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“Mariah I’ve been meaning to tell you this. Since I’m madly in love with you you’ve got to know. But keep it a secret.” I looked at him with my right eyebrow and the right corner of my lip raised “uhuh?” Elliot sighed. “I’ve been to jail twice because-uh I’ve been um in jail for a couple of years.” I stepped back and said for what?” He looked around and said “I can’t tell you but people tell me I’ve been acting…strange….ever since. I can feel that its driven me crazy. I want to know if you still love me.” I exhaled and inhaled heavily, clearly annoyed. “look Elliot. Me loving you has been your fantasy. I don’t love you-never have. You are my friend, okay? I’m dating Matt. Remember him?” Elliot’s green eyes began twitching uncontrollably.
I told Mathew. We were walking to my house after college classes. “This guy’s crazy! You HAVE to avoid him as much as possible, Mariah.” “I know, Matt, but have a heart he seems so helpless.” Matt watched his feet step by step. “Look,” I said “when we pass his house let’s stop by and you’ll see what a nice guy he is.” We were approaching his house when we saw a man in the driveway. He was kicking and stomping on a beat up girl about 16 years of age. We couldn’t see his face. “ooh that looks bad I think we should” The man cut Matt’s whispering off. “You brute! He yelled giving her some more hard blows to the stomach. Do I look like and open market to you? Huh? Does my shirt say come ask for bread anytime you want?” He gave her one more hard kick and she fell away from him. “It seems you can’t pay your phone bills either so the cops will hear none of this! Go now and don’t come back!” he yelled for one last time as she limped away as fast as her feet could carry her. He turned to see us frozen in place obviously struck by terror. It was Elliot. Hmm…nice guy-who was I kidding? “Oh, hello” he said roughly. “What-what did she do? That was pretty-” the image of the girl being kicked came into my mind again. “pretty harsh!!” I yelled. I leaned to one side. He glanced at Matt and I noticed he began twitching again. “That girl came to my door asking for bread since she could not pay for her own. I told her that if she was short on money that she should starve and leave the people with the money alone. But she wouldn’t quit so I forcefully got rid of her.” Matt took a step back. “That was no reason to try and level her with the pavement!” Elliot shot back sharply “I hate you, or as my dear mother taught me to say, I strongly dislike you, Matt” He spat his name out with such disgust it made me really strongly dislike the dude. He straightened his shirt and said “You get between me and my beloved.” He coughed and continued “By the way, don’t tell anyone about this little experience, or else.” He turned and went towards his front door. “Or else, what?” Matt yelled at him. I reached for his elbow. “Drop it Matt, let’s go.” I tugged hard on his arm. Elliot had the door open, already half inside. “Just or else okay. Just forget all about witnessing this-or else” He closed the door. We stood there looking around to see if anyone else had seen. Nobody. The curtains in one of Elliot’s first floor windows were pushed aside and he was looking at us. He made a shooing motion and our feet took flight.

I dragged myself off the couch and turned off the TV. A lazy Thursday evening like all days. I had decided to visit my family. Getting into my car I remembered what my dad always told me when I was younger. “safety first darling. Now buckle up I want to know what you look like when your an adult.” Well I always obeyed my dad and used a seatbelt. Even so he still wasn’t able to see what I look like now as an adult-well a young adult at least. I sat there thinking about how he died-we collided with a drunk driver. From that day as a young kid I vowed I would never drink or take any type of drug, even if it was just to taste. I zoned back in from my horrible flash back and closed the car door. I was just starting to feel a little better when I drove past Elliot’s house.
I found my brother, Jordy, playing basketball on his gameboy. “Hi , Jordy” I said. He was rapped up in the game and I thought he wouldn’t reply when he said “Yo” I went into the abyss of his closet and recovered one of his caps. The one I had in my hand has the letters NY on the front. I walked over to him slowly and covered his gameboy with the cap. “You’re not gonna greet your sister properly?” I said “Now, what’s up, Jordy? Have you been doing anything besides playing that stupid game of yours all day?” I continued hugging him close. “Yeah, yeah I’m good. Is Matt still cool?” he said. “He’s all good” A stuffed gorilla on the floor was staring at me. I looked at Jordy like I was in pain and said “This thing is giving me the evil eye.” I gestured towards the gorilla hesitantly. “Who you mean Jr.? He’s my homey, Mariah. Just let him sit and stare.” I walked toward “Jr.” and kicked him over. “You see Jr. over there? “ he nodded. “Yeah he’s gonna give me nightmares.” I pointed at the stuffed gorilla accusingly. “He’s the blackest guy in this house. He outdoes all of us put together, man.” I put my hands on my hips. “That’s why I’ll get nightmares. And plus he’s the literal color black. Your gorilla is evil and- and spiteful.” I said trying not to look at it. Jordy picked up Jr. “Ya, buggin’, Mariah.” “Evil gorilla” I said quietly, one eyebrow raised. “Ya-buggin’” he raised and eyebrow as well. I walked out of the room and said. “I despise that primate. Tell mom not to buy you anymore gorillas.”

The next morning I decided to go to the park. On my way I drove past Matt’s apartment building. Feeling guilty for not even thinking of bringing him, I made a U turn and went to bring him along. Luckily he gave me a key so I let myself in. I set my things down on the couch. I could hear many different noises. I heard a TV on in another room. I could hear a clock ticking. I could even hear water running as Matt took a shower. But the noise that got my attention, the noise that really stood out the most, was my boyfriend singing at the top of his lungs one of my favorite songs. He was singing Play That Funky Music. I could just imagine him singing into his back brush. “Lay down the boogie and play that funky music ‘til you die!” He overpowered my laughing with the volume of that part of the song when he sang it. The water stopped running and I waited a couple minutes for him to dry off and change (or whatever he does after he gets out of the shower). He stepped out of the bathroom and sang aloud “Play that funky music white boy! Play tha” he was cut off by a banging from the ceiling and an old man yelling “Shut your funky mouth!” Matt opened his eyes and saw me. “Mariah, didn’t expect you to be here. What’s up?” I got up and gave him a peck on the lips. “I was wondering if you would come to the park with me…” I looked up at the ceiling. “Um now, please?” He laughed “Of course I’ll go to the park with you, madam.” I sat on the back of the couch and said “You’re super corny.” He ignored what I had said and asked “Well I wanted to know if you’d come to Amanda’s party as my date?” “Who else could I go with?” he rolled his eyes “I dunno…you know her, right? The queen booger of all snots?” I laughed and said “You’re really, really corny, Mathew.” He folded his arms. “Well sorry, I get some jokes from my friend, Jonathon. Anyways, it’s on Saturday and there’s a medieval theme. OK?” I gagged. The middle ages isn’t my type of theme but if I’m going with Matt who cares? I was chewing on my thumb. “Saturday…..I’ll text Jordy so he doesn’t ask to visit me Saturday night and find an empty driveway. Hold up.” I pulled my black sidekick from my pocket and put the attached string around my wrist so as not to drop it. This is the text I sent to Jordy-
Saturday @ 8:00pm I’ll be away so uh don’t visit.
Love Mariah


“8:00 right, Matt?” I asked. “Yeah, yeah” he answered. I closed my sidekick and shoved it into my pocket. “Alright, you ready?” I asked. “Uh…yeah. Let’s go!” He said (a bit too loud) grabbing my shoulder and rushing towards the door. “Quiet down young man!” The old man from upstairs picked up on that little yell of his. We ran down three flights of stairs so quick we’d trip if we actually thought about where our feet were. When we finally got to the bottom we were panting so loud and hard. A little girl with a lollipop pointed at us and stuck out her bottom lip like she was about to cry. “Mommy are they okay?” the little girl asked her mother. Matt was on his back. He got up and we walked calmly out of the apartment building as the lady stared at us.
When we got to the park it was a nice hot California morning. Yesterday the weather man predicted it would be over 80 degrees and he was right! Matt and I found the perfect tree to sit under which shaded us just great. Mat put his arm around me and said “I’m surprised nobody took this spot, Mariah.” I leaned on his shoulder and closed my eyes. “Oh Matt” I said smiling. I was in a good mood. “Oh, Matt” a loathsome voice said. The person didn’t sound nearly as happy as I did when I said that. I opened my eyes and was frightened to find Elliot standing over us looking quite bland except for a hint of scorn. Matt and I stood up backs against the tree. We were both clearly terrified. “Hello. No need to worry I just saw you and decided to say hello.” He looked at me and back at Matt. “Hello, Elliot. You startled me.” I said blinking a couple times. He was twitching and I could tell he was uncomfortable seeing Matt with me. “Are you, upset about anything? You look, uh, angry.” I said trying to show concern though I wished he’d leave. Elliot touched my shoulder and tilted his head, looking straight into my eyes. His expression grew soft and he said “I’m fine, Mariah. Just a little agitated.” He looked towards Matt and grimaced. I patted his hand and said “Look Elliot, we’re just friends. That should be enough for you.” For a second he looked a bit demonic but then became happy again and said “Yes, yes that is enough for me. Thank you, Mariah. And goodbye, Matt.” He walked away slowly.