HeartBLOOD

Chapter twenty-one

"She still was acting weird today, wasn't she?", Raphael asked as he dropped himself onto the sofa next to Alec's who had just gotten some ice. "Did Maureen hint anything yesterday night?", Alec replied with worry. Maias behavior was so unlike her and it made him worry whether he had missed something. "She just said we need to be persistent and be there for her. Maureen thinks Maia will open up eventually, maybe she just needs us to give her some more time.", Raphael sighed. "I mean, we're her friends. We have been here together for years and I thought she trusted me the way I trusted her. It's just making me wonder whether I did something wrong.", Alec explained whilst readjusting the icepack on his knee. "I get it, and I felt the same way. Obviously, Maureen was her roommate so she was closest with her. Not with her gone I can imagine that she feels a bit lost. I do as well.", Raphael sighed. Alec shrugged:"I mean obviously, her leaving has been especially hard on the two of you, I just thought that Maia could share with us what she shared with Maureen. Maybe that's stupid to believe, she was her roommate, the only other girl in the friend group, it's not like I tell you everything in such detail like I tell it to Magnus. I don't know, I guess I just underestimated the situation." "Maybe that's what we need to show her. Maybe we need to show her that we are not Maureen, but we still get her and we still try to be there for her.", Raphael suggested. With a frown, Alec sat up straight in his sofa:" And how do you plan on doing that?" "Well, what about tonight? Her roommate is not going to be there so we could just come into her room after dinner, bring blankets and a few snacks and just try to sit with her and see if she opens up?" "Wait, that could actually work.", Alec smirked, "I have physical therapy after dinner though, but we could push it to eight pm, right?" "Sure, let's fill Simon in and then let's do it.", Raphael smiled, obviously proud of his idea. "Alright, sounds good.", Alec grinned and glanced at his phone before cursing. "What?", Raphael asked, whirling around. "Nothing, I just realized we have training in less than five minutes and I still planned on going t the bathroom." "Well, run, then.", Raphael laughed and watched Alec gather all his stuff and hurry towards the bathrooms.

"Five, six, seven, eight!", Valentine counted and the music started playing. Without thinking, Alec followed the choreography- they had been training it so intensely, it seemed to have already engraved itself into his brain. He felt his calves burn and his legs felt like they were shanking when he ended in an gracefully executed arabesque. "Good job everybody, Maia try being a bit more precise with your spotting during the turning section.", Valentine critiqued and sent everyone back to their starting points for another run. Despite his methods being quite questionable, Valentine seemed to always reach his goes- even if that meant running the same piece of choreography a hundred times, or even a thousand times if that was what it took to achieve perfection. Breathing heavily, Alec got ready to start over. Looking to the side, he saw Maia nervously biting her lip- it seemed like Valentines critique was not exactly helping her condition. Trying to get his focus back, Alec concentrated on his racing heartbeat before he heard Valentine count down again and prepared for another round.

"I feel like no nap could help me recover from this torture.", Raphael sighed as he let himself slide down the wall onto his floor, "He has been making us do the same piece for hours with no break." "I think he calls it cardio, but honestly, the proper term is torture.", Simon chuckled, longing for his waterbottle. "Agreed.", Alec sighed and looked around the room, "Did Maia leave already?" "Looks like it.", Raphael exhaled and made his was up from the floor, "Come on guys, let's get all we need for later, I need clearance." "Same.", Alec groaned as he struggled up, catching up with the other boys. "Are you good?", Simon frowned after noticing Alec's slight limp. "Yeah, no worries, it has just been a rough day.", Alec explained and zipped up his bag. Magnus had already pointed out that Alec tended to unconsciously limp a bit after long or extraordinarily tiring practices. That was partly why he had called the doctor a few days ago to schedule his catch-up appointment for tomorrow - there were things to discuss.

"Maia?", Raphael asked as he knocked on her door. "Is it an emergency?", he heard her sigh from inside the room. "We're coming in.", he warned as he opened the door and let Simon and Alec, carrying huge blankets, follow him. "What do you guys want here?", Maia frowned. She was sitting on her bed and seemed to have been on her phone before the boys interrupted her. "We want to prove to you that even with Maureen gone, you have a bunch of friends here that deeply care for you.", Alec smiled weakly and threw the blankets on the floor in front of her. "And, to tell you you should lock your door if you want to prevent people from coming in- some might now have such good interests like we do.", Simon chuckled and threw himself onto Maias bed, pulling her into a hug. "Group hug!", he yelled and Raphael and Alec joined in, making sure Maia in the middle of the puddle was squeezed as tightly as they could. "You guys are the best.", she chuckled after they finally let her go. "We're trying.", Raphael smiled and handed her the boy of cookies, "And we're not here to pressure you into anything- we just need you to know that we're here for you and if you're ready to talk, you have us to talk to."