It was late, heading towards eleven when Karen walked into Maddie's room, more to check on her than to criticize her for being up past her bedtime. "Oh, sorry, I just had some more homework left." Maddie said sipping on her orange soda before sitting it on the night stand. "That's alright, I don't mind so much if it's for school and as long as you still follow rules which include your grades, which you have." Mrs. Dempsey says commending Maddie for her hard work making her smile while she writes a few terms. "So, why were you home so late?" Karen questions gently, she looks to her daughter. She didn't want to pressure her but she did intend on finding out why her daughter was home so late.
"Oh, right." Maddie says closing her binder deciding she was done. "Well, Jess had a hard time during practice so I told her we could hang out after I was done, on our way out we met up with Sherri who could obviously use a friend so we all went to Monets, which I texted Zach about so you would know and wouldn't be worried." Maddie says before carrying on. "And then the reason we stayed there so long was because Courtney was there and since she just testified we figured she could use some company, and then Jess wanted to hang out a little longer because she has to testify tomorrow and we decided that'd be fine." Maddie says and Karen nods listening to her daughter.
"Well, that's very sweet of you. I'm glad even if they aren't your friends, or haven't been that you're there for them and hopefully they can be there for you and you can become friends. I know you gave up after Justin but the truth is in this life you need friends." Maddie sighed looking down while nodding, her mother was right. Both about needing friends and about her giving up after Justin.
Waking up in the morning was easy, Maddie had slept well and the sun shining through her windows gave her a sense of happiness while she got dressed. Once she made it to the school, though it was a different story, it always was. That school just had this perfected skill of making everyone in it feel as if they're drowning one way or another. But, Maddie was getting better, a lot of people were. It was just this trial that was starting to slow to process down just when it started to get easier and faster.
Getting a few books out of her locker she gasps seeing Ryan standing next to her. "You scared me." Maddie chuckled smoothing her hair back and he chuckles. "I just wanted to make sure that both of us know that Tony needs his secrets kept safe. Even in court." Ryan says looking at her, he wasn't threatening her and honestly he figured she would have went after him by now. "Trust me Ryan I know. Especially in court. That man has helped me through more than I can remember, I would never hurt him like that." She says and Ryan nods as he links his arm with her when she goes to walk away. "Also," He says turning them around against Maddie's will. "I figured we could greet Courtney and make sure she is comfortable at least for a few minutes." Maddie nods looking at him, Ryan could be a lot of things. And a caring human was one them.
After standing at Courtney's locker for a few moments she walks to them, her face shows she's uncomfortable but she refuses to say it. Ryan chuckles and smiles while she opens her locker without a word. "Welcome to the team." Ryan says playfully moving his shoulders with a smile making her roll her eyes. "Don't start with me Ryan." She says before scrunching her eyes looking to Maddie. "I'm not on the team." Maddie laughs but smiles to the short haired girl. "But a number one supporter nonetheless." Ryan says with a large smile. "I am glad you made it out." Ryan says seriously making Courtney nod.
"Yeah. Me, too." She says while closing her locker only for him to grab it. "If you start driving a Subaru and wearing a flannel, I will hold an intervention. Be warned." He says before Maddie starts laughing. Both Ryan and Courtney look at her before she leans into the locker continuously laughing making the both of them laugh while she attempts to sober up holding her stomach. "I'm sorry but if Courtney ever wears a flannel I want a picture before the intervention." Maddie says laughing loudly the way she did when she couldn't contain herself which made everyone around her laugh.
After a few moments Maddie made her way into the lunch room, normally she sat with Monty but she wanted to switch it up. She loved Monty and their friendship, she really did, but it was going to be awhile before she could tell him what happened with Bryce, and honestly she wasn't sure he'd pick her over him. So she needed to be prepared for the day that may come. "H-hey guys." Maddie says with a small smile looking at Jessica and Alex. Alex seems too focused on Scott to look towards Maddie but Jess smiles to the girl. "Jess, you look so.." She trails off while sitting down. "Bad?" Jess asks almost panicking making Maddie shake her head with a smile. "Mature." She says with a reassuring nod, to her appearance which included straighten hair, boots and a nice dress.
"What the hell happened to your face?" Jessica asks making Maddie look up, once her eyes meets Clay Jensen's face her eyes widen. "Clay, what happened?" Maddie asks as he sits down. "Someone ran me off the road last night. Someone in what looked like a black Range Rover." Maddie looked down at the comment. The whole table knew that vehicle belonged to Bryce but thinking about it, it didn't make sense. Bryce was trying to stay far away from it all, plus his father and attorney both told him to stay away from anyone heavily involved against it, and though Bryce liked to believe he was all powerful he wasn't stupid if nothing else he would have taken someone else's car.
Looking up it was quite obvious Alex, Jess, and Clay were all still in conversation but then something catches her eye. Someone to be exact, it was Monty and his brown eyes which were staring at her, but for a moment it seemed they were staring at the paper Alex was holding which he got from whoever was harassing them. Jessica looked up making eye-contact with Bryce as he winks at her and Maddie quickly grabs her hand for support before everyone looks to Alex who began to speak. "Are we sure it's even him?" He asks and everyone shakes their heads. "I don't think it is. I mean, I don't trust him and he's not a great guy but that's not him." Maddie says fully confident in her answer but scrunches her eyebrows when Alex speaks again.
"What if it's Zach." Jessica squeezes Maddie's hand before speaking defending the black haired boy. "That's crazy. He's been helping you with everything."
"Then why is he still hanging around Bryce?" He asks And this time Clay speaks up. "It's Bryce or someone protecting him. He doesn't want the truth to come out." Clay says and Maddie rolls her eyes. "You know what fuck the both of you." Maddie says seriously as she slips her bag over her arm. "I sat here so I could be with my friends. But you guys refuse to act normal for five minutes and then the first thing you do is accuse my brother of running you off the road and threatening the two of you?" She asks standing up looking to Alex.
Maddie sighed making her way down the hall, that wasn't really how she wanted to start to her day, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. Before Maddie was able to make a left to get to her class the door to a classroom flew out hitting Maddie's body, but luckily she didn't fall. "Hey! Watch it!" Maddie shouted moving forward to see who was carelessly throwing open doors but she frowned coming face to face with a panicked looking Jessica. "Jess?" She asked looking at the scared girl. "Jess, let's-" Jess shook her head. "Maddie I appreciate you but I need a moment." Maddie nodded and backed away, she knew that sometimes people just needed to be alone.
The rest of Maddie's day went per-usual, she finished all of her classes luckily with no drama or harsh words thrown in the air. She ran practice and started on a new stand with her team, then she came home and talked to Jessica for an hour. She wanted to be at the trial for her but they both knew she couldn't be. "Hey, uhm, I'm sorry about this morning-" Maddie quickly cut her off looking at Jessica face on her phone while she writes down a few terms for a study guide. "Jess, there's no need. For either instance, you stood up for Zach even though he still hangs out with Bryce and this morning with the door you were panicking and you meant no harm." Maddie says smiling and Jessica smiles at the pale girl, she was glad she finally had someone who understood her and didn't make her explain herself every two minutes.
Hearing the doorbell ring Maddie rolls her eyes. "People always show up here around dinner time which stalls my food, I'm hungry." Maddie groans while leaning back in her chair making Jessica chuckle at the girl over the phone. "Maddie you're eating chips as we speak." Maddie laughs at Jessica. "Shush, nobody needs to know." She says laughing but then frowns looking up at her door which opened. "You have a visitor." Karen says opening the door fully to let Clay in before she shuts the door. Maddie looks back to Jess who smiles at her and nods. "It's cool, I'll see you tomorrow." She says before hanging up letting Maddie turn off her phone and turn to Clay. "Take a seat." She says nodding to her bed and Clay does as told. "So why are you here?" Maddie asks, of course her and Clay had gotten closer and she'd even ate a few dinners at his house with Tony but he'd never came to her house.
"I wanted to apologize to talking about Zach like that firstly." Maddie nodded to this though she had a feeling he still suspected him. "And second, I wanted to talk to you about the trial." Maddie sighed leaning back. "Clay, can't we be normal kids for ten minutes?" She asked and Clay scoff lightly. "Maddie. We aren't normal kids. Your old best friend is a rapist, your current best friend beats up on people for no reason, our friend killed her self, our other friend tried to shoot himself in the head, your ex ran away, and you're going on the stand soon." Maddie sighed sucking in his words, they were true. "But Clay, I want to be normal. That's all I've ever wanted." She says straightening up. "Maddie, you're perfect the way you are. Why would you want to be normal?" He asks leaving his original topic he came with. "Because normal is easy, this." She says sighing yet again. "This is hard." Clay sighs and sits up. "And what I'm about to ask you is harder." Maddie furrowed her eyebrow. "What is it?" She asks cautiously.
"I want you to talk about what Bryce did." Maddie sucks in a breath. "Clay." She says shaking her head. "This trial isn't about Bryce, he isn't even testifying. And plus I never reported so they're just going to us that against me." Maddie says and Clay shakes his head. "Maddie, you're credible and if you came forward in court maybe the police would get involved or you would have the courage to go to the police and then you could help Jessica come out to the police about what he did to her." Maddie shook her head again, sure maybe if the trial were about Bryce but it wasn't. There was no way for her to just spit something like that out, and plus the defense attorney would probably shut her down two words in, but Clay didn't give Maddie time to explain until he spit out his next question making her freeze in her seat.
"What if Justin were here?" He's calm and he's not lashing out so it's easy for her to respond the same. "Justin? He and I promised each other we'd stop playing the what-if gave when I got the tapes. So after the first few months with nothing.." She trails off with a shrug. "I stopped wondering." She says but Clay shakes his head, he can't take that for an answer. Justin and Maddie loved each other. That much he was positive of.
"You haven't heard from him?" He asks scrunching up his features, it's almost like he can't believe that Justin wouldn't try to reach out to her. Maddie let's her eyes float to a small stack of postcards that she had received from him. "No." She says crossing her legs and smoothing her hair. "Clay, I'm sorry. But I'm done talking about this. Justin is out of the picture and as for the trial I'm doing what's right for Hannah and myself, so please leave so I can eat dinner." Maddie says sighing for the umpteen time. "Yeah, sure, but uhm I missed Bio. today so could I borrow your notes." Maddie rolled her eyes while getting up and going to her binder before sitting on the bed facing away from Clay as she dug through her notes before turning around handing it to him. When he hears her quickly stand up she shoves the latest postcard back onto the stand and turns around to take them. "What were you..?" Maddie trails off looking behind him but he shakes his head. "I was trying to figure out the color of your lamp." He says and Maddie smiles slightly. "It's lavender." She informs him as he runs out the door and she shouts for him to return her notes the following day.
~~~Authors Note~~~
Hey guys! Sorry for the longer wait on this one but I felt like I was overwhelming you guys with all those updates which I don't wanna do so here:
VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ AND COMMENT
What do you guys want my update schedule to be like? Do you want it to be once a week or once a day or whatever you guys want! Please comment what you guys would rather because this book is meant for you guys and I want my writing scheduling to fit for you guys too!
END OF VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ AND COMMENT
So obviously the end of this episode is Tony and Clay finding Justin so I didn't want to add anything on that into this episode but how would you guys like Maddie to be added into it? Should Tony add some hints or maybe she sees him how Jessica does at school? Remember if you don't comment I can't put in what you want!
Also if any of you want to message me for anything whether it be regarding questions about my book and/or ideas past, present, and future don't hesitate! I got a few messages from you guys recently and we've been having awesome convos. about both our books and the show so it'd be awesome if you wanna chat with me!
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