Badass Blonde

Detention

"Now, detentionees, I like my detentions to be productive so do any work you need to do or start your projects. We have one hour."

Riley walked over to the desk Maya was sitting at.

"Fine, Matthews. We can start the project."

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about something else."

"No, I'm not going to talk about my parents or Lucas."

"Fine. Earlier when you got in trouble my dad said you couldn't get into any trouble for reasons you know of. I won't tell anyone but what was he talking about?"

"I have a record. I've done some things."

"Like?"

"Stealing, assault, and vandalism. I went to juvie twice already and I'm on probation for the next 2 months so I can't get into trouble."

"Why'd you do all that stuff? Were you just trying to be cool?"

"I was with a group of kids from my neighborhood, we were just having fun spray painting shit and throwing bricks through windows. But I stole things because I didn't have enough money to buy them."

"What about the assault charge?"

"Someone did something to me. They hurt me and I didn't have anyone to go to. So I lashed out for attention. But it was a long time ago and I don't really wanna talk about it," she said looking down.

"What about your parents, couldn't you have turned to them?"

"No, they couldn't be bothered with me. They're not bad people, they're just bad parents."

"Don't they love you?"

"Sure, whatever you want."

"Maya, I'm coming over to your house."

"No, I told you I can't have you over today."

"I need to go to your house for the project anyway and I realized I can't go any other time this week so I'm coming over today."

Maya realized there was no way out of this so she agreed.

Detention let out and Riley and Maya started walking to Maya's apartment. They reached the door and Maya told Riley to wait there until she told her to come in. Maya walked in. Both her mother and a man were standing there with their arms crossed.

"Hey, Mom," Maya said, ignoring the man next to her mother.

She ignored the man until he stepped up right in front of her. "We got a call from your teacher, Maya," he said.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" the man slapped her hard.

I told her I'm used to it. Maya thought to herself. "I just got into a little fight. Why do you care so much? You've never cared about me this much before."

The man began to yell, "Maya—!"

"Wait," her mom stopped him. "Who's that?"

"This is Riley, we're doing a project for school," Maya said still holding the cheek he had hit.

"Hi," Riley awkwardly waved, she was still in shock.

"Fine, you can do your project but we're talking about this later," her mom told her.

"Whatever. Come on Riley we're going into my room."

Riley walked into the room with Maya following.

"Who was that guy, Maya?"

"My stepdad, John."

"Oh, thought your dad left a long time ago." She said confused.

"He did. Kermit left me when I was in the fifth grade."

Riley hated how Maya spat her father's name, but she didn't know the whole story. 

"My dad leaving became common knowledge throughout the school. Lucas thinks John is my dad because I haven't told him and he was still in Texas when it happened so he never really needed to know."

"Do you still talk to your dad?"

"Not really, but it's better that way. He was never really a dad to me. Hell, John has been a better father figure to me and he's crap so that's saying something."

"Maya, your parents aren't supposed to hit you. No one is supposed to hit you for that matter."

"It's ok, Riley. I deserve everything I get from my parents and Lucas. Now can we please do this project?"

"Ok, but know you always have me."

Riley spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know Maya until it was time to go home.

"Tomorrow after school at my place," Riley said.

"Ok see you then."

Riley went to leave but Maya's door was locked.

"Maya, your door won't open."

Shit. They locked me in. "Yeah it gets stuck sometimes," she lied. "You'll just have to go down the fire escape."

"Ok bye."

15 minutes later Lucas knocked on her window with a six-pack of beer and a couple joints in his hands. They sat on the fire escape and drank and smoked.

"So what did your parents do?"

"Not much. I thought they were going to beat me because he slapped me, but Riley was over so they said they'd deal with it later. They ended up just locking my door."

After a long pause, Maya broke the silence. "I have to tell you something, Lucas."

"Ok, what?"

"John isn't my dad. He's my stepdad. My father left a couple years ago before you came to New York."

*Trigger Warning* Rape

That was the last thing Lucas properly processed. Because of the drugs and alcohol, the only thing he could focus on was how vulnerable Maya was and how hot she was. Lucas started kissing her and touching her. Maya was quietly protesting but realized it was useless after all her clothes were off. 

The whole time, Maya stared off into space, unresponsive. Lucas finished and left.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of Maya's troubles that night. Her stepdad came in later that night and started beating her for getting into trouble at school. Once he felt like he'd punished enough, he left. Maya washed the blood away and went to bed like nothing happened. 

The next day, she blocked out everything that had happened the night before and went to school like normal. She greeted Lucas with a kiss and ignored her growing feelings for Riley. She pushed people that were in her way into lockers like usual. She seemed perfectly fine and rebellious to everyone. 

Everyone except Riley who, despite just meeting her, could tell something was very wrong. Riley knew she had to find out what was wrong and made a plan to get Maya to tell her at Riley's house that afternoon. But until then, Maya would be wearing a disguise, acting like a badass, instead of the girl who was in desperate need of help.

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