Infinite

Imaginary

𝄆 ♫♪ 𝄇
If I could live on the imaginary plane,
Where nothing exists
Nothing can disappoint me (disappoint me)
If I could stay in an imaginary place
Where my dreams are as real
As the emotions I feel (emotions I feel)
If only I could live in the imaginary, imaginary (imaginary)
𝄆 ♫♪ 𝄇

A week had passed and Mari was sure not to mess up again. She'd even set reminders to make sure she didn't forget again. Mari was scared to see what the consequences would be for getting a second strike. A third? She knew that would mean the end of all things good. Probably even kicked out of the house.

"Hey, Mari. You haven't been around to Julie's in a while. Is everything okay?" Alex asked, sitting on Mari's bed while she worked on homework at her desk. She scribbled more in her notebook, which Alex took as a no. A non-response was as good as one. "Mari?"

She handed him a piece of paper with a note on it. Her handwriting was quite good—legible, neat—which was far better than any of her friends or any of his ghost friends.

"My step-mother doesn't like it when it's loud." Alex couldn't believe what he was reading, but went along with what it said anyways. "Did you do something wrong?" Another response was written on a piece of notebook paper.

"I screwed up." He didn't seem to get it. "How? You said she treated you well." The next answer was on another piece of paper, though her hand shook so much she was surprised Alex could even read it. She was shaking in attempt to hold back her tears, and it was the only reason her tears hadn't come to light.

"Forgot to do dishes. Strike 1." The last two words struck fear in him. "Strike one? So you're only allowed to screw up three times, then you're out?"

"Maybe. She never said." Mari answered in reply. Focusing back on her homework, she wished there was some other way out of the horrible situation she was in. It wasn't as if Julie would let her crash on her couch. "I'm so sorry, Mari. I had no idea. I'm gonna go let Julie know."

"No!" Alex was startled to hear her cry out, but even more so when her step-mother yelled that she was to stay quiet or it'd be strike number two. He considered that woman more terrifying than his own mother when he told her he was gay. "Please, don't tell Julie."

"She asked me to check in on you. She's worried about you, Mari." Mari still shook her head, not wanting to give in to peer pressure. Julie didn't know about the quietness that soaked into her every bone like poison. It sucked the life out of her, but that was another thing that came with the strikes. No more going to friends' houses. No more dates (not that she had any). No more after school activities of any kind. The only things she could do were go to study tables, run errands, and go to school. Oh, and drive Sofia to school each day. That was also now required of the teen. Mari shook her head, knowing Julie would do something crazy if she heard.

Last she knew, Julie hadn't even told Flynn about the ghosts, though she suspected that fight was through given how close they were at the end of the previous week. All Mari wanted to do was crawl in a hole and pray to every god she could think of to get her out of the mess she was in. It wasn't easy being Mari, and having a threat looming over her head didn't make it any easier.

"Okay. Got it." Alex poofed away and left Mari in her tears. Alex hadn't seen them, or the rest of her face, while he was still there, for which she was thankful. Before one could land on her notebook, she brushed it and the feeling of hopelessness away. She couldn't live her life like this. The constant silence, flinching at every word her step-family said, none of it was fair to her. What else could she do, though?

Dad, do I deserve this? Mari turned her head toward the ceiling, wishing her father were next to her. He would've known what to do. With him, though, none of this would've happened. She would love her life and make a ton of music.

Mari spilled her guts, hopes, and wishes into her songbook, writing yet another song. Music was her dream, but Mari was worried whether Laura would let her follow that dream once she was able to go to college. Even though it wasn't long, it was how she felt and released a lot of pent up emotions. But, it wouldn't ever see the light of day, just like most songs she wrote when she got angry or wished that the world was different. It was her free therapy. She rarely thought about the songs after writing them, but they were always a way to rebel and be angry, even if only for a moment.

She wrote about what it would be like if she didn't have to live in the real world. An imaginary one sounded much better right about then.

A day and a half later, it was yet another Monday morning that Mari wanted to spend writing music and playing the piano before class. Aside from having to drive her half-sister to school, that was what she planned to do. But, life always had a way of working towards a goal she couldn't see. That was how she felt when Julie stopped her in the hallway, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at seven twenty in the morning.

"Mari! Hey, what's up?" Mari smiled at her friend, who was way too excited for a Monday morning. Clearly, something had happened between the last time she talked to her and then. "Did Alex stop by your house, a place I have yet to see?"

"Yeah, he did," Mari replied simply, dropping off her backpack at her locker and pulling out a couple books for her first classes. Aside from music class, which only required her songbook (the main one, not the one that she opted to use in place of therapy), she also had chemistry with Carrie (unfortunately, that needed a huge textbook) and English (which needed Romeo and Juliet by the one and only William Shakespeare).

"And?" Mari was surprised Alex didn't go against her wishes and tell Julie what was going on.

"And what?" Mari didn't want to hide anything, but her family situation was something she wanted to keep under wraps for the time being.

"Care to share anything?" Julie leaned against the lockers, waiting for an acceptable answer. It wasn't like Mari to hide things from Julie. "Mari? Seriously? Did you not just see Flynn and I fall apart when I held something from her?"

"I'm sorry, but I... I don't want to talk about it," Mari mumbled, which did not make Julie happy.

"Really, Mari? I've been your best friend for years." Julie looked angry, but Mari was more angry that she had pointed that out. For a year, an entire three hundred seventy-six days, Julie had iced Mari out because she wanted to process her grief after losing her mother. And now she was claiming they'd been best friends after all of that.

"I just need some time." Mari shut her locker and walked away. Those five words rang through Julie because they were exactly what she had told Mari after her mom died. She was expecting a "you would understand that", but it never came. Everything that Mari thought, she kept to herself and walked away knowing that she didn't hurt her best friend's feelings.

There were so many things she wanted to spit in Julie's face, so many that she was surprised she could hold her tongue at all.

Mari wrote everything she was feeling in her phone, knowing that it would make its way to her other songbook at home when she got the chance to transpose it all. It was another song to add to the pages of the tattered and beaten book that had a home in her room. She loved writing music, and conveying her feelings was freeing.

But losing everyone she had in the process was not how she wanted to do it. And that's all Mari felt. Her stepmother had alienated her, Julie hated her, and she couldn't bear the thought of losing even one more person. She didn't have much else to lose.

Author's Note: Who else uses something (writing, listening to music, drawing, etc.) in place of therapy? Just me? Yeah... therapy is expensive and I get in my head way too much to even think about going to a therapist. I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter and make sure to vote and let me know what you think in the comments. I have two exams tomorrow and an exam Tuesday to study for so pray for me! All the best, MistyRider921.