Chapter 16: Cookie Girl.
"Spill it," I demanded from Angie the moment we got home.
"Spill what?" Angie asked, her dark cheeks getting visibly red.
"You and Alex... Spill."
"It's nothing... We were drunk, we almost did it but he stopped midway."
My brows furrowed with confusion. "Why? If I may ask."
"You're so nosey, Maddie." Angie laughed.
"Me? Nosey? I'm just asking... For research purposes only."
Mhmm exactly, research purposes.
Angie sighed, pushing back a curly strand of hair. "He said he didn't want to do it and forget about it."
"So... He likes you?"
She threw me a glare before I quickly added: "for research purposes."
Angie shrugged, plopping down on the sofa. "It's complicated... He's a flirt and I'm just a h*rny b*tch. I don't think any of us are ready for a commitment like that."
I nodded, already mentally creating a ship name.
Algie... Anlex....
"Are you listening to me?"
"Yeah, you were talking about Anlex."
Oops.
Angie tilted her head like she'd just realised she lived with a psychopath. Nothing new there.
"We just slept the drinks off and cuddled."
"Aww that's so cute, Ashton and I di–"
I quickly covered my mouth before I spilled any further but Angie was already grinning at me with a mischievous look.
Curse you, over shareful tongue.
"You guys had sex?" She asked.
"NOOOO!" I exclaimed, waving a hand in dismissal.
She sighed. "What?! I send you the hottest guy on campus and you're too scared to even touch him."
"Thanks for letting him into the house without my consent, for all I knew, it could have been a serial killer." I rolled my eyes.
I wasn't scared of touching Ashton.
Right?
I mean, we'd touched while cuddling, we'd even touched at the basement...
The kiss...
Well, the almost kiss.
Memories of our intimate position invaded my mind, leaving me to wonder, was he actually going for a kiss? Would I have kissed him back?
I quickly brushed the thought out of my mind, the only thing between Ashton and I was sexual tension, and that was just because he radiated so much of such energy.
We could never be a thing, he was the badass boxer and I was just a barely known weirdo. When guys like him have models like Jessica gracing their beds every night, why would he settle for less?
•••
Mondays were always the worst days of the week, I looked down at my schedule, biting into an Oreo as I did.
Making my way into the Bio 121 class, I sighed at the almost filled up lecture hall. We had a quiz today which would explain why the helall was brimming with students so early.
I quietly move up the aisles, searching for where to sit.
"Is this seat taken?" I asked a girl who's head was turned away from me.
The girl turned and I soon realised who she was, she'd been the blonde talking to Kelsie about Ashton's sprained ankle a while back.
My eyes darted to her notebook with a big designed Veronica written all over the front page.
"What?" She growled.
"I asked if this seat was taken?" I said, gesturing to one of the three empty seats beside her.
Veronica scoffed, rolling her eyes like I was some early morning pest she couldn't be bothered to deal with.
"Yes, it is."
Almost on cue, someone nudged me with a shoulder, pushing me aside as three boys took the seats, one of which was a familiar face I'd seen before.
Joey Malcolm.
"Okay, thanks anyway," I said to Veronica.
"Oh, what do we have here?" Joey asked, his wet curly blonde hair falling to the side as his green eyes glinted with amusement. He definitely gave that surfer boy vibe.
"You're Ashton's pet," Joey said to me. It sounded more like a statement than a question.
"I'm Maddie," I corrected which only made him chuckle.
"I guess some things never change, Ashton always loves sticking around the weak and helpless to pretend he's strong."
Just by his words, I could tell there was some unresolved beef between he and Ashton and I definitely didn't want to be in the middle of it.
I gave an uneasy grin, trying to end the conversation as fast as possible before another guy beside Joey said: "she's that cookie girl that works at the gym."
Joey's eyes raised in amusement while Veronica snickered– very loudly if I may add.
"I bet she has a bag of cookies with her." Joey laughed, snatching my bag before I could even protest.
The professor wasn't in the hall yet and everyone's eyes were already on Joey and I, a situation which left me anxious.
Joey unzipped the bag, grabbing out my pack of Oreos.
"Hey! You've made your point, I like cookies," I said.
He grinned, opening the wrapper and throwing the cookies all around the hall, leaving students laughing.
I felt totally horrible, tears stung my eyes but I refused to cry, it would just make everything worse right now.
"COO-KIE GIRL! COO-KIE girl..." Joey began to yell and the whole class followed him. Veronica had already began laughing hysterically.
I snatched back my bag from Joey, hurt still on my expression as I rushed out of class, even passing by the professor.
I just wanted to creep into some shell and hide for the rest of my life like a snail.
But I heard those things are hard to carry around.
Not the point.
I made my way to the only place I knew students wouldn't show up. The gym.
•••
I'd been there for a while, playing music through my earplugs when Jessica sauntered in, laughing loudly.
"Cookie girl... I like that name," she said before showing me all the videos that had been taking during my ‘conversation’ with Joey.
I sighed, folding my arms over my chest, even just scrolling through social media, I could find posts about the incident captioned, ‘cookie girl’.
I didn't know his game plan but I guessed it was to gain a reaction from Ashton, if he believed Ashton and I were that close, he probably was trying to piss him off.
The entrance squeaked open.
Wait! The entrance is never opened, this place was as quiet as a graveyard.
My eyes darted to the entrance to find Justin and Alex walking in.
Jessica quickly began running her hands through her hair, trying to straighten it.
Sorry Jessica, but good looks won't fix a rotten attitude.
She sashayed before the boys, a plastered smile on her face as she said, "Justin, Alex, did you guys come to see me?"
"Actually, we'r–" Justin began but she interrupted once more.
"I don't know if I should be flattered or shocked," she said, batting her lashes.
I busied myself, burying my face into my face and pretending I wasn't there. The last thing I needed was Jessica saying my face ruined her flirting.
"Um, Jessica, we aren't here t–"
"Is it about Ashton? I know he'd definitely send you his to apologise for blocking me."
"We don't have time for this, we're here for Millie," Alex finally interrupted in his stern voice.
It's Maddie by the way but nice try.
"Sorry, no Millie here." Jessica pouted. "But I am."
"Maddie, we're here for Maddie," Justin corrected his best friend.
"Her?" Jessica exclaimed, point her thumb behind her, at me.
"Yup, that's the MVP." Alex laughed.
"Yeahh.... And we were wondering if you could watch the gym while she's gone," Justin added, faking a wince like he felt Jessica's pain.
"Gone? Where are we going?" I finally chimed. "Am I being abducted?"
I should really stop watching true crime and reading mafia romance.
"Not quite, love." Alex held my forearm, guiding me out of my seat.
Jessica stared, her eyes darting from the outrageously gorgeous boys to me, a frown crossing her face.
"You may want to see this," Justin said, showing me a live video in the admin parking lot, a crowd gathered around two of the most popular students.
Ashton and Joey.
Ashton's face was furrowed into a scowl. "Leave Maddie out of this," he said.
Joey smirked, "are you scared I'll hurt your pet?"
Ashton was at the brink of throwing a punch, this wasn't going to end well, especially since the whole thing was being recorded live and any staff could be watching.
Like a total dumbass, I asked, "who are they fighting about?"
What? I just needed to be sure it wasn't some other girl named Maddison.
Alex scoffed, clearly not ready to deal with me.
"Who knows, maybe the sugar fairy," he said in a sarcastic tone.
•••
Perks of posting a prewritten work, I've not been writing for a while but no one noticed cause it was never posted yet *taps herself on the back*
Any thoughts on #Anlex?
(Didn't know how to say goodbye this chapter so I wrote this)
-Thea