The Muse

Part 1

There were so many things that Marcella hated about Thursdays; the sloppy hamburger helper the cafeteria sold, the monotonous tone of Mr Paul's class and the squeaky sound of the shoes on the basketball court collectively made it the worst day of the week. The ball was passed to tall muscular player who pretty much had the same build of every other boy on the court, he aims for the basket almost immediately and shoots. The crowd goes wild before she even has a chance to see the ball go through, but she assumed he had won the game. May grabs Macy's arm and screams into her ears. She hated the feel of someone's skin on her, but May was her friend, and she would never actually say that out loud.

''did you just see that?? He made a three pointer and we won!!!'' she turns to Macy frantically looking like she won the lottery. Her newly dyed dark red hair bouncing up and down. She looked like strawberry shortcake.

''yes, he did '' a small smile spreads along her lips before she claps along with the rest of the crowd. Ever since may started dating rowan, they have been to every single one of their games. They have been dating for a year now and it didn't matter if he scored or not, may was always there. Willow high school team barely ever won any basketball games. This year had been better than the last two, according to Amari. Macy glanced around the room as the noise intensified. There were so many people here. The loud claps and shouts seemed to suck out all the oxygen from the room.

The faces of the crowd melt together and Macy's arms go slack on her thighs. It was the feeling of suffocating but still having all the air in the world. The panic rose up from her stomach and went all the way down her fingertips. She knew she didn't have social anxiety because she attended parties with her friends and spoke in front of crowds. It wasn't something she could really explain because it never really made sense to her. How could she go from feeling normal to feeling like her world was falling under her? This happened more often than she liked and usually she would ball her hands up in fists and cry her eyes out in the bathroom but she was in public and she could pretend.

"Hey ladies!" Riley walks up to us. She's so off balance that someone would assume the thick black shades she has on somehow impairs her eyes. When she sits down, the smell of weed sits so heavily on her. She still had her Hispanic accent even though she had been living in America since middle school. Almost every guy wanted to be with Riley.

The thing that bothered everyone most about her was that Riley was always high. Macy couldn't pinpoint at what exact moment Riley transitioned from a casual smoker to someone that completely relied on it. She wasn't the type to become violent or risk her own safety, she would just sit there and smile. As far as anyone could tell, she could handle herself. It didn't stop Amari from trying to get her to quit. Anytime Amari tried to stop her, Riley would always say 'You can't overdose from weed!' and he would storm off annoyed. Regardless, they were still as close as ever.

"Hey Riley, I'm going to talk to rowan'' May stood up quickly barely paying any attention to her friends on the bench. When she saw Rowan, everyone else stopped existing.

"What did I do to have my adoring fans here?" Amari jogs up to them smiling. He was about 6'1 but if you were around 5'6 like Riley and Marcy, he would probably look a lot taller. Macy didn't know why Amari even played basketball because for as long as she could remember, he was a swimmer. Amari loved swimming so much that when they were younger, he would make them go swimming everyday during summer. She sometimes feared he was part fish and missed the ocean. He was on the swim team, but he left even though he still trains every week.

"You wish" Riley says rolling her eyes behind her shades. Amari's attention fully lands on Riley and his smile flatters a bit but he's back on guard like it never happened.

"Oh! my favourite girl don't do me like that" he pretends to faint and gets a laugh from both of them. He was the comedian of the group. She laughed at his joke, but it came out forced. It wasn't like anyone noticed either way.

"You should do drama instead; I wonder why you even play basketball" Rowan says behind him while holding May's hand. They were a public display of affection type of couple.

''every other extracurricular sucked'' his face squeezes up in disgust. Macy pulls out her phone to check messages. It was only a text from her brother telling her he would be home late. He played in a band, and they had a show today at The Clove. The band wasn't the most successful but if her mom supported her brother's dreams, who was she not to?

''yeah sure, like you don't suck at basketball too'' Rowan snorts. He only recently started hanging out with them last year, but he was well inaugurated into the group.

''I'm going home, my mom needs me'' Macy stands up stretching her arms, her whole body was sore from sitting on the bench for too long. She just wanted to get away, she loved her friends but sometimes she needed to be alone. She craved the comfort of her art studio. A chorus of see you later and goodbyes called after her as she walked out the door.

The outside air is chilly, it's only the first week of October and the entire California is ice. Her car was somewhere at the last row. Her black range rover was a gift from her mother on her eighteenth birthday and was also a 'I'm sorry I couldn't attend your birthday party' gift. Her mother was a lawyer and barely had time for her children.

The privacy of parking at the last row is the best in the mornings. she walks down to the black ranger rover and starts the engine. The drive home is about fifteen minutes, and Cleo Sol is blasting through the speakers. The house looks empty when Macy's car drives past the giant gates. There were no cars in the driveway.

Macy sits down on a stool in her studio which was opposite her room. The colours on the canvas almost blurred together if not for the thin brown lines between them. She barely liked using black when painting, it sort of took away from the little details in her work. Black was consuming, loud and bold. The picture she painted on the canvas looked surreal; it reminded her of gardens in a fairy tale book.

Around 10pm, the driveway was still empty, and the house was completely silent. The cook and the help were probably gone. The only sound was the gentle snores of Nani, Macy's ginger cat. She closed her eyes and drifted away to her fairy tale garden.