreement since they became friends. He could have expected Leon and her fighting because everyone saw the tension between them because it was clear to everyone (other than them apparently) that they liked eachother.
"What did you fight about?" Christopher asked softly. Marley stayed quiet for a minute, not wanting to tell him about the bullying but knew she'd have to tell him something.
"It was stupid, he'd got drunk and ignored me all night and only spoke to me after I'd called you. I got tired of being alone and he called me a bitch." She said quickly.
"I wouldn't worry too much kid, if he was drunk he probably didn't mean anything by it. You've just got to ignore it."

And that's what she did. For the following week, despite the taunting getting worse and Elliott even starting to join in, she just ignored it. Even when things got more serious, she completely ignored it. This only infuriated the group more, a group that had grown in size significantly. Marley hated going to school even more now.