A few days had passed and Maddie and Jay had spent the majority of their time together. Maddie had been caught up on the ordeal that took place between Ben and Mal. Honestly, she was overjoyed that Ben and Audrey were no longer a thing, she despised the bitch after all. But it was all a bit weird. Ben breaking out into song? Falling in love with Mal? Sure, Maddie saw some sort of connection between them since the first day, but it was all a bit too... sudden? She wasn't completely sure.
Maddie was in her room, which she felt confined to lately, since she couldn't exactly go out and do much with her arm being in a sling. It was annoying, not being able to do the one thing she enjoyed most: archery. Her bow and arrow leant up against the wall in the corner of her room, lifeless and untouched. Dust speckled on it for the first time ever. Maddie had taken her sling off a few times, but she'd only been scolded by Jay. That is, when he actually saw her. He had seemed to have been avoiding her more and more as days passed by. He didn't have much to do, classes weren't giving out much homework, he didn't even have a ton of tourney practise since the team was on break after the big game. All she knew was that today, he had an arranged FaceTime call with his dad, as well as the other VKs and their parents since family day was approaching, and obviously, they couldn't be with their parents on that day. When she had seen Jay, he had been quite distant and somewhat sad, it concerned her quite a bit. It stressed her, it was a bit unusual for her to feel like that, especially over a simple boy, but she did. Unfortunately, since she couldn't de-stress or distract herself by playing archery, she had to resort to something else. Punching walls. Yes, it was a bad habit, but hey, it was good practise for when Prince Jerk got the courage to make a snarky comment.
Maddie's knuckle collided with the wall just as her bedroom door opened. Her head snapped to the door to see Jay stood there with an immediate look of concern on his face.
"Why are you punching the wall?" He asked with seriousness in his tone. She looked down at her knuckle and opened and closed her fist, looking at the marks on her knuckles where her skin had come off.
"I don't know." She muttered, keeping her eyes down. He let out a sigh and walked towards her, taking her hand in his and gently rubbing his thumb over her bruised and skinned knuckles.
"You need to stop, Red." He said softly, bring her hand up to his lips and gently kissing her knuckles. Maddie stayed quiet and looked down at the floor. Jay frowned and tilted her chin up using his hand, forcing her to look at him. "This isn't the first time I've caught you punching the wall, Mads," He said, his tone becoming serious. "It's not a good habit to get into... I know." He held his hand up in front of her and showed her the scar across his knuckle. Her eyes widened a bit as she looked at the scar. "I don't want you to end up with something like that, Red." He cupped her cheek with his hand and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Fine..." Maddie mumbled as Jay pulled her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her.
"Do you promise?" He asked, stroking her hair.
"Yeah..." She muttered.
"Madison." He said sternly.
"Don't Madison me." She retorted, Jay looking down at her and raising his eyebrow. They looked at each other in silence for a while until Maddie sighed. "Fine... I promise." She murmured and Jay then pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Good." He smiled slightly and she nodded, walking over to her bed and sitting on the edge of it.
"How'd your call with your dad go?" She asked, looking at him as he walked around her room, just looking at things. He froze when he was stood by her desk.
"I-it was fine." Jay shrugged a bit and looked through the stationary pot on the desk.
"Really?" Maddie raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah." He nodded a bit. She didn't believe him. He was acting strange. Sure, his dad may be a bit of a touchy subject or whatever, but he was being quite distant as days went by.
"What's up with you?" Maddie finally asked. Jay stopped and placed the pot back on the desk.
"What do you mean?" He questioned casually.
"You've been avoiding me." She stated simply. "You're acting weird. You've changed since the day we kissed."
"I haven't, Red. I've just been busy... with school." He shrugged.
"Sure you have." Maddie rolled her eyes.
"You wear glasses?" He suddenly asked, picking up the black glasses that were also on her desk. Maddie jumped up from the bed and took them off him.
"N-no... someone must have left them here..." She muttered, looking down at the glasses.
"Uh huh, and who wears glasses who comes in your room?" Jay raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you want me to know?" He asked gently.
"It's stupid, it doesn't matter." She muttered. He sighed and stepped towards her, touching her cheek.
"It matters to me." He said softly. "It's not like you to not be confident about something to do with yourself. Something must've happened." Maddie sighed deeply and looked down at her glasses in her hand.
"I got bullied about them..." She murmured. "I-it knocked my confidence... and I stopped wearing them in public. Not many people actually know I need glasses..."
"Who bullied you?" Jay asked with anger lacing his tone.
"Well who d'you think?" She rolled her eyes a bit. Jay scowled.
"I'm going to-"
"You're not gonna do anything." Maddie placed a hand firmly on his shoulder. "I dealt with it. And do you see Chad and Audrey daring to say anything to me now? No. It's okay." She said with reassurance. "I'm fine."
"Well, no. It's affected you that much that you can't wear them around people." He frowned. "You're hiding part of you away."
"It's a pair of glasses, Muscles." She pressed a kiss to his lips. "Stop getting protective."
"Fine..." He gave in and paused for a moment. "Put them on." He said simply.
"You what?" She asked, blinking.
"Your glasses. I want to see you with them on." He said, grinning down at her. Maddie raised her eyebrows and then sighed, putting on the glasses and then looking up at him.
"Happy?" She sighed. Jay smiled and pushed her glasses up her nose using his finger.
"Just when I thought you couldn't get any cuter." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You look beautiful with and and without your glasses." He said, looking into her eyes. He then leaned down and kissed her lips. As they wrapped their arms around each other, there was a sudden, rather impatient, knock on the door. Maddie and Jay pulled away from each other and Maddie quickly took her glasses off, shoving them in her pocket.
"Jay, I'm not stupid I know you're in there." Mal's voice came from the other side of the door. "You need to stop frolicking and living a fantasy. We have things to talk about." Maddie raised her eyebrows as Jay let out a groan.
"Don't you have another date with Ben or something?" Jay questioned.
"No I don't. But that's exactly the thing we need to talk about so come on." Mal responded, with impatience and boredom in her tone.
"What does she mean? Why d'you need to talk about Ben?" Maddie asked Jay in a quiet voice. Jay let out a sigh.
"I'll see you later, Red." He quickly kissed her cheek.
"Jay! Hurry up." Mal groaned. Maddie furrowed her eyebrows and watched Jay quickly exit the room. When the door closed, Maddie let out a sigh and flopped backwards onto her bed, closing her eyes. Why had he avoided her questions, and why had he been avoiding her? Why was he being so cryptic and secretive? Now she really saw why she shouldn't bother with boys. They were confusing as fuck. But, Maddie couldn't keep the suspicion that something was going on out of her head. The only escape she had was when she finally drifted off to sleep.