Emmi's POV:
Monday morning came and I did my usual routine, covering up my scars and the large cut on the inside of my left arm. I didn't bother to put make-up on and I threw my hair in a messy bun. I really didn't care how I looked today. I didn't need to. I threw on a sweatshirt and jeans, along with my favorite worn out black converse and headed downstairs for breakfast.
Mom cooked today, which was a little unusual, but not completely. She cared a lot about Brooks and I, just sometimes she got so caught up in her work and dealing with dad that we had to fend for ourselves on occasion. "Hey mom," I greeted.
"Hey pumpkin. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for the game Friday. Work go so busy and then your dad and I were trying to figure out holiday stuff. Time just slipped away from us. You know we will be there for state right? We wouldn't miss it." My mom smiled, setting a plate down on the island. Her dirty blonde hair was up today and her brown eyes were complimented with her circular shaped glasses.
"Of course, mom. I know you didn't mean to. And I know you'll be with me in two weeks. You're a busy woman who runs her own million dollar company. I get it." I said, munching on some bacon. "I've been meaning to tell you something, but it's been kind of hard since I really didn't see you all weekend."
She turned to me and set down the other plate for my brother. "What is it dear?" I had her full attention, she knew this was important.
"Well um...Zach and I split..." I lowered my gaze to my food.
I felt my mom wrap her arms around me, soothing me with her famous back rubs. "Sweetheart, why didn't you tell me sooner? I'm sorry it didn't work out with him."
I shrugged, "It's okay, mom. He wasn't a nice person anyway. Too bad I didn't know any better."
My mom took my face into her hands and made me look at her, "Honey, we all make mistakes and we learn from them. Zach might have not been a nice person, or treated you well, but now you know what you don't want. You know to stay away from the Zach's of the world." She sighed. "Can I be honest with you?"
"Of course, mom."
"It hurt me seeing you so unhappy when you came home from a date or an outing with him. It always looked like your light was drained from you. It scared me."
I looked at her, shocked. I must have not hid everything as well as I thought I did.
"And don't get me started on those marks on your arms and legs. They didn't look like normal things for you. I was so worried about you, you dad and I were going to forbid you from seeing him."
I choked on my orange juice, "You were gonna do what?"
"I know it wasn't a reasonable idea, but we didn't know what else to do, sweetheart." She said with tears in her eyes. "We didn't want to lose you too."
I hugged her tightly, "Thank you, mom. Though, if you would have forbidden it, everything would have gotten worse."
She looked at me with raised brows, "What?"
I lowered my head and took a deep breath in, frightened to tell her what really happened when she wasn't home and I was with Zach. "He um..." I gulped. This was gonna be harder than I thought.
"He made those marks, didn't he." My mother answered for me. Her voice was low and I could tell she was staring at me. I nodded slowly, ashamed of not being able to tell my own mother, but I could tell my girls. I had a feeling she had put a few other things together, because she wrapped her arms around me tightly and I felt tears hit my sweatshirt. And then I started crying.
We were both crying so hard, neither of us noticed Brooks sitting at the island, eating. I used my sweatshirt sleeves to dry my face and I looked at my mom with a smile. I was thankful she did notice a lot, even if we didn't get to talk as much as we wanted to. "I promise I will see if I can bring down my time at work."
"Mom, really, it's okay. You own a company, I know it's hard to take down your hours during the busy time of the year." I told her as I ate my breakfast.
"I know, but I want to be here for you, like a mother should be. I should have said something sooner about what I'd seen from you."
I finished my breakfast and put it in the sink, hugging her once more. "Mom, I will be okay. I have my girls and a new girl," I paused, unsure how to word how Jamie and I were now friends. "that got two timed by Zach with me...she knows what I went through, cuz she went through the exact same thing at the same time."
My mom frowned, anger in her eyes, "He did what? He not only treated you poorly, but he was seeing another girl and doing the same thing to her?" I could tell she was going to explode. I have a feeling she was going to call my dad and vent to him. When they were on good terms, they actually acted like a normal married couple, even if they were divorced.
I heard a car horn and looked at Brooks, "Finish up, our ride is here." I told him. He nodded, stuffing his face with the rest of his bacon and chugging his orange juice.
My mom's attitude changed in a second, "Ride?"
I nodded, "Yeah, a friend is taking Brooks and I. He helped me Friday...a lot actually. Made sure I was taking care of myself." I chewed the inside of my cheek, nervous at her reaction.
The silence between us was deafening. And then she smiled, "Alright. I'm glad someone looked after you on Friday. Is this ride thing gonna be a normal thing? Cuz if it is, I'd like to meet this friend of yours."
I nodded, "You'll meet him Wednesday. He's Brooks' reading buddy for the year. Remember, they're coming to the houses this year?" The horn honked again, "Okay, we really need to run. I love you, mom. Tell dad I love him too when you talk to him."
"I will, sweetheart. Stay safe and I love you too." She blew Brooks and I kisses and we left the front door.
I saw Maddox standing at the passenger side of the car, waiting to let me in. He wore his football sweatshirt, which I don't think I'd ever seen him wear and his hair was his usual hot mess of a birds nest. It suited him though and I found it quite attractive. I noticed him looking me up and down, trying to figure out what was different. I smiled softly and he frowned, "You okay? Your eyes are puffy and your nose is red."
"I'm alright. Spoke to my mom about Zach. We had a crying session. But I'm okay, really. I feel like myself again, minus the scaring." I got into the Jeep and pulled my legs in, so Maddox could close the door.
I looked behind me and saw Brooks all ready to go. I chuckled and Maddox got in the drivers side. He looked at me closely and narrowed his brows. "I can't figure out what's different with you today, Em."
I laughed, "I don't have make-up on, Mad. And my hair is up. I never dressed like this after Zach and I started seeing each other. He wanted me to look a certain way, but I couldn't show skin much." I bit my lip, "I wanted to be a slob for once this semester. I wanted to feel like me again."
"You never look like a slob, even now. But it is nice to see you smiling and not those fake ones that never reached your eyes." He commented and left my driveway.
I blushed, trying to hide the fact that I really enjoyed that comment from him. "Thanks," I mumbled into my hands.
"You're welcome. I never understood why girls needed make-up. They don't. You don't. You look beautiful just the way you are."
My head shot his way and I could tell he was shocked he said what he did. He just called me beautiful. Why is my heart beat quickening? No guy has ever called me beautiful without make-up on before. I panicked in my head. I took in a deep breath, held it and counted to ten before letting it out. That seemed to work, thankfully. I was about to say something, but we were at Brooks' school already. "That was fast."
"When you drive places, it usually is." Maddox smirked. I glared at him and he chuckled.
Brooks jumped out and said bye. We waited until he got inside and then we headed to our school. We definitely had time to kill, so we just stayed in the car and played twenty questions for getting to know each other. If we knew something already, we had to give the other a dollar; or if we didn't have that, a kiss on the cheek. Yeah, it's cheesy, but neither one of us could get enough of innocent kisses.
"Birthday?" He asked.
"December twenty-fourth. Sucks, but nothing I can do about it." I shrugged.
He frowned, "You get jipped."
"Eh, I'm used to it by now. When I was little I didn't, but now that I'm almost sixteen, I do from most people. My parents don't though." I shrugged. "Anyways, birthday for you?"
I felt Maddox's lips touch my cheek, "Still sucks. I'd never jip you." He smiled. I raised my brows, "What? I couldn't help it. You're just too cute not to surprise kiss." He chuckled. I blushed and batted my eyes shyly. "Alright, so my brithday is...July seventh. It always gets sucked in with the fourth of July, annoying as hell. But like you, there's nothing I can do about it."
My lower lip jutted out in a small pout, "That sucks. Have you ever had a birthday party that wasn't combined with a fourth of July get together?"
He shook his head, "Nope," he emphasized the 'p' and sighed. "Not like I'm missing much. I'm almost eighteen, if I hadn't had one now, I'm not expecting one."
I felt bad. I may have gotten jipped on gifts, but he got jipped on an actual birthday parties. I knew what I needed to do, but I needed some help from my girls and Wes. "Do you have a specific college you want to go to? Like one that's recruiting you?" I asked as I texted the group chat.
"Mm, I was thinking out of state, but it really depends on what college wants me." My heart sank when he said out of state. "I would love to get a full ride to Rosedale University, in North Dakota."
"Oh...that's like ten hours away." I stated, trying not to act sad, but I ended up lowering my gaze.
I felt Maddox's pointer finger raise my head, "Hey, if I did go there, I'd come back at least once a month. Besides, we're friends, I'm sure we'd talk and videochat daily." He smiled. I could feel myself getting emotional just thinking of him being ten hours away at college and we weren't even a thing.
"Sure..." I turned away and felt myself tear up. I hated the thought of him being so far away, but it wasn't fair to him since we weren't a thing. And I had no idea if we ever would be. I swallowed my tears the best I could, turned to face him, and jumped into a kiss.
I felt him taken back, but he quickly fell into it. My hands immediately grabbed for his messy hair and I felt his arms wrap around me. I felt his tongue search its way between my lips and I let out a soft moan, while tears slowly fell. He must have tasted my satly tears, because he pulled away and looked at me, concerned. "Hey, why the tears?" He paused, wiping them away with his thumbs. "If it's about college, Em, I don't even know who wants to recruit me. Yeah, there were a ton of them Friday night and some spoke to me, but I haven't gotten offers yet. And we aren't even dating, but it's sweet that you'll miss me this much when we aren't dating. Imagine if we ended up together, how much will you miss me then?"
I didn't want to think about that, I just wanted to be tongue deep in a passionate kiss. I dove back in and I felt him chuckle, letting it go and taking the lead. I felt his hands lightly trail up and down my sides and my instincts automatically pulled me out of the makeout session, even if I did feel sparks through the whole thing. Our breathing was heavy and fear spilled out of me. "I--I'm...sorry." I lowered my gaze as my body curled up to protect itself out of habit.
Maddox never took his eyes off of me, studying me and trying to figure out how to help. "Hey," he spoke softly, "there is nothing to be sorry about. I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I got carried away."
I shook my head, looking up at him, "I'm a hot mess. Your response was normal, mine was not. You can thank Zach for that."
"He did lie to me," I noticed Maddox clench his jaw. I raised my brows, "Friday night, at half time, I asked if he ever hurt you physically. He told me no, but I could see the lie in his eyes. From the cut on your arm, I figured out he did that, but I didn't think he did anything else."
I kept quiet. The only reason I didn't have bruises all over my body was because he was smart and used oranges. Because of that, I was sore where they struck me. I would be for a while. I uncoiled myself and relaxed a little, "Maddox...can we just go back to the game?" I asked, wrapping my arms around my stomach.
He nodded and he searched for permission to touch my knee. I nodded and he gently rested his hand on my knee, "Yes. What's your favorite color?"
"Tangerine orange." I answered with a chuckle. "I know, a strange shade to like, muchless be a favorite."
He smiled, "Not at all. My fave is bright green..." I noticed he looked down for a second and I realized he was talking about my eye color. I blushed and bit my bottom lip shyly.
"Favorite...drink?"
"Mint and apple tea with a little honey. You?" He answered.
"Chocolate milkshake." I giggled.
This went on until more students parked and once it got closer to the beginning of school, we left the Jeep and walked inside. I hoped the day would be as mellow as possible, but I wasn't expecting that thanks to Zach.