After that afternoon, Mara had hope. After that night, Mara had misery. And anguish. And a giant heart sized hole torn from her fragmented body. Seeing the old ghost of a jealous flame toy with Jerome's emotions at the sight of Mara and Eddie had ignited a slight optimism inside of her. Her long for his touch and affections had been an endless torture that seemed to alight in anticipation of a revisit. She thought that maybe all he needed was to see Mara with someone else to realise how strongly his feelings for her still pumped through his body like blood- a necessity that he needed to live. She thought that he'd break it off with stupid Willow and that they could give it another shot. What she didn't expect was to find herself torn into a million tiny pieces once again, with Jerome scribed on every single slice.
She loved him so much that she just wanted him to be happy, regardless of if it was with her or not. But not like this, where he was just rubbing salt into her wounds and got to play happy couples with Willow while he watched Mara's face crumple in sheer desperation for it to stop. She'd done as Eddie had said and finally made an appearance at the house other than the mandatory meals that she had stuck to just briefly attending. She lounged around with her friends, she talked, she laughed, she smiled and she felt like her burden had been lifted just ever so slightly. For she had her friends, no matter whatever else happened to her. But that happy, content feeling had been promptly swiped from her grasping heart as she saw Jerome and Willow entering the dining room, hand in hand.
She knew that she couldn't cope with it; that even this was pushing Mara's boundaries, but she couldn't just leave after that either. For then people would have known the reason why she ran, the reason she was being so pathetic and weak. So she gritted her teeth and forged onwards through the entire meal (of which Willow had been welcomed to join them by Trudy) and could feel the sympathetic looks from her housemates begin to resurface.
And it's not like they were even being sensitive towards her; they were being insensitive! She could see the gleam in Willow's eyes as she passionately attacked Jerome's lips with her own, not caring that not only was it inappropriate at the dinner table in a room full of people, but how small she was making Mara feel. After far too long of the lovey dovey behaviour, Patricia's disgusted face turned towards Mara.
"I'm sorry Mara, but may I?" she requested permission, absolutely exasperated at the downright rudeness and cruel behaviour she was seeing being performed by Jerome and Willow. Knowing exactly what she was planning on doing (this was Patricia, after all) Mara smiled at her lightly, replying with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
"Sure, be my guest" she sighed, content at the sound of the ice cold water slowly pouring from the water pitcher and the satisfying screech that bellowed from Willow and Jerome, suddenly finding themselves very wet and angry people.
"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?" Willow screamed, flapping her arms about like a deranged butterfly. Wait, Mara rethought that last statement realising that it was too harsh and insulting to the beautiful creature that is a butterfly, and found that it was more fitting to compare Willow to an ass. And a complete one, at that.
"What the hell is my problem? What the hell is your problem?! Put Jerome down for two minutes to realise that you're making the rest of us want to vomit in your mouths" she mimed gagging, causing a reel of laughter to sound from around the table.
Utterly offended at everyone's reactions and downright embarrassed, she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, attempting to say something back to Patricia but just left her looking like a whimpering goldfish.
Patricia mocked her snivelling puppy dog face, once again enveloping the room in laughter and snickering, before rolling her eyes and continuing her onslaught.
"Please, just leave. You're not even in this house you whiny cow!" Patricia exclaimed, disdainfully, resulting in Willow scraping her chair back from the table and leaving with a very annoyed expression painted on her features.
At the exit of Willow (and Jerome soon after, realising that if he didn't follow his girlfriend he'd probably be in the dog house for the rest of the week) the whole room began to clap and whoop loudly as Patricia stood to take her bow. The cheering never ceased to die down as Mara grinned and laughed along with her friends, even hearing a wolf whistle or two.
"Thanks for that Patricia" she smiled gratefully at the auburn haired girl who'd just returned to her seat. This was one of those rare moments where Mara was in an 'I don't need him when I've got great friends' moods, and it felt wonderful. And it was true, they were all amazing friends to Mara and being so supportive, even if their supportive glances occasionally rubbed Mara the wrong way. Sure, the frequent consoling looks were annoying but at least it showed they care. And frankly, Mara was very happy for that to continue now that she could see to what extent her friends were willing to stand up for her to. An icy, wet, revenge soaking from Patricia was the great push she needed; she was longer willing to hide herself away because of them. Why should she suffer when she'd done no wrong?
"Please, don't thank me. That was as much for the rest of us as it was for you- they were making me feel physically sick" she shuddered, once again emitting a smile from Mara's saddened face.
And this was how the night continued; with smiles, and laughter, and Mara realised that this was one of the best nights she'd spent since before Willow entered their lives and drove a wedge between her and Jerome. But hey, she wasn't bitter, she was surprisingly joyful given the circumstances. But that was mostly due to the fact that she was currently surrounded by people who loved her, and even though it wasn't the type of love she wanted, it was the type of love she needed. However, as nice as that all was, she was almost certain that those happy walls she was building up around her were going to crumble down as soon as she saw Jerome again. But while she was in the company of her friends, nothing could penetrate her mood.
Have you heard of the saying nothing good ever lasts? Well Mara felt that this was highly applicable to what happened after her happy night with her housemates.
She was right to have that tiny seed of doubt in her mind about her good mood, how she couldn't count on it lasting. For after a long night with her friends, she decided to head upstairs for an early night. She'd be lying if she said that her recent sleep deprivation had nothing to do with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend and so, now she felt mildly at peace with the situation highly due to the support of her friends, she thought that she'd try her hand at a peaceful night. It was on her way to her bedroom, that her heart got stuck in her throat and she had to try to swallow it down into her hollow chest again. As she'd made her way towards the stairs, she'd accidentally stumbled across Jerome and Willow 'sucking face' (as Patricia liked to call it) and Mara felt her good mood diminish in mere seconds.