Cloud 69

59:

april 25, 2022:

Madeline walked into the classroom just as the last bell finished ringing. She quickly scanned over the room, a pang of disappointment seeping through her otherwise indifferent expression when the person she most-anticipated seeing was nowhere to be found. 

The teacher eyed her over quickly, before turning to address the rest of the class. "Good morning, everyone. I assume you all had a nice spring break."

Madeline made her way over to the empty desk between Dylan and Jason, dropping her bag on the ground with a loud thud as she slid into the seat. Both of them were all tan from their vacations, and in much better moods than Maddie. 

"You look like shit," Jason whispered to her. 

"Great to see you, too," she muttered grumpily, running a hand through her hair. "That's just the thing I wanted to hear today." 

Although she would rather die than admit it, she had actually tried a fair amount to look presentable today. She hadn't really seen Carson since their breakup, and had heard nothing of or from him during spring break, other than the occasional text in the group chat. The week-long break had given Madeline the perfect opportunity to sulk in her misery, spending most of her days in bed with the curtains drawn, and her nights getting high and eating her feelings or drinking to forget them. 

After her encounter with Grey last night, Maddie had felt something close to peace for the first time since the break up. Her and Carson were fully over, and she was ready to come to terms with her decision. Madeline knew that, inevitably, she would have to see Carson at school, whether it was today or sometime this week, so she decided to use whatever energy she could manage into making herself appear the part– she would look happy and put together and not at all still heartbroken or remorseful over their break up. That was the goal, at least– there's only so much makeup and a nice outfit can do. Leave it to Jason to inform her of how miserably she failed to even appear okay with how things ended. 

Dylan sent a glare in Jason's direction, quickly deciding it was better to change the topic than to try and correct Jason. "Luna texted in the group chat earlier this morning, I don't know if you've seen it," He informed Maddie, who he was only half-sure was listening. "Her second flight got delayed, so she won't get home until tomorrow morning."

Maddie closed her eyes, "That's great," she responded quietly. "Just great." In what had been a pretty rough spring break for Madeline, Luna being somewhere with very little service for all of it had been the icing on the cake. Although Maddie had never really valued Luna all that much for her advice – especially regarding relationships – Luna was still her best friend. And when you're broken-hearted and lonely, the only person's presence that can help is a best friend's. 

At the front of the room, the teacher continued droning on about school updates and important reminders for the last couple months of school. Most of it was boring and stupid, like the water fountain that no one had touched in a decade being down for refurbishment, and Maddie managed to tune most of it out. Her ears caught words like 'prom' and 'senior class trip.'

She was certain that Jason had started talking again, but now her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of prom. She forgot about that stupid thing. She had never really been all that interested in going to the dance, but now that it was mentioned, it seemed like a big deal. Who was she supposed to take? Would Carson ask her even though they were over? Would Carson want to ask her? Did she want him to ask her? Would it be better if he didn't?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the classroom door swinging open. Everyone's heads turned in the direction of the door as Carson walked through, looking equally bad, if not worse, than Madeline.