Author's Note: Again, sorry for the wait thaks for staying with me:)

Special thanks to namelesspanda for correcting bad grammar and offering excellent suggestions and advice!

Chapter 3: Friends

Mary could scream. All through dinner, Robert had been talking about Matthew, and how wonderful he was. Matthew. Matthew. The son he never had.

'Mary?' Edith asked rather timidly as she entered her sister's room.

'What.' Mary snapped.

'Um, I was wondering whether you could lend me that red dress of yours? I'm going to a-'

'Fuck no!' Mary interrupted moodily. 'The last time you wore something of mine,you spilt beer all over it.'

'That was an accident, it won't happen-' Edith protested before Mary interrupted again.

'And do you seriously think that red dress will look good on an orange-headed girl? Go away!'

Sensing her sister's mood, Edith hastily exited the room, tripping on a book on the way which caused another outburst from Mary.

'Move it, you clumsy off! Move!'

Alerted by the noise, Cora ran into her room.

'Mary, darling, is everything alright? What's wrong?'

'Nothing.' Mary muttered sullenly.

'Don't think that you can get away with that, I won't have it.' Cora said firmly.

'MATTHEW! It's always about Matthew, the son he never had, oh! He's brilliant, he's—he's this, he's that!' Mary yelled suddenly. 'You know Mamma, I try so hard to live up to Papa's expectations. So hard. Yet a whole dinner conversation has to be dedicated to Matthew, dear perfect Matthew. Good God I hate him.'

And before Cora could say a word, Mary left, head held high.

Mary walked towards her favorite bench in the park. There was a fountain behind it, and she loved the sound of it. Also, her view ahead was the trees, and in that time or spring, the apple blossoms were just coming out. As she neared her destination, she found that, to her dismay, it had already been taken. Upon investigating further, it turned out that the intruder was none other than Matthew Crawley. They hadn't spoken since the dinner a few weeks earlier, and she still held a grudge against him for being the subject of her father's conversation, happiness and probably dreams, thought Mary with an angry scowl.

Matthew looked up from the notes that he had made about a case, and to his surprise, somebody was standing right in front of him.

It was Mary.

Mary Crawley, of all people, it had to be her.

'Hello,' he greeted hesitantly, 'Would you like to sit down?' and scooted over to make room for her.

'Hello,' she replied stiffly. 'Yes, I think I shall, thank you.'

They had been sitting there for a few minutes in awkward silence when Matthew suddenly said, 'You know, I don't like this hostility, I am sorry about what I said that time, but can't we just put that aside and be friends? I really was only joking at the time...'

Mary looked at him, surprised at his little speech. 'Why on earth would we do that? I don't like you, you don't like me. We don't need to be friends.'

'Oh Mary come on! We can be friends, we should be friends! And we can like each other, if we try.'

'Alright, let's try.' Mary said rather reluctantly, but he could she refuse him?

Matthew enthusiastically exclaimed, 'Great! I'm glad! Shall we shake upon it?' before continuing rather thoughtfully, 'We haven't shaken hands before have we?'

And for the first time in weeks, Mary laughed and said, 'No, I don't believe we have. In fact we won't shake until we decide it is best.' They both smiled at that.

After chatting for a few minutes, they parted, going their separate ways.

'Why don't you just resign? I did, and I need the money more than you. He's an ass, I'm sorry, but he is.' Anna looked at Mary, annoyed by her stubbornness. 'Oh, I don't know,' Mary said, frustrated. 'I just want to get another job before I resign. Pappa will be furious.'

'Your Pappa will be furious but he doesn't know Richard. If he did, he wouldn't care if you lost that connection. Can't you see?' said Anna.

'I've got an interview with a guy from the London Times tomorrow for a job, I need to go prepare.' Mary said abruptly before leaving her.

Mary was taking a run in the park. She stopped at her bench and chatted with Matthew, who asked how her family was. 'Oh you know,' she replied, 'Edith is mostly sleeping, supposedly taking a gap year to visit Greece, but really isn't doing anything. Granny and Mamma are disagreeing about American heritage as opposed to English, and Sybil has discovered politics and is democratic, which of course, makes Papa see red. But then I like a good argument, and Pappa doesn't.' she added with a smile.

'If you really like a good argument, then we should see more of each other.' Matthew said, glancing at her. They both smiled, before Matthew left, leaving behind a smiling Mary.

'You think that you can just leave? I thought that you were smarter than that!' Richard sneered at Mary.

'You forget, you had such little faith in me at first, that my contract was for six months, and,' she added, leaning towards him with a satisfied smile. 'Its been a year.'

Richard groaned in frustration. How could he have been so stupid? He hadn't trusted her at the beginning and now he was paying for it.

'Well then, goodbye.' He said between clenched teeth.

'Goodbye, and good luck!' Mary said with a smirk, and left.

Whenever Mary went for a walk or a run (which was about once every two weeks) she went towards her favorite bench. Matthew was usually there, and much to her surprise she found that she liked his company, talking and laughing with him. Not only did she like his company, she liked him.

Anna watched Mary apply her makeup for her interview with 'The London Times'. She had been called in to give her opinion on Mary's outfit. There were a few things that needed to be replaced, and she had willingly picked out the right things for her friend.

'You have an interview with John Bates tomorrow at eleven,' Mary said, looking at Anna through the mirror. 'It's for Assistant Secretary of Pappa.'

Anna looked at her, shocked. 'Do you really mean it?' she asked her friend incredulously, and upon seeing her friend's nod, she ran and gave her a hug. 'Mary, you're a genius! Thank you so much!'

Thanks for reading! Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon:)