Into The Darkness

Theater

I am so excited when we get home. I was about to rush upstairs when my dad's voice boomed through the house. “MARIGOLD ADAMS! Get your a** down here now!” Uh oh...I guess the principal called him.

I sat on the couch while he yelled at me. This is very boring. I rested my chin on my hand again and started to scan the room. I don’t really see anything fun to do. So the next plan is to get out of here. I started to force my eyes to get water and blink a few tears out. My dad sees them and starts to get extremely uncomfortable. For a large man that looks like he should be riding a motorcycle somewhere, he really does get scared easily. He comes forward and pulls me into a hug. His long gray beard scratches my head.

He pulls away and sighs. “What am I going to do with you?” He asked and let me go upstairs. I went into my room and shut the door. My room is a really colorful room. I got every single color you can think of in it. There are also a lot of sparkles. I love myself some glitter. I lay down on my rainbow comforter and close my eyes. Today was a good day so far and it's not over.

I nap for an hour and Tiffany wakes me up. She comes barging in. “Marigold, which dress should I wear?” I am half awake as she holds up two different dresses on hangers. One is a nice dark brown dress with long sleeves. The other is a light blue dress with short sleeves. “Neither of them. Do you want to borrow something of mine?” I asked while sitting up.

“Marigold, you're a size zero, sometimes smaller. How on earth could I ever fit in your clothes?” She asked.

“Okay, okay...do you have that green one from Christmas? It matched your hair really nicely.” She stops to think for a moment and nods her head. She ran out of my room. Her hair is a dark chocolate brown, and she has nice dark brown eyes. Green really looks nice on her.

I went to my closet and pulled out a pink sequence dress. I put it on and do my makeup. I like to use pink eye shadow because it compliments my ice blue eyes. Tiffany argued with me about going with her. I guess Liam asked her out on a date. I threatened to tell our father, and she eventually caved in.

So far this is not fun. I am sitting next to Tiffany, and she is not even paying any attention to me. She keeps leaning over and talking to Mr. Romeo. Ugh...I have tried a few times to talk to her. She keeps shushing me. I looked up at the movie. It is an action movie, and it's not that good. I told Marigold I was going to the bathroom and left. I walk around looking inside different rooms. I came to a door that had stairs that went up. I climbed them and to a room filled with computers.

“Ooh buttons" I squealed….I walked to a computer screen, and it was the movie we were watching. I sat down. On the side is a long string of movies. I scroll through them until I find one that looks good. The action movie is about to get to a final fight scene so I click on the Trolls movie. The movie on the screen in front of me starts to play Trolls instead of the action movie. I squealed and rushed out of the room. I head back to the theater excited.

Before I could get past the concession stand, Tiffany came barging out. “Marigold….what did you do?” Mr. Romeo is following her closely.

“I dunno what you mean.” I started to give her innocent eyes.

“You changed the movie?” She whispered yelled. She opened her mouth to say something else when there was yelling at the concession stand. We looked over, and the popcorn machine was overfilling uncontrollably.

“You put too much popcorn in it.” A man yells.

“I swear I haven’t touched it at all.” Another man yelled. My arm gets yanked, and I look up to Tiffany who is now dragging me out of the theater. I am guessing she's mad about something.

“They fixed the movie if you want to finish it.” Mr. Romeo said from behind us.

“No, we are leaving.” She said while heading for the door. I get into the backseat while they sit up front. “I cannot believe you Marigold. Can’t you give me one night without trouble?”

“Where are we going?” I asked, changing topics again.

“Home!” She stated.

“Oh what about ice cream? I thought Liam was buying us ice cream.” Liam looked over at Tiffany confused.

“You already had ice cream once today.” She said

“Yeah, but I had cherry chocolate chips. Now I need rocky road.” I stuck out my bottom lip and looked towards Liam. “Please Liam….please.” He looked in the rearview mirror and smiled. I knew I had him. He took us for ice cream again. I was so happy that I offered to give them five minutes alone. However, Tiffany refused to let me leave. She seemed really nervous..

We got home and I stood in the doorway watching Tiffany the entire time. There is no way I am leaving them alone to do god knows what. He kissed her on the cheek and I clear my throat. He sighed and got into his car. She came to the door and glared at me. “What happened to giving us five minutes alone?” She asked as she walked past me.

I went inside and got some more ice cream out of the freezer. I took it upstairs and sat on my bed. I pulled out my laptop and started to play a movie. The movie is halfway through and there is a knock on my door. “Come in,” I say, and Tiffany comes in. She sits on my bed next to me and takes a bite of the popcorn I made.

“I guess I should have known better than to pick a movie I knew you didn’t like.” She wraps an arm around my waist and gives me a hug.

“Do you really like him?” I asked.

“Do you really hate him?” She asked.

“No...I don't hate him. I actually think he is nice.”

She looked at me puzzled. “You really make it seem like you hate him.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “There are things in the world you don’t understand yet. One day you will. I am just trying to keep you safe.”

She laughed. “Marigold, I am a year older than you.”

“Yeah well….I got bumped up a few classes, so we are in the same grade.” I retorted.

“You got bumped up because the teachers didn’t want you in their classes anymore.”

“Well….only someone smart can make that happen.” I retorted again and she laughed.

“You know you are very smart. You just don’t stay out of trouble.” She sighed

“Tiff...you may not understand this, but Liam isn’t what you think he is. He is dangerous. The people around him are dangerous. If you continue to pursue him, I may not be able to protect you.”

“Awe I love you too sis. Don’t worry if I pursue him, which I am. I will be extremely careful. I promise.” She gets up and leaves my room. I stare at the door for a while. She has no idea what she is getting herself into. I really don’t know if I can stop her. I know I cannot stop Liam. I can see the look in his eyes. He had already accepted her. So the only hope now is to get her to reject him.

The next morning, I went back to school. The principal almost lost his temper again but I sweet talked him into letting me come back. He did suspend me for two weeks, which means I will miss the midterm exams, but at least I can still finish school. No teacher in their right mind would ever hold me back. So I get to take my test late.

I am home alone and extremely bored. I have eaten all the food in our kitchen. I am starving now. I flip through the channels some more on the TV. There is not much on. I heard the car pull up into the driveway and I jumped up. Tiff is home. I ran out and met her outside. “Tiff! Did you get my text? Did you bring food?”

She rolled her eyes and handed me a bag. We go inside, and she searches the TV for Trolls 2. My eyes widened from excitement. She hands me a plate with fries and a hamburger on it. She kisses my cheek. “I am going out for a while. I will be back soon. I put some ice cream in the freezer. There are chips in the cupboard. Don’t go anywhere.” I unconsciously nodded my head without taking my eyes off the TV. This movie always has the brightest colors. I love it.

I did not process that she had gone out until the movie credits appeared. I looked around confused. I reached for my phone and call her. It rings but she doesn’t pick up. I got up and got a carton of ice cream. I sat down and call again. This time she answered. “Hey Marigold. Is the movie over?” She sounded breathless.

“What are you doing?” I asked and she hesitated.

“Nothing just at the store.” She replied.

“Oh….you went to the store before you came home from school. Why would you go again?” I knew where she was.

“I will be home soon. Why don’t you watch another movie?" She almost sounded like she was begging me to behave.

“Yeah...ok….see you soon.” I hung up annoyed. She really didn’t listen to me last night. I sat up and looked over at my father's computer. He installed trackers on our phones when we were younger. I bet the app is still on her phone. I got up and searched for her location. It pings in the middle of the forest. That is definitely bad news.