He was taking a moment to just look at her. Today had been crazy, he felt like they had barely had any time together. Today was supposed to be for them but they both knew it was more for Mia… and Lily. He couldn’t believe they had made it here. Well sort of, he knew she was the person he would marry after she dropped him off on his doorstep the night they first met. He thought back to that night.
Marlene and Lily had been sharing a townhouse on the east side for about 3 months now. It wasn’t in the best area so they were getting a steal on the rent. Marlene's older brother Michael had gotten married this past weekend so she hadn’t been back to the house for about a week. Lily figured if Marlene wasn’t going to be home she would take the week to go visit her parents. So no-one had been home for the past week and admittedly Marlene was a little spooked coming back to an empty house late at night. She had a load of things to bring in so she supposed going in through the basement garage around the back of the house would be best to make multiple trips.
Marlene had hyped herself up on the drive back.
What was scary about three stories and plenty of rooms for murders to hide in?? She entered into the pitch black basement, why didn't this room have any window?
Marlene made her way up the stairs to turn off the alarm system. She typed in the code but the system displayed an error code. Error code? What does that mean? Has the alarm not been working for the past week? She was beginning to work herself into a state.
Okay her friend Mary lived like 10 minutes away, she would just call her and Mary would come over and they could search the house and it would be fine.
The phone was ringing. Marlene was standing by the door in case she needed to make a run for it. She could feel her lip starting to bleed from the tugging with the teeth.
“Hi! You’ve reached Mary! Sorry I can’t answer but I’ll get back to you when I feel like it!”
Marlene released a growl “Dammit Mary!!”
Okay now who could I call…
Marlene dialed her brother Mark's number. He had left to come back to the city a little after her but maybe he would be back by now.
“Hey Mars Bars! Whats up?”
“MARK!” She released a breath, thank god “Are you back yet?”
“No, hit bad traffic on the one. There was a bad wreck. Felt like I was sitting there for hours. Worst part was I really need the lo-”
“Mark!”
“Geez, what?”
Marlene just made whining sound
“Spit it out Mars”
“I think someone is in my house” She said it in a rushed whisper
“What”
He really didn’t sound concerned for her safety!
“I said I think there's someone in my house…”
Marlene was scared of the dark until she was 16 so he probably assumed she was being dramatic….and maybe she was
“Marlene, you’re probably fine. I’m sure you’ve just freaked yourself out. Where is Lily?”
“She won’t be home until tomorrow!!”
“Okay why don’t you call M-”
“I already called Mary! She didn’t answer! And the longer I stay here, the more time the murder is plotting how to kill me!!”
“Okay, calm down, you nutter.” She could practically hear his eyes roll “Where are you right now?”
“By the front door but I came in from the annoyingly creepy basement and the alarm system said there was an error!! An error Mark!!”
“Okay fine, why don’t you search the house with me on the phone with you? You just have the two bedroom upstairs left”
“Oh yes, because when I get attacked, you’ll be so much help!”
“Well-”
“No, you’re right. I can do this. I am an independent woman. I’ll just get a knife and then search the house, it’ll be empty and I'll be fine!”
Marlene went into the kitchen, she pulled open the drawer. There wasn't a knife. She shuffled the contents and they didn’t even own a stake knife. Curse Lily for convincing her to go vegetarian for the new year.
She pulled open the next drawer hoping to find some kind of weapon. Marlene grabbed the ice cream scoop. It had a metal head and was the closest thing she had to a mallet.
“Okay Mark, I’m gonna go up.”
Just gonna go up, turn on all the lights and it won’t be scary
Marlene looked up the narrow staircase. It was pitch black. Marlene flicked the stair light. It didn’t turn on. It. didn’t. turn. on.
Marlene released another whine
“Marlene? What's wrong?” She appreciated that he at least sounded slightly concerned
“The light won’t turn on!!” She was flipping the switch frantically now but no change.
Marlene steeled herself. She could still do this.
“Okay, I’m just going to sprint up and turn on the hall light and it will be fine.”
“It will be because you’re being over dramatic” Marlene was going to kill him the next time she saw him. If she made it through the night that is.
Marlene took the stairs two at a time. She reached the landing and went to switch but she stopped. She could see a light coming from the crack in her door. Her T.V. in her room was on? Why was her t.v. on? She had left early in the morning last week. It wouldn’t have been on ever in the morning.
“Fuck” She whispered and was running down the stairs
“Marlene?” She didn’t stop, she was getting to her car and getting out of this house. “Marlene!”
“SHH!!” She knew it was ridiculous to tell him to be quite but the murder couldn’t know she knew he was in the house.
Marlene made it safely to the car and pulled out of the garage.
“My TV was on!! I know I turned it off before I left! Murder! Mark! Oh shit! I forgot to reset the alarm! Now if they run out we’ll never know!”
Marlene drove her car around to the front of the house. She parked a little down the street, for her impromptu stake-out.
“Okay kid, now what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know!!” Marlene hated how whiny her voice sounded. Objectively she knew she was probably being over cautious but that didn’t stop her body from shaking.
“Why don’t you drive to Mum and Da’s?”
The thought had certainly crossed her mind. Her parents only lived 50 minutes away. It was a do-able drive. But the thing was she had only been living on her own for the past few months, and her parents constantly treated her like she was a child. They also constantly nagged her about the safety of her neighborhood. Marlene couldn’t go running home now after giving them dozens of speeches about how she could handle herself.
She had to find another way out of this mess. One she probably created in her own head.
Okay Marlene, think. Who do you know that lives nearby??
There was only one person who came to mind. James.
Lily had met James on a dating app. They had only been on 5 dates over the past couple months. Things were still very new and casual. But as it turned out, James lived two streets over from them. You could walk, you know on a nice daylight hour, not when its pitch black and you’re a girl, and you’re pretty sure theres a murder hiding in your house. Marlene had only met James twice in passing but he seemed nice enough. And he had told Lily he wanted to score some roommate points with Marlene so he was her best option.
“I figured it out, got to go Mark!”
“Wait! Marlene call me when you’re saf-”
Marlene had already hung up the phone. She had a plan and she could finally catch up on her much missed sleep from this past week.
Marlene drove over to James house. Although when she got there she realized there was one issue. James lived in a duplex, meaning it was two houses connected on one side. Marlene was unsure of which side James lived on.
Marlene made her way onto the porch. She decided she would take her best guess. Marlene gave a slight knock on one door. She could see the feet of two people but they didn’t answer.
She had felt more confident about the other door anyway. Marlene walked to the next door. She knocked much harder this time. There was barking from behind the door.
The door swung open.
Well that was not James.
No standing on the other side of the door was a very handsome man. A very shirtless handsome man. He had long black hair, a very well toned body and was wearing nothing but sweatpants.
“Hello?”
Oh. How long had she been staring….
“Hi!” Oh Merlin, was that as loud to him as it sounded to her. “Is James home?”
“Um no.. I think he’s out playing ball.”
Marlene out a defeated “Oh.” Well now what?
The man behind the door was still staring at her. Particularly the ice cream scoop she had in her hand.
Oh what if he thought she was Lily? Oh god what if he thought she was another random girl?
“I’m Marlene! Lily’s roommate!”
Handsome rugged boy just quirked an eyebrow at her.
“Lily? She’s been on a few dates with James…”
Now he seemed to have a spark of recognition
“...Oh yeah, James had mentioned he had been seeing someone.”
“Right. Well that's Lily! My roommate!” Marlene could feel the manic smile on her face.
James had mentioned he had a roommate, said he was a nice guy. And there was still a chance there was a murder in her house.
“Sooo anway… We live a couple streets over! And I think there's someone in my house.” Why was she using her hands so much… “So I came over hoping to find James to see if he would come over and search the house with me!” He was still just staring. “So..would you mind doing it?”
He stayed quiet for a minute.
“What's with the ice cream scoop?”
“Oh.” Marlene looked down at the scoop in her hand. “It's the only weapon I could find. I thought maybe I could bludgeon someone with it” and then she proceeded to show the motion. God why wasn’t he wearing a shirt. Marlene could see the corners of his quirk up. He was holding in a laugh.
Marlene found herself holding in a laugh, she looked to the sky biting her lip, “Look are you going to come over and search my house for a murderer or not.”
The boy smiled, it was sly and cocky, and she noted he had stubble sprinkling his face.
“Sure, why don’t you come in while I grab a shirt.” he exited to the room around the hall.
Marlene stepped inside. She looked around the room and she spotted a big fluffy black dog sitting at the base of the stairs. She knelt down to pet the dog. James had mentioned his roommate had a dog.
“I’m Sirius by the way!”
Marlene jumped.
“And that's snuffles”
Now it was Marlene’s turn to hold in a laugh, “Snuffles?”
“I adopted him with the name.”
“Ah, gotcha..” She was still trying not to giggle, “I’m Marlene.”
“Well Marlene should we go catch a murder?”
Marlene gave Snuffles one last pet and headed out to the car.
The pair climbed into her car.
“So what made you think there was someone in the house?”
“Okay well no one‘s been home for a week so it’s been empty which means anybody could’ve come in but then I decided to enter from the basement downstairs, which is pitch black and so spooky! But I did it anyway because you know I’m an independent woman so I ran upstairs to turn off the alarm so I turned off the alarm but then it said that there was an error and I was like yeah that’s a little weird but not a big deal right? I called a friend but they didn’t answer so I called my brother but he’s out of town but he says he’ll stay on the phone with me while I go and look and of course the only weapon I have in my freaking house is an ice cream scoop! Anyway, then I go upstairs and the light won’t turn on! The light! so now I’m looking up at a pitch black hallway. But I steel myself because I’m brave so I run up the stairs and I get up to the landing and I can see that my TV is on and I know I turned off my TV because I left really early in the morning! So my TV would’ve never been on in the first place so after that point I’m like fuck I’m out of here so run down the stairs and then I have to run back through the basement to get my car and I have no one who lives around here so then I was like who lives nearby and then I thought about James so I figured sure I’ve only met him twice but hey he’s the next best thing and he seem nice enough and I figured he would get a laugh out of it so I go over to your house– which I accidentally went to your neighbors house so that was a little odd and then I came to you and here you are so now here we are!”
Marlene barely took two breaths giving him the details of her night so far. At this point she couldn’t tell if she was shaking from the potential murder or the fact that she was making a fool of herself in front of a ridiculously hot guy
Marlene parked the car in front of her house and turned to look at Sirius. He was just looking at her.
“So you asked his roommate, who you’ve never met, a stranger- to come into your house alone with you?”
“I figured better a random man from outside then finding a room to man inside” and if you’re physique says anything about you, I know you can handle a murderer
“Um, thanks?”
Oh god.. Did she just say that out loud??
Marlene was quick to unbuckle and hop out of the car “well we have a murderer to catch!”
Sirius hopped out behind her; he was chuckling at her embarrassment. He followed her up the porch, “Well ready to catch a murder?”
Marlene took a deep breath and unlocked the door and then proceeded to go in holding the ice cream scoop like a gun.
Sirius just shook his head and stepped in following her. He knew he would follow her for the rest of his life.
Now here he was watching her on their wedding day. They did search the whole house and nobody turned out to be there. She did seem to just work herself into a state. Marlene woke up the next morning with the text from an unknown number it read:
“Hope you don’t mind. I asked James to get your number from Lilly for me. I just wanted to make sure you made it through the night.” The rest was history.