I'M PUTTING MY things in my locker on Tuesday afternoon when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see some dude I've never met.
"Hey," he says, flashing me a smile. He has blonde hair that's artfully disheveled, and that you can tell he spent his time on, and steely blue, almost grey, eyes.
I nod before shutting my locker and pressing my back against it, looking up at him.
"Did you need help with something?" I ask, definitely not going for the polite tactic. I need to get to History and I don't have time for pleasantries.
"Yes actually, I never got your name." He gives me what I think is suppose to be a flirty smile but it honestly just comes across as creepy.
"Oh my bad, I thought you already had one." I deadpan, tilting my head at him.
His confident smile wavers, but he quickly recovers. "You're funny."
I nod again.
"So, I actually haven't seen you around here before and I know for a fact I would've noticed someone as gorgeous as you. Did you just move?" He says, pressing his hand to the lockers right next to my head, and standing uncomfortably close to me.
"Can you like, back up? It's called personal space, dude." I say, pushing his hand away from my head, which makes his fall forward a little.
He steps back and lets out a small laugh. "So, did you move here?"
"Unfortunately." I reply, giving him a bored look.
He tries to hide the fact he's obviously getting annoyed with me, and shoves his hands in his pockets.
"I'm Christian, by the way." He tells me, and I sigh, running my hands through my hair that I left down in a soft wave.
"Well, as lovely as it was talking with you Christian, I have to be in my history class in five minutes. Bye." I say, pushing past him, but he grabs my arm and turns me around.
I quickly pull away from him and shoot him a murderous glare.
"I never got your name."
"Yes, I'm aware of that. Now I'm leaving. Did you get that?" I reply, talking to him like he's five. Maybe that'll get something through his thick skull.
He grabs me again and before I get the chance to pull away, someone grips his hand that is clamped uncomfortably tight on my wrist.
I look up to see Sam. Mad doesn't seem to cover the look he's sending his way.
I can see him squeeze his wrist tight enough that Sam's fingers go white, and Christian quickly lets go of me.
I pull my hand back, rubbing my red wrist. What the hell is wrong with that kid?
"Don't touch." Sam snaps. He looks borderline scary.
"Sure, you have fun with the little bitch. She's more work than she's worth anyways." Christian says, making Sam tense beside me.
Only now do I realize he's holding my hand tightly in his. Not like Christian did at all, more like a gentle yet firm grip.
Sam puts one foot forward but I quickly tug him back, squeezing his hand once. "The piece of shit isn't worth it." I tell him.
Christian sees this and lets out a small laugh. "Good puppy," he says, still laughing as he walks away.
We watch him walk down the empty hall. When he turns the corner and is out of sight, Sam quickly looks to me.
He lifts up my hand and more gently than I thought he was capable of, probes my bright red wrist.
"I'm fine." I insist, but he ignores me, turning it over in his palm.
"Did he touch you anywhere else? I find out your lying-" he starts, but I cut him off.
"No, what you saw is all that happened."
He nods, still looking beyond pissed, but not at me.
"Why do you care?" I ask quietly. My tone isn't harsh or sarcastic, I'm just genuinely curious.
"Cause you obviously didn't want him to touch you and the stupid bastard did anyway. No means no and he didn't get that apparently." He replies, finally releasing my wrist but our fingers on my other hand stay laced.
"You do that." I observe, squinting at him.
"Not like that! I don't hurt you. He physically hurt you and I would never do that." He looks appalled that the thought even crossed my mind.
"But you still touch me when I don't want it. And you look at me like meat, and you make those comments that make me sick. All of it, Sam. Why're you so adamant that he doesn't make me uncomfortable but you do and you're okay with it?" I say, pulling my hand from his.
His anger wavers and the look is replaced with something else. Maybe regret? It's gone before I can identify it.
"I don't- he was different-" He tries, but I shake my head and start to walk away.
"Maddie, wait," he grabs my wrist, right where Christian did, but springs away like my skin burned him.
I turn and look to see he's holding his hands tightly together, his knuckles going white. He looks almost ashamed.
"You called me Maddie." I tell him quietly.
He shrugs a little, looking vulnerable. "I'm sorry if I made- if I make you uncomfortable." He stops and runs his hand through his hair, mussing it.
"I never meant- that wasn't suppose to make you uncomfortable, I was just teasing and trying to annoy you." He finishes, roughly shoving his hands into his pockets and refusing to meet my eyes.
"You should get to class." He says quickly, his demeanor completely changing. He went from bashful and embarrassed to normal Sam. What?
"Yeah, I should." I murmur, sighing. I walk past him, heading in the direction of class. I stop and turn to face him.
"Hey,"
He turns around and looks at me, taking one hand from his pocket and starts fiddling with his lip ring.
"Thank you. For dealing with Christian, I mean." I say softly, playing with the hem of my shirt.
He gives me a small smile. "No problem."
~•~•~
Ever since my blowup on Saturday, the boys and I aren't doing great. Yes, we communicate well enough but we're definitely not good. I know it's cause we need to talk about everything but I've really been pushing it aside.
"So I've been trying to not bring it up, but what happened?" Ollie says after dinner, when I'm watching tv and the boys are just doing their own thing.
"What makes you think something happened?" Parker asks, a little too sharply cause it just makes Ollie roll his eyes.
"Well, we're watching ninety day fiancé and Mads hasn't thrown a single pillow at the tv saying that it's bullshit. Not to mention the fact Parker hasn't done anything to tease her about her choice of entertainment. Something's up." He says, making Parker and I look at each other before looking to Ollie.
"Fine, we had an argument Saturday." I say, shrugging.
"What about?"
"Ricky thinks we should make Maddie's rules less strict and I don't agree." Parker said brusquely.
"I haven't done anything wrong and you're acting like I have!" I snap.
"Okay, okay, hold on!" Ollie says, interrupting our bickering.
We both look at him, Parker scowling like he ate something bitter.
"Park, why do you think we shouldn't lessen Maddie's rules?"
"Because she's not going to end up like the girls at school. No way in hell." He says, shaking his head.
"Treating me my age isn't going to make me go party all night long, not giving me a bedtime of seven thirty isn't going to make me get hammered just 'cause. You don't trust me at all and it's unfair." I rant, sitting forward in the couch.
Parker opens his mouth to yell again but Ollie cuts him off.
"Alright, calm down, both of you."
"But do you agree with this, Oliver? Are you on Ricky's team or mine?" Parker says roughly, turning his glare on him.
"There are no teams! We are just talking about whether we should lessen Madeline's rules or not!" Winn says exasperatedly.
"We weren't talking to you." Parker hisses, turning to give him a dirty look.
"Listen up, you're one of the youngest so you shouldn't even get a say in the rules. So why don't you just butt out and let the adults talk?" He snaps, making Parker's face go slightly red.
"I have just as much say-!" Parker starts, definitely planning on lecturing him, but I groan loudly.
"This is so stupid," I mutter, stand up off the couch and trying to walk out of the room.
"Maddie, we're talking." Ollie gently grabs my wrist.
I quickly pull my hand back, my wrist now throbbing. I look down to see a slightly purple bruise left by Christian.
When I look up, I see all their eyes on it.
Oh shit.
"What is that?" Ollie asks immediately, carefully tugging on my forearm to pull my closer.
I pull back and shove my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, hiding the bruise.
"It's nothing, I must've bumped it on something." I lie, biting on the inside of my cheek.
"No, no it isn't, show me your wrist now." Ollie demands, standing up off the couch and towering over me.
I'm in deep shit now.
I pull my hand out of my pocket and show him, watching as all the boys walk over to look at it. And luckily for me, note my sarcasm, they all look ready to kill.
"Who did this?" Ollie all but growls, turning over my wrist like Sam did earlier.
"No one! I told you, I bumped it!" I continue with my lies, trying to feign nonchalance, when in reality my heart is going wild. I know the boys wouldn't be mad at me for this, no, they'd be beyond ready to kick Christian's ass though.
"And this thing you bumped, did it have fingers?" He lightly traces over what are clearly finger sized bruises.
Knowing there's no bullshitting my way out of this, I just let out a defeated sigh.
"It's that Sam kid. I swear to God-" Emmett says, cutting himself off before he can finish. He just walks over to the door and whips it open, Parker hot in his heels.
"No! He was the one who stopped it!" I say, just trying to save Sam from a beating. He was actually oddly nice to me today and I owe him big time.
They turn around again.
"I was on my way to history and I to grab something out of my locker first, so when I turned around to go to class there was this guy there. I had never talked to him and he was trying to start a conversation with me, so when I got annoyed and said I had to go he grabbed my hand. I pulled away, mouthed off to him, and when I tried again to walk away he grabbed my wrist, but this time a lot harder. In a second Sam was there and I thought he was going to kill him, he looked like you do now, and he made him let go. The kid called me a bitch and Sam was going to go after him but I stopped him." I explain, gently rubbing my sore wrist.
"Why the hell did you stop Sam? You should've let the kid get his ass whooped! He hurt you and he called you a bitch!" Parker explodes, his face red.
"I stopped him cause he could've gotten suspended, no way am I worth that."
"What's the kid's name?" Winn demands, stomping over to the other boys that look ready to find this kid and kill him.
"He never told me." I lie quickly, shaking my head, a few strands of hair falling into my eyes. They're going to get me in trouble. Maybe I'll get the reputation of the chick who's brothers beat people in their free time. That could be fun.
"Why wouldn't he give you his name?" Ollie asks, still staring down at me.
"He was talking and I kept interrupting him cause I didn't want to talk, so I guess he never got the time. He also never got my name." I tuck the stray hairs behind my ear quickly. It definitely sounds like something I would do, and he nods. He must believe me.
He gives me a serious look, then he points at me. "Don't you ever lie to me again. And especially not about stuff like this. Got it?"
I nod, putting my hands back in my pockets. Yes, I feel guilty about lying to them but it's for the best. I just moved here, let me get to know the people before they've decided that my brothers are psychopaths.
"Can I go now? I have a load of homework to finish." Ollie still looks pissed, Emmett and Parker ready to leave and beat this kid they don't even know, and Winn is rubbing his temples, still sitting on the couch.
"You know you aren't getting out of this unscathed, right?" Winn asks, looking up at me.
"A little late for that." I deadpan, lifting my hand up and showing off the bruise.
He glares at me, shaking his head as he stands up and walks over to me.
"For starters, this shit happened to you and you didn't tell us. Second of all, you straight up lied to us. And as a garnish, you've had an attitude since Saturday. You're in trouble." He says, ticking them off on his fingers as he goes.
Having nothing to say to that without getting in more trouble, I just huff and pick at my cuticles.
"Grounded for two weeks."
I snap my head up and gape at him. "Two weeks? That's ridiculous!"
He sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "What's ridiculous is the way you've been acting since we moved. You've been rude and disrespectful, you've been lying and keeping things from us, and you've just been a handful all round. You're fifteen-"
"Sixteen." I interrupt, making him glower.
"Sixteen," he amends.
"You're sixteen and you should be helping us, not making things harder. I don't think you realize this, but it's pretty damn difficult having to parent two teenagers when you're still one." He snaps suddenly, making me reel back little.
"Winn- I didn't mean to-" I start, suddenly feeling guilty for being so difficult recently.
He just covers his face and lets out a loud sigh. "No, it's whatever. I'm going to bed, I have stuff for school that's due soon. Goodnight," he says, walking past me and towards the stairs.
I wring my hands, my eyes burning. I know that this is tough on the boys but I never really thought about how they really did get their childhoods cut short. It isn't fair on them.
"I'm gonna go to bed." I say quietly, my voice cracking.
They don't say anything as I walk upstairs and in the direction of my room. Winn's room is right across from mine, so I turn and knock on the door.
Nothing.
I try again, biting my lip hard.
I put my hand up to knock for a third time, but the door opens, leaving me standing there with my fist in the air.
"Yes Maddie?" He asks, his hair disheveled and an old tee shirt was obviously just thrown over his head.
"I'm sorry. You're right, I've been awful recently and I should be helping you guys, not making things harder. I- I let you down and I'm sorry." I stammer, keeping my eyes on my feet cause I know if I look at him I'll probably start crying. I may be stubborn and not take crap from anyone, but seeing my brothers disappointed in me is different. It breaks me faster than I'd like.
"Mads, no, you didn't let me down." He says, pulling me into a hug. I wrap my arms around his middle and rest my head on his chest, blinking repeated to keep the tears out of my eyes.
He puts his chin on the top of my head and murmurs, "Don't ever think that. I blew up on you cause I'm stressed over school and I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
I stand there for a minute more before he asks, "You wanna come watch a movie with me? I just started The Grinch, I was in the Christmas spirit."
I pull back and let out a small laugh, wiping under my eyes. "I thought you had school that was due?"
He shrugs and smiles a little. "Yeah, I do, but I'm listening and doing homework."
**** so this was pretty short and it took me foreveeeeer for some reason, but ok. thank you for reading! ily guys! please vote and comment, i love feedback, it makes my day ♥️
- f a i t h y