The Roads To Paris

25

Maeve's mom has by some strange power wrestled off Damien and successfully broken every breakable object and torn every single curtain and drapery in sight.

The crazy part is, she's done up her makeup and fixed her hair so if you look at her without looking at the living room, she looks sane, but her environment says the contrary.

“ Where is she?” she asks calmly when Heaven, I and Jesse walk in.

“ Why do you suddenly care?” Heaven asks

“ Maeve's mom looks taken aback

“ I should care. She's my daughter.”
She says it like it's an obvious thing

I and Heaven look at each other and choose to ignore and instead climb up the steps to Maeve's room.

“ Where'd you think you're going?” she asks us again

“ Come back here!” she pulls at my ankle and I nearly trip on the stairs
I kick her hands off my ankle and we continue to wordlessly ascend up the stairs.

I follow the sound of whispers ( that I assume are Ivy and London's) into a room and I see Ivy and London throwing what they can of Maeve's things into bags and boxes

“ Do you guys need extra hands?” I ask when we get in.

“ Yes please.” Ivy says enthusiastically

“ Just get her shoes, boy does she have a lot of them, get them and just stuff them in that box can you darling?” she addresses me

I do as I'm told, and immediately get on my hands and knees and fish for all her shoes that are hidden in the pile of stuff on the floor.

“ Don't just stand Heaven, get all her books and the important school stuff. Hurry, let's get out of here fast, the energy in this house is just toxic.”

Heaven complies, and soon we're all quietly packing up Maeve's stuff

“ Is she always like this?” I ask in order to break the silence

“ I didn't want to use the word cause it's a bit offensive, but she's psycho. As in literally psycho. I'm pretty sure you could tell. But she's never actually thrown Maeve our until today. She has threatened to though.” Ivy answers

“ I think she was psycho long before Maeve was even abused.” London adds

“ It just took her husband raping her ten year old daughter to really bring her true mental state to light.”

And I always thought I had it bad in life. At least I had a mom who loved me even if it was for a short period of time, and I have a dad who's still around and who loves me very very much.

Maeve's dad used her, and her mom calls her a slut even if she wasn't even old enough to know what was going on.

“ Well that's just.......” I say after a while
“ We know.” Ivy and London simultaneously reply
Heaven has been quiet for a while I notice.
I turn to look at her when I realized that she's been crying

” What's wrong H?”

“ It's just not fair.” she says between sobs

I pat her on the back unsure what to do

“ She's been trying so hard to be strong but I know........” she cuts herself short, still crying.

“ I know she feels different from all of us. I know my dad's trash but my mom cares about me, and Paris has this amazing dad, and Jesse had his granddad even though he isn't here anymore, and Ivy, you and Damien's parents are so supportive of you guys and they're so trusting, and Benny's mom still loves him even though she's making bad choices of recent and London, your dad tries, he may be the reason you can't see your mom and you might hate him more than anything but at least he tries.” she's sobbing relentlessly now, and I retract my hand because I know it's not helping matters

“ Maeve's all alone, and she tries to act like its nothing and she tries to be strong but I know it's killing her to be so............lonely. She comes home everyday to a cold dinner alone. No loving hug, nobody to come cheer her on during cheer practice like most moms do, she has to maintain straight A's because she knows if she doesn't they'll take back her scholarship and there's no one to pay for her fees and our school costs a small fortune and now she doesn't even have a place to go back to after school and all that. I feel so guilty like I can't do anything to help her and yet I claim to love her so much.”

London and Ivy are sobbing alongside Heaven now and I'm the only one with a dry eye in the room.
It's moments like this that I remember that I'm kind of still the new girl.

“ And that's why she needs you guys to be there for her.” I say

“ What?” they ask very confused

“ Maeve. She needs you guys. You're her only family and she wouldn't want you guys to be crying in a pile of her clothes when you should be cuddled with her and telling her how much you love her. So clean your eyes and put on your big girl pants and go and be there for your sister.”
I hope that was as motivational as it sounded in my head.
I guess my words work their magic because Ivy dries her eyes and sniffles

“ She's right guys. Let's finish up here and get home to our baby.”

London and Heaven nods wordlessly and we go back to quietly packing up Maeve's stuff.
When we're done, we all grab a bag or box and head downstairs.

“ Is that all?” Damien asks when we are in their line of sight

“ They're just a few more bags upstairs.” Ivy replies

“ Can I help you with those?” Jesse asks taking the bags from me

“ Yeah. Thanks.” I say handing him the bag
Damien goes upstairs to get the rest of Maeve's stuff while Heaven, London, Ivy and Jesse go to put the bags they're carrying in the car.
I'm left alone with Maeve's mom and I'm scared that she's going to try and attack me again.

I keep a safe distance and mentally cross myself.
The whole house is eerily silent and it's unsettling. I try to look everywhere but her face but I can feel her eyes boring into the back of my head and I turn to look at her.

“ What?” she asks

“ You were staring at me first.” I say in defense
We both stay quiet until the front door opens and Jesse walks through

” Are you ready to go?”

I'm too busy staring off into space to realize the question was directed at me
“ What? Oh. Yeah, sure.” I reply with a start

Damien comes down the stairs with the rest of the bags and we all head towards the door

“ You can't leave me like this! Get back here!” Maeve's mom screams as well close the door

Damien goes over to his car and throws the bags in the passenger's seat, jumping in after them.
Jesse opens the door for me and I get in, buckling my seatbelt. He gets in and starts the car.
We drive back to I and Heaven's, in total silence, not sure what to say.
I don't like the silence but I don't try and fill it. There are just some silences that are not meant to be interrupted.

We drive past the streetlights until everything is a blur, and I feel myself falling into a trance like state, because of the beautiful blend of streetlights, the moon and the stars. Horrible things happen on beautiful nights too I guess.

I don't know how long I stare at the sky, but I feel the car slow down and I look around.
We've pulled up in our driveway next to Heaven's car and the front door is open, revealing a tired looking Benny

“ She refused to sleep until you guys got back.” he explains

We nod, and the five of us get into the house, mentally preparing ourselves for the heartbreaking scene we were about to step into.

This has been one hell of a night. From family dinner disasters to psychotic mom throwing Ma eve out of the house, there's nothing that could possibly make this day any worse, I think to myself.