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DELETED CHAPTER: Marie & Her Sorority House

AUTHOR'S NOTE: While looking through the numerous drafts and unpublished chapters of TMH one night, I realized how cool it was how I never published these and how different the story would be if the characters had taken this route instead of another, and did this thing instead of that. The story would probably change drastically, and while I didn't publish these, I thought it'd be cool for you guys to read the "what-if's" :-) (and to see Eli again - again, he makes his appearance in my other book, The Lifeguard.)

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DELETED CHAPTER: MARIE & HER SORORITY HOUSE

FIRST WRITTEN: APRIL 2014 

TIME IN STORY: SOMEWHERE AFTER THEY ALL GET STUCK IN SAFEWAY WITH MARIE THE CASHIER (WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN CHAPTER 25)

NOTE: ERRORS ARE NUMEROUS. 

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     late tuesday night -- three days to graduation 

  We had all piled into Uncle Terrence's borrowed pick-up truck, which was harder said than done considering there was only the front row of seats only meant for three. But with Marie and I sandwhiched in the middle, we made for our graceful revenge attack. 

   Elliot was still confused as to why we would offer to help such a random person, before I reminded him how everyone else before us had willingly helped us. He shut up after that. I would never admit it, but in the two hours I'd been stuck in that Safeway store, I had genuinely missed him. Being stuck like glue for the past four days trekking across the country makes you incredibly attached to someone, whether you like it or not. 

   I didn't know yet if I liked it or not. 

     Marie threw out directions to her sorority house, shifting slightly in her cramped seat and not even questioning why in the world she was with three strangers nearing midnight. 

       "You a take a left two stoplights down, and just keep going until you see the gated entrance to the university," Marie advised Elliot, keeping a tight hold on a mysterious plastic Safeway bag she'd stocked since we left the store. I guessed they were stuff we needed to pull off the prank, but I couldn't imagine what they were. Marie had refused to tell us earlier; she said "it would ruin the whole surprise!" 

       "Why do hate this... this... er--" 

    "--Lisa." 

       "--Lisa, why do you hate her so much?" Elliot asked from the steering wheel. Since there were four of us in the overcrowded truck, I was smushed ungracefully against him, his warmth radiating from his shirt. 

   "Trust me, if you knew Lisa, you couldn't wait to punch her in the face," Marie groaned. 

  "Um, I don't think guys are legally allowed to hit girls," Eli noted, a rather surprising thing for Eli to say. But I kept my mouth shut on that one. 

    "Exactly." 

    Elliot whistled long and low. "I doubt she's really that bad, but if I do have to punch someone, you just tell me when." 

  When I craned my neck to peer through the dark at Marie, she'd been staring heavily at Elliot for a while. And I've noticed that from the Safeway mart back, she'd been laughing excessively at whatever Ellito said, regardless of whether or not it was a joke. I tried to ignore the burning sensation in my gut that I couldn't identify, because what else could it have been? It couldn't have been jealousy. 

    I was in fact, having cold feet about the whole thing. As we drove on into the night, we were approaching a much nicer part of town, with Victorian houses and expensive cars on each corner. If we were to get caught in this prank, I had a feeling we'd be in serious trouble. But then again, that never stopped us from stealing a FedEx truck.