I will undress your soul

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Jane has been expecting a reply from lonely_heart, but she didn't get any respond to the message she wrote on Monday morning. It has been a whole week. The weekend came quickly and Jane still had no message from lonely_heart. She started worrying something had happened. Why would she stop writing back? The cop in her was thinking about million reasons and all of them not very pleasant, to put it mildly. She didn't know what to do. Things were going really bad.

The whole week went very slowly and Jane felt really bad during it. It was kind of a weird week. Maura started acting strangely around her. Jane felt like she was avoiding her for some reason. But she hadn't done anything wrong. And she hadn't said anything to upset Maura. So she had no idea why Maura was acting a bit coldly lately. She thought that perhaps Maura was just too busy with work so Jane didn't bother asking her what was wrong.

The world must have gone crazy! That's what Jane thought because the whole week felt so strange. Everybody was acting strange - Maura, and lonely_heart who didn't write back. Sometimes even her mother acted weird, but that wasn't such uncommon thing for her. Jane felt like she was living in some sort of a parallel universe. Maura was acting really strange during the past week and she was avoiding her for no apparent reason. Or at least Jane felt that way. Jane hoped that after a good sleep she would feel better and things will go back to normal next week. But before that she needed to see Maura.

It was Friday night and Jane went to Maura's house as usual. It was something like tradition. Maura haven't said anything about their movie night that day, but she had so much work lately so she probably forgot. But Jane did not, and she hoped Maura was up for watching a movie. She rang the doorbell and Maura opened the door.

"Jane, what are you doing here?" Maura asked, obviously surprised by her appearance.

"It's movie night. I brought some movies and you could choose what to watch."

"I didn't know you're coming," Maura muttered, seemingly nervous, looking around. It seemed she was avoiding looking at Jane.

"What is it?" Jane asked, surprised by Maura's odd behavior. She thought that perhaps Maura had been really busy lately, during the last few days so that was the reason for her odd behavior. Maybe she wasn't avoiding her during the week, she was just tired. But she was still acting strangely. Maura had never been so nervous around her.

"What's the matter?" Jane asked, looking at Maura. "Are you not alone?"

"Oh, no." Maura waved her hand. "I just... you know... I didn't expect you. That's all."

"All right. You choose the movie and I will make some popcorns."

After Jane played the movie Maura sat at the other side of the couch, far away from her. Maura was still acting strangely and Jane could tell something was bothering her. And she needed to know what was happening.

"Is something the matter?" Jane asked, pausing the movie and looked at Maura, moving closer to her.

"No," Maura answered quickly. "Maybe... I don't know," she muttered after a long pause.

Jane was feeling strange. She could see that Maura wasn't looking as her usual calm self. Clearly something was going on in her mind, but she refused to share it with her.

"I need to talk to you, Jane." Maura stated after staying still and silent for so long. "I have something to tell you. But I don't know how you will react. Maybe you won't take it very well..."

"Whatever it is, you could tell me, Maura." Jane encouraged her by taking her hands in hers, looking at her eyes.

"I..." Maura started saying, but in that moment Angela came in the house, interrupting them.

"Ma!?" Jane exclaimed, surprised, turning her head to the door.

"Angela?" Maura quickly let go of Jane's hands. "We were just watching, um... a movie" she muttered, looking guilty for something.

"Perfect timing!" Jane thought to herself, rolling her eyes. Her mother was a buzz killer. Maura was just about to tell her something obviously important for her.

"Jane, did you have diner?" Angela asked her when she saw them eating popcorns and watching a movie which was paused at that moment.

"Nope."

"Then why are you eating popcorns?" Angela scolded her daughter.

"Because they are delicious. And we're watching a movie." Jane rolled her eyes, stating the obvious, pointing at the tv.

"I'll make you something for dinner. What do you want?" Angela asked.

Jane shrugged nonchalantly. She just wanted her mother to leave so she could be alone with Maura. And so Maura could talk about whatever was bothering her.

"You have to eat something healthy," Angela told her.

"I will come and help you out with... the cooking," Maura offered her help and quickly got up from the couch.

"Wait, Maura. You said you want to tell me something."

"Later," Maura waved her hand dismissively, seemingly kind of relived, and followed Angela in the kitchen.

"All right. I'll just watch the movie without you," Jane muttered to herself sullenly after she saw they both left her in a hurry. But the movie wasn't that interesting and she wanted to wait for Maura. And plus, she couldn't fully focus on the movie, she was still thinking about lonely_heart. Jane was wondering what lonely_heart was doing at that moment. Why she wasn't answering back? It has been a whole week! What happened? Maybe Jane should write her again. Maybe she didn't want to meet her and that was the reason she wasn't answering her messages. But she could have declined politely, that shouldn't be the problem. Jane just didn't know what to think anymore. She was really worried.

Jane decided that since she was all alone, it wouldn't hurt to try to reach lonely_heart one more time. She had to write something to make sure that lonely_heart was okay. So she took out her phone and started typing a message.

"Hello, lonely_heart. Are you there? It's all right, you don't have to tell me your name if you don't want to. And I was just offering to meet, but it's okay if you're against it. Just text me back something, please. Anything. I am starting to worry... Even if it's just one letter. I want to make sure you're safe. Please?"

She quickly sent the message, hoping to get a reply soon. In that moment Maura's phone, which was left on the table, vibrated. Jane was surprised and a bit startled. She thought that maybe it was just pure coincidence.

"Maura," Jane quickly summoned her to let her know that she had a text message, though it may not be that important. She took her phone from the table and then she saw. She saw her own message to lonely_heart displayed on Maura's screen. It took her a few seconds to realize what was happening. Then she opened the message and saw all of their correspondence. The realization hit her hard. Maura was lonely_heart!