Mixtapes & Polaroids | Sam x Deena

10

When Deena finally decides to come home, the moon is hanging but the stars are nowhere to be found. Stars never shone above a town like Shadyside, it was always thick clouds and rain, if they were lucky they'd get some sunlight but it was almost like the galaxy dreaded ever passing above them. Deena wasn't surprised at all, not in a place like that.

She spent hours treading the tracks, far from their spot because she knew Kate and Simon would find her there. She was right, they did try, but Deena was just too far out of sight.

She doesn't cry at all, not even when she's shivering cold in her soaking wet clothes, not even when walking through the woods in the dead of night made her feel like every step she took had eyes glued to them, hiding deep in the trees but Deena truthfully didn't care.

Maybe she's starting to believe the curse, but in a way different from everyone else. Deena thinks maybe the curse had nothing to do with the witch, and everything to do with that shitty town and everyone in it.

It was like a disease, the longer you stayed, the more miserable life got and with misery came a whole slew of nasty things. She had a passing thought that made her feel sick, that the people who fall victim to the curse of the town were the lucky ones.

Deena walks through the door, bottom half of her jeans and her sneakers muddied from the rain. She looked like hell with her empty eyes and messy clothes. She was almost sure she was going to catch a cold, or maybe that was just the remainder of how she felt finding out that Sam was just like everybody else.

"Deena! What the hell?" Josh instantly shoots up from the couch, worry laced in his tone as Deena strips off her jacket like she didn't even notice he had been standing there.

"Deena..." Josh blocks her path when she heads down to the basement, and she only looks at him with a stare colder than the air outside.

"What?" Deena says quietly, exhaustion dripping from her lips.

"You're suspended. You're lucky Dad wasn't here to pick up the call, what the hell happened?" Josh asks, but Deena only walks past him and down the stairs.

"Anna Hayes happened. Anything else I need to know?" Deena sighs, tossing her jacket, sneakers and socks into the open washer as Josh watches her incredulously.

"What did she do?" Josh asks after a few moments of contemplation, voice soft and weary as a barefoot Deena approaches.

"Nothing new."

"Deena."

"What do you want, Josh?" Deena snaps, a hand on the bathroom door as she stills to wait for a response.

"You gotta talk to me, it's just us here and I..." Josh sighs, just as exhausted with constantly being kept in the dark. He felt like he was always ten steps behind his sister, always arriving when the damage has been done.

"I'm fine. It's just suspension, why are you so worried?" Deena looks at him, brows furrowed and face stone cold that Josh feels locked out once again.

"Because you come home at midnight looking like you just crawled through the mud. How am I supposed to feel about that, huh?" He fires back, frustration slipping from his tongue. He was trying really hard to stay calm, but trying to talk to Deena felt like clawing through a cement wall with your bare hands.

Painful and useless.

"Why don't you mind your own business? Go back to your stupid little games and conspiracies and leave me alone. I'm fine, it's not your job to worry about me." Deena snaps, tone laced with so much bitterness it takes the boy by surprise.