They were early.

"I want you to be my maid of honor," Jodie took the keys out of the ignition and faced Scarlett with a smile. "Will you?"

There were slient between them for a minute until Jodie spoke again.

"Scarlett?"

"You are old enough to be my sister," Scarlett responded. "You are twenty-three years old. My father is fifty-five."

"I can still be your mother," Jodie said. "What do you think?"

"You will never be my mother. I had to fight on my own, to deal with the monsters under my bed. I don't need a man or mother," Scarlett said. "But I will be your maid of honor, not your stepdaughter. Deal?"

Jodie frowned. "Deal."

Scarlett opened the glass door and gestured in with Jodie. "How can you afford these dresses?" Scarlett asked.

"Something calls money," Jodie responded. Besides Jodie, Dolly stood there, loosen buttons of her ocean sea blue fitted shirt, shoulder-length blonde hair. She was dirty thirty, fit, and with the kind of ass that brought notice whenever you walk in the same room with her.

"Welcome to Dolly," Dolly shook Jodie's and Scarlett's hand, along with a smile. "You ladies has to be Emily and Brandi. Here to pick out your wedding dresses?"

"No ma'am. We're Scarlett and Jodie," Scarlett said. "Bridemaid dress for me and bridal dress for this young lady."

"Oh sorry about that. I wasn't here when Emily and Brandi tried on their wedding dresses."

"Scarlett have you seen Annabelle?" Jodie asked. "She's one of my bridesmaids."

Think Scarlett. Think of the perfect lie, Scarlett thought. Why did you had to find her limby body? Why couldn't Jodie find it.

"She mentioned she had to look for a job," Scarlett said. Let's hope she go with that lie, she thought.

She was still shocked and emotion from stumbling upon her best friend's stiff carcass. All that remained from Annabelle, was her bag, ID, cell phone, sunglasses, and red blouse that used to be white. Now, that Scarlett thought of it, Annabelle's car was nowhere in sight. Why couldn't she remember what happen?

Why is there a large gap that is missing from getting into my car and to my house? She thought, nothing was adding up, at all. We all guard secrets, a side to us so dark.

She took out her phone and started noting everything comes into her mind:

            We all guard secrets, sometimes terrible ones or so shameful that there a side of us so dark. That when our eyes glimpse into the mirror, that sometimes we hardly knows who we are. We lock our dark halves somewhere dark, somewhere it can't easily escape. We post on social media... Another day another jog, just rescue this puppy poor guy was terrifyed, hanging at this trendy resturants with my besties it been too long without them, last night was crazy, and so on.

And then you wait to see how many people react to this fablous version of yourself, your mood clinging onto the number of clicks. Comments. See who commented, that actually care what you do.
But sometimes darkness has it ways to escape and seeping through reality. It seeks the pure lights...

And then the perfect end comes violence or sudden...and the truth been there the whole time, in the front and in the back. Darkness under the fluorescent- white light. And there is nothing more that you can do to hide it from the detectives. In the end, darkness wins.

Scarlett closed out of the note app and put her phone back in her bag. "Jodie," she said."What color you want your dress to be?"

"White. My maids of honor should be crimson red," Jodie said, gesturing off with Dolly besides her.
               Their words drifted through Scarlett in fragments. Something that screams I do... pomegrante juice... nightclubs... sexual assault... maid of honor... ethics.

Scarlett glimpsed at the dresses. Hang too low, too much cleahes...just right, Scarlett thought. "How about this one?" she asked. "It just right for you. It's scream pick me."

"Be right there, Scarlett."

Scarlett looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that ran the length of Dolly's store and a vehicle passes by on the road. She stared at her distorted reflection.

Drops flecked with rain  ticked down the windows. The rain came out of nowhere, it was like a sign of Annabelle's death, tears poured down from the clouds. Tears just like rain.

Scarlett disliked the rain- the way it smelled. The metallic scent unsettled her on a deeply level.

"This dress is perfect," Jodie said. "I will take it."
___________

"Where's America?" Zander asked. "She supposed to meet us here."

"She's had to go jobs hunting she applied to," Scarlett responded. "Wish she had came."

She started with a pomegrante martini. Costed too much, of course. Michigan few bars being too expensive. Pomegrante juice been very trendy lately on Instagram. But it was another night. Another day survived. She deserved at least an overpriced cocktail and to cope with devasted news of her best friend.

She had some faith in herself about tonight, she loosen a few buttons on her blouse, pulled a few clips from her dark-brown hair. She might had brought her first drink. But she wouldn't be buying her second.

She took a sip. Sweet. Tasty. Biting. The drink warmed her tongue and then let the vodka slide down her throat. Bitter. Warm. Cooling. Worth every penny of the fourteen bucks.

For a moment, she closed her eyes. The bar and Zander disappeared. The strobing lights and high-pitched squeal of the opening singer, still warming up.
    She stood in a void of slience. America and Diana appeared, all soaked in their own blood, mouth wide open, and blue in the faceless face then disappeared. She stood in a place that was all hers.
        When she opened her eyes again, Zander was standing there.

He brought her second drink, and another. By then the dance-floor lights and her third drink, red wine were starting to mix in a way that wouldn't make a great morning after.

"Since I'm trying to stay sober," Zander said, taking a sip of water. "I will be paying your drinks. You're welcome."

She smiled, it wasn't a happy look. That void again, faces of her mother and best friends popped up, that realization that after hours, days, years later, she still felt alone even though she had four important people; Jake, Zander, Asher, and Lux. She would always feel alone. Even in a crowded nightclub.

        She closed her eyes again, bar disappeared, the strippers, and the crowded room. All that stood was Scarlett, dance-floor and strob lights. A girl in a blank naked canva, alone. A faceless man appeared, his glaze lingered onto her last button. He slipped the last button, moments later. He admired her lacy hot-pink bra and then her tits.

           Suddenly, her eyes open once again.