Mireille POV
The thing about pretending is that it doesn't stop when the school day ends.
but today, Mireille could feel the edges of it cracking..
She walked through school like she always did smile on , hoodie zipped voice soft. But Rue's
words kept following her
"You smile a lot" Rue had said
"You lie when you smile."
Not cruel not mocking just…honest
Mireille had frozen in the hallway heart in her throat.
"You don't even know me"
"I don't need to" Rue replied" I know the look, i've worn it before"
And just like that she was gone, like she hadn't just shattered something.
By the time the final bell rang, Mireille still felt the echo of it under her ribs her body moved out of habit down the hall , out the door through the gate but her mind was somewhere else
You lie when you smile
The words circled like smoke getting in her lungs.
She turned the corner towards her block, her airpods in but no music playing nearly dropped her phone when she looked up
There in the overgrown front yard of the old mitchell house , the one that had been empty since forever was someone dragging a box out of a faded grey car.
A girl , medium length hair , nike slides with a black hoodie and grey sweatpants
Rue
Mireille stopped walking
Rue didn't look up at first she was helping a woman , probably her mom push the car door closed , her hoodie sleeves were pulled over a little bit above her hands.
Then Rue glanced up.. eyes met
no wave , no smile just that quiet familiar stare that felt like it peeled skin away
Mireille's throat had tightened.
Rue just nodded once , not like a greeting more than an answer
Yes im here now
Mireille walked the rest of the way home with her heat thudding too loud.
Her mother's car was already in the driveway
inside the house felt the same way it always did , dim, still
quiet but not peaceful the kind of quiet that pressed on you
"I'm home" she called already knowing what came next
no answer at first than
"Dinner's in the fridge" her mother said from the kitchen not looking up from her win glass
"Okay"
that was it .
It had been like this for years since her dad died , since her mother stopped looking at her the same way since warmth had left and silence had taken it's place.
Upstairs Mireille sat on her bed hoodie still on, arms folded tight
She couldn't stop replaying everything
Rue's voice , Rue's eyes ,Rue standing on her street like something from a dream she didn't want to wake up from
she needed air.
Stillwater wasn't far
A fifteen minute walk through the woods behind her neighborhood past the broken fence and the crooked three stump behind the moss covered boulder that marked the start of the hidden trail
The waterfall wasn't big but it was steady a silver curtain humming low soft and alive it had become her place her secret .
She called it stillwater because the world paused there , like time gave her space to breathe.
Mireille sat on the flat rock closest to the fall and curled into herself
here she didn't have to pretend she didn't have to smile
stillwater didn't ask question
And yet..Rue's words still came
"You lie when you smile"
"I know the look"
Mireille clenched her hands in the fabric of her sleeves.
No one had ever seen her like that before , not really
and it scared her how much she didn't hate it .