An Unexpected Twist

The Breaking Point

Soul walks into his 1st period class Monday morning, yawning. He had a rough night, having only been able to get two hours of sleep. He slumps down into his seat, hardly able to keep his eyes open. Stein makes no comment to his being late. He was too focused on the animal he was dissecting. Soul ends up falling asleep in the middle of class. He's woken by a sharp prick in his lower back. He opens his eyes and glares up at whoever just woke him up. Black*Star grins at him.

"Get up Soul. Class is over."

Soul grumbles, but gets up. He and Black*Star leave the room. On the way to their next classes, they pass Maka. Soul says hello to her. She returns his greeting with a glare and walks over, her pace a little faster than before. Black*Star snickers while Soul watches her go, confused. Why was Maka upset? Had he done something wrong?

"Man, looks like someone's mad at you bro."

Soul ignores Black*Star and shakes his head. He'll have to talk to Maka later. He and Black*Star split as they head to their separate classes.

•••••••••••

Maka sighs as she sits down, taking a few deep breaths afterwards. She couldn't explain why she had felt so angry when she saw Soul. Maybe it was what happened the other night, but she wasn't sure. She had convinced herself that Soul was drunk at the time and had no idea who he was talking to. That had to be it. There was no other rational explanation. Well, there was, but Maka refused to believe it. It hurt too much. Much more than she would like to admit. She sighs once again and shakes her head, clearing the thought. Right now she had to focus on school, not Soul.

•••••••••••

The phone ringing broke the silence in the house. It rings, 3, 4 times, before the machine picks up.

"Wes, I need to talk to you. Call me back."

The machine beeps. Soul heaves a heavy sigh. That was the 5th time today. Once more he considered getting up and telling Arachne to stop calling, tell her that Wes wasn't home even though he was sitting in the next room. And once again Soul didn't move a muscle. Today was the first time he'd seen Wes since what he did. It'd taken everything in him not to beat the hell out of him like he had Arachne. And he knew that if he got up to tell Arachne off, he'd end up taking his anger out on Wes. He didn't need to be grounded while he was sick.

The phone rings once again, irritating Soul even more.

"Holy fuck Wes! Answer the god damn phone already!"

Soul hears a sigh and a few moments later the phone stops ringing. Wes's voice is quiet as he speaks, but it still manages to piss Soul off. He puts his headphones in, turning his music up as loud as he could handle and drifts off into a dreamless sleep.

•••••••••••

Black*Star taps his foot impatiently. Where was this geek? He didn't have all day. If this guy didn't hurry up, then the whole plan would be ruined.

"Sorry Black*Star, my teacher decided to strike up a conversation just before the bell rang."

Black*Star turns as Ox comes around the corner.

"Yeah, whatever. Do you have the flash drive or not?"

Ox nods and hands it over to Black*Star. Black*Star takes it and stuffs it in his pocket.

"You remember the deal right?"

"Yeah I remember. Don't worry. I'm a man of my word."

Black*Star hurries off before Ox could reply, grinning to himself. 'Just you wait Soul', he thought.

•••••••••••

"Hey Maka!"

Maka jumps as Black*Star comes up to her. He smirks and she glares at him.

"What do you want Black*Star?"

He leans against the lockers as Maka shuts her own. She hoped he'd make it fast. The school day was over and she just wanted to go home.

"Nothing much. I just wanted to say hi."

She glares at him once more. Just what the hell was up with this guy? She couldn't figure out why Black*Star was trying to be nice to her. Being nice isn't exactly something people like Black*Star know how to do. Well... most of them don't at least.

"Well you said hello. And now I'm saying goodbye."

Black*Star grabs her arm as she passes, stopping her.

"Whoa, wait. There actually was something else."

Maka turns, looking at him. She folds her arms against her chest.

"Well?"

"Well, it's about Soul."

"What about Soul?"

Black*Star pulls something out of his pocket and hands it to her. It's a flash drive. She gives him a questioning look.

"What...?"

"Just look at it when you go home."

Black*Star walks away. Maka looks back down at the flash drive. For a brief moment she considers chucking at Black*Star's back. Whatever was on it, she didn't want to see it. But she puts it in her bag none the less and heads home.

•••••••••••

Soul wished Maka would text him. He wanted nothing more than to talk to her. He sighs and rolls over to his stomach, stretching out. He's slowly been feeling worse since he ate earlier in the day. He hoped it would pass quickly. He didn't want to miss school tomorrow. He w-. Soul stops short. He wanted to go to school? What? Soul shakes his head, regretting it when the world starts to spin. It must be the fever talking. Never in a million years did he want to go school. Hell, he enjoyed every chance he got to NOT go to school. Soul sighs and lays his head down, groaning slightly. Where was his mind today?

•••••••••••

Maka leans back as she finishes her last piece of homework. She holds it up and looks at it for a few minutes, proof reading it, making sure she hadn't made a mistake somewhere. She smiles, satisfied. She puts it away and gets up, stretching. It was already 8 o'clock. She sighs and lays down on her bed. She looks at the few texts Soul had sent her throughout the day, but she still had yet to respond. She didn't know what to say to him. And looking at those texts brought up her encounter with Black*Star earlier in the day. She looks over at the flash drive sitting next to her laptop. As much as she didn't want to be, she was curious as to what was on it. It couldn't hurt to have just a quick peek. Right?

Maka sighs and gets up and goes over to the computer. She turns it on and once the desktop has loaded, she puts the flash drive in. The files pop up and Maka hovers the mouse over the first one. She wondered if it was right to do it. Black*Star had said it was about Soul. What if it was very sensitive personal information? Soul would probably be mad at her. But her curiosity won out and she clicked on the file. Her media player pops up and the sound file begins to play. Maka listens and the longer it plays, the paler she gets. When it stops, she's in complete shock. She shuts the laptop, her body numb. 'How...? Why....?' The questioning words continued to play in her head as she slowly turns off the light and lays in bed. A darkness settles in her chest, one similar to what she felt when her mother died. 'How could he lie to me like this?'