Chapter One
“He said what?!” The door slammed open. Rage was etched over Marlene’s face.
“It was nothing, honestly Marlene. He didn’t mean it, he apologised several times and then he bought me flowers to make up for it,” Lily busied herself in the kitchen, avoiding her friend’s piercing look. She dried off a pink mug and placed it back up on the shelf. “If I had known you were going to react like this I wouldn’t have texted you.”
“FLOWERS DON'T MAKE UP FOR CALLING YOU A USELESS FUCKING BITCH WHO’S NOT WORTH HIS TIME!”
There was a pause and Marlene could distinctly hear the sound of Lily’s grandfather clock ticking in the hallway. It was a gorgeous mahogany wood and it reminded Marlene of her great-aunt’s house. Currently, however, the ticking was reminding her of a bomb. One she’d very much like to shove down the throat of Lily’s previously mentioned shitty boyfriend.
“We were arguing, it was just an argument, he didn’t mean it, Marls.” Lily turned towards her, tears in her eyes, “he loves me, Marlene, how many times do I have to tell you that?”
The cracks in her voice fractured Marlene’s heart and she watched her friend lie to herself again and again. Lily’s hands bunched in her green tank top. Her red hair framed her freckled cheeks and Marlene could see her eyelashes glittering softly. She missed the days of clubbing and partying with Lily, Em, and Alice, when Lily smiled so much her eyes closed and laughed so hard her face hurt.
“Okay Lily, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I believe you it’s just—” She stopped, searching for the words. “Why do you let him speak to you like that? He keeps saying shit he doesn’t mean, and every single time you forgive him. I just don’t understand.”
Her friend looked back at the floor, placing another cup back on the shelf. “Because he loves Marlene. And if he doesn't, who else will? He’s the only long-term boyfriend I’ve had and most of the time he treats me like I’m perfect and everything he could ask for.”
“Lils you are perfect. And you deserve so much more than him. You deserve someone who will treat you right all of the time. Not some two-faced jerk bag who starts yelling at the smallest thing. What even was it this time?”
“Umm,” Lily shifted slightly. “I got invited to go out to dinner with a few of our college friends but he wouldn’t let me go. He thought that Matt or Rj wanted to make a move on me and he didn’t want me seeing them.”
“This is exactly what I’m talking about! He’s controlling, jealous, insecure, and manipulative. You’re an amazing, beautiful, kind person and anyone would be lucky to have you. Someone better than him will love you, I promise.” She crossed her arms, and the look in her eye told Lily that her opinion was not going to be changed any time soon.
“Okay I’ll think about it Marlene, but for now I need to finish cleaning this kitchen up and I’m sure you have other places to be so I’ll text you tomorrow K?”
Marlene did have other places to be so she reluctantly said her goodbyes and walked back to her car. This was beyond frustrating. She and Lily seemed to be having the same conversation over and over. Lily’s boyfriend Snape, was an asshole. Marlene hated the guy. He’d been obsessed with Lily throughout college and everyone had seen it - except Lily. They’d become close when her parents and sister had kicked her out and Lily needed a place to stay. Unfortunately, she’d run into Snape before Marlene could swoop into the rescue.
Snape worried Marlene a bit. He seemed shady and hung around dodgy people. She was convinced he was caught up in some weird crime group. Or maybe it was drug-related, she wasn’t quite sure.
When she’d tried explaining her suspicions to Lily she’d been shut down. “There’s nothing he does that remotely suggests that.” Lily had said. Followed by, “If you have proof I’m all ears because of course I wouldn’t date someone like that,” and an eye roll that implied she didn’t think Marlene was ever gonna find proof of something like that.
She was wrong. That’s exactly what Marlene had been planning to do. Only she wasn’t sure how to go about it. How did you gather information on someone when you weren’t quite sure what you were looking for and had no time to actively stalk someone? On that note, she was going to be late for work. Reason no.1 why she couldn’t stalk Snape.
~~~~~
Thirty minutes later, Marlene’s shiny purple car pulled into the staff car park outside Toffee and Coffee. Inside Alice was carrying a tray of drinks over to a table of six people. The cafe was reasonably busy this morning and Marlene could see Emmaline giving her the side eye at the counter. Whoops.
She slipped past various people as she made her way to the back of the cafe to dump her bag and coat. Muttering excuse me and various other apologies as she went, Marlene mouthed one more sorry at Emmaline before disappearing out the back.
It was a long morning. Marlene had consumed so much caffeine in the brief pauses between work that she could almost smell the obnoxious lime-green colour of the dairy across the street. Her coworkers forgave her fairly quickly for her late arrival. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to chat until closing in the evening as they took staggered breaks to keep managing customers. Marlene and Emmaline waved goodbye to Andrew - their other coworker- while Alice locked up.
“You're buying the first round this time, McKinnon, for leaving us to fend for ourselves at 5 am this morning,” Emmaline grumbled climbing into the back of her friend's car.
“Amen to that,” Alice chimed in, opening the passenger door. “I can not believe the number of people who arrive while we’re opening. Like who the fuck is waking up at 5:30 on a Saturday?”
“Okay, okay that’s fair,” Marlene surrendered. “I’m on the first round, but I stand by that it was for a good reason.”
The three of them arrived at the local bar within no time. The bartender knew their first round by heart as the girls had made a habit of coming every Saturday night after their longest shift. They had Sundays off so plenty of time to nurse inevitable hangovers.
Seated in a booth, secluded enough to hear each other talk, Alice raised an eyebrow at Marlene. “What do you mean ‘for a good reason’?”
“Yeah you never told us why you were late,” Emmaline added.
Marlene sipped her negroni, unsure what to say. “Lily sent me a text. And she mentioned she had another argument with Snape.”
She told her friends about Lily’s texts and turning up at her house that morning and what they’d argued about. Marlene’s thoughts were swirling and talking to Emmaline and Alice seemed to help centre them.
“I’m guessing he’s also why she couldn’t come tonight?” Emmaline asked. Lily would often meet them at the bar after their shifts but that had become less and less frequent.
“Ugh, don’t even get me started.” Marlene ran her hands through her choppy blonde hair, tugging on it in frustration. “There’s got to be some way to show her who he really is! It breaks my heart to see her treated like this by him again and again. All it does is make me hate him and her family more for making her feel like she doesn’t deserve to be loved as much as she loves. I mean, I’m convinced he’s in some kind of shit. You guys have seen the people he hangs out with. Mulciber, Goyle, Lestrange. All of those guys are shady as hell.”
“Can’t disagree with that.” Emmaline sipped her drink. She twirled one of her many colourful bracelets around her finger. “You don’t like, know anyone who knows them or what they get up to? No one who could like, catch it on video so we can show Lily his true colours and all that jazz?”
“If I didn’t have work all the time I’d just stalk him myself, but—”
“Actually,” Alice interrupted. “I might know someone who could help.”
“Really!” Marlene perked up instantly. “I am open to all suggestions by this point.”
Alice hesitated slightly, fiddling with the stem of her glass. “Remember how a few years ago I had all the court stuff over the ordeal with Marcus? Well, I received help from an… organisation that specifies finding evidence for women and girls in abusive homes or relationships, or just generally toxic situations. For me, they helped prove that I was raped. They managed to find security footage of him and I together near the location as well as texts between him and some of his friends where he bragged about it.”
“Holy shit really?” Marlene exclaimed. “God I know how difficult proving those cases can be for the victims as often it’s your word against theirs. But that’s amazing, I’m so happy they were able to help you with that.”
“Were they the ladies with your lawyer when I came with you to those meetings?” Emmaline asked.
“Yeah that’s them,” Alice smiled sadly. “Lovely group of people and good at their job. I could contact them for you if you’d like?”
“That would be awesome, Alice, thanks.” Marlene squeezed her hand appreciatively and they all shared a smile.
Another round of drinks came and went and topics became lighter and more slurred. Finally, they decided that they had had enough and it was time to head home.