Marley was beyond confused by everything she had witnessed on the news last night. She had been happily talking with the kid Tim and shunning Casanova for his stupidity in bringing his adorable baby faced brother to a strip club. She'd have to bring up their lack security to Curtis later, before they got shut down for underage, hormonal boys wandering in. Whoever was watching the door last night should have turned them away, well at least Tim. She didn't even know who it was, most likely one of the new hires, Curtis had told them the rules but they had only been rotating for a week, so mistakes were bound to happen. Tim seemed like a nice kid, he was obviously smart if he had an internship at Wayne Enterprises at his age. Nineteen and he had a better advantage in life than most of the people she knew who were twice his age. The boy would go places if he kept to whatever he was doing, his brother, she didn't have the same hopes for. She was ready to tell him just that last night before the news cast on the TV caught her attention.
The sight of the burning warehouse and Red Hood strolling from the blazing building like he wasn't walking away from a crime scene. The mocking wave he gave the camera crew in the helicopter before climbing into the white van that had been waiting and driving off. The camera crew had circled the warehouse as it burned, the fire department had shown up after half of the building was gone. By the time it was put out only parts of the skeleton remained, the camera had cut off and it went back to the news station where the newscasters started to talk. Trying to ease fears and speculations saying they would keep updates coming as frequently as they were able. She had looked away from the TV only to find Tim and Cassanova gone from their seats and a fifty on the bar. Karri had taken her home that night and she was oddly quiet about the whole thing, she knew how Marley felt about Hood. So she must not have known how to approach the situation at the time, she would bring it up soon Marley was sure, but for now she would let it be. So they could both think on what they had seen and process what was to come in the news updates.
That's what Marley was doing at the moment, processing, very fucking poorly as she played over in her mind what she had just heard on the news. Six people, six innocent people were dead because of him, because of Red Hood they had been taken, kidnapped from S.T.A.R labs. Locked in a makeshift lab and forced to create a new drug, then left to burn alive when it was done, four men and two women were found, they weren't releasing names at the time. The drone of the newscast was like white noise as Marley sat cross legged at the foot of her bed, remote cradled in her hands. Staring at her floor, her mind running a mile a minute and her emotions swimming.
How could the man who saved her, who had done so much for making Crime alley and the Narrows a little safer. Who she herself saved, who was a comrade of the Bats, who stopped by to just talk to her, how could he do something like... this. She'd heard stories, horrible stories of when he had first shown up in Gotham and how he had been a terror. Some said he was on par with the Joker and Black Mask in since of his ruthlessness and unpredictability. That he had a chip the size of Metropolis on his shoulder about Batman and how he tried to kill him as often as he could. The stories ran from petty schemes to top tier assassinations of politicians ranging from strangelation to decapitations. It went on for years then, he just stopped. The GCPD and politicians still wanted him caught and put away for his previous crimes.
The rest of Gotham was divided. The main population agreed with the cops that he was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off again. That soon the novelty of being 'good' would wear off and he would slip back into who he had been, the monster that hid in the shadows. The other half believed in what he was doing now, that he was changing Gotham in his own way, in a way the police and politicians wouldn't. That he cared for the lower class of Gotham, the one's everyone else gave up on or overlooked, shunned. The street rats, the working girls, the homeless and those who were prayed on by those stronger than themselves. They all heard the stories but pushed it aside to embrace the person he had become, not who he had been.
That's the man Marley had met, that's the man she had pulled into her home and patched up, the man who had woken up and just left. Then left brand new towels on her fire escape, because of a Post-it note she had left, then came back to raid her first aid kit. Only to show up a week later to restock it, then came back time and time again to talk to her. The man who saved her from a would be rapist and walked her back to her apartment then bandaged her injuries. Who before he left always told her to lock her window, this, this was the man Marley knew, but... was it the real him?
She had watched the news cast again when she was at her apartment and sat close enough to the TV to see the image better. She watched as he walked out of the building and the picture was imposed giving a better view of him. Everything was him, the confident steps he took, the tan jacket, black pants, the guns strapped to his sides, even his helmet was the same, the thick line of silver under where his eye would be on the left side where a knife had scraped the paint off. The thing she couldn't understand was why?
Why would he go back on everything he had done? Why fall back onto who he was when he had been improving the lower areas, getting people to trust him?
Marley stopped, was that it? Batman's words from the night Hood had nearly died on her living room floor came to her.
'You know he's dangerous, right?'
Had he been acting? Pretending to change, to care, to gain trust so he could do something like this?
Her head was spinning, she wasn't sure what to believe. There was the man she had met but there was also all the proof on the news that he wasn't who she thought.
Marley jolted dropping the remote to the floor when her phone went off, fuck her nerves were shot already and it was only noon. Sighing, she stretched her legs out, knees popping, setting her feet on the floor, she fell back on her bed fingers wrapping around her phone. Holding it up she opened the screen and promptly bolted up, fingers gripping her phone tightly, as she looked at the message.
'We need to talk.' Marley's eyes were focused on the little green squirt gun emoji.
What did she do? What was she supposed to say? This was way too soon she didn't have her thoughts together. Didn't know what to believe yet. She didn't want to answer, to talk to him right now, so she didn't. Leaving the message unopened she swiped it to the left clearing it from her home screen and from her mind, for now.
She needed to do something productive to keep her mind off of everything bad and off of things she didn't want to think about. Making her way to her kitchen Marley opened her cabinets and checked her refrigerator, smiling when she saw what she needed. She was going to spend the day baking, she enjoyed it and it would keep her busy all day. Pulling what she needed from the refrigerator she kicked the door shut and set it all on the counter, as she did her eyes fell on her window, on the fire escape. Biting her bottom lip, Marley let out a sharp breath before moving the curtain aside and making sure the lock was thrown. Rubbing her face with a sigh she went back to ready the rest of her ingredients. She was two dozen cookies, a dozen cupcakes and Carrot cake in and in the middle of making Buttercream icing when her phone rang.
Panic flashed through her before she saw the name and smiled, using the back of her knuckles to answer and put the call on speaker phone, to keep the mess on her hands off her phone.
"Yeah?"
"Marley what are you doing ? Are you busy?" Karri asked.
"Baking, so I'm not really busy, more like filling my time, why, what do you need?" Karri paused before she answered.
"I'm dropping the twins off with mom for their Grandma Day and I'll swing by, I have something I want to talk to you about." Marley paused it her mixing.
"Okay, is it something bad? Do you need my help?" She started back up, she really needed to buy a stand mixer.
"No, no it's nothing bad per say it's more like, I need... I want your opinion. I'll tell you more when I come over." She added and Marley heard Karri's mom in the background calling for the twins.
"Alright, just let yourself in, I'm covered in baking paraphernalia so," Marley let the sentence hang and Karri laughed.
"Okay I'll be over in about a half hour, forty five minutes tops."
"Mmm, see you then." Marley let Karri hang up and continued with her icing.
The click of a key caught her ear and her front door swung open as Karri walked in, kicking it shut behind her. She stripped her coat off, dropped it and her purse on Marley's couch before leaning on the island she was working on.
"Someone's been a busy little baking bee today." Karri mused as she grabbed a Snickerdoodle from one of the scattered cooling racks.
"I haven't gone all out in a while so why not."
"Who are you going to feed all of this too, not the twins that's for sure." Marley laughed.
"I was going to take a lot with me when I went to work tomorrow, Kimmy's been asking me for some peanut butter fudge so she'll get that and more." Marley told her as Karri tossed the last of her cookie in her mouth, she grabbed another one.
"I have a date Thursday." Marley's hand paused in stirring the Ganache at her friend's words.
"You do?"
"Mmmm." Karri dipped her cookie in the chocolate and cream mixture and bit into it.
"You don't sound too happy about it."
"It's... I don't know, he's just so sweet!" Marley blinked at her.
"I mean that's a good quality to have in a potential date, Karri, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's, he's perfect!" She huffed.
"Okay." Marley pushed the bowl of ganache to the side and leaned onto her elbows. "What's this about, really?"
"He's perfect Marley, just like Stephen was... until he wasn't and I just, I don't want to do that again." There it was.
"Karri, look Stephen was an asshole, he never deserved you from the start and if this guy turns out to be a lemon, well fuck him. Because you're amazing and if he can't see that then he doesn't deserve you either just like that prick Stephen." Marley finished with a sniff, Karri blinked slowly before she smiled.
"Yeah, you're right."
"Of course I am, I know your value and I'll be damned if I left some troglodyte drag you down." She said grabbing a piping bag and a cooled rack of vanilla cupcakes.
"You learn a new word?" Karri laughed and Marley only smiled at her because yes she had leaned a new word a few days back from Robin. When he 'stopped by to make sure she wasn't being stupid' then called SuperBoy a troglodyte and went on about how the boy had no since of direction.
"So tell me about your new friend, what's his name?" Karri smiled sweetly before she answered.
"His name's Derick, he's two years older than I am. He works as a graphic designer and he's such a dork. He went on for an hour about how the original Star Trek was superior to The Next Generation."
Marley smiled. "Well he's wrong because Voyager is by far the best in the franchise because I mean Seven of Nine and Neelix are two of the best characters." Marley paused in scooping the ganache into the piping bag. "But the Original was good too, can't go wrong with Shatner."
"I didn't understand a thing you just said Marley, I brought up Battlestar Galactica and he said he didn't want to talk about something so tragic, but he also loves the Twilight Zone."
"If he thinks Battlestar is tragic don't mention Firefly then, that was truly tragic." Marley sighed as she stabbed the piping bag in the top of the cupcake she held and filled it with the ganache. "So do you like him?"
"I do, he's sweet and funny. He knows about Layla and Declan and he said that he wasn't scared away by the fact I was a mother. He even wants to meet them when I feel ready to take that step, he said that he didn't want to push me into something. Possibly get the twins excited about having a father figure and it not work out between us and have it break their hearts." Karri paused.
"My god Marley he's so damned nice, what do I do!?"
"Karri you're overthinking this, go on your date talk, tell him about you and the twins about you trying to go back to college that you have goals in life. Goals that you want to accomplish and that if he wants to be in your life that he needs to accept your wishes. Then you do the same for him, listen to his life and the things he wants, see if you two can match and go from there."
"Why are you so much better at this, it's not fair I'm eleven years older than you, I should be the one giving out the sage advice."
"It's a gift." Marley smiled. "So how did you two meet?" Karri let out a short bark of laughter.
"Layla dropped ice cream on his shoes." Marley held back a snort. "She was nearly in tears apologizing to him. I turned and saw him crouch down, smile at her and tell her it was okay that he could clean them off, it was only ice cream. Then he bought her another scoop." Marley smiled, not everyone was shitty in Gotham.
"So I sent Layla to the table and I went over to offer to give him his money back for the ice cream and he brushed it off. Said it was the least he could do for a sad little girl, that if it made me feel better he was up for his good deed of the day. Two days later we went back to the ice cream shop and there he was sitting on his computer, Layla saw him and ran over to thank him again and well it went from there."
"That's so sweet, think I'm getting cavities."
"Shut up, I know it's like a corny Lifetime movie but I like it, I like him and I want him to like me and the twins."
"He will if he wants to take you on a date then he has to at least want to find out more about you, so take it as a good sign."
"Right, okay." Karri took one of the cupcakes Marley had been filling and bit into it. "Dear mother of God, these are amazing, what's in them?"
"Ganache."
"What now?"
"It's chopped up chocolate mixed with warm heavy cream." Marley told her as she watched Karri eye the cupcake.
"That's it?"
"Yep."
"You need to open a bakery, you kitchen witch."
"Kitchen witch, really?"
"Yep, you could call it Baked goods and Broomsticks."
"Karri you're impossible and that is an awful name for a bakery." Marley laughed as Karri swiped another cookie.
"Your loss." The blond said with a smile as she watched Marley fill another cupcake.
XXXXXX
Okay, she was ignoring him and he had to admit it was starting to grate on his nerves. He gave her the fact that, yeah, okay she thought he had burned down a makeshift drug lab in an old warehouse on the pire and killed six people. He didn't, and she'd know that, if she'd answer his damn messages!
Fifteen. She'd ignored his last fifteen messages over the past three days and he hated it, didn't she want to hear anything from him? Like why he did it- even though he fucking didn't- he'd been shunned and hated for a lot of shit, but that was for shit he'd actually done. This was a fairly new feeling, being hated for something he didn't fucking do, it was bullshit. He also had something to give the fucking stuborn ass woman and she was making it impossiable to do it. His hand patted the inner pocket of his leather jacket and felt the small box, with an irritated sigh he sent Marley another message.
Kicking his feet up on the table across from him he watched as Dick scanned through some new surveillance footage, trying to find anything of use. The drugs that Imposter had cooked up was something Mags told him was being called Bliss on the streets and was highly addictive, and deadly. It seems the chemical compound was still off and it caused heart failure, twenty two people had already been hospitalized for it and three have died bringing Imposters body count up to nine. Effectively fucking up Hood's reputation more, when he had stopped by Mags last night to see if she had any more information for him she said that some of her contacts were starting to doubt him.
Mags gave him a lead that took him to the piers in the Narrows but didn't go anywhere else and Dick stopped at the hospital in his suit to try and get something from the doctors. No one wanted to give up anything yet, saying it was too soon to give any definitive answers on how dangerous Bliss was. Obviously it was pretty fucking bad if it was causing heart failure and death, fucking Gotham even the doctors were useless.
"You know, instead of sitting over there moping because Marley won't talk to you, you can help." Dick called over his shoulder.
"Fuck you, asshat." Jason snapped. "She thinks I'm a psychopath and I'm not, well not anymore, mostly." Dick turned and looked at him, with a raised brow. "I said mostly!"
"Look the sooner we find Imposter the sooner you can explain what happened, and that it wasn't you that did it. Besides, she's still talking to you, just not Red Hood so you still have that, right."
"I guess." No, he hated that he had to limit when he could stop by, as Jason he had to stop by at certain times, and days because he had to keep up his appearance of his job and Marley had her own job and life. While as Red Hood he could stop by at random times as long as Marley was awake and she'd let him in, sometimes with a smile others with a snarky retort. He liked being able to stop by whenever, he hated being just Jason, when she was part of the equation.
"I think it's something you should stick to even after your name is cleared Jason." Fucking Bruce.
Looking over at the man who had just walked into the Cave, Jason growled out. "Why would that be?"
"It's safer for her to not know Red Hood as well as she does, it puts her in danger, and you know it Jason."
"I'm pretty sure we've had this argument before Bruce and I think you know where I stand on it." Jason bit out, standing from the chair.
"What if something happens to her, because she knows Red Hood? What would you do, how would you feel knowing it was your fault?" Jason spun on his heel, rising to Bruce's jab.
"Nothing's going to happen to her because I won't let it, you all seem to think I'm a fucking idiot and I'm not, I know what I'm doing!" Grabbing his helmet from the table he stalked off towards his bike.
"Jason." Bruce called but he ignored him. "What did you go pick up from Roy?"
"None of your goddamn business!" He snapped before pulling on his helmet and starting his bike.
He needed to go talk to Mags anyways, see if she had anything new for him, so he could find this life ruining prick and beat the everloving dog shit out of him.
XXXXXX
Marley was in the middle of finally cleaning her apartment and airing it out when her phone rang, groaning she leaned her mop against the back of the couch and grabbed it.
"Yeah?"
"Marley."
"Hey, Karri don't you have your date in a little while?" Marley asked looking at the clock on her oven seeing the time.
"That's why I called, I need a favor."
"What would that be?" Marley asked as she wiped down her island.
"Mom was going to watch the twins for me but with all the overdoses with that Bliss stuff she has to stay and work an extra shift at the hospital." Karri said and Marley heard the strain in her voice.
"You want me to watch your little heathens?" She asked with a smile, tossing the rag into the sink.
"Yes, can you watch them? I know it's short notice but I really want to go on this D.A.T.E."
"Karri did you really just spell out the word date, to me?" Marley laughed.
"I might be stressing out a little bit, I called Derick and told him I had to find someone else to watch the twins, and frick he was so understanding, god I want this to work out."
"Karri stop babblings, I'll be over once I put my bleach away and shut my windows."
"You were cleaning?"
"Why did you say it like that? I clean." Marley said with fake afront.
"It's just a weird day for you to clean is all, so you'll be here in like twenty minutes?" Karri asked.
"Give or take, depends on the taxi I get."
"Okay that gives me time to get my hair done up. See you soon, thank you Marley!"
"Yeah, yeah go fix your hair up." Marley hung up and put her cleaning supplies away and checked Jasper's food and water bowl.
Making her way through her apartment she shut all of her windows and grabbed her purse, checked for her keys, wallet, taser and dropped her phone into it before she was out the door, locking it behind her.
A half hour later she was paying the taxi and walking up to Karri's house, pushing open the door she heard the twins down the hall talking to their mom. Smiling she walked down the hall and stopped at the bathroom door, and took in Karri.
She was in a wine red halter dress, her hair pulled up in a messy curly bun and she was applying mascara as Layla questioned her.
"Why do you look so pretty mommy?"
"Your mommy is always pretty." Marley said.
"Auntie!" Both twins yelled and jumped to hug her.
"I'm glad you're here, hey Lay, Deck go watch TV, mommy wants to talk to Aunt Marley." As the twins whined their protest Marley steered them out of the bathroom.
"You'll have me all to yourselves up until your bedtimes, now scoot." With one final protest the twins were going, leaving the two women alone.
"Well? Is it too much?" Karri fidgeted, fiddling with the tube of mascara in her hands.
"You look amazing, I think it's just the right amount, you'd look fine in jeans and a tee shirt Karri, I think you're gonna knock Derick on his ass."
"I'm so nervous, God I feel like I'm in High school again." Marley gave a little laugh.
"Clam down, so where are you two going?"
"Some new Italian place downtown, I think it was called Poco Amore."
"Sounds fancy, who's driving?" Karri blinked and smiled.
"Right we should get this out of the way, huh?"
"Yep." Marley followed Karri into the kitchen where the blond grabbed a pen and a notepad.
"Okay so we're going to Poco Amore, his name is Derick Mason, he drives a nice little silver Nisan." Karri muttered to herself as she wrote down everything she could think of before sliding the paper to Marley who tucked it into her pocket.
"Better safe than sorry, with everything going on lately, right?"
"Right." The doorbell rang, Karri jumped.
"Calm down, let's go meet your friend."
"Right." Karri bustled down the hall, stopping in the living room to give the twins each a goodnight kiss. Before opening the front door.
Marley took in the man standing on Karri's doorstep. He was a little taller than her friend about five eleven. His brown hair was shaggy but in a neat way, he wore black slacks and a pale blue button up.
"Hello, Karri." He smiled, oh, he had dimples, too cute.
"Hello, oh this is Marley." Karri waved towards her.
Derick turned to her and smiled again holding out his hand. "Hello, Marley, I'm Derick. So you're the reason I get to take Karri out, I thank you."
Holy shit he was perfect.
"Er, you're welcome."
"Are you ready, I moved our reservation up so we have just enough time to get there." Derick said as he held his arm out.
"Yes." Karri took his arm. "Oh, Marley." She paused and looked back. "I ordered a pizza for you and the twins, if you want to they take their baths at eight and eight thirty and bed by nine. Don't let them bully you into staying up later or they'll never get up for school tomorrow, the bedtime story is on the dresser between their beds. Love you, thanks."
Marley watched as Karri and Derick walked down the walkway, before she shut the front door and went to watch TV with the twins. The pizza showed up and they ate in the living room and watched cartoons until she had to run their baths. The twins fought over who was taking one first Declan lost and took his first. Teeth were brushed, water was drunk and the toilet was used in excess by each twin before Marley had them in bed and was reading them their book. She read them two chapters before they were both out.
Sitting on the couch she looked at her phone when it chimed thinking it was Karri, she opened to her home screen and saw it was another message from Hood. Swiping it to the left she went back to Netflix, the door opening caught her attention, looking over her shoulder she saw Karri walk in. She looked like a giddy school girl.
"Pretty rose, I take that it went well." Karri sat on the couch, biting her bottom lip trying to hold her smile back.
"I know, and yes gosh it was amazing, he's amazing." Karri gushed falling back into her couch. "He wants to go out again next week, Marley, I'm dating again."
"I know, I'm happy for you Karri."
"He supports the idea of me going to college, he said he loves the fact I want to go into Child Services. That I want to help kids, he even said he'd help me find grants." Karri paused. "Do you want to know the best part?"
"Hummm?"
"I told him I work at the Poodle." Karri looked at her with a goofy grin on her face. "He didn't care, he didn't care Marley, how many people could honestly say that."
"He likes you Karri, like I've told you before the Poodle is just a job like any other. Apparently he feels the same way so there's extra points in my book."
"I'm so happy right now." Karri sat up and tugged Marley into a hug. "Thank you Marley for doing this for me."
"Karri you deserve to be happy, so it's no problem."
"You're the best friend I've ever had." Marley smiled at Karri's words and listened as her friend gushed about Derick and the restaurant they went to.
Finally Marley made it home looking at her phone as she walked down the hall to her front door she saw it was almost one in the morning. Well she wasn't cleaning anything now, grabbing her keys she pushed open her door kicking it shut behind her. She walked across her living room towards the kitchen to plug her taser in, toeing her shoes off on the way. Flipping on the light near her kitchen she set her purse down and called for Jasper.
"Jasp, I'm back, you hungry buddy?" She was digging through her purse for her taser when she heard a shuffle behind her, much too loud to be her cat. Fingers finally wrapping around her taser, she twisted lifting her arm to zap whoever was in her house.
Her wrist was wrapped in long fingers, her counter dug into her back as she was shoved into it and a large hand covered her mouth cutting off her pained yelp. She was pinned, her free hand came up fingers digging into the tan leather covered arm, as she stared at the red helmet. Her hands started to shake, her fingers digging deeper into the leather. God damn she'd never noticed how scary the Red Hood was, she had never been on this end of the man before. The shiny helmet gave away nothing of what he was thinking and that was terrifying, to not be able to see the face of who held your life in their hands. Marley bit back the sob, bubbling up as her mind flitted through scenarios, none of them good.
"Marley, I'm gonna move my hand, don't scream, okay?" His voice was synthesised, making this all worse, it brought a sense of detachment.
She gave something like a nod as Hood moved his hand she sucked in a shuddering breath as he shook her fingers off of his arm. Marley watched as he reached up and uncliped the helmet and pulled it off, setting it beside her on the counter, caging her in for the briefest of moments. The fingers around her wrist slide up covering her own hand, before freeing her taser and setting it farther down the counter, well out of her reach. Leaving her without any form of protection, no matter how little it mattered.
"You didn't answer me back." The words threw her off and she let out a shocked bark of laughter, because really? Of course she didn't.
"You did, they, why?" Jesus, eloquence was not on the board for her right now.
"I didn't do it." She blinked at him looking at his face, she watched as his jaw tightened.
"I saw the newscast." Her words came out softly.
"It wasn't me, Marley."
"It looked just like you, same jacket, guns, helmet, the way you walk but why?" She asked voice shaking.
Hood pushed away from the counter suddenly, making Marley jump at the action. "I said it wasn't me."
Bullshit, she didn't know of anyone who could copy people to that degree except Clayface and he was in maximum lockdown at Arkham. "But I saw it! Those people had families, one of the women had just gotten married!" Marley snapped.
"I thought you believed in me in what I was doing."
"I did, but not this. I don't know what this is but it's wrong."
"Marley, look," He stepped forwards and Marley pulled back wrapping her arms around herself, he stopped and his jaw ticked and he ran a hand through his hair.
"What do you want Hood?"
"I want you to trust me." Marley shook her head.
"I don't think I can, not now." She hugged herself tighter.
"You said you'd never be afraid of me." Her brow pulled down at his words, she'd never told him that.
"I've never said that." Her eyes flick to her taser then back to the larger man in her kitchen, who had started to pace, running his hands through his hair, he stopped his pacing and ran his left hand down his face. Turning to her, he sighed.
"Marley, I'm trusting you with something, something important, I want you to trust me." As he talked his voice dropped an octave, and she knew that voice, but where?
"Wha-" Marley watched in silence as Hood pulled his red domino mask off, the with lenses giving way to deep blue eyes, eyes she knew, what the fuck.
"Ja-Jason?" His name was barely a whisper as her brain stuttered to a near stop as she looked at her friend holding the domino mask and absently picking at spirit gum at the side of his eye.
Jason was Red Hood, Red Hood was Jason, he, that, that fucking liar!
"Liar." Marley looked at the floor.
"What?"
"Liar, you fucking lying asshole." She snapped.
"Marley wait."
"No, what the fuck Jason, I thought you were my friend." Jesus he had been lying to her for, she stopped and thought, a bitter laugh slipped from her lips.
"I am." He said shoving the mask in his pocket.
"Are you really, thought!?" She shouted. "You've been lying to me since the start of our 'friendship'." She paused, did he?
"Why did you come to the bar, after I helped you? Why didn't you leave it as it was? Was it an ego thing?" She asked, running her left hand into her hair.
"What no, I-" Marley cut him off, fingers gripping her hair, trying to ground herself.
"What the hell, was this just some way to listen to someone talk about you?" Her voice cracked, was she really that stupid?
"No, Marley you know me better than that?"
"Do I Jason, because from where I'm standing I don't know you at all! How can I trust anything you've ever told me?" She cut off on a broken sob. "Our entire friendship is based on a fucking lie!"
"I couldn't tell you." He tried.
"Bullshit, I've told you plenty about my life, shit only Karri knows about, I helped you though a painc attack, I saved your fucking life! And I only find this out when you killed people and I won't talk to you."
"Marley you kn-" She cut him off.
"I don't, I don't know you, not anymore, I don't think I ever did." She felt her lip tremble and bit the inside of her cheek.
"I, Marley just-" Marley grabbed his helmet off the counter and with the most force she could muster thrust it into his chest.
"Get out."
"Mar-"
"Get out of my house, I don't know what to think of you anymore Jason, you knew I didn't like liars but after everything I've done for you in both of your lives, you kept this from me." She kept her eyes firmly on the floor, she didn't want to look at him, at his face, didn't want to see what emotions it held, she watched his feet shuffle.
"God damn it." Marley watched as his feet moved, he stepped back, she looked up and watched as he walked across her living room stopping at her door, he paused for a second before opening it, without saying anything else he shut it.
Marley ran across her living room, nearly slamming into her door as she threw the locks with numb fingers, pressing her back against the wood she slid down to the floor. Pressing her hands to her mouth to try and stifle the sobs, she heard the sound of heavy footfalls walking away.
Why did this hurt so much?
XXXXXX
So, yeah.
Who thinks Marley's anger was justified? Who thinks she overreacted? Will she ever forgive him?
