This a kind of exploration of Marley's future and possible romances. The 'or's indicate a new universe or person Marley is with. Hope everybody likes this! It's my first time posting something.
Marely is a little fragile. Crafted slim, a little tall, with long, carefully curved features. Insecure, young-sounding, a touch innocent, but so full of life, with a laugh like honey.
She needs someone reassuring, someone who makes her roll her eyes but laugh anyway, someone who will convince her to go to that frat boy party down the street.
She needs a friend like Santana to drunkenly compliment her in a dirty bathroom at three in the morning, or a friend like Kurt or Mercedes to pick out her outfits and hype her up before a rare performance or an important meeting because, for Marley, meetings are just as scary as performances, or a soft-spoken friend like Ryder or Mike to assure her everything would be okay and to stop by at dinnertime with a dish of lasagna because they knew Marley wouldn't eat that day without prompting.
She needs a couple failed relationships. Jake, Ryder, maybe Kitty, and maybe a heartbreak so terrible she stays away from the dating pool for years, from Quinn, or Finn, or someone she met at NYU that she really, really loved.
And then one day, when she thinks she's finally over them, she meets someone- maybe in graduate school, maybe in the musical or play she's writing for, maybe when she was walking out from one of her last therapy sessions. Maybe even back in Lima, visiting her mother for the summer.
Maybe it's Jake, or Ryder, or maybe even Kitty, looking older and so changed, and suddenly Marley is ready to reconnect.
Or maybe it's someone completely different- Joe, Madison, a lanky man-boy with striking green eyes.
And then Marley gets to know them better because they're the show's main choreographer, or they're thinking about taking the same elective she's signed up for, or she asks them out for a coffee- or a tea, because Marley can't drink coffee without an obscene amount of sugar and cream- at her favorite coffee shop.
And maybe one thing leads to another with Jake, Ryder, Kitty, Joe, Madison, or the lanky man-boy whose name is Max. Or maybe it doesn't.
Maybe, three years later, Marley's curled up with Jake, or Kitty, or green-eyed Max, in a tiny shoebox apartment in New York, or Seattle, or another bustling city, writing music or plays or tv shows and making chicken stir fry and homemade treats for their puppy.
And maybe Kitty is working commercials and trying to book tv shows, or Max is managing an Italian restaurant- he did teach her how to make a chicken parmesan that rivaled even her mother's- or Jake is singing background on Mercedes' second album and working part-time as a plumber to pay the rent.
Santana is juggling law school, co-managing Brittany's dance studio, and the obnoxiously large amount of cats Brittany's adopted, all while managing to pay the rent for her and Brittany's New York apartment. Ryder teaches English and social studies near his and Unique's house in Greenwich, Connecticut, while Unique commutes to New York City every morning to work on her off-Broadway show. Marley calls them at least twice a week- Santana grumbling at how ridiculous it is that Marley has to call and not just send her a text because she is "very busy, Rose", and Ryder always answering before the third ring with a soft, "Hey, Marley".
It's the small things; Kitty bringing her a cup of green tea when Marley's furiously typing away on her laptop, Finn texting her once a month with a clumsy greeting, Jake building a little birdfeeder and hanging it outside her writing spot so she can watch the birds feed when she's stuck on a particularly tricky lyric, Kurt sending her a piece from the collections he's designed every year with a little note saying, Wear this, Marley Rose, or I will come over there and make you, Max picking her up from the couch where she's passed out after a Julie Andrews marathon and carrying her to their bed.
There's a slight twinge in her chest when Finn texts her about his and Rachel's engagement, or when Quinn sends her an advanced reader's copy of her novel, or when she sees her old NYU boyfriend's name under an article in The Guardian.
But Marley is, as Santana likes to say, "nauseatingly happy" years after heartbreak, a wedding band on her finger, writing music and plays for her theatre company, flying out to LA to surprise Kitty, who's filming a new show for Netflix, or kissing Max in the kitchen after sampling her favorite fettuccine alfredo, or listening to Jake gush on the phone about whatever tour he's dancing background for.
Years later, she's achieved complete closure by owning a shelf of Quinn's books, or by going double dates with Max or Jake or Kitty and Rachel and Finn, or by reaching out to her ex-boyfriend on Facebook to congratulate him on his article.
Years later, she watches Max teach a mini-her how to make pasta, or she finally agrees to get a mini-Jake to get a leather jacket after making him promise no motorcycles, yet, or she throws her hands up in the air and does the dishes herself after a mini-Kitty and a regular-sized Kitty glare at each other for thirty minutes, each insisting the other should do the dishes and both too stubborn to cave in to the other.
In every universe, not only the Kitty, Jake, and Max universes, but the Ryder, Joe, and Madison universes, too, and even the universes where she ends up alone, Marley is happy. She has her friends, she has her mom, and she has the neverending stream of lyrics and characters and melodies and plots in her head. She'll always find a way.
Please review if you can! It means a lot to me.