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Mariah pushed her way through the clutter of the long forgotten attic. Her day off from work could have been spent doing better things other than taking a trip down memory lane. But she was her father’s child, stubborn as ever. Mariah Adler was on the verge of turning twenty-three but it didn’t feel like it. In her mind she was still the head cheerleader of Murray County High School.
She had the figure of a cheerleader, or so she had been told. Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes and about two days away from being anorexic. Her metabolism was a very fast one so she always looked like she hadn’t eaten anything in over a week. Things like that bothered her about her image. Being perceived as the girl with an eating disorder wasn’t how she expected to be looked at. But you can’t convince a headstrong mind of reality.
The boxes were piled high, most of them being the little things that her mother had kept. Her first drawing, things from kindergarten and other things that were of no value to anyone but her mother. She could almost place money of the fact that her parents probably hadn’t looked at these things since she graduated from elementary school.
“Such innocence back then.” Mariah said to no one but herself as she clumsily climbed over the boxes. Making it to her destination, she sighed in relief.
A large brown trunk sat in the floor. The straps to close it had long broken to where it couldn’t be locked, not that she cared. Mariah’s parents weren’t the types to go through boxes, especially since this one was all the way in the back of the attic, hidden neatly away so that if you didn’t know about it, you would never find it.
Sucking in a deep breath of air, almost like she was preparing herself for the pain that was about to come from this, Mariah carefully pulled up the lid to the trunk. The stench of mothballs filled her nostrils as she pulled out the first items, a few loose pictures that were sitting on top. Smiling faces stared at her from the glossy picture, and she was one of those faces. Back when I had something to smile about. She thought sadly. A picture of a beach trip with two girls and two guys in their bathing suits was the first one. It was like a timeline, these pictures. Each one gave the most important detail of a certain time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~9 years ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Let’s go swimming Mar, please?” Annie, her then best friend, begged of her.
Mariah was stretched out on a blanket, lying on her back with sunglasses to protect her eyes from this hot, sunny day. She pulled down the glasses a bit to see the figure that was leaning over her. “What the hell makes you think that I want to go out in the water?” Her question came.
“Because it’s hot out here and the water will cool you off.” Annie gave the answer that she thought would work, but Mariah was much harder to convince. Giving in, she gave the real answer, “Okay, I don’t want to go out there by myself and look like an idiot.”
The blonde slid her glasses back in place. “You know that I can’t swim.” Which was true. Mariah had never really learned how to swim and she still regretted it to this day. But she wasn’t much of an outdoor person in the first place.
“Shit, I keep forgetting that.” Annie sat down, defeated. “When are you ever going to learn?”
“When I find a nice swim instructor that is cute and worth wasting my time looking at.” Mariah had always been a smart-ass, but her friends loved her just the same.
“There’s this really cute swim instructor named Jack Lee who works at the YMCA.” Annie’s voice held a dreamy tint to it as she went on to describe the guy.
“Let me rephrase then because we obviously have a communication problem.” Mariah leaned up on her elbows looking at her brown-headed friend. “When I find a nice female swim instructor that is cute and worth wasting my time looking at.”
“Sure, play the lesbian card.” Annie waved her hand like she was brushing the subject off. Though she was just joking, Mariah knew that on some level it sort of bothered Annie that her best friend was a lesbian.
Coming out was easier than expected for Mariah. Maybe that was because her friends found her making out with another girl at a party. So she never really officially announced to the world that she was a lesbian, they just kind of assumed.
Annie often asked Mariah if she was attracted to her and each time she said yes. Mariah was an honest person, but she also knew her boundaries. She would never hit on Annie or try to go any further than friendship with her. Annie was attractive though. Her hair was brown, a light color. Green eyes and a perfect white smile finished off her good looks. Annie frequently worked out so she had great muscles. But Mariah let it go they would never date. And that was fine by her, she didn’t want to lose a friendship over something stupid as a relationship.
Ian, a friend of Annie and Mariah’s, came walking towards the girls. He was a jock, a sought after football star. And the ladies swooned over his neatly spiked brown hair with brown eyes. He had just been swimming, showing off his tanned body and well worked muscles. Like every typical male, when two very cute females walked by, Ian turned his head to watch.
“Why don’t you just lick them when they walk by Ian?” Annie called out to her boyfriend.
“You know I love you baby.” Ian pulled her up so that he could kiss her.
Mariah on the other hand, she felt sickened by the site. “Bullshit!” She covered up with a cough. “Damn allergies.” She added when she finished her mock coughing.
“All right I’m ready to leave.” Darren, another friend, said in a voice that said ‘I’ve just been turned down by five women so let’s go somewhere where I can pick up some chicks.’ Darren was a bit like Ian in the fact that he was tall, tanned, and well endowed in the muscle department. But other than that, they were different people.
Darren had blonde hair and green eyes. His hair was slightly longer that Ian’s but he always had it combed perfectly. Annie use to joke that the reason she wouldn’t date him is because she couldn’t stand going out with a guy that spent more time in front of a mirror than her.
“Struck out again huh Dare?” Mariah started packing up her things.
“What’s your secret? Every time you speak to a girl you end up walking away with her phone number.” Darren nearly whined as he asked Mariah. “You’re like the female equivalent of a pimp.”
“My dear boy...” She said in a mature tone like she had been alive longer than he had. “I am a female, and that comes in handy when speaking to another female. And the fact that I’m like major hot plays a part.” Mariah smiled as she made a little dance move, wiggling her hips.
Annie started laughing. “I can’t believe that you’ve got that big of an ego...”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A tear fell from her eye as she thought back to those happy times. Back before...well before everything went wrong. It had been a long time since Mariah had only spoken to Annie since their graduation from high school. It had been a long time since Mariah had been back there to that town.
On her eighteenth birthday, Mariah packed up and moved out of the state. She settled down in Massachusetts, near the Boston University. It was a whole different world for her moving from a small town in Georgia to a strange place like Massachusetts.
Of course it still felt like home because her parents chose to move with her. Making her feel a little trapped. She needed her space away from her parents, but god was it annoying to have them move when she did. Thankfully she lived in an apartment far enough away from them that she didn’t have to deal with them too often.
She sat the pictures down beside of her and continued on looking through the box. The next item was another picture, but this one was in a frame. It had been taken better care of than the others that were just thrown in there. The frame was wooden and still just as shiny as the day that it was stuck in the box. Mariah outlined the two people’s faces with her finger. “Oh Robbie Keller. I haven’t thought about her in several years.” She said as she touched the girl’s face.
The picture was of a girl that Mariah had met the summer that she had turned sixteen. Robbie Keller was the starting point of the end of her life. Robbie had been the cause of the bad parts that had affected the outcome of Mariah’s life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7 Years Ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a party coming up in the next week that everybody in school had been talking about. The party had been one of those parties of the year type of things. The type that everybody talks about for the next six months. And Mariah had gotten an invitation to bring one friend along. Naturally she chose Annie because they had known each other for years and were as close as humanly possible.
It was a Hawaiian theme party. Mariah and Annie dressed up in the proper clothes, grass skirts and coconut bras.
“I feel naked.” Annie looked in the mirror at herself as Mariah finished tying the bra.
“That’s because you practically are.” Mariah answered back, taking a look in the mirror herself. “We’re definitely not coming home alone tonight.” She bumped her hip against Annie’s who bumped back.
“You’re thinking that we’re both going to get lucky at this party?” Annie turned around to grab her purse.
“I know that I am, Caitlin is going to be there.” Mariah laced her arm with Annie’s as they walked out the door.
Mariah climbed into the front seat of her car. Annie laughed when she heard the girl’s name.
“Oh Miss Caitlin is going to be there. That’s why you made me come along. I guess I didn’t realize how important bagging Caitlin for your collection was.”
“Hey now,” Mariah grinned over at Annie and then went back to watching the road. “Caitlin has been after me for years, I’ve just never been able to get her...until now.”
Mariah’s nicknames had often been ‘pimp’ or something along those lines. Though she didn’t see it herself, everybody said that she had every female, straight or otherwise, wrapped around her finger. It was true that every week Mariah was pursuing a new female. Nothing was really happening between Mariah and these girls; she was just playing the field a little.
But her friend found it a little unnerving that Mariah had new female’s every week. She worried about the blonde’s health, both mentally and physically. Her arguments with Mariah usually got to nowhere. Mariah didn’t see that she was doing anything wrong. ‘Even when I do sleep with them, I’m always safe. It’s not like I can get pregnant.’ Mariah often said.
“You think she’ll go after you? I mean, you have turned her down several times in the past.”
Mariah scoffed; “Do you see this body? Of course she’ll go after me. I might have to push things along a little, but she’ll be up for a night of screaming pleasure with me.”
Annie’s mood changed when she heard the last part. “Mariah, you’re not going to sleep with her are you?”
“No, I’m just going to have sex with her. There will be no sleeping involved.” Mariah smiled, earning herself a smack from her friend.
“Mar...” Annie said in a warning tone.
The car pulled up into the driveway of the large house holding the party. Cars were parked everywhere, showing the largeness of this party, and the importance too. Most people were already drunk. The two girls emerged from the car with slight nerviness. They entered the room of loud music and dancing slowly.
“Hey ladies!” Darren came from a table that had drinks and snacks. He obvious had already pounded down a few drinks. “Welcome to casa de Camden.”
“Pace yourself there Dare, you might get hurt.” Mariah patted him on the chest and walked off towards her goal of the night, Caitlin.
“I can’t believe that she’s already going after that slut.” Annie snatched up a drink.
Darren’s speech was slurred as he said to his upset friend, “You should tell her that you like her then.” He hiccupped, making him sound like one of those drunks that hang out in the airports. “She won’t be mad, she thinks you’re sexy.” He placed his hand up to his mouth, “Oops, wasn’t suppose to say that.” He laughed it off and left to go dance.
“Fucking drunk.” Annie said under her breath.
Was he telling the truth? Did Mariah really think that she was sexy? Darren did have the tendency to say the things that he wasn’t suppose to when he had a few beers in him. Of course he was destined to be an alcoholic, so he could have been lying.
Annie weighed her options, deciding to wait until some other night to discuss this with Mariah. But as she looked around for her friend, she saw her and Caitlin making their way up towards the bedrooms upstairs. They were holding hands and talking awfully close to together. She knew what was going to happen and made her sick. She took one big gulp of her drink hoping to burn that image out of her mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Mariah, honey are you up there? Your father and I saw your car in the driveway.” Her mother’s voice traveled up the attic.
“I’m coming Ma.” Mariah called back. She neatly sat the items back in the box and shut it again. She would have to finish the trip down memory lane later.
