cardigan - malachi barton

Limbo

Wake up every morning. Almost surprised I survived. Blood on the pillow, tears in my eyes.
Slept in a murder scene last night.                                                     

~Limbo, Royal Blood

MAISIE

Friday, three days after the breakup, 10:33 p.m

I groaned, throwing my phone across the room. I got lucky, and it hit a pillow. If I broke one more phone this month, I wouldn't be allowed to hang out with Ari for a week. I know that it makes me sound spoiled, but I guess it was fair, seeing as this would be the fourth phone I had broken. It was almost funny. Almost. 

"Hey, babes," Ariana said, coming over to the dining table. 

"Hi, Ari." I responded glumly. 

She dropped her somehow never-ending bag - that she liked to call the "Oh no, Maisie's Having a Melodramatic Teenager Moment" bag - on the table.  

She poured everything on it out. Needless to say, there was a whole lot of makeup hair products, other hair-styling equipment, and - for some reason - bracelet making kits. Ariana threw me a spool of string and a bag of beads and gave me a stern look, which I deciphered to mean "turn around, bitch, or I start with your makeup." I sighed and turned around, due to my extremely relatable disgust for her makeup skills. I mean, last time she tried, she stabbed me in the eye with a mascara brush. 

By the time she was done, my hair had been put into a half-up-half-down type thing, and I had inhaled so much hairspray that my throat actually burned. That's not normal.

She plopped a makeup box and a mirror into my lap and I faced her again. Her eyes were closed, and I was half tempted to give her clown makeup. Alas, powerful best friends make powerful enemies. I finished on her eye makeup and moved to her lips (help I don't know makeup please tell me if I did that wrong.) 

"Oh, yeah, remember that party I was telling you about?" Ariana asked. 

I rolled my eyes and instructed, "Don't talk, I need to finish this."

She swatted my hand away. "Mae, you need to know this."

"Okay, shoot." I sat back, placing the lipstick tube on the table next to me. 

"Malachi's birthday is tomorrow. I was wondering if your mom would be good with me spending the night?" She said, not even making it sound like a question. 

"My mom likes you even more than she likes me, my twin sister, my older brother, and my older sister, combined. Of course she would be fucking okay with it." I said, raising one eyebrow. 

"Is Ana staying the night, honey?" My mother yelled from the kitchen, where she was cooking dinner. 

"Yes, Erin, I am, if that's fine by you!" Ari shouted back. 

I heard Mom running up the stairs. 

She threw her arms around Ari like she was a lost child. "My favorite daughter is staying!"

I side-eyed her, my mouth jokingly agape. "Wow. Offensive, Mom. I'm right here."

"I know. Ana, will you help me with the dinner?" 

"Of course, Erin." Ari happily left the room, her makeup still half-done. 

Oh, she's gonna look so stupid. I thought. She had the biggest crush on my brother, Mason Johnson. (Bear with me, guys.) 

When dinner was ready, we all filed into the dining room. Ari blushed as Mason took the seat next to her. On the other side of her was me, and I grinned at her, seeing my brother stare at her from the corner of my eye. 

Somewhere in between small talk, ridiculously obvious flirting attempts from Mason, and my Mom gushing to Ariana about how proud she was, I got bored and went upstairs to my room after excusing myself. 

Lucky that I did, because my computer prompted me to answer from the casting directors Zombies 4. I hesitantly clicked the "answer" option. I had completely forgotten that I sent in an audition tape a few months back. 

Well, here goes nothing. 

MALACHI

I hit the answer key, practically feeling the excitement radiating off of MK, who was staring over my shoulder. 

"Man, stop that." I shoved his head away from my ear. "You're breathing so loudly"

The video call started, at least for me. There was another person in the chat. A girl named Maisie Johnson, who I thought I had seen before.

Oh, yeah, Ariana made me invite her to my party.

Maisie Evelyn Johnson was the complete opposite of me. She was sunshine and rainbows and other pretty, poetic things that I'm forgetting to mention. Despite that, she smiled at me as MK and I appeared on the screen. 

She wasn't smiling after my party. But that's a story for another day. For now, I had gotten the part, and I was going to have to film with Princess Smiley, "Kindness is free". She was too naive for this world, yet still so effortlessly beautiful that I sometimes had to focus on the fact that, no, I didn't know her, and, no, she didn't like me. I was too broken for her. 

Heeeyyyyyyyyy. I finally found the energy to update this piece of absolute cliche trash!!! yaaaaaay. AAAANNNNNYYYYYWWWWWAAAAAYYYYYSSSSS, I have an orchestra camp next week, so you're not gonna get a whole lotta updates for a week or so. I promise, I will try to write in between camps, but some of them are sleep away, soooooo . . . yeah. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT. I need feedback on my writing. Constructive criticism, ideas for a plot ('cause I don't have one), spelling corrections, anything except hate. That kind of thing is supposed to be kept to yourself. 

bye pookies ❤

~Maggs-> out