Maya awoke with a throbbing headache and this time it wasn't a hangover. She turned her cell phone back on to find that she had no missed calls; meaning Nathaniel hadn't tried to reach her after she hung up on him. She clenched her jaw, taking her time to wash up and change her clothes. She ate slowly.
"You're going to be late," Castiel said, sneering playfully from across the table.
She just rolled her eyes. "You're a real jerk, you know that?" she said, "I thought you said you wouldn't be drinking anymore, let alone throwing wild parties in this apartment that has people living in the apartments on either side, above, and below it."
He scowled, looking away as he threw together a lazy breakfast of cereal and toast.
"Don't lecture me," he muttered, "I know it wasn't something I should have done, but Orihime offered me a drink yesterday."
"Yes," Maya said, "One. Not twenty."
"I didn't have twenty," he said, grimacing, "I barely even drank anything."
"Well, you were drunk enough to pull me on to your lap and ask me to sleep with you," she said, "You were drunk enough to spill your drink on me when I slapped you for it. See yesterday wasn't exactly a good day for me and you weren't making it any better by hitting on me."
At the angle he was from her, she could see the scars on his cheek from her nails. It was hidden by his hair, but she knew they were there.
"That doesn't mean anything," he muttered, "I don't want you like that. Plus even if I did, I would never take Nathaniel's leftovers. That's just disgusting."
Maya rolled her eyes again. "I'm trying to eat," she said, "Let's not talk about Nathaniel."
"Why?" Castiel said, bringing his breakfast to the table, sitting across from her, "Did mister president do something wrong again?"
"He did everything wrong!" she said, "He doesn't even trust me anymore. When I told him I wasn't drinking, he didn't believe me."
"So he's not as perfect as you thought, right?" he muttered, "I knew he wasn't. You should trust my judgment."
Maya laughed sarcastically. "I never thought he was perfect," she mumbled, "I thought he was the one. They're two different things."
"Whatever," he muttered, "You're probably going to end up getting back together with him today or tomorrow anyways."
"We'll see," she sighed, "It really just depends on how he acts today."
"He's like a fourteen-year-old girl," Castiel muttered, "Always too sensitive."
"Don't talk about him like that," she said quickly. He rolled his eyes.
"Whatever," he said, getting to his feet, "Are you done yet? Because I'm leaving."
"Yeah," she said, putting her plate in the dishes, "Let's go."
Maya gazed at Nathaniel, writing something at a desk. Why was he always working? He never just let loose and had some fun. Sighing, she opened the student council room door slowly.
"I'm busy," he said bluntly.
"I don't care," Maya said, pulling the desk away from him and pushing everything off of it. She sat down on top of it and he gazed at his papers on the floor, a frustrated look on his face.
"You're going to pick those up," he said, his voice showing no emotion.
"Stop thinking about working and homework and money and school and class for five seconds of your life and listen to me," she said, "I wasn't lying to you yesterday."
"Yeah?" he said, "So how was it? Did your friend, Santa Clause, join you? Did you make a snowman come to life? How many spells did you cast?"
"Just shut up," she snapped, "What happened to yesterday? You were holding my hand, you kissed me more than once, and you joked around with me a lot; why did all of that suddenly disappear when you heard the word 'party'?"
"Parties like that are pointless," he said, "Just thinking about going to one makes me lose IQ points. And you broke your promise for a second time last night. How do I know that you weren't lying and actually did cheat on me?"
"I did not break my promise," she said, "I came home and the party was just going on. It's not like I planned it. I didn't even know about it."
"You know what else is pointless?" he said, "This argument. You can't prove to me that you're telling me the truth, especially since people saw you there. Why don't you just go home and drink some more with your little drunken friends? I don't care anymore."
Clenching her hands into fists, Maya scowled. "That's not funny," she said, "If you think this argument is pointless then clearly you're not willing to work this whole mess out. How can we build this relationship if there's no trust in it?"
"You're right; I don't want to work this out," he said, "I'm tired of all this arguing we do and I'm tired of not trusting you."
"What are you saying?" Maya said, jumping to her feet, "Are you saying you want to break up?"
"Yes," he said, "You're just one girl. You're not worth all of the tension and drama and worry."
Maya felt tears well in her eyes. Tears? Over a boy? She rubbed her eyes with her palms. Crying over a boy was intolerable; she knew that but she couldn't help it.
"But," she said, her voice coming out like a little girl as tears spilled out of her eyes uncontrollably, "what about our future? We're supposed to get jobs and find a place to live! We're supposed to get married and have children! You promised me."
"Well now you know what a broken promise feels like," he said insensitively.
A few quiet sobs escaped Maya's throat before she stomped towards him, pushing him roughly and slapping him in the face. "Okay, then fine," she said, her voice cracking due to her heavy crying, "We're officially broken up! You can go find someone else who's actually willing to deal with your mood swings and your moron of a sister! Good luck with that!" He glared at her and she left in a rage. She pushed past everybody, unable to stop the tears from spilling out of her eyes. Celeste, who was speaking to Castiel outside, grabbed her arm.
"What happened?" she asked. Although her voice was gentle and it was clear she cared, Maya was too upset to consider how she would feel if she jerked away from her.
"It's none of your damn business!" Maya exclaimed before running all the way back to Castiel's apartment. She curled up on her bed, burying her face in her arms. About ten minutes later, her door opened.
"What's your problem?" Castiel's voice was recognizable, "Just because mister president isn't the 'one' or whatever corny thing you called him this morning, that doesn't mean you should take it out on Celeste."
"Just leave me alone," she said, sobbing into her pillow.
"What did he do now?" he said.
"Nothing," she said, "Just nothing."
She heard him sigh and expected that he left but she felt her bed move; he was sitting next to her.
"That's not a very nice way to talk to the person letting you live with them," he said. She lifted her gaze. He was smirking at her. Was this a joke to him?
"It's not funny," she said, wiping her eyes.
His smile faded and he rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he muttered, "If you're not going to tell me, then, I'm gonna go walk Demon."
"Wait," she said slowly, "It was pretty simple… he broke up with me so I went off on him and left."
"Okay," he said, "I don't see why you're crying so hard then."
"The things he said," she said before a few sobs forced their way up, "I would've done anything for him… and the truth is I didn't mean half of the things I said."
"I told you in the beginning that he's not worth it," he said, "None of this stuff would've happened if you listened to me."
She rolled her eyes. "Do you know how in love with him I am?" she said, "Just saying something like that would never have gotten me away from him."
"Whatever," he said, sitting up on the edge of her bed, "I'm leaving now."
"Wait," she said quickly, throwing her arms around his waist from behind, pressing her face against his back. "Wait… don't go. Stay right here."
"Are you on drugs?" he said, "I'm going to walk a dog. It's not like I'm leaving the country."
"I don't care," she said, stifling a sob, "I don't want to be alone."
He didn't say anything. She felt light and dazed; almost like the time when she watched Nathaniel walk away from her.
After a few silent moments, she murmured, "Hey, Castiel?"
"Yeah?"
"Help me forget about Nathaniel," she murmured, sitting up against his back but keeping her arms wrapped around him. Once her lips were nearly brushing Castiel's ear, she said softly, "Help me erase his memory."
Without even a glance back, he said, "Are you asking me to sleep with you?"
"I need the thought of him out of my head," she murmured.
"No," he said, pulling away from her and getting to his feet, "I told you, I'm not into you like that."
"Please!" she said desperately, taking his hand, "Help me forget. I need to forget!"
"No," he said again, "You'll probably get back together with Nathaniel soon anyways."
"Castiel, I need you," she said, squeezing his hand, "I know you've already done so much for me already but just this once… Why do you act differently when you're drunk towards me if you don't really want to? They say that when you're drunk you say what you're really feeling."
He grimaced and pushed her back against the bed by her shoulders. "If I do it, will you promise to never mention that to anybody ever?"
"Yes! I promise!"
Without any consideration for Orihime or Nathaniel, Maya was only focused on enjoying this.
A week passed by like a snap of Maya's fingers. She knew she could never forget about Nathaniel, no matter what she did with any other guys or how many times she tried to forget. She'd only done anything else with Castiel, and it was only that night. She wasn't sure what she regretted more, convincing him to sleep with her or the fact that she did something Nathaniel could never find out about, even if they didn't get back together.
It was a school day morning. Maya rolled out of bed, lacking the energy to be up so early. She robed herself in a random pair of jeans and a band t-shirt. She ran a comb through her hair a few times before washing up. She had breakfast just in time to see Castiel just waking. She teased him for a while before leaving for school.
She felt as if she was separate; like everybody else was there but past a glass wall that Maya couldn't seem to push past. She definitely had a handful of friends that she absolutely needed, like Castiel and Celeste and Orihime and she'd even grown closer to Lysander. But it felt as if everybody else was pushing her closer and closer to her limit. Once she reached it, she wasn't sure where she would end up. She was sick of family, and bullies, and people who ignored her, and to top all of that she couldn't even manage to keep a boyfriend, no matter how in love she felt. Feeling in a daze, she walked as slow as possible towards her class. People were still mingling outside so it was clear that the bell wasn't going to ring any time soon. She may as well have waited for Castiel.
Maya gazed at the floor, not realizing where she was going until she bumped into someone. She lifted her gaze and gave an exasperated groan.
"Watch where you're going," Amber said, sneering at her.
"I'm not in the mood for you, Amber," Maya muttered, "Remember what happened last time I wasn't in the mood for you and you provoked me? You didn't go to school for a week, and for another two weeks you piled on makeup to hide the black eye."
Amber looked infuriated for a moment before falling back into her normal composure. She smirked a bit. "So, I heard that you and Nathaniel broke up," she said, "Looks like you won't be special treatment any time soon."
Maya rolled her eyes. "You don't know anything," she said, "Get to class, little girl. Nathaniel and I breaking up only makes me want to hit you even more."
"Go ahead," she said, "I'm sure he'll side with me this time and won't sugarcoat it to the principle."
Maya clenched her hand into a fist. "Oh," she growled, "If only we weren't in school right now, I would destroy you."
"Destroy me?" Amber laughed, "If we weren't in school, I would actually fight back! The only reason I didn't is so that Nathaniel would hate you even more."
Maya swallowed hard, looking away. She was right; Nathaniel had connections to the higher ups in school and if the principle asked him why Amber was bloody and bruised, this time around he wouldn't stick up for her. "Why are you so heartless?" she said quietly.
Amber laughed. "Isn't it obvious?" she said, "I don't like you."
Maya rolled her eyes again, pushing past Amber and bumping her shoulder roughly as she did so. She walked straight towards her class and slunk into a seat in the back. She just didn't have the energy today. Her classmate gradually began filling all of the empty seats. Orihime sat beside Maya but didn't say much.
"Alright, class," the teacher began, "Let's go back to where we left off yesterday…"
He was cut off by the door opening. Maya rolled her eyes when he entered. Of course he radiated a golden glow like usual and was completely confident as he mumbled something to the teacher.
"Well, my students," the teacher said, a bored expression on his face, "Looks like the student body president has an announcement to make."