Avenging Maria

Chapter Two-In the Shadow of You

The warm start of autumn slowly turned cold. Orchards and cider were back in season, and the friend group was taking full advantage of it. Donuts were Elijah's favorite, and Mazon and Charlie were suckers for cider. Apple juice was flat out spiteful when cider was in town.

Charlie and Mazon had also been taking full advantage of Elijah's offer to stay at his house, that is, more so than usual. Every year as fall transitioned to winter, Maze's father gradually got more uptight. The reason was unknown, but Maze could surely guess. As for Charlie, their mother had finally stopped avoiding the big subject.

The three took the bus together the first Monday of November, the chilly weather causing them not to be too keen on walking before the sun came out. Charlie and Eli walked him to the band room, wishing him luck, then left to, most likely, make out in a corner. Mazon entered the room to do his usual coffee routine, then turned to sit in his new seat beside Ezekial. Ezekial muttered his usual greeting to Maze, and Maze did his general habit of ignoring it.

Halfway through Phantom Ezekial's solo came, as always. However, this time was slightly different from usual. Instead of the set track in the music written, Ezekial went all out with improvisation, even extending his solo past the amount of beats given, which majorly messed up the drums and flutes.

Mazon started at him in awe for a few beats afterwards, astounded by the nerve he had. No matter how good you are, you never take risks like that that could mess up the whole group, and everyone knew it. For a good thirty seconds, he hated Ezekial for it, but soon a wicked grin grew on his face. They'd finally see him for what he was; a selfish asshole. He didn't care about the band as a whole, he only cared about himself, and showing off how good he was alone.

When the song ended, Maze waited in slight excitement. Finally, Schod would scold him. Possibly even take his solo away. Everyone in that class would know the real Ezekial, there was no way they'd treat him the same after that.

It was silent for a second as Mazon anticipated the blow up. On the contrary, the room erupted into applause and praise, leaving Maze in shock. First he took his solo, then he screwed up the whole second half of the piece, and then he was getting praised for it?

Mazon fumed as Schod dismissed the class in light spirits, patting Ezekial on the back as he left the room. He carefully put his instrument away, pretending to be busy with it until everyone left. He didn't trust himself to go into the hallway while he could still hear the never-ending compliments. He knew his limits, and he knew that that would be the last straw.

After what seemed like forever, the laughter in the hall died down, and Mazon slowly stood and walked out with a noticeably shaky step. All his classmates had abandoned the hallway--except for Ezekial.

"Hey, Maze," he said, picking up his backpack from the ground. "How are you?"

"Fucking fantastic," Mazon replied, rolling his eyes. He leaned down, picking up his backpack swiftly and aggressively throwing it over his shoulder. "You make every day just fucking amazing. I hope you know the school is covered in fucking rainbows and sunshine now that you showed up."

"Thanks, Maze," Ezekial muttered, rolling past him. "I'm positive it was great before me too, when everything was tightly held in your clutch. I'm sure everyone loved being kept in the shadow of you."

"Why do you have to be such an ass?" Mazon demanded, glaring after him as he walked away. Ezekial stopped moving and looked back at him.

"Me? An ass?" Ezekial scoffed. "Take a look in the mirror next time you talk."

With that, Ezekial walked away, and Mazon blew up. He kicked the locker nearest him, growling and trying not to scream. His backpack had fallen in the action, and he picked it up and threw it over his shoulder before stomping up to first hour. When he plopped in the chair beside Charlie and Eli, they immediately knew something had happened, but were too scared to ask with Ezekial right before them. Maze just huffed and turned forwards towards the teacher.

Spanish didn't help at all when Ezekial was called on for practically every question. When he had to relay the reading for the day, he said it simpler and more in detail than the book did. All the kids in the class were scribbling down the answers to the questions as he literally spoon fed it to them. How could they all love him? How could they not see how much of a douche this guy was?

When the horrid hour finally ended, Mazon stormed through the halls towards the back exit of the school, but someone behind him called his name, stopping him. He recognized the voice as Ezekial, and fought harder to make his way through the blur of kids going the opposite way. Just as the wave was starting to thin, his arm was grabbed from behind.

"Go away, dick!" Maze screamed, ripping his arm out of Ezekial's grasp. He turned around to spit in the boy's face. "Everything was perfect until you came along! You ruined everything."

"Maze," he chuckled, shaking his head. "I've been nothing but nice to you, and besides, I just wanted to talk--"