"I'm so sorry Spence- I don't know how to tell you this but... It's Cat Adams.", JJ said and Reid's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't heard that name in years. Last time he checked Cat was on death row, awaiting execution for her crimes.
"What about...
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LADIES, LOVERS AND MONSTERS
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Maeve could've skipped school another day. She could've taken a two-day-break. Spencer even offered but, no! In a moment of misleading confidence she refused and decided to do the adult thing and face her fear. Fucking stupid! And now she was sitting in Ely's car and driving to school.
It felt weird that they left Charlie and even weirder that they still hadn't talked. Maeve didn't feel ready yet, she had to figure out her own feelings and Charlie probably had a bunch of stuff to figure out, too. Maeve had heard that Spencer was taking Charlie to talk to his mother today. Maeve wanted to know how he was, if he was okay, but she just couldn't bring herself to ask, so she didn't.
They didn't pick up Kelly, obviously. Then they picked up Sydney. Maeve tried to not look too much at the other girl, or anyone for that matter. The careful very un-Sydney-like tone that she employed when greeting her already told her that she'd just find that stupid sad expression on Sydney's face again.
"Hey...", Sydney said, when she got into the back of the car, her tone careful and gentle and sad. Maeve was so fucking sick of being treated like glass, but she was also well aware that she was being annoyingly fragile right now. "How are you?", Sydney then asked (which she usually never did) and Maeve just shrugged, staring out the window as they drove off. She was aware of the troubled looks that Sydney and Ely shared, she was aware that she wasn't behaving like someone who was okay. But Maeve also just couldn't be bothered to pretend right now. Not with the people who were already aware that she was fucked up.
"Okay...", Sydney sighed out when Maeve didn't reply and that was the end of it.
In school Maeve just zoned out for most of the day. She focused on her classes, appreciating the distraction, and didn't interact with her classmates, opting to blocking them out entirely. She didn't want to know if they stared or if they whispered. The idea in of itself already made her skin crawl.
That worked well until it was time for break. Time to enter the cafeteria where all of the students was gathered, where everyone would be talking, where Maeve's paranoia would probably convince her that everyone was staring at her even if they didn't.
She was heading inside, Ely and Sydney flanking her. "Are you sure that you are ready to do this today?",Ely asked her under his breath.
Maeve wanted to say No, but that would mean that she'd have to be honest, and being honest would just make her vulnerable. She was already vulnerable enough. "I'm trying to stop hiding.", She replied, lying through her teeth.
She regretted it as soon as they were actually inside. Maeve probably perceived it as worse than it actually was. Realistically there might've been a few people staring or pointing, maybe a few whispers, definitely enough to prompt Sydney to say:"Just ignore them..." But it was probably not the angry mob that Maeve perceived it as. Still, her fight or flight instinct was activated and now the scale was definitely tipped towards flight.
