Maddie had managed to succesfully avoid Simon, Kate, Deena, pretty much everyone she used to be friends with. Her locker was in a different hallway than everyone else's, and she had no reason to be on the west side of the school on a Friday morning. No reason... other than Heather.

The Shadyside Mall was still a crime scene, so she couldn't go to the florist she used to work at, but they sold flowers at the grocery store, so Maddie stopped by the Grab & Bag before school to find something nice. She hadn't known Heather too well, but they were friends. They had lived across the street from each other since February, almost ten months, and they'd worked in the same mall, gone to the same parties. Maddie considered her a friend, and now she was gone.

She layed the flowers gently on the floor in front of Heather's locker, stopping to press a small post-it note, simply with a little heart drawn on it onto the locker, which had been decorated with other gifts, flowers, pictures, messages, things like that. Maddie stopped for a moment, clamping her eyes shut tight as she stood in front of her dead friend's locker. I miss you.

She opened her eyes, and came face to face with Deena and Kate. "Maddie,"

Kate didn't sound happy, and Deena's mood had been permanently sour since her and Sam broke up, but Maddie felt she couldn't make eye contact with either of them without feeling guilty.

"Hey," she said after a moment. Almost an entire month without talking to them, and that was the best she could muster up? 

"Listen, I know we're not friends anymore," Kate did geniunely seem remorseful as she spoke. "But I know you and Heather were close-"

"We're not," Maddie coughed. "I mean, we weren't. Uh, sorry. I have to... go to... the bathroom," she laughed nervously. "You know, it's that time of the month,"

What was wrong with her? Why? What on Earth would possess her to say something like that? That moment, feeling Kate and Deena's eyes on her, Maddie felt she would have rather been possessed by Sarah Fier than someone who made her that socially awkward.

"Great," Kate set her face in a determined smile. "We were supposed to meet Simon in the bathroom. You can come with us," she hooked her arm with Maddie's and dragged her into the girls' bathroom. The stalls had been grafitied with the Witch's chant.

Maddie and Deena both stepped in, reading the words with mouths agape. "She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves!" Kate said in her best impression of a witch.

Maddie was standing away from the other two girls, feeling out of place. A month ago, she might have joined in, but the loss of Heather and how extremely uncomfortable she felt were all she could focus on. "She'll take your blood!" Simon thrust the stall door open behind her, and Maddie jumped two feet into the air, so startled she didn't even remember to avoid eye contact with him. "She'll take your head. She'll follow you until you're dead!"

Deena leant up against the wall opposite the stall, Maddie keeping ahold of her backpack as she hung back beside the window. "Wow. You guys are dicks,"

"It's just fun," Kate laughed.

"It's sick," Deena corrected, giving Maddie a pointed look. Maddie looked down at her sneakers, and the other three fell silent until she spoke up.

"Deena's right," she said quietly. "You guys are assholes,"

Kate scoffed. "We're assholes? Who's the one who decided one day to just not be friends with us anymore and won't even tell us why?"

Maddie kept her gaze downward until Kate rolled her eyes, looking away. "The dude was wearing a Halloween skull mask!" Simon added, trying his best not to glance at Maddie, who was determinedly not looking up. "How is that not fun?"

"People died," Deena pointed out, sending a fleeting look at Maddie. "Heather died. The dude was probably just some sad sack who hated his life, like the rest of us, except he decided, "Hey, why don't I get out of here for good? And, hey! Why don't I take Heather and a couple other mall rats with me?" There's no angry dead witch who made him go postal. The only thing that made him go crazy is this town!" She dumped her jacket on the ground.

"Are you okay?"

Maddie didn't know whether Deena would even answer her question honestly. "Yeah. I'm fine," Of course. They weren't friends. Just like Maddie wanted. Why would Deena tell her if something was wrong?

"Seems like..." a small grin wormed it's way onto Simon's face. Oh, how Maddie missed that grin. No. She needed to stay away from them. They were bad news. Simon would get her killed, no matter how cute his smile was. "Maybe you got a little witch in you,"

"Dude, why are you even in here?" Deena shook her head. "This is the girls's bathroom."

Simon hopped up onto one of the toilets, opening the vent above it and pulling out a familiar looking box. "Candy store,"

They wouldn't... no. It was probably them coming to pick the box up so it wasn't at school anymore. Surely, they wouldn't.

"You know we don't believe this witch shit, right?" Kate said, fixing her hair in the mirror. "It's just like, fucked-up Santa Claus or something,"

"Ho, ho, ho," Simon agreed.

Deena pulled a box out of her backpack and held it out to Kate. "What's this?"

"I need you to give this to Sam tonight," Deena explained.

Kate laughed. "Yeah, uh-uh. No way,"

"Come on, Kate!" Deena begged. Maddie felt bad, she knew how hard seeing someone you liked so much again after things were over. It was taking everything in her to not bolt out of the room despite the fact that Simon was close enough to her that she could smell his cologne.

"No way, Deena," Kate shook her head. "I am not getting mixed up in your ex drama. Do it yourself,"

Deena turned (desperately, Maddie was sure) to the other cheerleader. "Maddie?" she asked hopefully, and Maddie almost caved. But Sam had hurt her too. Not as much as she'd hurt Deena, but the thought of seeing the blonde girl definitely wasn't very appealing. She'd... well, she'd done exactly what Maddie was doing to Simon. When things got hard, she ran.

"I'm sorry, Deena," Maddie shook her head and Deena huffed. "It could be good for you. You might get closure,"

She decided to ignore the look Kate gave her for that. "I'm not going to the game," Deena argued. "I quit band,"

"Since when?"

"Since who gives a shit!" Deena snapped.

"Was band the only extracurricular you had left?" Kate pressed. "Well, you still have your band unfirom, right? You just wear that shit one last time," she grabbed the box off Simon. "I've got something that'll give you the balls to face Sam," she opened it and Maddie's mouth fell open at the sight of what was inside.

"What?" she looked at Kate and Simon incredulously. "You guys are dealing again?" She didn't know if she was more hurt that they continued without her or concerned because why on Earth would they still be dealing drugs? "I thought you would have stopped after," her voice faltered and her eyes locked with Simon's for a split second. "After the- the party,"

"What, with Timothy?" Simon asked casually, seemingly unfazed by the fact that his own brother had died from drugs that Simon, Kate and Maddie had supplied him with.

"Wh... Uh... Timmy wasn't a real OD," Kate said. "He didn't actually die. They brought him back," Simon mimed a defibrillator and Maddie shook her head. It didn't matter that Timothy was fine. She didn't care. The point was that someone had died, and she knew if she stuck around she could be next. Maddie didn't understand how Simon didn't care more about his siblings.

 "You're both morons," Deena said. "Maddie's smart for wanting to get the fuck away from you two," she sent a small smile at the brunette in the corner, who couldn't help but smile back.

"Excuse me?" Kate smiled. "Which one of us is valedictorian, again? President of every club this shithole has to offer? I'm getting out of here," the four of them left the bathroom, Maddie trailing behind them. "Off to claim my place among the stars, bitch,"

She could feel herself gravitating towards them again, fitting so easily into their group like a missing puzzle piece. But she wasn't missing, she was right there. And Maddie knew that she needed to get out of there before she broke. And if she left a bigger hole... then so be it.

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
maddie using her experience with her dad leaving her family to justify her abandoning her friends 🤭🤭 like i said, this would not be a love-quinn ellie book if it didn't have deep parental issues somewhere (though i have been branching out lately, #charactergrowth)

i really struggled w fitting maddie into the bathroom scene because her and The Gang are 😬 not on... great terms right now, but i needed maddie to be there so she could find out that they're dealing drugs again but it definitely feels like she's sort of just🧍‍♂️awkwardly shoved in the corner. but i was rewatching 1994 yesterday and all i could think about was how mads fit into the scene so i feel as though i did a fairly good job??? hopefully??? i hope you're enjoying the book so far <333 i love u