fixing a broken smile

chapter 4

maddie was walking down the halls of her school come the next week. She was guarded as she held her books to her chest tightly. She didn't mean to be, but she didn't want to be touched by anyone, even if it was only on accident as they walked by her. The new set of bruises on her body were causing her enough pain. She still couldn't believe that she had stayed that long in the grave yard with Isaac. She hadn't expected to find her dad already home and waiting for her when they left. She knew that she should have been more worried about the punishment being over, but she couldn't help but worry about Isaac too. She just hoped that he didn't get in trouble too.

Their dads, no actual surprise when knowing them, were actually long time friends. She actually had a lot of fun with Isaac with helping him in the graveyard too, more fun then she would have thought she'd have. She didn't know if she had ever had so much fun before. He had made her forget that she had to be home, that Stiles had ditched her at the party that she didn't already want to go. She had fun, actual fun, until she got home. She winced as she was bumped into someone, though, no one noticed. No one ever noticed, at least, not that she noticed them doing it. She flinched when an arm dropped around her shoulders. "So, on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you at me?" the voice that the arm belonged to asked her.

She looked up to see that it was just Stiles. She knew that she should have been really mad at him, but what was the point? She ended up having a good time once she left the party, even if her dad did end the night off badly. "A five, but it would have been higher if I hadn't had a good time when I . . . um, never mind." she trailed off, realizing that she was going to tell Stiles about Isaac, something that she didn't want to do. Stiles had a big mouth, telling him about Isaac was the last thing that she had wanted to do. She knew Stiles, though, she knew for a fact that he wouldn't just leave it at that.

Stiles was never the one to just let things be done and over with when the other person wanted them to be left alone. It wasn't that bad, most of the time, but then again? He had never done it to her before. "Oh, do I detect a super secret boyfriend? Has hell truly finally frozen over for you? Do you want me to, dare I say it, believe that you, Madeline Carson, the girl who has never once admitted to having a crush before, go on a date last night?" he teased her as they stopped at his locker. She kept herself from leaning against the one beside his, trying to remember that she had a fresh bruise on her shoulder. She didn't want to risk wincing on accident and drawing even more of his attention to her.

She rolled her eyes at him. She was about to tell him to leave it alone, but she was tackled from behind. She screamed out on accident as an arm slipped around her waist and picked her up off of the ground from behind. Her books instantly fell from her hands as her nails immediately dug into the person's arm out of fear. "Thank god, Mads!" a voice said out from behind her. "And ow!" he shouted out in pain as he dropped her back down onto the floor and held his injured arm to him. She was breathing hard, her heart racing, as she spun around to the person, only to find that it was Scott. She didn't hesitate to swat his arm as hard as she manage to. "Again, ow, Mads!" he whined as he now rubbed his soar arm from her swat. He hadn't meant to scare her . . . much. He was just relieved to see her still alive.

She didn't seem to be as happy to see him as he would have thought, though. She looked to be crossed between being upset with him or relieved that he had come when he had. "How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me, Scott?!" she snapped at him angrily. The boys shared a look quickly, neither having ever seen her so upset with them, let alone anyone else, before. She noticed their expression and felt herself panic. "Sorry, I just . . . I just don't like being sneaked up on." she told them nervously as she hurried to pick up her dropped books.

Before either of them could apologize to her, she was already off and running down the hall, not wanting to embarrass herself any longer. She glanced back to see if they were following and found that they weren't. She must have been looking behind her too long, because she found herself slamming into someone. She yelped from the contact as she fell back and hit the floor, dropping her books once again. She knew by the pain shooting up her back that she was going to have a new bruise by the end of the school day. She rubbed her soar side and looked up to see who she had run into. Her eyes widened as her lips parted slightly when she saw that it was Isaac. She stammered for some kind of words as she scrambled to pick up their dropped things.