Bluff

Brian was more than worried about Kory, considering her abrupt departure. He had only heard of her a few times before, but he could see how highly Kory had talked of Marrissa and assumed that she was a rather good person. When she marched into the studio, an exasperated look on her face, Brian wondered what ecactly had happened.

She began searching around the room, lifting up pillows from the sofa and even going through Kory's bag. "Where's her phone?" She asked, not caring to look at him.

Shrugging, Brian pointed to the rack where his and Zacky's guitars were leaned against. "By the guitars, maybe," he suggested. When she finally found it, she typed in the passcode as if it where her own phone and he questioned how she knew that. Brian had changed the passcode on his phone more often than not and often forgot it himself, but if someone other than Kory knew it, why didn't she change it? "You know the code?"

Marrissa scoffed. "Of coarse I know the code. She's my best friend." She then began texting someone, once again as if it were her own phone. She seemed to hesitate to press send, but once she did she sighed and pushed Kory's phone into her pocket. "Make sure Mason knows that she's sleeping. Tell him I'll explain everything later."

She walked out of the studio without another word, leaving Brian confused and curious.

The guys started coming in a few minutes later, Mason right after Zacky. Once Brian explained briefly what he had gathered from the small confrontation this morning, Mason dialed a number on his phone before excusing himself from the room. He came back minutes later, though. Brian was dying to know what was going on but, still, everyone said that it was nothing though it was clearly much more.



When the familiar oval-faced, blazer-wearing, blue-eyed female walked into the coffee shop, Marrissa stood so she could see her face. Nicole sighed but gave Marrissa a small smile, before walking over to the girl she'd known for three and a half years.

"Good morning, Marrissa. I assume Kory had asked you to come here?" Nicole smoothed out her dark pants before sitting down in the booth, across from the dark haired, much younger female.

Marrissa remained composed, despite the fact that Nicole angered her as much as she did Kory. "Actually, she didn't. I came her on my behalf, in attempt to convince you to take this entire situation into consideration; both sides." Marrissa felt like she was applying for a job. She wondered how Kory had dealt with this growing up, constantly on edge and wanting to leave as soon as possible.

Nicole nodded, very posh and buisness-like. "I'm listening," she urged, curious as to what the hazel-eyed girl was getting at.

"Clearly, Kory has a decision to make - one that won't be easy for her. She has a hundred reasons to stay but she also has a few reasons to leave and the messages you're sending her aren't entirely fair. I suggest that you let Kory come to you. If she leaves, so be it. But, if she doesn't, I think it only reasonable to respect her decision as a person." Marrissa had suddenly appreciated the class she took in law. She had just gotten to the persuasion part when she dropped it, but the one thing she remembered was the whole 'using big words' bit. Apparently it made what she was trying to sell more presentable, she wasn't sure if it was accurate or not.

Nicole leaned across the table that seperated them then, lacing her fingers together reasonably. "Look, Korrissa is my daughter. I gave birth to her and will forever love her more than anything in this entire world. But I know, literally, nothing about her. I don't know her favorite color, what she listens to, whether she has a boyfriend or not, what her favorite class is, what's she's afraid of, her favorite food. I know nothing about my child and I deserve to know. I deserve to get to know someone who means so much to me. I've put effort into convincing her to come live with me in New York - I even offered her a journalism job to start her off! But she still refuses because I made a tiny mistake."

Marrissa was losing her patience now. She couldn't believe what Nicole was claiming. One mistake might've been made, but who waited eleven years to fix something if it was that important? "Purple, Shinedown, no, Creative Writing, spiders, and smiley-face shaped fries. She doesn't want to major in journalism, she wants to write a book. That 'tiny mistake' ruined her life. Maybe try a little harder," Marrissa finally said, standing up and walking out of the coffee shop without another word.