𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 ✰ v. hacker

forty-third ❀ irl

| MAISY |

the day after the party i noticed vinnie at school. he was melancholy, sat alone during lunch and walked the halls like a dead corpse. no one even tried to come up and talked to him. he was probably hungover from yesterday, i thought.

still, i couldn't help watching him when i'd pass him. i wondered where jordan was until i saw them exchange a very awkward and cold interaction at vinnie's locker. at first, i hadn't really believed what emily had told me...it'd just left me perplexed, but now i was beginning to wonder if she had been telling the truth.

but what truth? all she'd said was enough to cast doubt on my theory that vinnie had doxed me.

it was in chemistry class that i finally got a chance to talk to him. i came up to our shared counter together in the lab, noticing his slumped shoulders and sad demeanor before i sat down. i didn't say anything right away...i noticed he didn't even look my way, but i just looked at him. aside from the fact that he looked disheveled and downright depressed, he was still darn attractive. my heart felt a twinge of guilt for how coldly i'd treated him recently, especially if he hadn't even done anything.

i opened my mouth to say something to him and reached my hand out to touch his arm, but he pushed me away before i could say anything.

"don't." his voice sounded tired and unstable. our eyes met for a brief second, and then he looked away and put his head in his hands.

he stayed that way until class began.

the rest of class was boring. we did a random experiment during class, but didn't exchange any words, and he never made eye contact with me. the period was just about to end when our teacher announced we'd have to work on a special written and oral assignment to present the next week. with our partners, he specified.

i heard vinnie curse under his breath and i looked over at him quickly, but he looked away.

if the goal of him treating me this way was to make me feel bad, it was working.

when class came to an end, i finally attempted to speak again. "vinnie-"

"i don't want to hear it." his eyes finally met mine. "my place, tonight, 8pm. don't be late. strictly working on chemistry work."

"but-"

"just stop it, maisy." his voice broke a little bit. "don't make this worse for me, okay?"

"i want to talk to you about something." i tried again, trying everything i could to make my words and demeanor communicate i wasn't going to get mad at him again.

vinnie cleared his throat. "if it's about something emily told you, just forget it. i was drunk, yeah? i don't want to talk about it."

with that, he pushed away from the counter, grabbed his backpack and left, leaving me even more confused than ever.

❀