Intertwined

Harsh But Unfair Words

Just when Matt stepped into the hallways, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What's the matter with you? The girl who lost her friends was right there with us and you're just gonna casually admit that you're not coming to pay your respects?!"

It was Mike, of course.

Matt turned around to face him, shaking the hand off his shoulder. "Look Mike, I get that but none of you have an idea of how worried I am. I feel like any of us could get taken away any second now".

"That still doesn't excuse you abandoning your friends to find out the source of some note!"

"I'd like to remind you that both my name and my friends are mentioned on said note"

"Matt, you do realize that you shouldn't be even doing this, right? This job is for the police"

....

"Well, I want to, okay? While I'm doing that, why don't you focus more on helping out and not neglecting your friends and girlfriend?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Don't act stupid. Ever since that incident with me and Eve, you never brought it up and talked with me! You were supposed to be my best friend, yet you ignore everything and go on like normal, then you come here to tell me I should be more considerate?!"

....

"I haven't been neglecting our friends or Mara, though. See, I'm still around them, and I love Mara, okay? Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen. You can go ask her if you'd like"

"No, she's too nice to say you were ignoring her..."

....

"Jeez, some BFF you turned out to be..." Matt finally muttered as he walked away from Mike, who stood there for a few seconds, replaying the argument that just occurred. After a while, he went back to the table with a blank face.

Mara looked over at him. "What happened?"

Mike didn't move. He simply did what he could do at that moment: sum it up in the least amount of words possible. "It went badly"

"Oh.. I'm sorry"

"It's okay..." Mike tried to smile, but it fell flat.

....

"What happened to our Matthew?" The question made its way out of the teary-eyed Evelyn. Jordi tried her best to comfort Eve by hugging her from the side.

"Yeah, what happened?..."

The group remained silent as the bell rang, signaling them to go back to class. They casually made their way back.

Mara seemed to sink down more. Matt groaned inwardly and ignored everything altogether. Evelyn did the same, she just focused on the lesson, trying to forget about everything going on right now.

Asher and Jordi just looked normal and passive.