When in Barcelona [Ben Barnes]

· nine ·

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It was late at night as Laura leisured on the couch and watched TV. She was already half asleep after a long day of doing small errands around the city and buying groceries. Maeve left in the morning for classes and told her she will be late tonight again. It has been like that for over a week now. She left the apartment early in the morning and came back in the middle of the night without so much as a word where she had been this whole time. Laura didn't want to be a smartass but she had a pretty good idea where Maeve could be and she didn't like it. Her head jerked up when she heard the keys rattling just outside the door of the apartment.

''Ah, shit!'' Undoubtedly Maeve cursed as her keys fell to the floor. After she picked them up and put them into the lock she entered the flat and stopped short in the hallway. ''You're not asleep yet?'' Her voice sounded surprised.

Laura straightened and sat up on the couch, shutting the TV off. ''Where have you been?'' She crossed her arms. For nights on end, Laura was worrying and today was the day she decided she would finally confront Maeve about everything. She stopped beating around the bush.

''Out,'' Maeve answered vaguely as she locked the door behind her.

She sniffed and wiped under her nose before she trudged deeper into the apartment. She passed the couch on the way to her room and deliberately looked away from Laura.

''Out where?''

''With friends!'' Maeve shouted from her room.

Laura grumbled and stood up, walking to the doorway to Maeve's room. ''That wasn't my question.'' She crossed her arms and leaned on the slats. ''Where were you?''

''Are you my mum? What's with all the questioning?'' Maeve became frustrated as she threw her bag on the bed.

"I wouldn't be asking if you weren't so distant ever since we came home from Spain, which is now forever ago," Laura said matter-of-factly.

"I'm sorry I have university!" Maeve's voice was not apologetic at all. She walked around the room, eyes searching everywhere and avoiding Laura's eye contact.

"You have classes throughout the day. I asked you a simple question where you were in the evening because I'm done staying up late worrying if you'll even come home in the late hours." Laura stressed.

Maeve groaned out loud and finally stopped moving around the room. "No one asked you to stay up late! You could go to sleep and forget about me. I don't even know why I agreed for you to come here." Then she moved on to the drawers and started rummaging through them.

Laura raised a curious brow, wondering what in the world is she searching for. "There's no need to get so worked up about this, Mae. It's okay if you say you were at a house party or something, I can't exactly ground you for anything."