Monster ~ Jackson Whittemore [Book 1]

Tell Me I'm Crazy

Joe didn't say a word when his teenage daughter came into the kitchen. He simply pretended to read the paper while he was really staring at Maya's every movement and facial expression, overanalyzing everything she did because he was a concerned father. No matter what the parenting books said about giving your kids space, Joe was adamant that after having the cops call him twice about his baby girl almost dying, he was allowed to be overly concerned.

It was obvious her dad was worried about her, but Maya just wanted to put that in the past. She didn't like feeling weak and breaking down, that wasn't who she was. Maya Williams was headstrong and stubborn, nothing was going to going to break her- or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

"Stop staring Pops, it's to early for the overly emotional heart-to-heart." Maya sipped her coffee, smiling at the bitter taste. "Thanks for the coffee."

Despite his daughter's desire to change the subject, Joe gave her a concerned look. "Are you sure you're ready to go back Maya? We get it if you want to take a few more days off."

She was about to retort when Brian walked in, not noticing the tension between his husband and daughter. He grabbed the coffee from Maya, taking a quick sip as the girl attempted to grab back her mug. "Just what I needed to start off my day, thanks love." He placed a kiss to Maya's forehead with a smirk, he knew fully well that she had no intentions of giving him her coffee.

The mug was soon back in Maya's hands as she sent him a look of disdain. "Dad, please tell dad that I'm perfectly fine and ready to go back to school. You guys realize I need to get an education in order to get into a decent college, right?"

Giving Joe a quick kiss as he grabbed his briefcase from the table, Brian gave him a proud smile. "She'll be fine Joe, Maya's a strong girl. Plus she really needs to go to school, how else is she getting into Stanford?"

"There's still hope she'll take after the cooler dad and become a writer." Joe told him jokingly, laughing at Brian's many attempts to get their daughter to become a lawyer.

Maya walked over to them, kissing both of her dads on the cheek as she grabbed her keys from the table. "Or maybe she'll become a forensic scientist, oh wait- that's already her plan."

They both laughed as she walked towards the front door, shouting for Darren to hurry up. The boy in question came stumbling down the stairs in a tired daze, struggling to pull a shirt on over his head. He followed his sister out to the car, leaving their dads alone.

"You really think she's going to be okay?"

Brian looked down at his husband, seeing the worry in Joe's eyes. Letting out a sigh, he shook his head with a sad smile. "No, but I hope I'm wrong."

................

The doors to the school seemed daunting after the events that had happened behind them not so long ago. With a shaking hand, Maya timidly pushed it open and walked into the hallway. Everyone surrounding her seemed so carefree, they didn't truly understand the horrors that had occurred in these halls.

"You okay Williams?" Maya jumped when she felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder, breaking her out of the daze she'd been in.

She placed a hand to her heart, giving the person a smile. "God, you scared me Jackson." The male gave her a smirk, enjoying the smile on the brunette's face. "You know it's so weird, everyone is blissfully unaware of what happened. They think they know everything, yet no one even knows we were the ones trapped in the school."

"Yeah, well that is the nice thing about being a minor." Jackson joked. Maya laughed, but it sounded forced. One look at the brunette's face told Jackson it probably wasn't a good idea to keep talking about that night. "Am I going to see you at practice today? I know you're fighting with Tweddle Dee and Tweddle Dumb, but that doesn't mean you can't still come and cheer on the rest of the team at practice."