"Opening act?" Mary practically screamed, "We are not an opening act."
Mary's sisters and band mates, Sybil and Edith, leaned back in their chairs as Mary slammed her palms down on Robert's desk.
"You're our father!" She exclaimed, her cheeks flushing red, "You're supposed to make sure we're successful."
Robert Grantham flushed before standing up to his full height, "Mary! I understand that you're upset. But shouting at me is not going to solve anything."
Mary crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, "Fine. Then you're going to say that we aren't an opening act."
Robert crossed his arms and started back at his oldest daughter, "I most certainly am not doing that. Your last album didn't sell as much as we wanted it to. Being an opening act for this group will bring more publicity and possibly a new fan base."
Sybil and Edith shared a look; once their sister and father got into it, a fight could last for a while.
Sybil leaned forward and tapped her fingers on the desk, both Robert and Mary's heads snapped to look at her.
"I think you've left out a key piece of information, Dad," she said, "Who exactly are we opening for?"
Robert ran a hand over his face. Mary was going to go completely mental.
"White Cliffs of Moher," he said finally, bracing himself for the explosion.
Edith and Sybil both went white. Mary's hatred of Matthew Crawley was well documented.
Mary's tone was icy, "Crawley and Branson. We're supposed to open for those two pricks?!"
Sybil winced, "Mare..."
Mary rounded on her sister, "Oh no! I am not compromising on this!"
Edith wrinkled her nose, "Don't you think it's time you -"
Mary practically growled, "No! I'm not opening for them."
She shot one more withering look at her father before storming out of the office and slamming the door behind her.
Robert sunk to his chair, "What on Earth is her problem with Matthew Crawley and Tom Branson? They seem relatively clean cut."
Edith and Sybil looked at each other, debating whether or not to betray Mary's trust.
"Well..." Edith said, "See, do you remember Mary's car accident three years ago?"
Robert nodded; of course he remembered. Mary had been in the hospital for almost a month.
"What does the accident have to do with this?" he asked.
Sybil chewed on her lip.
Edith frowned, "Matthew Crawley was driving the other car. He hit Mary and drove away."
Robert jumped up and thundered, "What?"
Sybil nodded, "Mary told us a few weeks after the accident. But Matthew's obviously never said anything, and Mary thinks he's a rotten coward. And oh, Daddy, you can tell her we told you!"
Robert breathed deep through his nose, attempting to calm himself down.
"Fine," he said, "I won't tell Mary, but you're going to have to go through with opening for them. You girls need the publicity."
Edith sighed, "We'll talk to Mary."
"Good," Robert nodded, "Make sure she's on board. The announcement is in three days."
Edith and Sybil nodded, agreeing to try and convince their sister to join the tour.
Mary stormed out of her father's London office and burst onto the street.
A gust of wind blew, ruffling her hair and forcing her to pull her plaid wool jacket tighter around her slender body.
She was still angry, even though a small part of her brain told her that there was no way her father could have known about her issues with Matthew Crawley.
Mary marched stiffly back to the apartment she shared with her sisters.
The cold was bothering her arm.
Once she opened the door to the loft apartment, Mary flung her jacket off and tossed it onto the couch.
"I can't believe this," she sighed, kicking off her boots and dropping onto the couch.
Her phone was buzzing away, messages from Edith and Sybil probably, but Mary didn't even look at it when she turned the device off.
Mary tucked her feet up under her butt and rolled up the sleeve on her sweater. The six-inch scar that disappeared onto her shoulder made her want to hit something.
Mary ran her fingers over the jagged line, her thoughts turning to the accident two years ago.
-It had been late. Mary was driving home from the recording studio. Sybil and Edith had both left hours and hours ago. But Mary, Mary was a perfectionist and she wasn't leaving until she knew that their second album was close to perfect.
It was either snowing or raining that night - two years out, Mary couldn't remember.
But what she could remember was the excruciating pain she had felt when that car had hit hers head on.
She could barely remember the car flipping over itself - once, twice, three times before coming to a stop upside down.
Mary had cried out, dangling upside down from her seat belt. Her fingers had scrambled for purchase, trying to take pressure off of her shoulders. They had been screaming in pain, and everything was slippery. Later, Mary would realize that this was all blood - her blood.
Mary's head was pounding, and her eyelids were getting heavy.
"Oh, shite," a make voice said from outside the car. Or at least, Mary thought it was outside the car, everything sounded fuzzy and far away.
"Are you alright?" The voice said, and Mary wanted to roll her eyes. Of bloody course she wasn't 'alright,' she was dangling upside down in her buggering car, for Christ's sake.
"I want to report an accident," the voice said, and Mary blinked her eyes open with difficulty, trying to see who was calling 999.
A face swam into view, and Mary blinked hard to get her eyes to focus.
Blond hair, blue eyes. Mary tried to place him.
Matthew Crawley! She realized, half of that new band with the crap name.
He had a cut on his forehead, blood streaming down his cheek.
He had been the one to hit her, Mary thought before everything finally went black and she couldn't feel the pain anymore.
Mary woke up in the hospital three days later with pins in her arm and uncertainty about her future playing guitar.
Matthew Crawley never came forward to apologize or take the blame for the accident.
Her entire career could have been ruined all because of him.
Mary hated him for it. -
Mary shook herself from her thoughts as the door to the apartment opened.
"Mare?" Sybil called out, holding the door for Edith.
"I'm not doing it," Mary shouted.
Edith closed the door behind her and draped her jacket on the back of the couch, "Mary, we have to. Maybe it won't be as bad as you think."
Mary narrowed her eyes, "I won't be anywhere near that man. Not after what he did to me."
Sybil sat on the couch and tucked herself close to Mary, "We know. We're not asking you to marry him! Just do the tour and you won't have to deal with him again. Daddy says we need the publicity."
Mary's fingers drifted to her elbow, if she pressed hard enough she could feel the metal pins that were now holding her arm together. Matthew Crawley had done that.
But she looked at Sybil's pleading face and Edith's hopeful one, and Mary could feel her resolve crumbling.
"I won't spend time with him outside of official duties," Mary said, punctuating her sentence with a firm, "Ever!"
Edith grinned, "Oh! You won't have to! We'll have our own tour bus and we don't have to let them on. Promise!"
Mary sighed heavily and fiddled with her rings.
"Okay," she said.
"Okay?" Edith and Sybil repeated.
Mary nodded, "I'll do it. We'd better call Dad."
Edith grinned, "I'll do it!"
She headed off to the kitchen to call Robert and tell him that Mary had agreed.
A/N: Hey there! So this was born of a random thought I had a few weeks ago. Matthew and Tom will make their appearance next chapter, and I hope you guys like this! Let me know your thoughts =D
Also, I chose to use Grantham as the girls' las name, since they can't obviously share the same name as Matthew for this story! Hope you guys don't mind =D
