CHAPTER 23

Affairs

"Have you seen Scott?" Stiles ran up to Mars in the hallway, clapping a hand down on her shoulders to stop himself from falling.

"Not since this morning." She continued on without so much as looking back at him.

"Have you tried calling him?" Stiles questioned, sounding annoyed.

"It's second period? Why? Is he not here?" She didn't seem to care all that much.

"Well he wasn't in class." Stiles informed her, over-expressing with his entire body as he so frequently did.

"He wasn't?"

"No." She seemed to be walking faster, Stiles struggled to keep up. "Wh- where are you going?"

"Home?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't feel like going to mom's class?"

"Yeah, but it's your mom's class. She'll know you're not sick."

With a condescending expression, Mars stopped, turned around and faced Stiles. "And since when have I given a fuck what she does or thinks?"

"Never I guess…" He drifted. Scott was MIA and Mars was being a bitch. Perfect. "But come on. Don't leave me alone in there, I'm going to die without you, it's math. Your mom's math!" He tried. Mary was a notoriously tough teacher, to everyone.

"Skip with me, we can go catch a movie, get some food."

"I can't, conferences are tonight." He reminded her. "Stop giving me that look."

"What look?"

"That look! The one that's all 'yeah? and?'. It literally makes me so angry." He threw his arms out towards her shoulders, but refrained from grabbing them by scrunching his hands into fists on either side of her head. "Use your words every once and a while, would you?" The bell began to rang. "Let's just go to class." Mars walked towards the front door. "I'm not following you!" Stiles shouted after her.

"I'm not that easy!" He waited for her to turn around and make a comment at the least. "God damnit." He tapped his foot against the ground before chasing after her. "One more class, then we go." He tried, she continued on. "Fine, go without me." He continued shouting after her, waiting a second once she was through the doors before heading to class.

It took about an hour for Mars to walk home and get in the door. She went through the kitchen and dropped her bag on the bed before pulling The Bell Jar out from the box under her bed. Some faint footsteps could be heard outside her room, but she assumed it was Teta.

At the halfway point of the novel, she became quite hungry. She made her way to the kitchen.

Mars lost her appetite the second her bare feet hit the kitchen tile.

She let it go on for a second before she said anything, it took a moment to comprehend.

"Da?" Mars pulled Sayid's attention away from the blonde he was deep inside of. Her heart dropped. Well, maybe not her heart. Her stomach did. Her heart? It didn't break, Mars would never let it.

All the cracks her father, and all the other men in her life had put in the muscles surface were now gone. Instead of breaking, it blackened, it callused.

Mars' heart and hopes would never hurt her again.

"Mars- Mars, I can explain." Sayid tried as he pulled his pants up. His daughter backed away from him. Mars may have hated her mother, but did her dad hate Mary too? Were things between them really so bad? But more importantly, why did he have to do this in her family's home?!

She wanted to scream, she wanted to hit something. Anything. "Don't bother, Sayid." Mars spat. She'd never called him by his first name, not once. A surge of energy coursed through her when the two syllables passed through her lips. She half expected him to slap her, she almost wanted him to.

"I am your father, you will speak to me with respect." He knew he'd slipped as soon as he said it, just made his situation worse. He was in a state of panic, Ahmir had known for weeks, but Mars? He couldn't bribe her to keep her mouth shut like he could with his son. This was the end of the line. In his head, he already started making plans.

"How can I when you just lost any respect you ever had?" Mars' demeanor was hard, cold- even for her.

Sayid was surprised she spoke at all, also a little horrified.

It was terrible, that he would wish her silent. That he would wish his own flesh and blood couldn't speak even after he'd seen the silent struggle of her youth. Yet, something in him was willing her to go back to speaking Martian, that strange gibberish tongue no one but the Stilinski kid ever understood.

"Don't fucking speak to me again, got it?" She threatened. Her dad looked back at his mistress, then back at Mars.

"Understood" he agreed. Mars nearly spat in his face. Was he fucking serious right now? What was so fucking great about blondie's cunt that he would pick her over his own family?

"I'm going now. You can figure out what to say to mom" Mars went into her bedroom and packed a bag. Enough for a week, the pre-packed wouldn't be enough. She knew Stiles wouldn't mind her staying with him, they spent nearly every night together anyway. He would be out of school soon, by the time she walked there he should be home. Right? It didn't matter. She had a key.

The fact she was breaking her promise to Ahmir weighed heavy on her heart. It hadn't been more than a week since she promised not to leave. She couldn't stand to be in that house for a second longer. Not even for Ahmir. She slammed the front door and a photo fell from the wall inside.

The Stilinski driveway was vacant. Mars let herself in, going right for the medicine cabinet. She didn't know what it was she needed, but she needed something. Anything. She needed the tremor in her hands to cease.

There was some Vicodin, and that seemed to be the only thing worth grabbing among all the Advil and non-drowsy Tylenol.

What do I want for lunch? Sheriff asked himself while walking through his front door. Most days he stayed at the station for lunch, but to be honest, he needed to get out for an hour.

He grabbed a leftover sandwich and unwrapped it. The sub was a little soggy, but still edible for the most part.

It was then the smell hit him. It was faint, just enough to notice, and he hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. He went upstairs, Stiles didn't smoke pot? At least, he didn't think he did. In fact, this was a conversation he hadn't quite prepared himself to have.

When he opened the unlocked door, smoke wafted out and around him. Mars was laying on her back in silence, staring vacantly at the ceiling, the bowl in one hand and lighter in the other. One of his old prescription bottles was open and spilling out on the bed beside her; He didn't want to know how many she took.

Mars had heard him come in, but she didn't acknowledge him at all. Just lit up again. Inhaled again. "Fuck, kid." Sheriff breathed in the hot boxed air and approached her, cleaning up the pills in silence with no clue what to say. This was a new level of bold, even for her. She had to know she would get caught, there was no way she didn't want to get caught when she did this. He took the lighter and the bowl right out of her hands.

"Give it back." Mars squeaked holding out her hand, he looked at her completely and utterly astonished. "Give it back." Her voice cracked at the end. "This is the only way I can get away from- the only way I can handle… Don't take it from me." He didn't give anything back.

Most days, all Sheriff could see was the three-year-old version of Mars. The version of her with the bright smile and untouched by life.

Today was different. Today he saw the shell the world saw. A girl who was battered, broken, desperate. He wondered what happened, how he could make this girl happy again.

So, he made the decision to be a father before a Sheriff yet again. A decision that he was bound to keep making, and a decision that would inevitably cost him dearly. "I walked in on Dad fucking some nurse bitch." Mars spat and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Just- just why?" Her voice cracked yet again. Sheriff sat beside her and pulled her into a tight hug, trying to form words. But what could possibly be said?

"Mom hates me, I'm an afterthought to my dad, a burden he doesn't want to bear." She pulled a cigarette from her pack on the nightstand and tried to light it, but Sheriff took that from her, too. It seemed like she didn't notice. "I just want to know what I did, I don't understand. Maybe if I just- If someone could just tell me where I fucked it all up I can fix it. I know I can change. If I could fix things I could change."

"Kid, look at me." Sheriff lifted her chin, so she was forced to do so. "Nothing your parents do is your fault. Your dad cheating? Nothing to do with you." Mar was disbelieving. "I love you the way you are, Stiles loves you, and Aje. You don't need to change." He looked at the drugs in his hands.

"Okay, maybe we could try to get a handle on this whole thing. But I can help you. You just have to promise you'll try." Mars nodded, knowing good and well she would fail- but very aware that if she agreed he wouldn't bring her into the station.

"I promise." She clung tight to him. "I promise, I promise."

"Good." He let her go, relieved that she would try. There were only so many strings he could pull before someone saw there was someone behind the curtain. Specifically, Deputy Marks, who'd taken an interest in why she was getting away with so much. "You know you have to go to the conferences tonight, right?" He reminded her. She sighed deeply.

"Yeah, I guess."

And she did go. For a little anyways.