The Gray Case

twenty-nine

Maya has been told the news. Since yesterday, late in the p.m, Joseph has been gone and his traces left in a sudden blink of an eye.

Alexander told her about this, he told her he doesn't know much and maybe he won't ever. They never speak as loud as they should in that house, it has been a problem since Alexander's memory of his mother stops and a new one begins.

He feel distant. He is here, his hands are here, his body is near and pulsing, but he could be a thousand light-years away and things wouldn't have a different shape.

He speaks passively and not even his voice has the same sound.

"What?"

His tone cuts deeply into the silent spheres he created around him and Maya doesn't feel anything (nor the voices around her in the lunch room, nor her own heartbeat) but the anger in every single flash of light and shadow in his eyes.

"Please stop talking to me like this, you've been treating everyone like crap the whole morning. Can you calm down?"

She turns to him, specifically to look at him without missing any detail. She sees his brows knit and his eyes squint, it's almost imperceptible how he speaks with his body, but she knows, she reads.

And his words don't lie, either.

"Well, then. Can you leave me the fuck alone?"

It doesn't hit her immediately. It takes her a while, half a minute to a minute before rage builds in her. It's there but still not in its entirety.

"You really don't care about how people feel, do you? I understand and I get it. I get that you're upset and you have every reason to be but you're making me upset and the people around you, too."

He doesn't look at her this time. His elbow is placed firmly on the table and his chin wrapped around his hands. His stare is somewhere dozing off in space, they look at everything but her.

"You're right. I don't care. Can you leave now?"

A beat, and then two, until her heart sinks and something, somewhere feels empty and hollow while it echoes.

"It's always you, it's always about you. I understand why Marcus can't stand you."

He rolls his eyes and sighs, annoyed. "Leave or I will."

The room seems to fall quiet in an instant of time. Gazes and whispers are directed to them and Maya's cheeks flush in boiling anger, her hands tremble slightly yet she doesn't lose control.

"Fine. As you wish, but don't dare come back to me after behaving like a complete asshole."

Her head stays high as she stands up.

"I won't, maybe it's going to be the other way round. I don't think I need you as much as you need me."

At this point, she doesn't even recognize him. He is a stark image and he doesn't spare her this time, for his soul's sake maybe, in the name of sentiments that right now he can't really pinpoint.

But she feels it, hard and deep into her heart and bones. Maya loses touch of him in a circumstance like this and he loses sight of himself--his eyes are not the same.

"Fuck you, Alexander," she utters, voice low and shaky.

Lisa tries to hold her back, knowing her heart better than she knows her own. But she isn't strong enough to make her stay.

Maya then steps away, and Alexander does too and they end up going in opposite directions.

She unsteadily pushes through bodies, nosy stares and questioning faces. A glossy veil shadow her pupils yet she doesn't let herself cry.