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The sky was dark and cloudy, as was the mood as the two towns stood side by side on the Sunnyvale football field. Red and blue, never touching, both coming together to honour those fallen in the massacre at Shadyside Mall the night before.
Will Goode, mayor of Sunnyvale stood at the podium in front of the crowd. His face was set in a grim line. "This isn't how I wanted to be here tonight. I wanted to be here as a fan, our Sunnyvale Devils and your Shadyside Witches throwing down some old American football. Instead I find myself here as a husband, a father, a neighbour, and yes, mayor of Sunnyvale. On behalf of all of the people in my town, I say that all of Sunnyvale mourns with you,"
"Yeah, really looks like they give a damn," Kate scoffed, rolling her eyes to Deena. Maddie was a few feet away and she felt inclined to agree with her. The cheerleaders and footballers from Sunnyvale looked like they couldn't care less, chatting among themselves while the mayor spoke. "The only Sunnyvalers who came were the ones who had to. Football team and the cheerleaders,"
Maddie looked away from the two of them and found herself staring down at her shaking hands. Someone pushed past her, all Maddie saw was a blue band uniform before she was shoved forward. Hands grabbed onto her wrists gently enough to not hurt her, but firm so she wouldn't fall. The nails were painted black and there was a ring on the middle finger.
Simon.
She looked up at his face, expecting to have all her feelings rush forward at once when she finally looked into his eyes. He wasn't looking at her. Simon let go of her once she'd steadied and turned around to face the front like nothing even happened.
Maddie had prepared to have Simon yell at her, scream at her for being selfish. She'd been prepared for him to hate her, but this? Acting like their whole friendship had never happened? That hurt.
How presumptious of her. To think that Simon would even give a fuck that she didn't want to see him anymore. This what she wanted. She wanted Simon to never speak to her again, but the fact that he was so willing to accept that, that he didn't care enough about her to fight for their friendship, that felt like a slap in the face.
But then again, what had she done to deserve him fighting for her? She'd never fought for him.
Will Goode finished his speech and handed the microphone off to his older brother. "Our family has been in Sunnyvale for generations, and now my brother is mayor, and I am your sheriff. We've prospered here. And yet, I've seen you, our neighbors in Shadyside suffer tragedy after tragedy. It's easy in times like this to drown in questions of why... Why this happened. But I know all too well, there are no answers that will provide relief. There's no peace found in the past. We must not fall into darkness. We must look to the light,"
One of the Sunnyvale football players scoffed. "Yeah. What we should do is light a fuse and burn down Shittyside,"
The football player closest to Maddie turned to his right. "What'd you say?"
