Thank you for your warm response to chapter 1! Here is chapter 2, and I hope, a new Marley's Chance brotp ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, how many times must I say this?
Marley sat sadly in her song-writing class, trying and failing to ignore the whispers and giggles from Bree and her vicious gang at the back of the class that were clearly aimed at her. She would have reached for her phone to send Ryder a text in the hope of a comforting response, but, if she was being completely honest, she didn't even know what to say to him, so she instead tried as best as she could to focus on what their teacher was droning on about.
"…So that's why we've decided to revive the mentoring scheme, so that you freshmen can have an elder, more experienced student to call on for any help or advice you need in both your academic and personal lives here at NYADA. The sign-up sheet is on my office door now so you can sign up after class if you so wish. Now, onto today's class…"
Marley furrowed her brow and thought carefully about the idea. She needed a friend for starters, and goodness knows she needed some advice about dealing with Bree's bullying and the small fact that she and the boy she was supposed to be in love with were just about keeping their relationship alive with brief, almost formal Skype conversations every Friday lasting half an hour tops. So, with this in mind, she plodded along to the sign-up sheet after class and put down her name, and had, about a week later, been assigned a girl by the name of Santana Lopez as her mentor, and had agreed via email to meet her for coffee after class.
Ten minutes after meeting, Marley had decided that signing up for a mentor had been a good decision. Santana was loud, brash, uncouth and dressed unashamedly provocatively, but Marley had wanted life advice, and she knew she could get that here.
"So," the latina said with purpose. "Enough about your bitchy little roommate, whose ass I promise to kick, tell me something juicy. You getting any?" Marley's chin dropped, before she regained her composure and replied with a splutter.
"Um…I have a boyfriend, if that's what you mean," she replied, supressing a nervous giggle.
"Nice. Is he cute?" Santana asked.
"Very," Marley told her instantly with a wistful sigh.
"But?" Santana pushed.
"But what?"
"You just look like maybe there's something not so great about it." Damn, this girl was good.
"Ok," Marley admitted. "I really love him, but I just feel like since I've been in New York, we've been growing apart…you know?"
"Oh I know all right. Classic. High school sweethearts, think they're gonna be together forever, the adult real world smacks them in the face, they break up, feel like the world's ending for like two weeks and like a month later they've moved on and in a couple of years they barely remember it." Marley's eyes widened at Santana's nonchalance.
"That's not gonna happen to me and Ryder," she clarified. "…Is it?" Santana shrugged in a 'yes-it-probably-is-but-I-don't-want-to-hurt-the-kid's-feelings' kind of way. "It's not," Marley exclaimed again, trying to convince herself as much as her new mentor. "He's coming to visit in a few weeks anyway. I'm sure we just need to see each other in person and the spark will be back."
"If you're so sure," Santana offered. "In that case at least you'll get a bit more sex before you call it quits." Marley had unfortunately been taking a swig of her coffee at this precise moment and consequently sprayed her mouthful across the table in shock. She was about to correct Santana, before realising that having a conversation about her virginity was probably too much for a first meeting. Santana merely chuckled at her.
"Can we please change the conversation?" Marley asked when she had recovered. "What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Oh no," Santana replied. "I'm actually into girls." Marley tried to hide her shock, but her expression clearly betrayed her, as Santana rolled her eyes.
"Sorry!" She said, realising immediately. "It's totally fine, I don't care at all, I was just surprised, is all, because you know, you…" she trailed off, leaving Santana to chuckle again.
"Let me guess. I 'don't look like a lesbian?'" Marley merely shuffled apologetically. "Girl, you have Ohio written all over you. In fact, I'm making this my mission. I'm gonna turn you into a real New Yorker….by the time your boy-candy comes to visit he's gonna be so wowed by your big-city sexiness that all your problems will vanish in an instant."
"Really?" Marley asked with a warm smile.
"Really. But first, I'm gonna tell the skank you share a dorm room with to back the hell off."
Marley grinned. Definitely a good decision.
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When Marley arrived at her dance class the next day, she found Santana waiting for her outside the door.
"Hey Marley. Just thought I'd let you know that your roommate won't be bothering you anymore."
"What?" Marley asked, confused.
"Let's just say she's not so big and tough when she's dealing with Snix."
"Snix?"
"My angry alter-ego. See you later." With that, Santana was leaving, a worryingly satisfied expression etched on her face. Marley stepped into the room and found that the atmosphere wasn't quite its usual hostile self. Cassandra July was still a terrifying presence, even when sorting out the stereo in the corner of the room, but Bree sat quietly on the floor, looking incredibly shaken. Marley wasn't sure she wanted to know what 'Snix' had said or done to her. However, as soon as Bree made eye-contact with her, she knew it had horribly backfired. Bree scrambled to her feet and marched over to Marley, hot tears still wetting her eyes.
"You are going to pay so hard for this," she hissed.
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That evening, Marley put off going home to her dorm for as long as possible. She knew that Bree would in all likelihood beat her up when she did. However, when it got dark and cold, and the Manhattan streets became scary and threatening, she knew she had no choice but to face her fate.
As she approached the NYADA dorm building, she immediately noticed a large pile of trash on the sidewalk outside, waiting for collection in the morning…except tomorrow was a Wednesday, and the trash was collected on Friday. As she got closer and closer, she saw what it really was: all of the possessions that had been in her dorm-room had been thrown unceremoniously from the window: every item of clothing, every photo, every electric device. Her precious song-writing notepad lay, some of the pages torn, sodden in a muddy puddle, clearly destroyed beyond use, her work lost. The laptop that her Mother had saved up to get her as a college going away present was smashed to smithereens. Even her single bed had been dismantled and thrown along with everything else.
She stood there frozen still for several minutes, her mouth hanging open at the sight of her life laying broken on the concrete, tears falling uncontrollably down her cheeks, whimpering slighty, until she was interrupted from her horror-filled trance by the sound of a window –her and Bree's dorm window-, opening above, and lo and behold, Bree herself looked out and down, laughing at Marley's plight.
"Good luck finding a new dorm," she mocked. "Ooh, I am loving my spacious new room." Marley tried to find a cutting retort, but merely let out a choked sob in reply, which only made Bree laugh harder. "You are so pathetic," she continued. "May I remind you that you brought this on yourself? No-one likes a snitch, bitch." With that, the window had been slammed shut, and Marley was left alone in the quiet darkness again. She fumbled in her bag for her cell phone and hurriedly called the first person she thought of, in spite of their troubles; Ryder. When he answered, she instantly launched into a hysterical retelling of what had happened.
"Marls I'm so sorry, I wish I could be there to hug you so much but…I'm hundreds of miles away, I don't know how I can help," he sighed. "Do you have a friend you can call on, maybe spend the night at their dorm until you can sort things out in the morning when your RA's around?" He asked with a sigh.
"Yeah…yeah I guess I could call my mentor," she sniffled.
"Okay, that's a good idea. I love you, precious. Good night, and try not to panic too much," he told her.
"Goodnight…I love you too, and I miss you now more than ever," she cried, before hanging up and finding Santana's number, telling her the same story when she picked up the phone. Twenty minutes later, a cab was pulling up and her mentor was hopping out.
"Wait here," she told the taxi driver, before jogging over to Marley as best she could in her high heels, and pulling her into a hug.
"Can any of your stuff be saved?" She asked. Marley shrugged. "You have a little look while I go and smack that bitch-"
"No! Santana please...don't," she begged. "Telling you about her is kind of what got me into this mess." A slight look of guilt came over Santana's expression.
"Get in the cab," she ordered. "We'll leave this stuff here, it's probably all ruined. You can stay at my place."
"Really? Won't your roommate mind?"
"Bitch please, I'm way to fabulous for dorms, I rent a private apartment, and it has a spare room since my hobbit roommate moved out to go live with her Frankenteen boyfriend," she explained with a slight smirk. "Get in the cab," she repeated.
"Thank you," Marley whispered, hugging her again before doing as she was told.
So? Martana = brotp here? I hope so! So what's gonna happen next? Tell me your theories, and what you thought of this chapter :) (Also, I know this was a very Marley-centric chapter, but Ryder will be very much back next chapter, and *spoiler* a ryley reunion may not be too far away ;)
To my reviewers:
TeaAndGlee: Hooray! I'm so happy you liked the start…hm, so now I'm wondering what you thought of Bree in this chapter, haha
RocioMelinatic15: Aw, this makes me happy, I hope you enjoyed this chapter too :)
Ember411: Haha, yeah I'm afraid she is! Well, she's certainly not great for Marley right now!
Guest: Aw, I'm glad you're reading it :p Well, a lot of the story will be focused on finding himself with regards to that- starting with the next chapter.
Chubby4567: I'm glad you love it, here is an update :)
Savannaramirez35: Haha, I'll mostly try not to, in fact I'll definitely be giving them some very good stuff soon ;)
Jessica M: Oh good! I hope you continue to enjoy the story :D
Thanks also to followers/favers :)
Lauren xxx