Grayson's POV
I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw Maddie looking at me from across of a few parked cars, her expression unreadable on her face. But she was gone as quickly as I had found her.
I turned to Nick, "Hey, are you sure that Maddie and Kylie weren't coming?"
"Well, I think they are, because I bumped into Maddie this morning and she said she was coming." He replied. My heart gave a small leap of hope at the realisation that I could explain everything to Maddie.
I don't know what I was planning to say, because I knew exactly what she thought I had done. It hurt me to talk about it, but it also hurt me that she had assumed...
We started making our way down the hill, and my mood immediately got lifted as I looked at everyone preparing their tents and getting ready for the opening show. Everyone was buzzing. The air seemed to be full of electricity, charging up everyone.
"Dude, look at that spot over there!!" cried Nick, running over to a wide area.
"Nice!" I joined him, immediately setting down the equipment to build our tent. There were thousands of other tents, endlessly filling all the spaces in seconds.
I turned around and suddenly saw a girl with blue hair finishing her tent next to us. "Kylie?" I blurted before I could stop myself.
She turned around, slightly blushing, "Oh, hi," she answered, just as Maddie came out of the tent.
"It is so big in there-" Maddie started, but stopped when she saw Kylie blushing awkwardly, "What's wrong?" Kylie nudged her in our direction, and she stared at us for minute, her eyebrows furrowing together in annoyance.
"Oh hey!" Nick came to us.
No one said anything. It was probably the most awkward encounter in my life. Something seemed to be happening between Nick and Kylie, but every time they made eye contact they quickly looked away.
"Um, we better get started on our tent." Nick said finally, breaking the thick blanket of silence which was soon going to suffocate us all.
+++
Maddie's POV
Out of all of the places they could have set their tent, they had to put it next to ours. I had had enough. I just couldn't be bothered to be so angry and annoyed all the time.
"That was probably the most awkward thing that has ever happened to me." whispered Kylie as we returned inside of our tent.
"Yeah, no shit," I blurted. "Can we try and avoid them please? I really don't want any of that happening again."
"Yeah, we have to meet new people," she sighed, "Okay, which outfit should I wear for the opening show?"
+++
The first night was magical. The music was amazing, drowning the thoughts in my head, hypnotising the crowd. I had never been to such a good concert and I had had my doubts about it. I mean, come on, 'RealMusicLive'??
I didn't want to get drunk on the first night, because I wanted to remember it. And it made me so happy and excited the next morning.
"Wake up!!" I cried at Kylie, my watch reading 9:00am. It was my turn to be fucking annoying. I shook her until her eyelids slid open slowly, a groan escaping her mouth. "I want to go explore through the woods!" I exclaimed.
"Go explore the fucking woods by yourself, I'm gonna stay here." She managed. I let her off, knowing she had gotten drunk off her mind last night.
It was warm and hazy, so I threw on some spare clothes I had brought. Something about taking walks calmed me, and I wanted to take a look at everything anyway.
Slipping out of my tent, I carefully avoided Grayson's, heading straight towards the woods. As I weaved my way through the tents, the smell of food lingered in the air. People were cooking breakfast outside their tents, laughing warmly and talking quietly.
I was soon surrounded by trees, the strong pine scent filling my nostrils. I saw a big rock ahead of me, the morning sun bursting through the trees and shining it's bright rays on it.
As soon as I sat down, I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths. I wasn't nervous or anything, I just got small reminders that the person who killed my mother was so close to me.
I must have not heard him coming, but I got scared out of my mind when a hand gently placed itself on my shoulder.
"AHH!!" I screamed, jumping up from the rock. I saw Grayson snicker to himself. "Fuck you. Oh my fucking god I hate you. Prick." I started walking away.
"No, Maddie wait," he started. Something in me told me to wait. "I didn't mean to, I just wanted to talk."
I sighed. I didn't have any more anger in me. I didn't know how to be angry any more. I just felt hurt. Empty. He took something away from me that could never be replaced. There was nothing that could fill this hole inside of me. But I had gotten used to living with it. "What." I managed.
There was a lump forming in my throat. The memories and sadness were piling on top of me, on top of my chest, squashing my heart with the passing second.
"Okay. I need you to hear me out." He gestured toward the rock where I had been sitting, and I felt myself going towards it and sitting down, like I was in some kind of trance. "I know exactly what you think I did. I know this might not be the time and place to say this, but I can't keep seeing you being angry at me." I looked into his eyes, and saw nothing but hurt. I felt a pang of guilt in my chest.
"I'm just going to go out and say it. I didn't throw the bomb. It wasn't me." My heart stopped. "Remember Ethan, my twin brother? Didn't you wonder why he just disappeared?" I felt like I was going to throw up. "Well no, you probably didn't because you shut me and my family out forever..."
It hit me like a bus. Everything else he said was blocked out. I felt like I had stopped breathing. Tears started to pour out of my eyes, one after the other. I couldn't stop them. My mind had gone blank. I couldn't process what he was saying.
"Maddie? Maddie!" He started saying, waking me from my trance. I looked at him. Words couldn't explain how sorry I was. But he seemed to know, because he pulled me into the tightest hug, his arms enveloping me.
I sobbed and sobbed. Guilt, disgust, pain, all rushed through my head at once. I didn't know what to do. He held me strongly, rubbing the small of my back.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why did you let me shut you out? Why am I so horrible?" Words started to tumble out of my mouth, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
"Hey, hey," He shushed me, pulling me away from him and holding my face in his hands. "I completely understand why you thought it was me. Also, once you shut people out Maddie, it's like they are dead to you." The word dead stung me, and he winced slightly when he said it. "Sorry." He realised.
"It's okay. I'm sorry too. I can't believe I did this to you." More tears were welling up in my eyes, blurring my vision.
"I don't know how we got into this mess." He whispered. "We were inseparable, Maddie." He slowly inched his face closer to mine, and I let him. Nearly.
- - - -
Hi, hey.
I hate myself for what I've done.
I need you to hear me out just like Grayson asked Maddie to... (ew whatever just go along with it)
1. I'm not gonna come up with any excuses, I was just lazy as shit and fucking uninspired, and you probably hate me because what I've done is cruel. But don't worry, I'm getting my shit together and I'm gonna fucking finish this book.
2. This is rlly important so pls read:
-I don't know what was going through my dumb ass mind when I thought of the plot of "what Grayson did". It's so fucking dramatic and cringy and just stupid.
- so I would like to ask you all a favour. PLS CAN WE NOW JUST MOVE ON FROM THAT RIDICULOUSNESS AND FORGET THAT IT EVER HAPPENED!!! now I just want to focus on building up the relationship between Grayson and Maddie, and im now officially not gonna include anything else from the whole fucking bomb stupid ass idea. (Maybe some references) but NOTHING else.
From now on it's gonna be Grayson and Maddie and them fixing what they had.
Sorry again for my disgustingness. Hope you liked this update that was very anticlimactic and shit but I'll get better. UPDATE COMING SOON!! MAYBE EVEN TONIGHT COS IM TRYNNA MAKE UP!!
Ly all ❤️❤️❤️❤️