Into the Light

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

NOTICE: This story is written for mature audiences. The upcoming chapter contains potentially upsetting content. Reader discretion is highly advised.
 
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   While Sang went to her pool party, Marie searched the school looking for her. Sang hadn’t found Marie at lunch, and Sang was nowhere to be found at the end of the school day. They were supposed to walk home together. This wasn’t like Sang. And Marie was worried.

   Marie clutched the strap of her backpack, looking down the hallways of Ashley Waters. Black gaping mouths stared back. The lights were being shut off. It was almost four. Class was over, and anyone left would either be in the gym or out on the track for after school sports.

   The school was downright creepy. Filthy. The silence seemed terribly loud, muffling Marie’s footsteps as she turned down a long hallway.

    Panel lights flickered above. Marie didn’t like this place. Not the school. Not Charleston, South Carolina. She missed Minnesota. She missed the house she grew up in. Her bed. The smell of her pillows. She missed her speech friends and Andrew.

   Marie flinched.

   She shouldn’t miss Andrew. She tried not to think of him, or her friends, or the snowfall that probably wouldn’t come. ‘In coastal areas like Charleston, several years can pass without any measurable snowfall,’ Annette told her last night.

   Marie distantly recalled building a snowman on a hill in Duluth. She couldn’t get the bottom ball up the hill by herself, and that was when Andrew had shown up. A knight in snow pants, Andrew helped Marie finish her snowman.

   Andrew had been the light of Marie’s life. He was in speech. They rode the bus home together. They laughed and joked and talked. He was Marie’s best secret. A friend who Marie’s mother knew nothing about... couldn't know about because Andrew was a boy and boys only wanted one thing.

   Marie forced the thought of Andrew aside. She tried not to think about him. She tried not to think about his twisting face when she confessed her feelings. That she loved him and had for a while. ‘Marie, stop. You know I’m with Shannon. Don’t do this to yourself.’ Marie winced, recalling the tears. The begging. Andrew didn’t choose her.

   Marie chewed her lip.

   Marie remembered staring at herself in the mirror. Brown eyes. Brown hair. Plain. Boring. Second choice.

   She didn’t want to like Andrew anymore, but her heart still pounded traitorously whenever he came close. And her heart leapt when he found her in the hall. ‘Marie, I’ve been looking for you,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’

   Of course, she came. He led Marie through their school. The familiar classes passing them by. The art room. The science lab. The gym. Andrew brought her to the door of the boy’s locker room. ‘Come with me,’ he said again.

   Marie hesitated. ‘I can’t go in there.’

   ‘Trust me. No one is inside.’

   Marie followed. After all, she trusted Andrew. He touched her hand. Held it. Led her through the door. It smelled like sweat as he brought her to the back of the locker room. Passed the showers. There was a closed door, and he opened it, ushering Marie into the darkness. Behind them, Andrew locked the door.