Meeting Mr.Player

Chapter 3: My New Roommate

"Great, I‘ll pick you up in hour, that will give you time to pack."  Mr. Marshall says.

 "What about my car?  I could just drive to your house."  I say looking away from James and back to Mr. Marshall.

 "Oh don't worry about that!  I’ll send someone to get it."  He shrugs and hops back into his car.  I pinch myself on the arm, to make sure that I hadn't made this all up in my head.  I start to walk up to my door, with James right behind me. 

 "Arianna?"   Mr. Marshall calls from his car window.

 "Yeah?" 

 "One hour."   He says as if I had forgotten.

 "Okay."  I call back to him.  I open the door to my house and let James close it.  I run up to my room and throw myself on my bed and I scream into my pillow.  What did I just do!

 "You know, if you didn’t want to live by yourself you could have moved in with me, or I could have moved in with you. Either way my parents would probably agree."  James says, trying to conceal the anger in his voice.

 "I don’t want to put that kind of burden on your parents."  I say into my pillow muffling my voice.

 "Burden?  Are you dumb?  They would take you in a frigging heartbeat.  You know that!  I would take you, so why did you choose to live with them?"  his voice rising in anger.

 "I just blurted it out!"  My own temper was flaring.

 "Then tell him no thanks!  Come live with me."  James says, throwing his arms up in aggravation.

 "I can't just do that!  That would be rude!  It's not like I want to live there because he has so much money!  He will take care of me!"  I yell at him.   I see shock spread across James’ face.

 "James, I’m sorry, it's just that-"

 "What?   Just that you want to live with your parents Murderer?  I mean it makes sense, go live with the guy who took away almost everything from you.  Well I can tell you this, you’re doing a great job of dishonoring your parents!  I hope you’re happy, now you get everything you want.  Hey maybe you'll get lucky and Jared will become your new boyfriend."  I lift my head up from my pillow to look at him, his words sinking in.  His face falls as he realizes what he had just said to me.  A tear falls from my eyes, running down my cheek.

 "Oh crap... Arianna...” he says walking over to me.

 "Get out James." I say, getting up onto my feet.

"A, I’m really sorry..."

 "Get out!"  My voice rising.  He walks to the door, watching me as I collapse onto the ground holding my chest.  Guilt about the truth of everything he said is tearing me apart.

 "A?!"  He says still standing at the door.

 "GET OUT!"  I scream at him.  He hesitated, not sure of what he should do and then leaves, deciding leaving me was the smarter option.  I shove all of my stuff on my dresser to the ground.  My makeup, nail polish and picture frames crash to the floor with a thud.  I look down at the mess.  I see a picture of my parents and me sticking out our tongues.  It was Christmas Eve and I had told them the only way I was going to take the picture was if we had done something silly.  The corner of my mouth pulls up into a small smile at the memory, but this memory brought back to many other memories as well.  I throw the frame at the wall by my door, where James had been standing only moments ago.  I go to my closet and yank down my duffle bag and start throwing my clothes into it.  I shove shoes and other stuff into the bag.  I grab another bag and throw all of my toiletries in and zipping it up.  I pull out my phone to check the time, it was 6:45.  I had another fifteen minutes of just sitting here till Mr. Marshall arrives.  I walk down stairs and out to the porch.  I set down my bags and sat down on the lawn chair that was set up by the umbrella table. I pull my legs up onto the chair and rest my head on them. 

Honk.

 My head snaps up at the sound.  Mr. Marshall was waving for me to get into the car.  I grab my bags and walk to the car.  I knew that this wasn't the last time that I’d be at this house, but I’m going to postpone it as long as I could.  It was about a fifteen minute drive from my house to his... mansion. I mean the thing was huge!  We pull into the driveway.  I undo my seat belt, grab my bags and open the car door.

 "Go on dear, I’ll be in soon."  He says.  Honestly I didn’t want to go in without him.  I walk up to the front door and take a deep breath.  I open the door. The house looked more amazing inside than out.  A high rise ceiling, granite floors, and a huge fire place in the living room with a gigantic TV above it.  Through the screen door I could see a pool with a slide and a hot tub.  The kitchen was bigger than my old one, filled with many cupboards and drawers. Out ran a tiny lap dog and I leaned down to pet her. Startled, I jump up when I hear glass shatter against the floor.  I twirl around to see Jared staring at me.

 "What are you doing here?"  He growls, anger plastered on his face.  Is this really how he is going to start this?

 "Uh, your Dad said I could live here because of recent events I don’t have anywhere else to live."  I say heatedly. Guilt fleetingly becomes apparent on his face and then vanishes.

"Whatever, just stay out of my room and don’t touch my stuff.  Actually don’t touch anything."  He says.

 "Don't you have anything better to do than to boss me around?  I mean drunk driving seems to be ALL the rage right now, don't you think?"  I say with a shrug.  He steps forward, pressing me against the refrigerator.  His face was inches away from mine.

"Listen here, you don’t get to come into my house and give me hell for what I did.  I am sorry that you think I hit your parents, I am sorry that you think I am the reason they aren't here anymore, that I screwed up your life, but get your facts straight before you assume and tell me off."  He yells.  

What the hell did all that mean?

 "What?"  I say confused.

 "I was in the car that hit your parents, but I wasn't the one driving.  My friend was driving me home, he was barely intoxicated, then a car swerved into our lane and he didn't move out of the way fast enough.  He’s still in the hospital in critical care."  Jared says as he grabs a Coke from behind me.

 "Then why wasn't he in the ambulance with you and my...."

 "Because he was rushed off the scene, he was the only one in terrible condition that hadn't...died."  He says understanding why I hadn't finished my own sentence.  My jaw hung open a little.  He wasn't the one driving?  He walked away.  I sat at the table, shocked.