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******** Taym. Just when you're ready to write him off, he does something heart wrenching. What an a*****e.

"You don't have to explain to me the intricacies of needing more than one person in your life to feel right." That was her first real lesson, at Deus. Sometimes, it just took more than one. "But I also can't even be surprised that this just boils down to jealousy. He can't handle another person in your life, so he decides not to try anything with you either. I knew he was spouting bullshit when he told me he didn't care if I slept with you. ******** lies like breathing."

Maebe did not often curse. Taym was a special exception, always.

But America was trying to get past it, and according to Taym, so was he. That boiled Maebe's blood, because it meant that sometimes, you just had to let things go.

And she didn't want to believe that anymore. She couldn't. She refused.

"I wish I could give you some advice, but you know all the same tricks I do. And none of them are going to work on Taym. I wish I could say that I want you to move on, because I know you deserve happiness. But deep down, I kind of don't." She picked at America's hair, fidgetting with annoyance. "Because I'm attached to the idea of fighting for something you love nowadays. It's kind of a sickness, and I'm worried that I'm close to finding a cure."

"Me too." Maebe breathed out, slumping a little in dismay. "Though, I wouldn't mind seeing Taym break a little. Maybe it'll be good for him." Though now she was starting to imagine him breaking, physically.

Not exactly what America had in mind, she was sure.

"Well, I can tell you one thing. For his sake, I hope he wakes up and realizes what a miracle he has in front of him right now. And for another thing - I think he was hoping you'd convince me to lay off of him." Maebe smiled a small, but clearly sinister smile. "But the problem is, I don't care if I somehow break him. So he's still got a lot of me left to deal with, in his future."

Maebe could have been a good friend, and just said yes. She could have smiled, and told America that she would lay off, because it would have made her happy. But Maebe wasn't actually a very good friend, and she said none of these things.

"Sorry, beautiful." Maebe kissed her forehead, and gave her a quick, but regretful hug. "This isn't about you. This isn't even about him sometimes. I'd be doing this even if it wasn't you he was hurting. So I can't promise that I'll lay off him when he tries to lie to me about how he feels. I can't really promise anything."

Her arms loosened, because her answer wasn't one that she expected America to be happy with, and she didn't want the woman to feel trapped. "There's something about Taym that makes me have to fight. Whether it's one way or another, he pulls something out of me that makes me uglier than I've ever been before." She snorted, rolling her eyes at the mere idea of her being ugly. "The only thing I can promise is that I'll try to stay away from him. Because if I so much as get a whiff of him lately, I just."

Maebe flushed, embarrassed and just mad that anyone had this power over her. She wished it was anyone else. She wished America had fallen for anyone else.

She wished life wasn't such a b***h.

"I don't-" Maebe instantly prepared to argue down the mere prospect that she gave a single s**t about Taym, but she felt the loss of said argument before it had even began. She let out a long, frustrated sigh, and just let it go.

"I doubt we ever will. But I can live with that." She tried not to imply anything in the way she said it, because she was too new to this whole.. caring about other people bullshit. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe they were right. Maybe one day, she would realize just how stupid she was being.

Today was not that day.

"Other than the great hobo menace, has anyone else been holding Miss America's fancy? Other than me, I mean." She flipped her hair as if to wordlessly state, obviously.

Careful was no fun. America's face was mirrored, almost exactly, by Maebe's. She would have tried to give her (Dylon) some (Dylon) advice (Dylon), but America fired the shot that had Maebe groaning in sudden need to crawl up like a bug and die.

"Nooo, don't remind me about that, I still can't believe how embarrassing that was. Like, did I really have to find out about that on Twitter? It's bad enough that like, apparently my parents had some lapse of judgement and just started wishing me happy 10th birthday on my 11th, but to have been so idiotically wrong about simple math where everybody could see, it's just.. Christ."

She didn't care how old she was. She did, however, care that she looked like a fool.

"So it's alien abduction, then." Maebe bedgrudgingly replied. Because she was sure there was no way in hell she'd ever been smart enough to skip a grade, before. So clearly, America's only acceptable theory was the second one. "It explains so much. Like why I'm okay with a**l."

And why she was so remarkably classy.

Maebe's smile turned sinister at the mention of probing. "Yes, but at least when I was consentually aware of the probing, I wasn't doing it with some alien. I was doing it with someone from - " She couldn't help herself. "America."

And that was where she realized she and America's conversation had devolved into something both nonsensical, and dangerous. She'd leaned in to say the woman's name, and then laughed at how easily it would have been to take her lips, had she not been abiding by the very surprising self-restraint of committed relationships. "I'd better go, before any more probing starts happening in here." She moved to stand up, but she didn't get very far, because she belated realized..

"Wait, we're in my room."

Well, s**t.

Maebe slid back onto her bed, lounging far too seductively to be up to any good. "I'll give them that, and more. Come by anytime, Miss America." She sighed a soft, lingering sigh. "I hate to watch you go, but."

Well. She knew the rest.