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Author's Note: Thanks to the fact that it's finals week and all of my friends decided that instead of going out they will be studying on Friday night I am stuck at home, and because I refuse to study on a Friday night, based on principal alone, you lot get a special pre-weekend update! Consider yourselves lucky that I have no friends willing to slack off with me. Keep the update's coming plz, if there's anything you'd particularly like to see in the story message me and I'll put it in there. = P

Not My Place

Chapter 3 – The Reason Behind It All

It had been several weeks since Marian had moved out to L.A. and she was adjusting rather well; she had only thrown 3 tantrums, attended her father's business parties without complaint showing him she was still the little social butterfly she'd always been, made friends with the Scandinavian maid who was actually Russian, and somehow had firmly and unwillingly ended up with a new best friend: Robin Locksley.

There were a lot of different friend groups she could've joined, but after meeting Robin that first day, he had become unavoidable. She had honestly tried to stay away from him, but he was always there in her classes, IMing her at night, or running into him in the woods, and…well…if she was being honest she could've tried a lot harder to avoid him, but she just couldn't gather the will power. If any other person had done this she would've considered them a stalker and filed for a restraining order, but she couldn't help her heart rate from increasing every time he was near her, hoping to see him every time she turned a corner, and making sure she used all of his secret passages, not only because they were faster, but also because they increased the chance of a run in.

"Marian!!" a loud accented voice penetrated her sleep. She sat straight up in bed. Her maid pulled the white curtains back revealing yet another sunny day in Los Angeles. City of Angles my ass, she thought, more like city of never ending Sunshine. She sighed, the constant paradise weather was actually starting to get to her, and it made her lose all perspective on the world. It was December, in her mind, it should not be 80 degrees, and yet the heat wave persisted. Oh how she longed for a good thunderstorm.

"Yes, yes I'm up Elva," Marian replied lazily as she fell back into her bed. Elva was not persuaded, she ripped the covers from Marian's sleep clouded body and snapped her fingers at the girl.

"No! You must get ready now," the maid had already set out her usual breakfast by the foot of the bed, just out of reach, guaranteeing Marian would actually have to move. Marian smiled at Elva's trickiness, but it she knew she could just get breakfast at school, they had a kick ass cafeteria, so she was barely tempted, "I made your juice just the way you like it," Elva taunted. Marian opened an eye before sighing again and getting out of bed.

She grabbed her vodka orange juice and kissed Elva on the cheek before skipping into the bathroom and blasting The Foals from her speakers. After her shower she pulled on a loose crème colored cardigan that fell down to about her thighs over a simple black tank top and black skinny jeans. Her long elegant fingers were adorned with her customary chunky silver rings and she put in silver earrings that had two dangling feathers that made a tinkling sound when she walked. Her feet slipped into gladiator sandals and she grabbed her messenger bag: ready to go.

She skipped out the door and stopped dead in her tracks. There in her driveway was parked a black '67 Chevy impala with Robin Locksley looking sexy enough to kill sitting in the drivers seat. Her mouth actually began to water at the sight. She shook her head and walked over to the passenger window, which was rolled down, she leant in so her head was inside the car and asked, "What's this?"

"The car? An impala. Me? Your chauffer. Me in the car at your house? A ride." He said grinned as she opened the door and hopped in. she caressed the car's interior, it was all smooth black leather that felt like butter as it brushed the pads of her fingers.

"If you're done molesting my car, can you close the door so we can get going?" Robin asked laughing. He was almost always perpetually smiling, which Marian found annoying in most people, but in him it seemed endearing. "Just because this car attracts more women than you do there's no reason to be jealous," Marian replied. Robin laughed and took off down the street towards school.

They had bantered the entire way there and continued their conversation as they got out of the car and walked through the student parking lot, but kept getting interrupted by what Marian had dubbed "his fan group" but they had seen Marian with him so often in the past couple weeks that now they said hi to her as well. It was a nice gesture, but she mostly ignored them. They were just being nice to her because she was with Robin, and she didn't like people who were fake like that. It bothered her that her group was called fake all the time by these people when they were doing the same to her, yet called themselves polite! Marian had fallen in with the resident 'popular group' and surprise surprise she fit right in with the snobs. Secretly she sort of detested them, but she knew this was the group she was supposed to belong to, so she put up what Robin had dubbed her "bitch front" and fit right into place with them.

What Marian found odd was that some people would occasionally ask Robin how Djaq was doing, which in itself was not weird, but what was strange was that they would never shoot her any 'he already has a girlfriend, so back off' looks at her like she deserved, they just seemed genuinely curious. In fact, not one person had gotten on her case about spending so much time flirting with a guy who's taken.

She had come to 3 possible conclusions as to why that was :

A – people didn't like Djaq and were secretly hoping Marian would steal him away, which seemed unlikely, as most of them didn't even like Marian.

B – Marian was overanalyzing the situation and Robin actually spent twice as much time with Djaq than he did with her, so people knew nothing was going on, and Robin clearly wasn't flirting back (even though it seemed like it) so they were secretly laughing at her.

C – Robin was just a genuinely good guy and they all trusted him so much it didn't even occur to them that he would cheat on Djaq.

She knew it was C. It broke her heart.

At her old school Marian had fallen in with the same sort of people she was with now; in fact, if you changed the names and haircolours they might just be the same people. She had seen numerous guys cheating on their girlfriends, not that she'd ever been cheated on, and she always dumped her boyfriends before they had the chance, but she'd seen it, real up close.

She'd genuinely loved her life in Seattle, even though it came with an absentee mom and a slight drinking disorder developed at the age of 16. Particularly the year before she'd left. She had tons of 'friends' but only one real true i-will-hug-you-when-your-sad-without-you-needing-to-ask-and-eat-ice-cream-with-you-even-though-I'll-gain-weight-and-wont-even-care-because-that's-how-much-i-love-you-friend. Her name was Sarah.

They'd been closer than sisters until Sarah had gotten a boyfriend. Or perhaps that was incorrect, Sarah had lots of boyfriends, but nothing changed until she found 'the one'. It had happened over summer while Sarah was staying with family in England; Marian had scoffed at the letters about how "in love" she was, but on the outside she was a supportive best friend, but Sarah knew her well enough to know the difference. But Sarah thought she was in love, maybe she even was, and when she came back to Seattle, she brought him with her, without telling Marian. All Marian knew was that she and Sarah would meet up at a party that night.

Marian couldn't have been more excited to see Sarah again, and was really excited for the party as it was supposed to be out of control. The last big blowout before school started again. When Marian arrived it was just that: music blaring, people practically having sex on the couches, dancing in a way that should be illegal, tons of alcohol, drugs if you knew who to talk to, but no Sarah. Marian figured she wasn't there yet, so she set about having a good time, which for her included a hell of a lot of alcohol. That night she met a guy, no one special, but he was cute enough to hold her attention until Sarah got there. She was so far past drunk at that point all she really knew was that he had an interesting accent.

They started hooking up, and didn't stop. They found a bedroom, or rather he found a bedroom since she could barely stand, and then since there was a bed standing was no longer an issue. I think you can guess what happened.

After Marian was still in a haze, and she started to feel sick, alcohol poisoning she thought at the time as she looked up at the guy who had his arms all wrapped around her, when the door to the bedroom flew open. Marian reached for the sheet to cover herself, but stopped her movements when she recognized the voice that was screaming. It was Sarah.

Immediately tears were in Sarah's eyes and she started hurly accusations at Marian faster than Marian could hear them, but eventually the message got into her alcohol sodden brain: she had slept with Sarah's "one". She tried to tell Sarah that she hadn't known who he was, but Sarah just continued on saying how Marian had never been supportive and had known exactly what she was doing. Marian had never had so many awful things said about her in such a short time, and what was worse was that all of them were true.

Marian always had though that she was better than her group, but only hung out with them because they had the best parties, but Sarah wasn't in that group, probably because she was a genuinely good person, and was constantly trying to her Marian to fall in with her friends. That night Sarah told Marian that she was just like her friends who she professed to be better than, and she was completely right. Maria was where she belonged, in a group full of cheaters and backstabbers and druggies and drunks. Sarah had run off and Marian had turned to the guy in the bed to yell at him to go after her, but he was already making out with one of the girls who had seen this display.

Marian would never be able to forget the feeling of knowing she had ruined Sarah's life, Sarah had no best friend and now no "one". But then it hit her that Sarah wasn't alone, Sarah had a family who loved her and lots of real friends because she was deserving of that love. Marian however was widely adored for no reason other than being pretty and rich. Maybe she had slept with him on purpose, subconsciously of course, because she was jealous. She had never in her entire life felt lower, rock bottom wasn't just an expression, she felt like she was being stoned to death with emotions and realizations. It nearly killed her.

The next day it was worse, she'd woken up with a killer hangover and gone to see Sarah before school, but she wasn't allowed in Sarah's house. At school Marian was congratulated by her friends who had never liked Sarah, and when Sarah refused to talk to Marian, she started accepting the congrats with a smile.

She was a horrible person and she knew it, so when the opportunity came to move, at first she thought she could turn over a new leaf, but on the plane she realized that she would still be the same person inside, a person people shouldn't love because she would only be cruel to them, and decided to stop pretending and stop molly coddling herself into believing she was a good person worthy of love, and just except it.

Robin's voice broke into her revere, "So Marian, is today the day you'll finally consent to meeting my humble gang?" Her gaze shot up into Robin's bright green eyes that were full of love for the world, goodness, humour, and nearly broke out into tears. She couldn't help another person cheat again, she couldn't hurt another person so undeserving just because she herself was horrible.

Marian may have been a lot of things, but a crier she was not. She hadn't cried since she was 6 and wasn't about to start now, so she swallowed her tears and said in a harsh unfeeling voice, "No." and walked away leaving Robin behind to stare at her confused as she entered the school.

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Update for next chapter will be really quick maybe even later today, I'm inspired.

If you love me…