Adopted by Stromae

dix-huit

It seemed that Kaydence was the only topic interesting enough to be whispered around the school hallways. After all, someone had been killed; it didn't surprise anyone that people had gotten word about it so fast in a drama-craving society.

It felt extremely complicated. Usually, when Kaydee wasn't there, she'd just stick it out and talk to some people she didn't necessarily like just for the sake of not being alone. This time, she didn't make an effort. Maelle didn't know whether or not she should be missing her friend– she did, but it felt morally wrong. It felt insincere.

Maelle had tried to sit and focus on her teachers going on about the subject matter, but she just couldn't think straight. That probably wasn't a good thing considering she had just been catching up in her classes. There was too much to put thought into but not enough she could do about it.

Maelle didn't know anything about herself at this point in her life, but she knew she couldn't abandon her friend even past what she'd done.

+

"Kaydee," she had sighed, giving her friend a hug as soon as she'd seen her. Paul had agreed to drive Maelle back to the hospital after school was over, which was kind of him— but she didn't expect any less. "You holding up?"

Kaydence nodded, slowly sitting up but straining herself to do so. "I guess so. They said I'd be able to leave in a week, I think."

Maelle sighed, feeling a gush of reassurance flow through her. "I'm glad."

"Are people talking about me yet?"

She didn't feel like keeping things from her friend when she knew she'd be hearing it from someone else, either way. "A little."

Kaydee looked at Maelle as if to question her judgement, as if telling her through her gaze that she was wrong. She couldn't help but falter. "Okay, more then a little. It's not that bad, though—"

"Let them talk," Kaydence spat, fixing her glare to the sheets on top of her. Her attitude had changed completely, the atmosphere of the conversation switching in two seconds flat. "I would too if someone I knew had killed someone."

"It'll get better," Maelle tried to sound convincing, but it most likely didn't work too well.

Kaydence slowly looked over at Maelle, her eyes beginning to become bloodshot. "I got behind that wheel knowing I was drunk. It was a conscious decision, Maelle."

Maelle didn't know what to say, so she stayed quiet. It was probably not a good idea to get someone riled up at a time like this, anyways, considering that she had never been the best at defusing situations in general.

"I saw her. I had tried to swerve, I didn't even know it was happening before I heard it. It took me a while to process it, and then I realized, I fucking ran someone over. I didn't even call an ambulance, Maelle, I just stayed there until someone had called the police," she went on further, stopping in-between breaths to let out a sob that she couldn't control. "I ended the life of another human being, Maelle, so don't try and tell me that it'll get better. This stain will always be on my hands."

"I'm sorry," Maelle whispered, not daring to look Kaydence in the eye. She didn't even know if that was the girl she had once known or just the shell of who she used to be.

"Her name was Danyka Perrault," Kaydence said after a brief few seconds, her tears finally coming to an end. She sounded absolutely defeated, as if she could get a bullet through the heart and not even flinch. "And she will never see the light of day again because I ran her over."

At those words, Maelle was struck with fear. She couldn't move, think, breathe— do anything. It never ceased to amaze her and yet deteriorate her at the exact same time that all of these coincides appeared in her life one after the other. Her best friend had killed Theo's mother; and she didn't know how to digest that information.

It wasn't long before Maelle had decided to call it quits. She didn't know when she'd be able to see Kaydee again, but at the same time, she wasn't curious whatsoever. Paul had insisted on helping her– or tutoring her, as he called it, even if she just wanted to lie down and forget about all of the problems the world kept chucking at her endlessly. There would never be a stop to it, apparently.

"This one is pretty simple, actually," Paul said, going on a minute-long explanation about some concept that she couldn't grasp her mind around in physics. Her mind was elsewhere involuntarily, and that was with Theo, Kaydee, Danyka— everywhere it shouldn't of been.

"Do you get it, now?" Paul asked her quizically after he had finished talking. She nodded immediately, even though if he had asked her to repeat anything he'd been saying for the past ten minutes, she'd be unable to. "I can tell when something is wrong, Maelle, what is it?"

"Something's always wrong," she sighs, letting her pencil drop to the table where dozens of papers lay across her. He nodded understandingly, letting Maelle speak.

She sighed, looking up at Paul who had debatably seen the worst side of his foster daughter– he was probably the most equipped to bear this news. "Kaydence killed Theo's mother."

+

a/n: hi im so tired i slaved to write this chappy

GOODNIGHT.

-addy