Chapter 2: Why?
Stella stands in front of her locker, gathering her belongings before she leaves. She hears footsteps behind her and turns around. "Oh, hey, Mac."
"Hi," he continues to watch her move around. Like he had noticed for the past two months, she seems on edge, jumpy, just different than she was before. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm fine; it's probably because I couldn't get much sleep last night." She takes her phone from her pocket as it starts ringing. "Hi, Zach."
"Good. Listen, we're still trying to follow a lead; it might be awhile. I don't think I can make it to dinner."
Mac, who was now getting stuff from his locker, begins to eavesdrop upon hearing her lie. Why would she lie? Who is she lying to? Maybe she needs help if she has to lie to keep form having dinner with what sounds like a boyfriend.
"Sorry. Dinner tomorrow is fine. See you then. Love you," she hangs up and turns back to him.
"Who was that?" he asks, trying not to be nosy.
"My boyfriend, Zach."
"We're not still following a lead. We solved the case. You can have dinner with him."
"I… want to stay home tonight, spend some time alone, catch up on sleep."
"If he really loves you, he'd understand, and you wouldn't have to lie. Or do you want out of your relationship?" Mac sits down on the bench beside her. She doesn't respond. "How long have you and Zach been dating?"
"Almost four months."
"Stella, I'm sure he'll understand if you don't like him. Just tell him."
"I'm… afraid it'll be like last time I tried to break up with my boyfriend. I don't want to be almost killed again."
"Not all men are like Frankie; Zach will understand."
"I thought Frankie would understand, but I guess he didn't. I just can't be sure any more."
"Stella, you're just putting off breaking up with him. Why?" he places a hand on her shoulder, and she does her best not to wince.
"I… I can't tell you, Mac. I just need out of this relationship." She wants so badly to tell him, get help from someone, but she can't bring herself to do it.
Mac sits quietly next to her, wondering why she needs out. "Does it have to do with Frankie? I'm sure he'll understand if you're not ready."
"No, I'm over what Frankie did. I mean, dating doesn't bother me, just cases at work sometimes do."
"Then is he… cheating on you?"
"Not that I know of," Stella wishes it could be a simple reason.
"I don't get it. Why else would you need out of a relationship? Unless…" he looks over at her, studying her body. "He's not… Zach, he isn't… abusive, is he?"
"No," she says a little too quickly to be believable. "No. I need out of it before it gets more serious because I don't love him," she lies.
"Tell him, Stella."
"I'm going to leave now. See you tomorrow, Mac. And have fun at dinner with Peyton tonight," Stella stands, heading to the door.
Right after she leaves, Hawkes enters, finding Mac staring after her. "Hey, Mac. You alright?"
"I'm fine. But I don't think she is," Mac points after Stella.
"So you've noticed her odd behavior too?"
"Her boyfriend called; she lied to him because she didn't want to have dinner. She said she needed out of the relationship. When I asked her about it, she claimed it isn't because of Frankie, and he isn't cheating on her, which leaves…"
"Domestic violence?" Sheldon asks.
"Stella said no a little too quickly for me to believe her when I mentioned it. Said it was because she doesn't love him. He's got to hit her; but what can we do if she doesn't want help?" Mac frowns.
"Help her anyway; we can't let her get hurt again."
A/N: I'm so sorry. When I got home Wednesday, my mom said the internet wasn't working so she had to take the computer in the next day 'cause the stupid Dell people didn't know what the problem was. So after I saved all my files onto like two disks and my flash drive since they were going to completely restart the computer, it was taken to the store and gone until today. My mom and I are still installing programs back onto it. And email still doesn't work because my mom has to call WOW and ask them how to set up the things again. I was dying without the computer. Hopefully the virus is gone now. And she blamed my desktops (which I've got like a whole year's worth of them saved; I change it every month). Like the week before that, it froze with my desktop, Mac and Stella this month, and no icons or anything. My brother asked me if Mac and Stella are married; I wish. Hm... I ended up getting an A on my poetry project thing, both the analysis paper and the presentation, for those who got to listen to me in past notes from other stories complain about it. Tonight I have to edit the other eight chapters left, once I get them back on here, and hopefully finish typing the one. I'll update again tomorrow, assuming my computer doesn't break again.
