𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

39

The rest of her day was uneventful but before Maddie made it to her science class she seen Jessica in the middle of the hall and made a split desicion to talk to her. "Jessica." Maddie says her voice noticably tight yet she smiles through it acting as if it were a normal conversation. "Hey Maddie, what's up?" Jessica questions as she balances her books in her arms. "Can I speak to you? Privately?" She asks leaning forward making sure she understands that it was important. Jessica squints slightly before nodding and walking to the bathroom, after the girls check the stalls they quickly lock the door making sure nobody else would be able to walk in on their conversation. "So what did you wanna talk about?" Jessica asks and she sets her books down on the side of the sink. "I-I have a question, and I don't want you to lie thinking you're going to hurt me or ruin our friendship, I-I need the truth." Maddie says slightly stuttering afraid for the answer to the question she was about to ask but Jessica already knew the question, among their nervousness the only thing they had in common was that they both felt a crushing about of pain on their chest when they tried to breathe.

After a few moments of silence Maddie spoke again. "Have you, did you and Justin.. hook up? The night of the party?" Jessica could see the immense pain on her face and she wanted to tell her no, she wanted to say she wasn't a cheater and she had never thought of Justin like that but she couldn't. Maddie deserved the truth. Jessica closed her eyes and breathed slowly. "Maddie-I- it was a mistake." Within that second Maddie's world crashed on her, everything just broke, and the sad and confused look on her face made Jessica hurt even more than before. "Maddie, I'm so sorry." Maddie backed up and struggled to breathe. "But, but we were friend. We are friends." Jessica wanted to melt into a puddle right there. "We, we are." Jessica said almost as if she were begging her to not hate her. "Then, then why?" But before she got a chance to respond Maddie spoke again. "No, a better question is why would you do this to Alex? That boy loves you, more than I've seen anyone care for someone and you-you did this to him?" She was struggling to breathe but she needed a answer she had to know why. "I-I know and I love him, I do. I don't even remember it happening, I swear, I know drinking isn't an excuse but that's all it was, I have never thought of him like that and I don't even know why I would but all I can say is I was drunk and it was a mistake, and I'm so fucking sorry." She was holding but her tears as she spoke but she let the tears leave her eyes when she seen that Maddie was crying. "Jessica, I-I know it was a mistake, and I know you're sorry but I think it's best if we stay away from each other. And you tell Alex before I do." Maddie was holding back sobs as she left the bathroom leaving Jessica crying as she grabbed her books.

Maddie wanted to run, to hide, to scream until her problems were solved but that just wasn't an option, with tears on her face she made her way into the science class. "Nice of you to join us Ms. Dempsey, please sit with your normal lab partner." Maddie ignored the comment her teacher made about her being late and simply made her way to the long black table where Justin was sitting with two notebooks and a microscope. "Hey, why were you-" Justin was about to ask her why she had been so late but the tears on her face stopped him. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked beginning to come around the table to comfort her but he was surprised when she but her hand out to stop him. "I don't want to talk to you." She said, her eyes were already swollen and irriated and her face was begining to become a deep shade of red. "Why? What happened, you know I'll help you." He said confused as he brought his hand to her wrist to pull it away from his chest but once again her actions shocked him, she pulled wrist away from him with a glare. "Don't touch me." She says as she grabs her notebook from the other side of the desk. "Just sit down and work." She says and Justin furrows his brows as he slowly goes back to his spot. "Maddie, baby I just want you to talk to me." He says after a few moments of silence and he reaches his hands out to grab hers but she pulls away and this time shouts. "See, you never listen to me! I told you not to touch me and you don't listen!" Everyone in the room was shocked now as they looked to the couple who they had never really seen fight. "Maddie, please." Justin said quietly looking around but luckily for him the teacher was quick to step in. "Maddie, Justin, I think it may be best to take your relationship out of this class." And they did as they walked out of the class.

"Please Maddie, just talk to me." Justin was nearing tears at this moment as he was terrified by this, Maddie had never been so angry with him or so cold towards him. "You want me to talk? Fine, but you're going to shut up and listen." She said sternly and only began to speak again when Justin stayed silent. "I believed you, through everything. I followed you, I trusted you. After Kat, and after Hannah. I truely believed you just didn't find the right girl and that's why you did so many fucked up things, I thought if anyone could hold you in a realtionship it would be me." As Maddie spoke her tears returned and her chest tightened as she spoke her truth. "I thought after everything we'd been through we could hold each other up, and I believed after what I had gone through you'd never hurt me-"
Through his own tears Justin spoke up for the first time. "Maddie I wouldn't hurt you I-"
"I told you to listen, you talking isn't part of the deal right now." She said as she breathed in hard, her words coming out as she held back sobs. "You did hurt me, you cheated, you slept with Jessica." Once Maddie spit out her last sentence they both stood silently but staring at each other with so much pain and sorrow that if you walked between them it would be close to the sea of saddness.
"No, Maddie I didn't you don't understand-" Once again she cut him off, Maddie wasn't going to let him lie to her face, she loved him and she hated fighting with him but she wasn't one to be played.
"Let me guess, Clay is just playing me? He just wants to break us up?" Justin nodded frantically and Maddie clenched her fists as she backed up against the lockers. "God you're so lucky you're not anyone else." She said through clenched teeth. "I believed you Justin, but I don't believe you now, because Jessica told me. She told me you guys hooked up the night of the party. And now it makes sense, why everyone keeps a close eye on us? Why everyone is making it seem like Bryce did everything? Why you've been keeping me from Bryce? Because you didn't want me to know that instead of being with me when I found out one of my best friends died you were fucking some drunk girl at a party!" As she spoke the amount of tears on her face burned her skin and she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. "No, Maddie it wasn't like that-"
"Even Monty was with me, he was trying to hook up with some girl and he was there for me but my own boyfriend would rather sleep with some passed out piece of ass." Justin was torn, he couldn't tell her the truth, she'd hate him even more and he'd have to tell Jessica and they'd try to make him go against Bryce, but listening to her compare him to Monty was something he didn't want to stand and listen to. "You know what, sorry I'm not as perfect as Monty, I don't know why I would even try to date you, it's obvious you're still locked up on your first boyfriend and hook up that you can't tell a real man from him." Justin almost regretted his words, almost.

Maddie stood there, a look of disgust on her face, how was he going to turn this around? He was caught cheating and he wanted to bring up how she dated Monty once upon a time? "You know what, fuck you, I don't need this." She said walking down the hall. "Good, run away, just like you always do! Don't expect me to take you back!" He shouted down the hall, his voice angry but if Maddie had turned around she would see the tears streaming down his face as he fought with himself for not running after her.

Once she made it down the hall, and turned she ran right into a body and fell to the floor, instead of apologizing or standing up she just started to bawl.

"Hey, woah, Maddie what's wrong?"

~~~Authors Note~~~
Hey, I just wanted to apologize, it's been several months since I have posted and I wish i could write more but there is so much stuff going on. My computer glitches all the time, I have school with a bunch of hard honors classes and exams to study for, I also have a club to run which is honestly so stressful because I'm not used to being a leader and since I'm younger than everyone they hate listening to me. But that is no excuse, I should be writing a lot more not only for you guys but for me as well.

So I'm very very sorry for the wait and how bad this chapter is (I wrote it in an hour and I suck at writing relationship stuff) but hopefully I have more time because I'm really excited about this next chapter, I have several ideas not only from me but also from people who have been texting and giving me ideas, if you have any ideas please comment or contact me I'd love to use them!

Also thank you guys so so much for the amount of love on the book even with my absence of writing but I promise I will be trying my best to get you guys more updates especially because I'm getting so close to break!

{12.8.19}