Disclaimer: I do not own anything Ann M. Martin wrote or her characters.
Chapter Three
"Logan? Looking forward to tomorrow?" Kevin shouted in the back seat of Logan's moving dark blue Honda.
"Hell, yes! No parents and --" Logan cut off glancing at Mary Anne, "Well, it will be a good time."
"Yes, it will. To bad you won't get to have some of the other fun," Dylan smirked at Logan, looking over at Mary Anne.
"Naw, none of that--"
"Cokie will be their at the party tomorrow night." Kevin spoke up, in a mocking tone.
"Please, that slut? She's all right for a lay but beyond that? Hell no," Logan laughed. Mary Anne glanced over at Logan, who was heading towards Kevin's house. Watching him, she wondered if he was tempted to have a one night stand with Cokie. Mary Anne knew that she wasn't putting out for him. Maybe he wanted someone to give him a good time.
She cringed at those thoughts. Shut up, Mary Anne, she thought to herself. She turned to the window and saw houses flash past the window, not recognizing the neighborhood they were in. It was probably close to Kevin's then. She had never been in this part of the town.
Mary Anne already felt better being away from the school. Nobody was bothering her in Logan's car. His friends ignored her for the most part aside from the slight digs at her. She felt a little sad, these guys had once been close to her before everything happened. Dylan was Logan's best friend so he wasn't to happy with Mary Anne.
Suddenly, Logan swept into a driveway in front of a large light grey house. It looked to be about three stories high. Apparently, Kevin's family was relatively wealthy. Stepping out of the car, "Thanks for the ride, Logan. See you later, Dylan. Bye, Mary Anne!" He waved and ran into the house.
"Hyper," Dylan mumbled, rolling his brown eyes. "You busy tonight, Logan?"
"Mary Anne and I are going to dinner and a movie but her curfew is at 11:30." Logan said, "Why, what do you have in mind?"
"Ah, well. We are going to hang at the club if you want to come over after hooking up with Mary Anne," Dylan hissed. Mary Anne's eyes widened at the hostile tone.
"We won't be 'hooking up' but I'll try and come over later," Logan's voice had an edge to it and he rested his hand over Mary Anne's.
"Well, I am only a block away. I can walk the rest of the way," Dylan smirked. "I wouldn't want to interrupt anything. See you later, Logan." He looked over at Mary Anne and nodded at her.
"Bye," she said, softly.
"Bye." and he slammed the door.
Logan looked over Mary Anne. "Don't worry about him. He's been having a lot of problems lately."
She nodded, she knew that his father had recently gone to prison for beating on his mother. She could not understand what could cause somebody to do such atrocious things to somebody they supposedly loved.
Mary Anne turned back to stare out the window when Logan started up the car again. She kept thinking about having to go back to her house where Sharon would be. At least she would be able to leave at 7 for her date with Logan. Shame it was Sharon's day off of work. Mary Anne glanced at her watch which read 4:04 PM.
Quick as lightning, or it seemed like it anyways, they were parked in front of her house. She hated that house these days especially since Dawn would be back tomorrow for the summer. Great, she thought sarcastically to herself.
"Hey, Mary Anne, I will see you tonight at seven, all right?" Logan said, sounding like he was in a hurry. He leaned over and kissed her. Mary Anne felt like he was keeping something from her though.
She looked at him, after he pulled away, with her big brown eyes, and he smiled. "I know you haven't had that great of a day, but at least we are out of school now."
"Yeah," she sighed. "Well, I should probably go and face the rabid stepmother."
She opened up her door to his laughter. She smiled, and then laughed as well. He stopped laughing and stared at her. "What, do I have some on my face?"
He smiled, "No, I had forgotten your laugh. It's good to hear." She blushed, leaned forward and gave him another peck and slammed the door. When she got to the front door, she waved.
The door swung open. An angry Sharon stood there. "Why are you so late?"
"Logan had to take some his friends home before me."
"If you end up pregnant don't blame me." Mary Anne's mouth fell open in outrage.
"Excuse me?"
"I know you are a little slut. Cheating on Logan and the Dawn debacle," growled Sharon.
"What the hell did Dawn tell you? Because what happened was all her fault, not mine!" yelled Mary Anne, surprised at herself. She was usually so soft spoken and hated conflict but she had had enough. All day people had been crawling up her ass but at least she had deserved their disdain. She did not, however, deserve Sharon's disdain.
"You nasty little liar. I know what actually happened, don't play the innocent act with me."
"I am not playing the innocent act--" Mary Anne was interrupted, for what felt like the tenth time today, by something. This time it was a knock on the door that interrupted her. Sharon followed after Mary Anne.
Mary Anne yanked open the door to see Logan holding up her jacket she must have left the car. "Thanks."
Logan looked from Mary Anne's angry and slightly hurt expression to Sharon's enraged expression. "Is there a problem?"
"Here's someone who knows Mary Anne's true colors--"
"What the hell do you mean, her true colors," snapped Logan.
"She cheated on you."
"I know," at Mary Anne's wince, Logan spoke again. "but you don't seem to understand what actually happened and why is it any of your business?"
"Dawn said that--"
"Dawn is a nasty liar!" shouted Logan, surprising Mary Anne. Silence rang out.
Mary Anne looked between Logan and Sharon. Logan took a deep breath, turned to Mary Anne and said, "I will see you at seven, I need to leave so I don't hurt your stepmother. Good luck with her." He placed the jacket over her shoulders, turned to the door and shut it behind him.
Mary Anne whirled around to face Sharon. "Why don't pick up this argument later, all right? I am going to get a snack and then I'll stay in my room."
Sharon glared but said, "Fine." She stalked off to the living room.
Mary Anne breathed out a sigh of relief, feeling the tension leaving her. She hated confrontation, hated it! She walked into the kitchen and looked around, got an apple, and a glass of water. Gulping down the water, she proceeded to go upstairs with her apple.
Mary Anne sat down on her bed when she got upstairs and reached for the telephone next to her bed. The year before, her father got her a telephone for her own bedroom although it was on the same telephone line as the rest of the house. Her father was still rather protective of his daughter…
She picked up the phone and called Kristy. One the third ring, Kristy's little sister, Karen, answered the phone. "Thomas residence. Who am I speaking to?"
"Hi, Karen. It's Mary Anne, is Kristy there?"
"No, she and Abby went for a jog. Completely crazy, they are. Do you want to leave a message," Karen answered.
"No, that's all right. I'll just call her tomorrow. Thanks." Mary Anne felt disappointed. She really wanted to speak to someone, because whenever she was alone the ever encompassing depression popped again. She often wondered if she would ever feel the same again.
Sighing, she glanced around the room looking for something to do. She turned on her small television set and started flipping through the channels. On one channel, the evening news was about to start, on another there was some sort of documentary being featured. Nothing interesting was on but she kept the television on, deciding to watch the evening news.
The news began with some sort of burglary, the spokespeople thought that it was some sort of gang activity. Mary Anne rolled her eyes. Gang activity in StoneyBrook? They said that there was some sort of symbol spray painted on the building. It was probably some juvenile delinquents getting some kicks, thought Mary Anne, they are probably watching this and laughing.
She wondered if people from her own school participated in these ridiculous acts. A few days ago, the news had uncovered another burglary that had occurred at the local grocery store. Mary Anne didn't think that they were connected though.
Meow. Tigger. Mary Anne was glad to see her cat, Tigger, who was several years old now but still going strong. Mary Anne absentmindedly scratched Tigger's fur while continuing to watch the five o'clock news.
An hour later, Mary Anne heard the door open downstairs. "Mary Anne, Sharon, I'm home," Mary Anne's father said. Mary Anne shrugged, knowing that her father would come up to see her soon enough. She really did not want to have another confrontation with her stepmother from hell.
Mary Anne remembered a time when she, her stepmother, her father, Dawn, and even Jeff were a happy family. That was long past, though. She wondered how everything had gotten so out of control. Mary Anne had done so much to screw up her own life but others were doing a fine job of making it a hundred times worse.
"Mary Anne, " Mr. Spier called as he walked up the stairs.
"Hi, dad," Mary Anne said, getting up and giving him a hug. Although still protective, her father was far more lenient than he had been in the past. As a result, she and her father were much closer.
"You look like you had a rough day," Mr. Spier spoke, sadly. "You really haven't had the greatest time lately, have you?"
Mary Anne shook her head, feeling even more depressed. "Sweetie, it will get better. Aren't you and Logan back on track?"
"Yeah, he has been really good to me lately, but I still feel bad about everything," Mary Anne quietly intoned.
"Look, Mary Anne, if he wants to look past what happened and forgive you, maybe you should start forgiving yourself," he looked concerned, "It is not healthy for you to face such severe depression all of the time."
Mary Anne took in a deep breath, and nodded. "I know, but it's hard."
"Of course its hard, but throughout our lifetimes we make a lot of mistakes and we must learn to overcome them." He patted her shoulder. "I heard your stepmother grumbling about you going on a date with Logan tonight, what are your plans?"
Mary Anne knew that her father always wanted to know where she was at all times. "Dinner and a movie, at seven."
Mr. Spier looked down at his watch. "Well, it's six-fifteen, so I will let you get ready. Make sure to be back by 11:30."
She nodded. "Yes, dad."
After he was gone, she sighed to herself, suddenly wondering what she should wear. Logan had said that it would be casual but they really hadn't had a real date in a long time so she was nervous.
She decided on a simple black skirt, and a sleeveless white v-neck. It was simple and fairly casual. She looked cute in it, though. She had a black sweater to wear over the top. For shoes, she slipped on black mid-height t-strapped sandals. She placed a white headband on her head after brushing her long brown locks, and slipped on a silver necklace. After fixing her mascara and putting a small amount of green eye shadow on to bring out her eyes, she nervously looked at her reflection. That would have to do, she wasn't allowed to wear any more make-up than she was wearing. She couldn't get her ears pierced until her sixteenth birthday so that was out of the question.
Putting on her silver watch, she glanced at the time and then stopped, shocked, it was already 6:52 PM. After a few more minutes of fussing with her hair, the doorbell rung and a few moments later…"Mary Anne! Logan's here!"
Grabbing her handbag, and tossing on her sweater, she walked downstairs to see Logan waiting for her. He smiled when he saw her.
"You look gorgeous." He said, simply. She blushed.
"Thanks, you look good as well," and he did. He was only wearing jeans and a nice black shirt but he looked attractive as hell.
"Be back by 11:30," called Mr. Spier, as the two of them walked outside.
"I will, Mr. Spier," shouted Logan, rolling his eyes at Mary Anne causing her to laugh.
Notes: Next chapter: their date and a confrontation with a certain former best friend of Logan's. It should be interesting. Some of the things illustrated in this chapter will become very important later on, by the way. Anyways, please read and review!
