An Unexpected Twist

Devil's Promise

When the bell rings Monday morning, Maka looks up to see Soul walking in, late as usual. She waves a greeting to him, but much to her surprise, he looks away and heads toward his seat without so much as a word to her. Strange. Maka just shrugs it off, figuring that he's just in a bad mood. All through class, Maka felt his eyes on her back, but she refused to look back. It was creepy even to think he was staring at her, let alone know that he was.

For the rest of the day, Maka doesn't approach Soul since he always takes the initiative and starts the conversation. Whenever he saw her in the hallway, he would look away, his jaw clenched and he'd walk past her, staring straight ahead. Maka, often, would look back at him as he passed, wondering what had him so pissed. But she never said a word. Social pursuits and concepts where never her strong point.

Several weeks pass, and Soul never says a word to Maka. But every time they saw each other, Maka would feel his eyes on her, only to dart away when she looked his direction. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why Soul wasn't speaking to her. Had she done something to upset him? Said something? She spent hours antagonizing over it, and truth be told, it provided her with a distraction from what was happening at home.

••••••••

Soul couldn't stand it. He hated having to ignore Maka every day. But he could never find a time to say something to her. Arachne and her little group of friends where always around, keeping their eyes on him. The fact that he was coward enough to not just ignore them and talk to Maka consequences be damned pissed him off even more than his stalkers did. What was wrong with him? He wasn't scared of Arachne or Wes for that matter. Then what was stopping him? The look on Wes's face flitted behind Soul's eye, his words whispering through his brain, caused Soul to shiver. It was Maka. She was why he was being a good little boy. He couldn't let them hurt her. No matter what. End of discussion.

••••••••

Maka looks up at the golden sky, the sun beginning to set. A warm breeze plays with her ash blonde hair as she takes in the changing colors in the sky. Giriko is dead drunk and Maka didn't want to be in the house since it reeks of alcohol. And since the library is closed, she doesn't really have any other place to go but outside. Maka brushes her bangs out of her eyes, her mind straying from the sunset. She wondered when her dad would be back. She thought of the homework she had yet to finish. But mostly she thought of Soul. He was never far from her thoughts these days. Why has he suddenly stopped talking to her? Was he fed up with her? Not that she blamed him if he was. The two of them where worlds apart. She wondered what her mother would say to her if she could voice her thoughts of Soul to her.

The thought of her mom stopped her derailed train of thought. That wound was still fresh and Maka felt tears spring to her eyes. She wills them to stop, chastising herself. Her mom had died months ago. It was time to stop crying at every mention of her. Maka knew it, but that didn't stop the tears from spilling over onto her cheeks. She missed her mom so much. The wind blows across her skin, and, just for a moment, it felt like her mother's caressing hand, telling her everything would be ok like she did when Maka was a little girl. That was enough to break her. Maka let all her pent up anger, confusion, fear, and loneliness out though her tears. She sat there for hours, nothing but the soon cold wind and moonlight for company.

Finally she went inside, covering her nose when the stench hit her. She lets out a disgusted sigh as she passes Giriko, snoring in a puddle of booze. She slowly climbs the stairs, an irrational anger at Soul welling up inside her. How could he just abandon her to this drunk bastard? Even after seeing the things he's done to her and how much he's hurt her, physically and emotionally. Maka might not have many friends, but she knew that you just don't leave one behind to fend for themselves. You don't leave them for no reason.