𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒, justin foley ²

𝟢𝟢𝟦, 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽 𝖺 𝖻𝗈𝖽𝗒

𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 . . . 𝖠𝖢𝖳 𝖮𝖭𝖤
season three, episode three
𝟢𝟢𝟦,      𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽 𝖺 𝖻𝗈𝖽𝗒

MADDIE WAS ACTUALLY kind of loving the boys living in their very own out-house. At least, that's what Maddie called it. The place was loaded. It had a working bathroom—minus the shower, a microwave, mini-fridge and a miniature living room. She loved it mostly because she officially had the whole house to herself, well, except her parents still lived there.

Justin and Clay had lived there for a few months now, but the first thing Maddie did when Clay was out of the main house was take over his room. She did, in fact, make it her girl cave, or as she liked to say The Maddie Cave.

It was nothing really more than a small reading room. She always wanted one and she had way too many books to fit in her own room

The only downside to the boys living outside was she trek she had to take every morning. Well, not every morning, but the boys sucked at waking up. Maddie was always the first one up and had to wake them up for breakfast which, yes, was still a thing.

Today, she brought the breakfast to them.

"Wakey wakey, boys. Dad made waffles and I'm going to eat them all if you guys don't get up soon." Maddie looks over to see her brother stirring awake, only there's no Justin. "Where's Justin?"

"Right here." Maddie looks over to see Justin walking out of the bathroom. "Oo, waffles."

Justin walks over and snatches one from the plate before stuffing it in his mouth and walking toward his bed. Maddie takes a seat at their small counter and scrolls on her phone while she chomps down on the fluffy breakfast food.

"What did we say about dirty dishes, Justin?" Clay asks in his groggy morning voice. "You have lasagna over here from, like, four nights ago. You're not Dr. Fleming discovering penicillin."

"That's on you for choosing to room with this slob." Maddie laughs and Justin grabs a pillow and chucks it at her, causing her to drop her waffle on the floor. "Hey!"

"You deserved it. I am not that messy." Justin looks at Clay. "Also, dude, no one ever understands your jokes."

Maddie shrugs. "I got 'em."

"Well, then, I guess you're both lame." Maddie flips him her middle finger and he laughs.

Clay looks over, clicking on his phone to check the time. "Oh, shit. I'm late. I gotta get Ani."

"Are you allowed to do that?"

"We have this thing for robotics. And I wait at the bottom of the hill."

Maddie laughs. "Spoken like a true gentleman."

Clay shakes his head at his sister's comment before climbing out of his bed. He looks over at Justin right when he's taking off his shirt, revealing three fairly deep scratch marks on the back of his shoulder. "What happened to your back?"

Maddie and Justin look at the same time. Justin shrugs it off but Maddie's eyes widen and she quickly goes back to her phone.  "Uh, Homecoming, yeah, um... you know, the fight and everything."

"Weren't you wearing pads?"

"Yeah, but football, you know?" Justin sneaks a glance at Maddie as he throws a shirt over his head. She shakes her head and snarled, silently threatening him to keep his mouth shut.

You see, the scratches weren't from football. Far from it, unless, of course, that was Maddie's new nickame.

Justin laughs at Maddie's empty threat before looking at Clay. "Aren't you going to be late? No shower today?"

"They didn't build us a shower on purpose." Clay says, walking toward the day. "So we'd have to go in there everyday."

Maddie looks at Justin as soon as her brother is gone. "Keep your dirty little mouth shut, Foley."

Justin laughs and kneels to his bed when Maddie turns back to her phone. Then Clay runs back in. "Forgot my towel."

Maddie looks at Clay and then over at Justin to see him kneeling on his bed like he had been trying to hide something. Maddie's brows furrow. What's he hiding?

A honking outside pulls the three from their trance. "Mm, Justin, that's Zach." Maddie says right before the rest of her waffle into her mouth.

Justin nods, grabbing his duffel bag and slinging it over his shoulder while Maddie shoves her phone in her pocket. She runs inside to grab her backpack before hoping into Zach's Audi with Justin.

»--•--«

Maddie was in her class when she first heard it. And it shook her to her core.

The class was buzzing with the useless chatter. Nothing Maddie minded much attention to. She just tuned it out. This, she couldn't tune out.

"May I have your attention please? Moments ago, we received some extremely sad news from the Evergreen County Sheriff. Former Liberty student Bryce Walker was found dead this morning and has been confirmed dead."

Maddie's pencil drops from her hands. They found a body.

"This is only information we have at this time, but we ask that you keep his family in your thoughts today. Crisis counseling services will be available for all students, and we encourage everyone who may need help to reach out."

Everyone's eyes fell on Maddie, their expressions all reading the same. She probably killed him. She must be over the moon right now.

That was far from it.

Maddie didn't know what to think or how to feel, but she knew happiness was not it.

KAY SPEAKS !
sorry for being mia. i've been having some motivation issues with writing, but i'm slowly getting back into is so hopefully we'll be back to our regular scheduled programming soon!