The Deep Stuff - Markle - GMW Fanfic

Chapter 1

(The Middle of 10th Grade)

 

Maya’s POV

 

Waking up is always hard. But I do it. I don’t really know why anymore, but I do. Today, I wake up fairly quickly, dragging myself out of bed and sticking my head into my tiny closet. I rummage through my clothes and pull out a red striped long sleeve shirt and some skinny jeans. I only wear long sleeves now, to hide everything. I strip off my ratty pajamas and put on my jeans. Before I put on my shirt, I examine my scars. The little whitish lines go up and down both of my forearms now. I rub my palm lightly over them, feeling the fresh ones I’d done last night after Mike hit me hard, once in the shoulder and again on my neck. I looked away and put on my shirt before walking over to the mirror and seeing that there was a giant bruise left on my neck that, unlike the one that had surely ripened on my shoulder, wasn’t covered by the shirt. I pulled out a small case of makeup that I’d gotten about a year ago when Mrs. Matthews gave Riley and I some money for the the mall. I pull out the tiny tub of foundation that matched my skin tone and the foundation brush. I smeared it gently over the bruise being careful so I wouldn’t make the sore spot hurt anymore. Once I was satisfied that  the bruise had been covered as much as possible, I walked back to my closet and picked up my scuffed black combat boots. Sitting on the bed, I pulled them on and laced them up, tying them tightly at the top. I then went back to the mirror to brush my hair and make sure it looked okay. Finally, I picked up my backpack that was leaning against my rickety old desk and snuck quietly out of the room. I tiptoed past my mom and Mike’s bedroom, just in case Mike was in their. My mom was already at work, but Mike was always here in the mornings when I woke up and in the afternoon when I got home from school. I’m not even sure he works these days. He used to leave every afternoon to work at the post office, but I doubted he did that anymore because it seemed like he never left the house except to buy more beer. I kept walking swiftly but quietly out into the main room and past the family room and kitchen. I looked in and saw Mike passed out on the ratty couch, beer still in hand, dripping and staining the ugly tan seat cushion, TV still blaring. I returned to tiptoeing and prayed that he would not awake from the drunken stupor he was currently in. Luckily he didn’t and I made it safely out the door at 7:30; I even had time to grab an apple that I could eat at lunch.. That gave me time to get to Riley’s house and we would be right on time for school after the subway. I closed the door lightly behind me and let out a sigh of relief. I then proceeded to start walking to the Matthew’s apartment building. It took me about ten minutes to walk there and when I got there I put on my happy face like I always do, and pushed the buzzer. “It’s the pizza delivery guy,’ I said in a mock deep voice. Someone upstairs pressed the button and I heard Auggie’s incessant giggling in the background. “Come on up girlie,” I heard Mrs. Matthews say lovingly. I walk into the elevator and press the button for Riley’s floor. The dull melody of the elevator music and the hushed whispers of the old couple next to me bored me half to death, but I made it out into the 4th floor hallway alive. I walked up to the Matthew’s door and knocked. After a second Auggie heaved open the door with a smile on that impish face of his. “I learned how to spell ‘pneumonia’ you know,” the 8-year-old said as I came inside. “Oh yeah?” I countered playfully. “Yup. K-N-E-W-M-O-A-N-I-A,” he told me with extreme confidence in his high-pitched voice. “I think tonight we should practice your spelling hun,” Mrs. Matthews said as she came up to us at the kitchen table with heaping plates of scrambled eggs and bacon. Auggie only shrugged because he had already shoveled a spoonful of eggs into his little mouth. I was about to protest about having eaten at home like I do every morning, although I almost always did not eat at home, but this particular hot breakfast looked so delicious, I didn’t even bother protesting. I sat down at my usual spot and joined Auggie in eating the delicious breakfast. A couple minutes later, Riley came out from her room, hair pulled back into a french braid. She was wearing blue jeans and her brown leather combat boots with a plain white t-shirt. Over that she had a colorful, flowy jacket thing that went to her knees and was open in the front. She yawned and walked to wear her slightly less hot plate of breakfast was waiting patiently and sat down. “Good morning Maya!” she said cheerfully before digging into the eggs and bacon. I smiled politely, my mouth full of eggs. Soon Mrs. Matthews tells us to get to school so we won’t be late for school. Riley and I grab our backpacks and head out the door. We make our way down the stairs and out of the lobby of Riley’s building, then turn left after the awning. The walk to the subway station is full of Riley babbling about Lucas and me hiding my feelings. The two had finally become a couple at the end of 7th grade and they’d spent that whole summer together, but here they both were in the middle of 10th grade, still as lovesick as ever. I let her go on and on about all the sweet things about Lucas and how their date went last weekend etc. But my mind isn’t really with her as we make our way past the ticket both of the subway and find our train. My mind is off at home, dreading the terrible threats and slurred insults, just waiting to come tumbling out of his drunken mouth. Finally we see our train, or at least Riley does, and I’m shaken out of my mind by her wrenching me off the bench and dragging me by the hand over the threshold of the subway car. I pull my arm out of her grip and bite my tongue to dull the pain that shot through me as she pulled me up. I follow behind her and see her meet Lucas. he smiles and turns to her, sweeping her into a kiss. She wraps her arms up around his neck embracing the kiss. They stay there smiling and kissing, ignoring the looks of disapproval from the elderly women at the back of the train. I roll my eyes and clear my throat and they break apart. Riley blushes furiously and Lucas smiles and looks down, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. I chuckle and shake my head as they settle for holding hands. The rest of the subway ride consists of them talking about some project they have for Geography. Occasionally I but in with sarcastic comments about some idea they had, as usual. Sometimes it surprises me how I’ve managed to hide my huge secret from my three friends for so long. How they never even suspected that there was a reason that some days I am depressed at school, or how I always wear long-sleeves. I guess I’ve just had time to master the ‘I’m fine’ face. Sighing, I lurch forward as the train comes to a stop at the station closest to school. Riley hoists her leather messenger bag up onto her shoulder and we step off the car. Her hand never leaves Lucas’ as we continue to make our way down the crowded sidewalk and up the front steps of Bard High School. We get inside and walk down the main hallway. When Riley and I stop at our lockers in the middle of the hall, Lucas glances around and pecks Riley on the lips and smiles quickly before he splits off from us to go to his locker at the end of the hall. Riley smiles and blushes and the freshman lining the front of hall squeal and ‘awwww’ at the cuteness of the sophomore power couple: Ricas. Or Luley. Or Rucas, or Liley, who knows. The 9th grade girls always begin to argue about their ‘ship name’ whenever they see them. Riley and I turn to face our lockers and we chat about school and the upcoming dance, The Valentine’s Day Soiree. Classy name, I know. The two of us were co-chairmen of. It was in two weeks, and it was the dance that the sophomores planned. The two of us were co-chairmen of it, because we beat out Missy and her possy for the chairmen positions. It was pretty funny to see them all storm off after the announcement was made. They tried to look cool as they walked away but Missy’s too-short skirt started riding up and she had to reach back with the hand that wasn’t holding her over-sized purse to yank it back down. As she was fixing that, the bleach-blonde on her right tripped over her too-high heels and the whole cluster of them nearly fell down. The flustered barbies had brushed themselves off and huffed as they sped up their walking pace. Riley, Lucas, Farkle and I had burst out giggling as soon as they rounded the corner, as did almost every other student in that hall. We put our assorted binders and notebooks into our bags and shut our lockers as Riley started asking me about streamer options. I told her we should have balloons fall out of a net at the end and float down to the ground at the end of the dance. She loved that idea, and took out her planning notebook to jot it down. We kept talking about the finishing details of our dance and walked down the hall to our first class.

 

(Lunchtime)

 

Our morning classes had gone by relatively quickly and now Riley and I were in the cafeteria. We set our stuff down at our usual table and I sat down. riley walked  off to get in line to buy lunch. I sat there twiddling my thumbs until I decided to pull out my apple and eat it. Farkle slid onto the bench straight across from me and set his tray down. He smiled at me as I took a bite out of my apple. I noticed it was beginning to yellow on the inside, as a result from sitting on the counter for too long, but the taste wasn’t terrible, and I knew that my friends would definitely know something was up if I stopped eating when they were around. I took another bite of the apple and chewed it slowly. Farkle, who had gotten taller and exchanged his bowl-cut hairdo for a shorter, choppier cut that swept to the side just a bit. His outfits had become less extreme, and he usually opted out of neon colored clothing on a day-to-day basis. His steel blue eyes sparkled as they always have as he began to talk to me. “So Maya,” he said brightly, “How’s the dance planning going?” I smiled and shrugged. “Fine,” I replied. “Who are you bringing?” I asked casually, but for some reason Farkle got flustered. “Uh,” he hesitated before saying, “I haven’t asked anyone, actually.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t really want to third wheel it with Rucas, do you?” I question. “I mean, that’s what I’ll be doing obviously, because who would want to ask me to the dance, but you? You always have a date.” His face got a little sad, but he let out a faint chuckle, and it looked like he was about to say something in response when Riley and Lucas slid into their seats across from eachother at the table. “Speak of the devil,” I said with a small smile and a glance at Farkle. Lucas and Riley greeted us, but didn’t notice anything and they just kept on with the conversation they had been having. I took another bite out of the apple and repeated the slow chewing process. Lunch continued on with the happy couple talking animatedly and me and Farkle interrupting periodically. When the last bell rang, I tossed my apple, which I had taken a total of 6 bites of, into the trash can on my way out. Riley and Lucas went their next period together and Farkle and I split off from eachother at the doors of the cafeteria. I headed to art and sighed, thinking.

 

(Sometime After School)

The rest of that day had been pretty low-key. I went over to Riley’s for a bit and we ordered the final decorations for the dance. Mrs. Matthews invited me to stay for dinner but I declined, telling her that my mom would be expecting me home soon. As I descended the stairs of the building I thought to myself,  My mother wanting me to come home. What an unrealistic fantasy.