Red Herring ✔️

45. Hiding in Plain Sight

Bathroom Smashroom. She wasn't going to the bathroom.

With Christian keeping Ms. McCormick occupied, she freely wandered down the hall where the supposed bathroom was. As a ranch style house, Mazie deduced that the bathroom was most likely hidden in the same hallway as the bedrooms.

And she was right.

One bedroom door was shut and locked. Aside from the bathroom, the other two bedrooms doors stood slightly ajar with a clear line of sight inside. Because she knew that Mary Ann wasn't home according to Ms. McCormick, Mazie hurriedly peeked inside the first bedroom at the very end of the hall. It was clearly a girl's bedroom with a pink comforter on the bed and white fluffy pillows adorning the space. A darkness covered the room because of the closed blinds and curtains drawn shut over the window. Mazie didn't know Mary Ann well enough to discern if this was her space but it seemed like the only reasonable correlation. Silently nudging the door open, Mazie popped her head inside to see on the other side of the door.

Immediately, her eyes found the only red item in the entire room. A bottle with a bright red cap sitting on a white dresser with four drawers. Craning her head to get a better look, Mazie read the script printed on the bottle - Crafty Window Writers.

As clearly as if it were yesterday, an image of her car painted with bright red letters "Stay away from Demi" on her windshield and opposing windows popped into her head as she stood on the threshold of the Wellington house beside a puzzled Rob who believed she was either being a bully or getting bullied.

It was Mary Ann.

This chaotic turn of events only served to jumble all of her thoughts into a confused anarchy that she couldn't decipher or understand. She fully believed that an unknown string attached Mary Ann, Lonny, Demi, and Ailene. For the life of her, Mazie could not piece together why Mary Ann would threaten Mazie by hunting her down to write on her windows. What glued Mary Ann and Demi together? Why would Mary Ann need to be protective of Demi?

What if Mary Ann had nothing to do with it at all? What if someone asked - or even paid her - to write on Mazie's windows?

Without a second thought, Mazie pitched forward, stretched out her hand, and yanked the bottle of window paint off of Mary Ann's dresser. Stuffing the bottle in her jacket pocket, Mazie ran into the bathroom, flushed the toilet as apparent evidence of her using it, and flicked on the water in the sink. She washed her hands as quickly as possible and dried her hands on an old-fashioned floral towel. She couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Collecting herself to be presentable once again in front of Mary Ann's grandmother, Mazie closed her eyes in the hallway, breathed deeply, and tuned her body to function in a peaceful state. When she opened her eyes, Mazie gasped, finding another human being staring directly at Mazie through the crack of the door that Mazie didn't check out.

They held eye contact for a long moment. She saw blonde hair, blue eyes, and red painted nails that held the door slightly ajar. The eye blinked. Once. Twice. And then the door shut.

Someone else lived here. Someone else might have seen her take the window paint.

Nearing a meltdown, Mazie bolted down the hallway, seeking Christian's companionship. Apparently, she didn't hide her emotions very well because Christian bounded to his feet the second she reappeared.

"Ready?" She asked briskly, heading for the door without pausing a moment.

"Uh...yeah," Christian answered, swerving around an end table and tromping after Mazie, picking up on her immediacy.

"Oh, I'm so sad you're leaving! Should I tell Mary Ann you stopped by? What were your names again?" Ms. McCormick trailed after them with surprising pep in her step.