Sealed with a Kiss | ✓

january 14th

Monday rolled around all too quickly, and the entire school body started back on the first lessons of the new year. Mia found that she actually welcomed the structure, as it helped to take her mind off of Max, and luckily they didn't do the same subjects, which made it much easier to avoid Max. During a particularly dull English lesson, Angie nudged Mia and whispered to her.

"How's prep for the fundraiser going?"

"Good, everything seems to be on track." They chatted for a bit, and Mia told her about the rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet. She didn't mention Cass, though. For some reason it felt like it would be an invasion of Cass's privacy to tell Angie without asking.

At lunch, Mia sat down with Angie to eat her pasta whilst looking through her schedule and absentmindedly shovelling the pasta into her mouth. Angie laughed.

"Mia, I swear you never stop. That schedule can wait until you've finished lunch." Mia gave her a look, but closed the notebook anyway. They chatted away for a while, when Angie noticed something over the Mia's shoulder and her face dropped.

"What? What's wrong?" Mia turned to see what Angie was looking at, but Angie grabbed her shoulders before she could properly look.

"I'm actually going to kill him." She said, as she rose from her seat, a murderous look in her eyes. Mia turned to have another look, and this time, was able to see what had provoked Angie.

Max was sat with a girl in the year below on his lap, who was talking into his and laughing at whatever she was saying. Tears sprung to Mia's eyes and she quickly turned back to her bowl of pasta to try and hide her face from anyone sitting nearby who might notice. Meanwhile, Angie had all but stormed over to his table, almost seething.

"What the fuck Max? Are you seriously doing this right now?" Angie said, her voice loud and ringing out across the dining hall, which fell silent as Angie continued to shout at Max. "Are you really this inconsiderate?" Mia wanted to crawl into a small hole and never come out again. Not wanting to stick around for whatever excuse or defence Max came up with, Mia stuffed her things into her bag and all but ran out of the dining hall, keeping her head down to avoid the stares of the younger years as they pieced two and two together, watching the drama unfold. As she went, she ran straight into someone and nearly sent their food flying.

"Sorry, I... oh." It was Cass. Of all people, she'd bumped into Cass.

"Are... you okay?" Cass said, looking at Mia's teary eyes. Mia just shook her head and continued out of the dining hall, making her way back to her dorm room on muscle memory. A few minutes later, Angie appeared, cheeks flushed slightly and expression still stormy. It softened when she saw Mia sat curled around a pillow on her bed, freely crying.

"I'm so sorry Mia. He's such a piece of shit for doing that to you. I bet she's the reason he broke up with you in the first place, it seems like they've been together a while." She tucked a blanket around Mia's hunched up form. "Wanna skip afternoon classes and watch some murder documentaries? We can image the guys getting bumped off are Max." Mia managed a feeble laugh at that but shook her head.

"No, I really don't want to miss any lessons, I need the distraction. I'll be okay in a bit, I just, need to sit here and cry for a bit if that's okay."

"No problem buddy." Angie hugged Mia and snuggled up next to her, making herself comfortable while Mia cried softly. By the time lunch had ended, Mia was cleaned up and ready to go back to lessons with a promise from Angie that they would watch those murder documentaries after dinner instead.