Riot

Chapter 1

September 1971

Marylee's POV

I was standing in the middle of my apartment, stirring the sugar through my hot mug of tea. I blew into my cup and felt the hot damp against my nose. The room was a mess. I had covered the floor in all the old pieces of paper I could possibly find. Even old newspapers had seemed to be useful. I was a little bit worried that I might have spilled paint on the floor while trying to write myself a good and catchy battle cry. God knows how hard it turned out to be. I just had to come up with something original, something provocative, but sassy at the same time. I sure hadn't found it yet. I took a careful sip of my tea. I better cleaned up this mess before my roommate returned from her late night lecture. I didn't even know what time it was really. Judging by the dusk setting in it had to be around 9:30. Which meant I did have to hurry if I wasn't aiming for a fight with Alison. I did respect her wishes and the way she wanted to live her life, but this was just to important to me. And to be honest, I couldn't quite comprehend how any woman at all could not be fond of feminism. I did get that she liked her dorm to be tidy however. Or at least a bit. I put down my mug in the windowsill, next to the record player that had just stopped playing, and bowed down to pick up the paint covered pieces of cardboard, news paper and ripped out pages from my notebook, crumpling them together and dumping it all into the garbage bin.

I turned around to discover I had actually spilled paint on the floor. I went into the kitchen to retrieve a cloth and tried to rub it off. At least it came off pretty easily. That was quite a relieve.

The door opened as I was down on my hands and knees cleaning up the remainders of paint. I turned around, smiling at my roommate. She was just a little too early for my liking. She sighed deeply and looked rather uncomfortable.

'Please don't tell me you can't get it off the floor', she pleaded.

I sat down on my butt looking up at her, still standing in the doorway.

'No, don't worry, it comes off easily', I assured her.

'Good', she mumbled and walked off to fetch herself a glass of water.

I returned to my task of cleaning up the mess I had made.

'How was your class?' I asked Allison, trying to make pleasant conversation during my work.

She sat down on the small couch we had standing in our dorm and shrugged.

'Alright, I guess', she said.

We really didn't have the deepest conversations, even though I kinda tried to change that since I had decided I didn't really dislike Alison. She was allright, we were just quite different.

'I'd really prefer that you didn't paint things on our floor, Marylee', she commented.

'I'm cleaning it up, aren't I?' I replied, glancing over my shoulder.

'Yeah, but just imagine it didn't come off as easily. What would you have done than?'

So much for my attempts at low-key chitchat.

'Listen, I'm sorry okay? But it's as much my place as it is yours. I tried to clean it up before you got home, but I lost track of time. Happens to the best.'

She sighed again.

'Why don't you do this somewhere else?'

I looked at her.

'This is my house, it's the best place I have. I'm cleaning it up allright, will be done in a second.'

I went back to scrubbing the floor. I wiped away the last spot I could find on the floor and got up to throw the cloth in the sink.

'Done, see?' I commented as I walked past Alison.

'Don't forget your tea', she said, looking at me with some strange expression. Probably commenting on me leaving it on the windowsill.

'Are you going out tonight?' She asked, once I sat myself down in the window, taking a sip of my now lukewarm tea.

I shrugged. 'Wasn't planning on it. Unless you want me out of the house', I said, looking at her suggestively.

Her cheeks turned bright red.

'You do have someone coming over?' I said surprisedly.

'No, no, not like that', she muttered quickly.

I didn't quite believe her.

'Really, I swear. My brother is coming over actually', she explained.

I nodded, a little bit disappointed.

'Oh, yeah I suppose that's a possibility too. But you'd like me to go? Scared he will be too shocked when he meets your unruly roommate?' I immediately regretted that comment and smiled to make it look like a joke. Alison didn't get the humor in in though. She ignored me and let her eyes go over the floor, probably inspecting it for any spots I could have missed.

'I'll go if you want me to', I said, another attempt to clear the air. 'Just know that I am coming back so if he plans to stay the night he will meet me in the morning anyway, but you'll have some time alone. I mean, you could also take him somewhere else yourself to have private talk. It's not like people in bars are trying to catch your conversation.'

She put down her glass and looked at me again.

'I can't make you leave if you don't want to. But I just don't think you and my brother will be a perfect match.'

I grinned.

'We don't have to get married right at the first handshake.'

She rolled her eyes.

'You know that's not what I mean.'

'Just don't make such a big deal out of it. I'll behave well tonight', I said. Somehow many of Alisons comments made me want to stretch things and provoke a bit. Also, the secrecy she pulled up about her brother made me rather eager to stay home and meet the guy.

I had been wondering what kind of home she came from anyway. I expected them to be quite a difficult set of people. Allison made every little thing seem like a problem. She had to be taught to do so by someone.

'Marylee, we both know you and I have quite different standards on that matter. If you think I'm over structured, you'll find that my brother is worse. I'm actually trying to do you a favor.'

I frowned at her, but didn't say anything. Instead I got up and took my brown suede jacket from the coatrack.

'I like to think for myself, thank you', I said, after I had turned to face her. 'Enjoy your brother.'

I didn't wait for her reply, but opened the door and left. I was going to catch some live music at the bar I liked to go to. They had different bands playing each night and I quite enjoyed that, even on my own. Alison could really get on my nerves sometimes. Oftentimes actually. I found her presence pretty restraining.

I opened the door that lead from the hallway to the outside world, but as I reached to push down the handle it went down already. I stepped aside to let the person coming in get past. His blue eyes met mine for a moment. I smiled politely at him. He nodded and then walked past. I looked after him curiously, almost certain the short haired blonde boy was Alisons brother. There wasn't much to notice about him apart from the fact that he was wearing a suit, like he had just gotten out of the office. I shrugged and stepped though the door, into the cool night air. 

A/N

Hi guys! Thanks so much for checking out our new book! In case you liked it (which I hope you did :) ), please vote, comment and follow us! We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Just a little something about the book: Laura and I will be writing this together, from different point of views, so Laura will be writing the next chapter from Alisons POV. I hope you're as excited for it as I am!

Thanks again for reading!

Anne