I had to kill a darling but I can't fully scrap it so uh. Here!
Mariah looked up as someone joined her outside. The young man leaned against the wall, sliding a cigarette out of his case and lighting it. Mariah smiled.
“Hey, sport. Little too young for smoking, don’t you think?”
She took a drag of her own cigarette and looked up at him. He wasn’t smiling.
“You mad because I’m with your mom now?”
“No. You make her happy, so I don’t care. I’m not calling you mom or any sappy shit like that, though.”
“Wasn’t even gonna ask you to. I kinda expected you to hate me, honestly. I tried to kill your grandpa and your friend out there.”
“You haven’t tried attacking anyone again, and I just assumed you were being controlled by DIO so I’m not going to hurt you or anything. I don’t really like you, though.”
“Fair enough. Wasn’t asking you to do that either.”
Mariah leaned back in her seat. Both of them were silent for a minute, then Jotaro blew out a plume of smoke and broke it.
“You were friends with N’doul, right?”
Mariah felt every muscle in her body simultaneously tense up. She forced herself to unclench before squeezing out as little words as she could muster.
Jotaro wasn’t looking at her and didn’t seem to notice her tenseness.
“He killed himself so we wouldn’t know the Glory Gods’ Stand powers. He wouldn’t tell us your names or what you looked like, and he barely confirmed there were nine of you.”
Something squeezed in Mariah’s chest and she just…couldn’t respond. She began to tap her fingers on her knee as she held back a flood of tears that had been waiting below the surface for probably almost a year now. Finally, she choked out a laugh.
“Of course he did. Of fucking course he did. Nothing but the most dramatic death for that asshole, that’s for sure.”
Tears began streaming down her face, and she began laughing hysterically. All this time she had assumed that he was following exactly what DIO wanted, had left her behind for someone who was nice but not someone who had been by his side for years…how stupid could she be? Of course he wouldn’t have.
“That damned bastard always cared too much about us, would you believe it? I know you wouldn’t, he tried to kill you, but…man, he was a stubborn, stupid, loving fool…that was his weak point, always had been. Stupid…stupid asshole, leaving me with the remains of his team!”
Jotaro was looking down at her with an unreadable expression. Mariah could see it but really didn’t care, she felt manic, like the fragile strings still holding her up weren’t just snapping, but unravelling.
Mariah laughed again, trying to wipe tears from her face.
“Close? Close? I tried to kill him once! Hell yeah, we were close! I…we basically grew up together. Nothing could touch us, no one could hurt us, and we were just…happy to drift, who cared what we did? He was the first person who actually, genuinely gave a shit if I lived or died. And I cared too, I wanted him with me forever.”
“It sucks losing close friends.”
Mariah let herself calm. The mania was gone, replaced with something…deep and endless, but not hollow.
“...I’m sorry for what happened. I…that must have been hell.”
She snorted, wiping the last of the tears from her face.
“You know, N’doul and I knew Avdol. We fought him when we were all kids, and we got our asses handed to us. Oh, I was so excited to beat him…maybe next time.”
Jotaro quickly looked away, and Mariah felt a lump in her throat.
“...there…there is a next time, right? He’s…he went back to Egypt, right?”
Jotaro shook his head again.
“Shit. Who…do you know who?”
“Someone who lived in DIO’s mansion. Not Telence.”
Mariah’s whole expression soured.
“Ugh. Ice. None of us liked that prick, he’d act so much better than anyone else just cuz he was strong…but he had nothing in his head. I bet he didn’t even face Avdol head on, or he would have lost. I just know it.”
“Hey, uh…you’re friends with Kakyoin too, right? The brothers are, too. He used to paint while Oingo sculpted, it was pretty cute to see them get along. He got home safe, right?”
Once again, Jotaro shook his head. This time he kept his face tilted away from Mariah, refusing to look at her. Mariah felt the lump in her throat thump down into her chest.
“...poor kid. I’m…god, I’m really sorry about that. Did…”
She was too scared to ask, and when Jotaro answered his voice was tight.
“It was DIO. And I was too far away to save him.”
Mariah almost felt like crying again. She carefully bumped her hand against his.
“I know how you feel. It…I can’t say it will get better, but…don’t let it hurt too much, ok? It’ll trap you, and it’s so hard to get out of that.”
Jotaro just shrugged her off, dropping his cigarette to the ground and stomping it out.
“I’ll be fine. I’m going.”
Mariah watched him turn on his heel and disappear back into the house. She sighed and stubbed out her own cigarette, but didn’t move from her spot on the porch. The sun was just setting and it lit up the garden in front of her like an internal blaze. She felt…a weird peace, one that felt sad and a little lonely but comfortable and welcoming all at the same time. Once that passed, she stood up and went inside.
Thank you for sharing this with me 😭😭😭 excuse me for a minute I need to go into the other room for a second.
*muffled* auuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhououghuoughhgughngkkkknghghughggauouuuuuuuughnnnnhhuhgh
