Coloring Outside the Lines

Chapter Nine

Chapter 9

"Martha?" I ask, in shock. I look at her perfect curly hair and deep brown eyes, matching her shirt.

"Yes, Martha. Nice to see you too," Martha says, gesturing me inside.

I walk past her slowly and into the living room. Ray is sitting on the couch and he has a bowl of popcorn on his lap. He looks at me and does a closed mouth grin (with popcorn filled cheeks) and waves me over.

"Hey, Jordan! C'mere. We're about to start the movie!" Ray attempts to say, with all the food in his mouth.

"Hi, Ray," I say. I approach him and sit next to him on the couch. "I didn't know Martha was going to be here."

I try to sound and act casual about it, but that's really hard, okay? I do the whole pick-at-my-cuticles-subtly thing. But Ray laughs and shakes his head at me.

"I didn't either. But you know," Ray says, then his voice goes to a whisper. "I think her mother sent her here. She always wants Martha out of the house."

I find it hard to contain my laughter. So I cover my face with one of Ray's couch pillows. Then a question finds its way into my mind.

I understand the fact that it is rude to get into someone else's business, but I can't get rid of the question. It's stabbing at me and won't stop..

I use a whisper voice as well, since who knows where Martha is right now.

"What ever happened between you two?"

Ray sighs. "We really weren't ever meant to be. We went on some dates. She's a nice girl. Just, not for me. Know what I mean?"

Not really, I don't. I haven't ever had a boyfriend. But I nod anyways.

Martha returns, a box full of soda cans in one hand and three bowls in the other. She puts the sodas down on the table in front of the couch and takes the bowl of popcorn from Ray and splits in into the three bowls. She hands one to each of us.

"Thanks," I say.

"No prob," Martha says. Prob? Didn't that get old in, like, middle school?

Ray presses play on the movie and Martha flips off the lights. She decides to squeeze herself on the other side of Ray, forcing us both to scoot over.

{*WARNING: May contain spoilers on The Ring, so if you don't want to hear them, sorry folks*}

When the tape plays in the movie for the first time, I see Martha cover her eyes with a blanket. She screeches, making me literally laugh out loud. Just as the phone rings in the movie, to announce that the girl has seven days left, the actual house phone in Ray's house rings.

Martha screams and hides under the covers. "DON'T YOU DARE ANSWER THE FLIPPIN' PHONE OR I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU BOTH," Martha yells to us.

"Don't worry, even if we do answer the phone, we'll all end up dead anyways," Ray says, causing me to laugh again.

The phone stops ringing, and as the movie continues, Martha gets more and more freaked out. She begins to mutter soothing words to herself, and has been hiding under her blanket for a lot of the movie.

"It's a movie. It's a movie. Samara's not real," Martha says.

Me and Ray exchange looks of amusement. Then I put a hand over my mouth to, once again, force my laughter to stay inside.

At the third point where the phone rings, once again, Ray's home phone rings. I look over at Ray and he's smiling. I can see under his blanket a light from his phone. On his screen, it shows that he's calling 'Home.' I give him a grin.