Of Smoke and Dust 🖋

Chapter Eleven: a visitor, the art of not-friends, and leonie's invisible lines

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Present

June 4th 2021

3:43 PM

Three knocks.

Maia sits on the stairs, watching the front door rattle with dispassionate eyes. She knows, somewhere in the back of her head, that it isn't locked. If whoever is on the other side is determined enough, they'll open it.

Or not.

It doesn't matter to her.

Her father isn't due back for several hours yet, her mother works from home and is currently sequestered away in her office, and the only other person who would ever come by is currently waiting to be buried. That leaves Maia no guesses as to who might be knocking - not that she's really trying to solve the mystery.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

"Hello?" Comes the muffled voice from outside, and Maia notices that it is surprisingly youthful. "Anybody there?"

If Maia were a nice little girl, she'd go and welcome whoever it is into her home, smiling brightly and working through the necessities of incessant small-talk. But she isn't. So she stays silent.

"Hello?" Disappointment, in that voice. Maia sneers slightly. How dare that person judge her? They have no right to be disappointed, no right to -

"Hello, Maia?"

Maia stiffens, thoughts breaking away. Who knows her well enough to use her name besides -

besides -

Jules.

What is Jules doing here?

Maia already made it clear she didn't want to speak with her, didn't she? She is done with Jules and her persuasive words and dimpled smiles.

(Maia steadfastly ignores the fact that Leonie wielded those same traits with practiced efficiency, coaxing Maia into things she wasn't sure of and dragging her along on adventures that usually ended with a trip to the principal's office or a day grounded in her room. That isn't the same. It isn't)

And yet, Jules is here, standing on her step right now, clearly not intent on leaving. Maia wonders how many times she'll have to purposely shut Jules out for the other girl to stay away.

Leonie comes before anyone, and she didn't like Jules. So Maia doesn't like Jules, either.

That's how it works. That's how it always worked.

(Except- except - except -)

Leonie was Maia's, and Maia was Leonie's. When Renee Peirce pushed Maia into the mud at recess in forth grade, resulting in scraped knees, a ripped skirt, and a trip to the nurse's office, Leonie stood by Maia in ignoring Renee for months. She'd even helped Maia strike back three days later - innocently informing the teacher of the fact that Renee liked to steal other children's pencils and break them so they couldn't complete assignments. She got the title of tattle-tale, but Leonie didn't care.

And so what if Renee had only broken two pencils, and both of them were ones she'd asked to borrow? So what if Leonie purposely broke her own pencil before walking up to the teacher's desk? It didn't matter. Leonie was loyal, not malicious. She was Maia's.

Jules...wasn't.

Make her leave.

Maia can hear Leonie's voice in her head, whispering the three words with a fury Maia's never heard from her before.