Till death do us part// 13rw (UPDATE)

2

'Monty.' Maddie breathlessly whispered. She spun around on her heels, regretting to look the boy straight in the eyes. Hers began to sting again as she couldn't help but allow a slight smile to appear on her face. She longed to be in his arms. To hug him. To kiss him. To be with him. But she couldn't. She had turned him away, like she had with everyone else. And it was too late to turn back. 

Hope revealed itself in Monty's eyes. He hurried over to the distraught girl, refraining himself from embracing her. The past few days had been hell for him. Maddie stopped trying to reach out to him. He tried countless times to visit her, however her parents refused. He was helpless. And now there she was. In the flesh. Standing right in front of him. 

'I..I didn't know you were coming in today. Can we talk?' He begged. No matter how much Maddie wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to say what he wanted to hear. The mutters of the students grew louder as those in Coach Patrick's class paid attention to the more interesting moment unfolding before them. 

'Monty, can we not do this here? I have somewhere to be.' As she tried to turn away, a firm grip took her wrist. Sorrow fell on his face as Maddie examined him closely. She tugged him off as he tried to explain himself. 

'Please. Don't keep shutting me out. We haven't spoken in over a week.' Looking behind her shoulder, Maddie saw her parents sitting in Mr. Porter's office. Her mother was in tears, her father, showing solace. She exhaled as she turned back to the desperate boy in front of her. 

'There's not much to say.' Maddie seemed lifeless. The joy she once felt around the boy had now gone. 'If you'll excuse me, my parents are waiting for me.' She relieved herself from the situation and paced herself to where her parents were, leaving Monty left alone in the hall. 

'Delete it.' I threatened as Justin Foley slammed his locker shut. Kat had moved away, giving Justin an opening to do whatever he 'wanted' with Hannah. I had warned her, like Kat had warned me. But she didn't listen. They had met up the night prior and Hannah had to face the consequences. 'Delete the picture, Foley.' 

'Too late now, everyone's seen it. Everyone has it.' He shrugged as he walked to the cafeteria. Justin had taken a picture of Hannah sliding down a slide in a playground - with her underwear showing. It was humiliating. I scoffed. How could someone stoop so low and spread things like that around?

'Is it your turn next for a picture, Baker?' A familiar voice appeared from beside Justin. Montgomery De la Cruz  always showed up where he wasn't wanted. Maddie scowled at the self-obsessed jock, who found himself so hilarious. No one else laughed. 

'Shut up, De la Cruz.' Justin sighed. He seemed fed up with Monty's jokes as well. This only provoked him further. 

'Aw.. does Justy have a thing for both Bakers? Pick one Justy.' He mocked. Justin shoved Monty out of annoyance and strolled down to meet up with Bryce and his gang of jocks, leaving just Monty and I. I glared at him, scoffed and tried to walk away before he caught up with me. 'Meet me at Monét's later?' He smirked. This was obviously his poor attempt of asking me out.

'Maybe ask again when I'm not pissed off at you. Or maybe just don't ask at all.' I flipped him off as I left him standing alone, mesmerised, in the hall. 

'She doesn't have any pictures or stickers inside.' The Bakers stared deeply into the nothingness of Hannah's locker. There was a pile of books, leaning against the walls of the blue locker, a couple of notebooks and that was it. The only form of life was the memorial board that other students had placed on the outside of the locker, that was it. Maddie didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't that. 'Why aren't there any stickers?' Mrs. Baker questioned. 

'Mom... it's just a locker.' Maddie placed her hand on her mothers shoulder, whilst giving her father an upsetting glance. 

'No. I-it's Hannah's locker. Why is there nothing there?' As her parents and Mr. Porter continued gathering Hannah's belongings, Maddie noticed a scrawny boy taking interest in the sight before him. Clay Jensen walked slowly towards the Bakers, a worried look on his face. Maddie gave a slight smile to the boy, to which he exchanged in return. She knew he missed Hannah. She knew how much he loved her. She knew how much he would give just to see her one last time. 

'Let's go, Maddie.' Mr. Baker snapped her out of her thoughts. The girl nodded goodbye to Mr. Porter as the family solemnly returned to their car. As her parents discussed the lawsuit, Maddie couldn't help but wonder whether to contact Monty. Or at least some of her friends. She had been isolating herself since Hannah's passing. She was alone. They could help her. Be there for her. She just wasn't letting them. 

A day had passed and Maddie had gone back to her usual routine of sleeping, eating and sleeping some more. What else could she possibly do? She couldn't bring herself to do much else as every small thing reminded her of Hannah. They did everything together. Everything. So she limited herself to the activities she preoccupied herself with. 

Just as she was getting ready for bed, Maddie overheard her mother calling her fathers name. She seemed distressed and angry. Confused, the girl went to investigate downstairs. Her parents were bickering over some sort of 'list'. 

'Maddie,' Her mother anxiously turned her gaze over to the fatigued girl walking down the stairs. 'Did you know about this 'Hot-or-not' list?' She asked. They found the list. The list that Alex Standall made in spite of Jessica Davis not having sex with him. The list that boosted a minority of girls self-confidence, but diminished their pride and reputation all together. Maddie was a victim of the list. She was claimed to be 'Best Face', and although to some that seemed like a compliment, to Maddie, she felt like that was all she was. A pretty face. When she was so much more. 

Red hot flushed throughout my body. I felt embarrassed when so many people were congratulating me, although this was not something to be proud of. I had reached Alex's 'Hot-or-not' list. 'Best Face', he had called me. I had exchanged a total of 10 words to him since I first met him - that was supposedly enough for him to make that decision. 

'Best Face, huh? Why am I not surprised?' Monty was leaning against a wall of lockers as I left communications class. 'Take it as a compliment, Baker.' He smirked as he could see that I wasn't as happy with the title I had been given as most people would expect.

'A compliment?' I scoffed. 'No, of course. I'm honoured that people like me because they think I'm pretty.' People were giving me various looks from across the halls. Some disgusted, some jealous, some mesmerised. The feeling of discomfort pricked my skin. I wanted to punch Alex for making the list. 

'So what, people think you're hot? The whole basketball and baseball team voted for you. You should be honoured.' He sniggered, not helping the situation. I scorned him, feeling a little hurt at his remark. 

'Thank you, Montgomery, for openly admitting to sexualising me and many other girls at this school.' Before he could speak another word, I slammed my locker shut and ignored his stupid attempts to try and talk to me again. 

'I didn't know Hannah had this.' Maddie held the list in her hands, carefully examining it. 'I don't know much about it, just about who was on it.' Her mother exhaled as her father chose to ignore her so-called 'exaggeration'. Maddie knew she wasn't exaggerating. This list was one of the factors of why Hannah was so broken inside. One of the reasons why she did what she did.