𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

3

"Yeah. Me, too." She says while closing her locker only for him to grab it. "If you start driving a Subaru and wearing a flannel, I will hold an intervention. Be warned." He says before Maddie starts laughing. Both Ryan and Courtney look at her before she leans into the locker continuously laughing making the both of them laugh while she attempts to sober up holding her stomach. "I'm sorry but if Courtney ever wears a flannel I want a picture before the intervention." Maddie says laughing loudly the way she did when she couldn't contain herself which made everyone around her laugh.

After a few moments Maddie made her way into the lunch room, normally she sat with Monty but she wanted to switch it up. She loved Monty and their friendship, she really did, but it was going to be awhile before she could tell him what happened with Bryce, and honestly she wasn't sure he'd pick her over him. So she needed to be prepared for the day that may come. "H-hey guys." Maddie says with a small smile looking at Jessica and Alex. Alex seems too focused on Scott to look towards Maddie but Jess smiles to the girl. "Jess, you look so.." She trails off while sitting down. "Bad?" Jess asks almost panicking making Maddie shake her head with a smile. "Mature." She says with a reassuring nod, to her appearance which included straighten hair, boots and a nice dress.

"What the hell happened to your face?" Jessica asks making Maddie look up, once her eyes meets Clay Jensen's face her eyes widen. "Clay, what happened?" Maddie asks as he sits down. "Someone ran me off the road last night. Someone in what looked like a black Range Rover." Maddie looked down at the comment. The whole table knew that vehicle belonged to Bryce but thinking about it, it didn't make sense. Bryce was trying to stay far away from it all, plus his father and attorney both told him to stay away from anyone heavily involved against it, and though Bryce liked to believe he was all powerful he wasn't stupid if nothing else he would have taken someone else's car.

Looking up it was quite obvious Alex, Jess, and Clay were all still in conversation but then something catches her eye. Someone to be exact, it was Monty and his brown eyes which were staring at her, but for a moment it seemed they were staring at the paper Alex was holding which he got from whoever was harassing them. Jessica looked up making eye-contact with Bryce as he winks at her and Maddie quickly grabs her hand for support before everyone looks to Alex who began to speak. "Are we sure it's even him?" He asks and everyone shakes their heads. "I don't think it is. I mean, I don't trust him and he's not a great guy but that's not him." Maddie says fully confident in her answer but scrunches her eyebrows when Alex speaks again.

"What if it's Zach." Jessica squeezes Maddie's hand before speaking defending the black haired boy. "That's crazy. He's been helping you with everything."

"Then why is he still hanging around Bryce?" He asks And this time Clay speaks up. "It's Bryce or someone protecting him. He doesn't want the truth to come out." Clay says and Maddie rolls her eyes. "You know what fuck the both of you." Maddie says seriously as she slips her bag over her arm. "I sat here so I could be with my friends. But you guys refuse to act normal for five minutes and then the first thing you do is accuse my brother of running you off the road and threatening the two of you?" She asks standing up looking to Alex.

Maddie sighed making her way down the hall, that wasn't really how she wanted to start to her day, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. Before Maddie was able to make a left to get to her class the door to a classroom flew out hitting Maddie's body, but luckily she didn't fall. "Hey! Watch it!" Maddie shouted moving forward to see who was carelessly throwing open doors but she frowned coming face to face with a panicked looking Jessica. "Jess?" She asked looking at the scared girl. "Jess, let's-" Jess shook her head. "Maddie I appreciate you but I need a moment." Maddie nodded and backed away, she knew that sometimes people just needed to be alone.