The Young and Gifted

32. mental health

He nodded and watched her leave. Ric took a deep breath and dialled the assistant office. "Grace, call Caroline to my office." The secretary obliged and Ric leaned back against his seat, waiting.

It didn't take long for the vampire to arrive and she stood in front of his desk. "I'm guessing Josie told you?"

"Of course Josie told me. What were you thinking?"

"She snuck up on me, I didn't know she was there—"

"We said that we weren't going to look for anybody until we tell them. And with Clarke? Clarke, out of all people? Is that why you picked him?" Ric demanded.

"No," Caroline hissed. "How could you think so low of me? I made sure everything was strictly professional before I did anything else. On the trip back he started to hit on me and...well I did what I wanted to do because I am a grown, independent and single woman."

Ric sighed and massaged his temples.

Caroline crossed her arms and paced around the room. "I'm sorry but I guess we have to tell them now."

"No," he said abruptly. "We can't."

"Why not? Josie is going to think I cheated on you. She can barely even look at me."

"We can't put this on them, not with the Legendarium attacking us."

"So what, I'm supposed to let her call me a whore?"

"Josie called you a whore? Are you sure? I'd expect it from Lizzie but—"

"That's not the point. How long are you going to keep this up? I don't want Josie to hate me more than she already does," Caroline scoffed and crossed her arms.

"I—I need to think about it. But we'll tell them, don't worry," Ric said. "In the meantime, stay the hell away from Clarke."

*

Weeks pass by and so far there hadn't any signs of a Legendarium monster. Hope and Kaura were slowly warming up to each other after their bonding. And Josie...she hated Caroline. Avoided her when she could and added insults when she saw fit. Deep down, she hated herself for being such a bitch. She didn't even recognize herself. She told Lizzie about what happened and she was merciless towards Caroline. She sabotaged her at every moment she got and even attacked Clarke, blaming him for "ruining" the marriage. Caroline couldn't say anything about the truth because Ric wasn't ready. She despised him for being okay with the way the girls were treating her but she held her ground.

Raf had a gym bag swung over his shoulder when he walked past Lizzie's room. He backtracked when he spotted the door slightly open, seeing the witch through the cracks. He pushed the door open and stepped in cautiously. Josie was nowhere to be found but he knew she was with Penelope.

Lizzie sat on the floor, legs crisscrossed, with a candle and a sheet of paper in front of her.

"What are you doing?" Raf demanded as he adjusted the strap of the heavy bag over his shoulder. For all he knew, Lizzie could be ruining the date Josie and Penelope were on and if that were the case, he had to stop it. Because a friend of Kaura was a friend of his and he knew how important Penelope was to her.

"Making sure that Clarke can't form proper English sentences for the day."

"You're terrible, you know that?"

"Do you even know what happened?"

"I know that it's adult business. I also know that you're disrespecting your mother."

"Caroline isn't our mother, she won't be for long any way. Dad still hasn't broken up with her. I'm worried about why but I'm giving him time. As for those two—"

"Do you know much this must be hurting her? Everyone knows that Caroline isn't your biological mother and she's probably insecure about it."

"I don't care. She deserves it. Cheating is the worse she could have done to this already screwed up family."

"The situation seems funky."

"Good thing it's not your business, right?" Raf watched her angrily pack up the witch assemble and tuck it away. Lizzie sat at the vanity and picked up a comb to brush her long golden hair. She stopped when she met his gaze through the mirror. "You're still here?"

Raf dropped his bag and took a deep breath. "I just realized that we didn't talk about what happened with the Baku."

"There's nothing to talk about," she said as she continued to brush her hair.

"You know what I said was wrong, right? I was just trying to—"

"Hurt me. Good job, do you want a gold star?" She scoffed and slammed the brush down. Lizzie leaned over to pick up a perfume bottle. "Why do you even care?"

"Mental health is important to me."

Lizzie scoffed as she sprayed the soft fragrance against her skin. "Oh right, we all know that your mother killed herself." Once she realized what she said, Lizzie herself flinched with her eyes wide.

Raf had already picked up his bag, turned around and slammed the door behind him. She watched him go, regret seeping into her face.

*

Josie was on her way back to her room after spending the day with Penelope. It was a chill Saturday evening and they spent the day in the field, trying to finish homework together. After a good 15 minutes, they gave up and went to grab ice cream. She was humming a song under her breath, bopping her head along when someone stepped in her path.

Her smile instantly dropped and she straightened her back as she ordered, "Get out of the way."

"Josie, it's been weeks now. You won't let me talk about what happened," Caroline pleaded.

"There is nothing to talk about. You hurt dad and I will never forgive you. He should have known better, we should have known better," she scoffed. "I could tell that you guys were distant ever since summer. We went to that cabin resort and you didn't touch him once. It all makes sense now. Were you cheating on him back then too?"

"Josie—"

"How many? Two? More than 5? I wouldn't be surprised if you hooked up with the concierge—"

"We're divorced, Josie," Caroline screamed.

She rolled her eyes and pushed past the vampire. She didn't even fully acknowledge the claim. "Like I said, you're a liar. I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouth."

"Ric and I are divorced so I didn't cheat," Caroline yelled.

Josie froze. She slowly turned around, trying to look into her eyes to see whether or not it was another lie. "What?"

Caroline shook her head and her eyes were turning glassy. "We broke everything off at the beginning of summer. Things weren't working out. We didn't want to tell you guys yet, we were supposed to keep it on the down-low."

"Y-you've been divorced this whole time?"

Caroline sniffled. "Yeah. And what you saw with Clarke was a mistake, it should have never happened. It's nothing serious, I just—these past few weeks have been hard. Really hard because I love the two of you and all you keep calling me are names and—"

Josie threw arms over her mother, squeezing her tightly. "I am so sorry, I didn't know." Caroline immediately hugged her back, burying her head in Josie's shoulder. The girl began to silently cry. "I am sorry, mom. I didn't mean any of the words—"

"Shh, it's okay. It doesn't matter now." She pulled back to cup Josie's red cheeks. "As long as everything is good between us, we're fine."

Josie felt guilty. She had done the same with Penelope. Harshly blamed her without hearing an explanation. In the process, both of the people she loved got hurt, all thanks to her ignorance. She really hoped it wasn't a pattern. 

~

"You deceived me."

try to guess who said it and don't forget who to vote ;)