Mariah layed on her stomach on her bed, twirling her new blue hair around her fingertips nervously. Her bright yellow and brown plain pajamas were a color contrast compared to her mostly pink room, but Mariah loved to stand out; Just like Mariam.
Behind Mariah, Ray was giving her a foot massage. The two were in discussion over the trial.
"I'm nervous about testifying tomorrow... I'm not very good under pressure." She said, clutching the purple pillow her upper body was resting against tight to her.
"Well all you gotta do is tell the truth right?" Ray said, his skillful hands working all the kinks and cracks out of Mariah's sore feet. Mariah fidgeted a little at the word 'truth'.
"..Right."
"So what's there to be nervous about?" Ray said, trying to make her feel better. Not only that, but his mind was also stuck on a certain blunette who simply stunned everyone with her performance on the stand. "Mariam and Rhanda, they already did a good job at the stand... Especially Mariam.." He sighed softly.
Mariah's ears tweaked a little, and she cocked an eyebrow, knowing he couldn't see her face.
"Yeah she was amazing.." Ray continued. But Mariah turned quickly to him, pulling her foot from his grasp.
"Well I'm not Mariam okay?!" She said bluntly. "This whole thing is really scary for me with the judge and all the lawyers... I'm starting to think it was a bad idea." She hissed, turning once more and flopping down on her stomach against her pillow. Ray gently took her foot again.
"No no, hey. Hey, hey.." He said, letting go of it a second later and crawling up to face her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she looked at him sadly. "What Mr. G did to you, to all of you.. Was wrong." He stated gently, his calming voice working it's magic on Mariah already .He kissed her arm. "Right?" He asked her.
Mariah nodded weakly.
"Right.." Ray pushed some of her hair out of her face, and began to kiss around her ear and cheek. But Mariah sat up.
"Baby??" She asked. Now was the time. Meanwhile, Ray turned onto his back, and suppressed an annoyed groan of rejection. His answer came a second later.
"Yeah?"
"Did it make you sad when Mariam broke up with you?" She asked curiously, her golden orbs searching the matching ones of her boyfriend. Ray seemed to pause for a moment;
"..You mean when I broke up with her." He said.
"........No,.. When she broke up with you." Mariah said again. "'Cause you weren't ready to have sex."
Someone had lied.
"What?!" Ray said, sitting up quickly. "Babe... Is that what she told you??" He asked rather sternly, looking at her crossly. Mariah shrunk back a little.
"What, that's not what happened-"
"No, aha, no; Not even close." Ray said, cutting her off. Mariah narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean, what-what happened??" She asked, getting a little closer to her tanned boyfriend. He sighed exasperated.
"Well.. I heard something... That, kinda freaked me out." He started. "And to be honest with you, it was kinda making me look bad." He continued.
Ray sat on the bed in Mariam's house.
"One night I was over Mariam's house, and.. She came out of the bathroom, and started doing this nasty little dance..."
Mariam opened the door, letting her hand trail down the frame, while cocking her little hot hips and staring at Ray sexily. Dressed in a see-through pink blouse and hot pink short-shorts, her blue hair began to dance as she sauntered over to him.
While at the same time, beginning to unclasp the buttons of the blouse.
Ray looked away with a groan.
".Mariam...." He said, "stop it." Mariam just smirked at it, leaning down to him.
"Ohhh, what's the matter baby, you don't like what you see?" She asked sexily as she swooped in to capture his lips.
But.. She was pushed back.
"Johnny McGregor told me what he did to you." Mariam froze a little.
"..Ah..." She sputtered. Then, gently clasped Ray's strong shoulders. "...Are you gonna believe everything that Johnny says?" She said seductively, her small pink tongue licking her pale glossed lips.
But Ray pushed her back again.
"I believe this." Mariam got a look of disbelief and irritation on her face ,if not a bit insulted.
"...Okay...... Uh.. Assuming that it's true.......... Why does it matter..?" As Ray contemplated his answer, Mariam gained back her smirk. "If you're good, I'll let you go where Johnny went..." She said sexily, bending down to him again.
"No that is not cool Mariam!" He spat. "I do not take some loser's sloppy seconds!" He hissed. "And I don't wanna be with some dirty little whore." Mariam's jaw dropped. And she blinked a few times.
"..What did you say to me?" Her voice grew evil so suddenly. Ray just looked at her.
"You heard me." Mariam looked at him, anger beginning to seethe through her. "Slut." He finished.
The resounding smack of a slap echoed through her large bedroom as Ray's tanned cheek began to turn red. He just winced a little, more irritated than in pain.
"So that was it I walked out." Ray finished his story. Mariah sat there in disbelief.
"Wow... She never told me that..." The new blunette said, her eyes flashing anger for a moment. But Ray gently grasped her waist.
"It doesn't matter. Everything happens for a reason. I mean even when I was with Mariam I.. I always had a thing for you." He said softly, looking into Mariah's shining golden pools. She began to blush. "You know how I used to look at you." He smirked. "..I can't help but think she knew that." He said then, looking down, then back up at Mariah. Her blush faded.
She couldn't let Mariam be shot down like that... It was her best friend.....
Could she?
"..She's probably just really embarrassed..." Mariah said sweetly. Ray nodded, and the two's lips connected in a tender kiss.
"You're right." He said. "And she really is, being really brave about this whole thing..." He trailed off, his hand taking Mariah's and beginning to fondle it. ".....Actually I think you should just follow her example." He blurted. Mariah stiffened.
Then looked him back in the eyes.
"Be as brave as she is." He said softly. Mariah didn't want to...
She just pressed her lips to his again, and kissed him passionately.
"Like Mariam Carey and Rhanda Azuni before you, you have outlined a disturbing pattern of repeated sexual assault and harassment on the defendant your teacher, Mr. Granger." The lawyer in the wheelchair assessed as Mariah was nervously sitting upon the stand waiting interrogation. She watched as the lawyer's finger finally dropped from pointing at Hiro Granger, sitting at his defense table, his hands nervously together in his lap.
Today was the big day.
"Now, I have to ask you; What took you so long to come forward?" The wheelchair-bound man continued.
"....We were scared......" Mariah muttered, turning her head and looking at the large jury nervously. Her bright pink blouse stood out boldly against her true blue locks, and the little flower print dress she wore under it didn't match. Yet she looked pretty. "We were ashamed....."
"And, what finally made you break your silence?" He asked her. Right then, fire shot through Mariah's golden orbs.
"..When he decided to do it in front of everybody!..." She lowly hissed, her teeth clenching in her jaw and her hands getting wound together tighter in her lap.
"'Decided to do it in front of everybody' please miss could you repeat for us, the incident that drove you over the edge?" The lawyer said, turning back to face the audience and wheeling towards them a little.
Mariah shook her head lightly, and tears began to well in her golden pools.
But she knew she had to go on.
"It was at Drama Club.. After school on a Friday..." She began.
"Famous actors used to stress the importance of being able to perform, uh.. Private moments... On stage." Hiro said, sitting in the large auditorium where Roxbury students studied drama. The whole club was there, sitting up in their seats and watching with alert as Mr. Granger advised Mariah on her stage presence. Mariam was there, Ray was there, as well as Mr. Knickle, and a few other students. "Now;....Acting is about opening yourself up." He said factly. "It's about freeing yourself from shame and iridescence, and inhibition. It's about laying yourself bare." He said, leaning forward in his seat as Mariam turned her head to look at him from her's weirdly. "So Mariah...." He said, "I want you to show me your private moment." He finished.
Mariah gulped at the sight of so many people. Her form had begun to shake, and her legs were tightly together in fear of having an accident on stage in front of all the peers and the lights. Her eyes shifted to the left, and then back at Mr. Granger.
"..Private moment?" She asked nervously.
"Yes private moment. Something you would do only in complete privacy, something no one else would ever see you do." He said, watching her carefully. "Now I want you to take a moment, think about what that is, and when you have it... Show me." He stated.
Mariah stood fidgeting in her pink blouse and grey pencil skirt next to a solitary stool, the lights from behind her casting her shadow long across the stage.
..Private moment?
............ He didn't mean....?..
"I-I don't wanna do that." She sputtered. It almost seemed like Mr. Granger got fastly irritated. His blue hair wove as he leant back in his seat.
"Do you wanna be Anne Frank??" He asked her intimidatingly. Mariah didn't get the chance to answer. "Alright then stop whining and do it!" He hissed.
"W-W-Well what's he doing here?!" She asked, gesturing towards Mr. Knickle, seated in the far back. Granger turned to him, before turning back to Mariah.
"Uh, there's no one here Mariah, that's the point of this exercise. You're alone." He sighed, sweeping a hand through his hair. "Close your eyes." Mariah gulped, and did as she was told. "Imagine yourself... In the privacy of your own room... The door's locked.... Blinds are drawn..." Hiro's voice began to lower. Not just the volume in reality, but as Mariah's mind forced herself to complete this little tactic, it lowered in her head too.
Much to everyone's disbelief... A few seconds later, Mariah's hand gently snaked up through her cleavage, and began to unbutton her blouse. Mr. Granger took a deep breath, watching the girl carefully. Soon, her blouse was open by 3 out of 4 buttons and exposing her bra.
Next her hand traveled behind her, and gently undid the zipper at the back of her pencil skirt. In her head... There was she, in her pink-walled room, in her yellow and black pjs... With her hand inside her panties.... A gentle rhythm....
Then, her eyes opened in the heat of the moment.
There were people watching her.
The golden eyes bulged and she gasped, covering herself quickly.
"I can't do this!! No way!" She began to scurry off the stage, shoving her shirt back inside of her skirt and proceeding to do it up.
"Mariah Mariam!" Granger tried to stop her, jumping from his seat and tailing her. "T-That was very good you know, I mean Anne Frank had nowhere to run!" He said. "So... You could stay here and act like a professional.... Or you can run home like a pathetic little girl." He stated. Mariah's jaw dropped.
"I am a little girl you fucking pervert!" She screeched, turning and running off, sobbing. Mariam gulped in her seat and began to jog after her.
"Pervert." She spat in Hiro's ear as she passed.
Mariah ran down the hallway from the auditorium, pausing by a blue door and ripping the Roxbury Drama cast list from it's tacked place. Tears swelled in the new-blunette's eyes, her tanned skin turning red with hushed distress. Mariam ran down after her, and as Mariah bent a little, sobbing hard, the natural bluenette began to stroke her hair and shush her.
Mariah tilted her head up again the courtroom, her eyes wet with tears and her light layer of brown eyeliner smudged. The audience gave her a sad look.
"I have no more questions Your Honor."The lawyer said.
"Very well. Court is adjured till Monday." The judge said, banging his gavel.
Mariam's phone rang as she walked past, and she paused, sitting on a chair as she answered it.
"Hello?" She asked curiously.
"Mariam hi, it's Enrique." His hot-shot voice said.
"Hi Enrique."
"I haven't seen you lately." He said. Mariam sighed.
"Um... I've actually been thinking, uh..... Enrique... I never really liked you all that much, and.. I think we should break up." She muttered, a hint of sadness in her voice. But, Enrique was silent.
"...Enrique?" Mariam asked.
"It always goes down easy." He said, and Mariam could tell that he had a smirk on his face.
"What?"
"That was one of the reasons, why beer's better than a woman." He smirked. Almost totally oblivious to what Mariam had said to him.
"Oh..."
"If it's flat, you can throw it out."
"Um, okay Enrique-"
"You don't have to wash it, before it tastes good!" He enthused. He was about to ramble again when Mariam got slightly ticked.
"Enrique!" She said quickly."I really gotta go okay. Are you even listening to me did you hear what I said?!" She hissed.
"...Is it another guy?" Enrique's surprisingly mellow voice responded a second later.
Mariam smirked.
