Confiding in You ϟ a.i.

Chapter 17

"She's sleeping, she barely even noticed you were gone," He sneers, continuing to walk closer to me until I'm backed up against the door. What has gotten into him? It's one thing to hit me and say similarly hurtful things when I provoked him, but now all I've done is come home late. He isn't in the place to "punish" me for that. "She doesn't care about you, so why would you think Luke does? And I'm pretty sure Ashton's concern is a load of bullshit, too. No one cares about you, Maddie. Get that through your thick, arrogant head."

By the time he finishes his sentence, he's practically spitting in my face and I've fought my urge to cry long enough. When he sees my tears, he just snickers. I want to push him away from me, but with my cheek still pulsing with pain, I don't think I have the courage. So I try the next best thing that could possibly get him away from me.

"If Luke doesn't care about me, then why did he just ask me to be his girlfriend?" I try to muster up all the confidence I can, which isn't much at this moment. His own confidence falls as he's caught by surprise, but only for a moment. After only a second, he's even angrier than before I told him and swinging the door open behind me.

"Get out!" He pushes me out into the dark and slams it back in my face before I can even comprehend what's going on. Both of the locks click and he calls out, "If you know what's good for you, don't fucking come back."

I slam my fists against the door as hard as I can for as long as I can, still crying. Maybe if my mom wakes up I won't have to sleep outside. I keep pounding and pounding until I can't do it anymore. I would have had better luck if I had run around to the back, but he is sure to have locked that too by now. 

"Cooper!" I bawl, weakly knocking now, "This isn't funny! Let me in!"

"It's not a joke," He says simply, not even coming back near the door. I groan, taking my arm down and moving to sit on the stairs of the porch. Without even thinking, I let out all of my frustration and sadness with one shrill wail. "Don't be such a fucking baby!" Cooper faintly yells from inside.

My backpack with my key and all of my homework is sitting right inside, yet out of my reach. I'm lucky enough to have kept my phone in my pocket, but I have no clue what to do. I pull it out and set it on my lap, putting my head in my hands at the realization that I haven't even gotten Luke's number yet, so I couldn't call him. I do have Ashton's phone number and it made sense to call him since he lived just around the block. 

But I don't want to call him. He's already 'saved' me from Cooper enough and it's already 11. He wouldn't want to deal with me this late. 

No one cares about you, Maddie, Cooper's voice repeats itself in my mind, over and over again. No one will ever love you after this, a memory that I worked so hard to challenge and forget is brought back into my mind as well. I can't believe I actually thought for a second that He was wrong. That I could live a normal life after what he did to me. Look where that got me.

My fingers work faster than my brain and before I know it, Ashton's stupid ring-back of the chorus of Shut Up by the Black Eyed Peas is playing in my ear. I giggle softly through my tears, standing and walking into the driveway so Cooper doesn't hear me. I don't want to admit it to myself, but Ashton is the only hope I have left tonight.

"Maddie?" He picks up when the song nears it's end. He doesn't sound like he just woke up, so that's a good sign. But I don't know what even to say to him. Cooper locked me out of the house, can I stay at yours? That sounds so stupid. It sounds so helpless. I am helpless, though. I sniffle and start crying harder instead of saying anything. "Maddie, what's going on? Did something happen with Luke?" 

"No," I take a deep breath, shuddering when I let it out. Here goes. "Um, can I just walk to your house?"

"Mad, it's 11 at night, what's going on? Walk? Where are you?"