treacherous • alan bosley

tensions run high

maisie sat with petey and blue in their history class, attempting to work on the questions that had been posted to the board. her and alan had their fun the other night, but all that amounted to a very sleepy young writer. she just couldn't stop thinking about the events of friday night. nothing explicitly romantic had transpired, but it was almost like she could feel it in her bones. there was something there and she couldn't wait to figure out what it was. it had been keeping her up for the past three nights.

"how was y'all's friday night?" she asked curtly, looking over at her friends, "y'all paint the town red?"

petey rolled his eyes, unable to hide his annoyance. though he had mostly gotten over the events of the earlier night, it still made him angry to think about it.

"man, i don't even wanna talk about it," he replied with contempt, "damn californians don't know nothin'."

maisie knit her brows, wondering just what that meant. she hadn't heard of anything going awry, but truthfully she'd been so wrapped up in her own night that she hadn't really asked.

"what do you mean?" the girl questioned, setting her pencil down to give the boys her full attention. whatever had happened she knew it was something she wanted to hear.

blue sighed, looking somewhat exhausted as he answered. truthfully it was embarrassing to talk about it and both boys just wished it had never happened, "he just don't get it, ya know? he tried to take us into a diner and... we got kicked out. just like we told him we would, but he don't listen."

maisie frowned, reaching out and putting an arm on blue's shoulder. even though the school had integrated, it hadn't exactly been the push the town was waiting for to get the ball rolling. despite the fact that the titan's had pulled off a closeness no one could have imagined, there were still places they couldn't be found.

"i'm really sorry, guys," maisie told the pair, "that sucks."

they nodded in agreement. the guys appreciated the girl's words, but knew they didn't exactly curb the lingering sting of humiliation they were still feeling. it was nice of maisie to try to sympathize, but everyone knew it was something she could never truly understand.

"i mean, he said sorry and everything," petey shrugged, trying to find it in his heart to let the situation go, "i know he didn't mean for it to happen, but... i don't know."

maisie nodded, understanding feelings of mixed emotions like no other. it was true that she would never be able to understand how it felt to be them, but she knew what it was like to be conflicted.

"ah well, maybe if you had been there," blue teased, giving the girl a knowing glance, "a little too busy with bosley, huh?"

the girl rolled her eyes, trying to hide the smile that came with the mention of his name. her night had been absolutely astonishing, but she felt bad discussing it now.

petey grinned, giving the girl a little push, "oh, yeah? how was it, pulitzer?"

maisie stared at the boys for a few seconds, wondering if they truly expected her to answer. they looked back at her, their eyes getting wider every second that she stayed silent.

"i'm not talking about that with you guys," she scoffed, shaking her head at them, "what are you? gossips?"

petey threw his hands up in annoyance. sure, he had a pretty terrible night, but that didn't mean he didn't want to hear about alan's dream coming true.

"no," petey argued with a roll of his eyes, "scuse us for takin' an interest. bet you'll tell all your little girlfriend's though, huh?"

maisie nodded, knowing that she probably would. at least, she would tell amanda. after all, that was her best friend and confidant. she knew none of it would get back to alan, and she'd been dying to talk about it.