Looking Like A Mannequin || Open
The plan had been to stay away all weekend, to take care of her brother while he was in the hospital. Her mother had already been ahead of the game and had sent a letter to Hogwarts, letting them know the situation and why she wouldn't be around for a while just in case she decided to stay the week, too. With it being a Hogsmeade weekend, though, no one really questioned her being gone over those days. And then everything had gone to shit and Malinda went back to school. There was nothing else for her to do except try and assimilate into society as normally as possible even though she really had no idea how she was even functioning. "You don't need to go back," her mother had said multiple times that day. But she did. There was nothing but sadness and exhaustion for her in London. Her home felt empty, even with her parents there. So she'd taken the next train back to Hogsmeade without a word, not even so much as a goodbye. Her mother had hugged her, but Malinda didn't reciprocate. She couldn't make her muscles move past autopilot. She walked, but didn't really know where her feet were taking her, she just trusted they'd take her where she needed to go. When she finally made it back to Hogsmeade, she started walking. Just walking, no destination in mind. She felt hollow, like someone had ripped everything out from inside and she was little more than a shell of a person. She wasn't crying anymore, she couldn't. There was nothing left to cry out. Her face was a little puffy still from the crying she had done, and her skin looked a little pale. The only color on her face was where she'd rubbed her eyes so much the skin was almost raw. Her cardigan was falling off one of her shoulders, and the shirt she wore was ill-fitting, mostly because it had once belonged to Sam. It was one of her favorite shirts on him, it matched his skin tone really well, and while it made her looked like a hobo, it still smelled like him, and she clung to all reminders of him like they were all she had left in this world. Malinda was thankful her hair had started growing out again, though, it made it a little easier for her to hide behind the dark purple curtain when people looked at her. For the most part, though, she didn't care if anyone did. Finally, her feet stopped moving and she took a seat on the bench to her left. Malinda hadn't noticed that she was still shaking until she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and could see her hands shaking as she stared at the small orange bottle she'd been holding onto tightly since she'd left her house. As she looked at the label and her brother's name, her jaw clenched and she quickly took the lid off and tilted out one pill. For a moment, she paused, staring at it like it had committed some heinous crime before sighing and popping it into her mouth and swallowing it. Her eyes closed with the motion, and when she opened them again, there was someone standing there. Malinda forced a smile to her face and covered her hand and subsequently the pill bottle with her cardigan sleeve. "Hey...how are you? It's nice out lately isn't it?" She asked, sounding falsely happy and trying hard to pretend like everything was fine.
