Page 18 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

“It’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Aisha shrugged.

I opened my mouth to reply when Professor Walter waltzed in like thunder. Looking in our direction, he observed, “I see Ms. Mendoza is already crocheting, which means I must be late.” He checked his watch.

“Just a couple of minutes. I won’t hold it against you.” Maddie quipped.

He smiled at her and then returned, frowning at all of us, “Who finished chapter three like I instructed?”

After the lecture and making notes about three different assignments Walter expected, Aisha stood up putting her things away. Maddie showed her a crochet triangle.

“What do you think?”

Her friend tipped her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “I think a little bigger, babes.”

“Hm. You might be right.”

“You have big tits.”

“True, they weigh me down.”

“Nice, cute nipples though so, silver linings and all.”

“Silver linings.” Maddie nodded until I interrupted.

“Do I need to ask?”

Aisha didn’t miss a beat. “Maddie is making something to wear to the party this weekend. And she has nice nipples.”

I looked at my oldest friend and she turned to me, beaming smile and showed off the triangle that I did not know how she was going to turn into clothing.

“Let’s go to lunch?” she asked.

“If you promise to stop talking about your nipples.”

Maddie shrugged. “We’ll see.”

We left the lecture hall. Maddie bounced beside me, with her phone in her hands. She seemed to be texting with a frown on her face. “Is everything ok?” I asked.

She nodded, distracted, so I didn’t press. We moved in silence while she was occupied with her phone. I walked us straight to the café and before she even had a chance to look up again, I sat us at our favorite table and ordered what we decided before class. When the server came over with a cherry coke for Maddie and a glass of water for me, my friend finally put her phone away.

I sipped and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Pete.” She breathed while opening the coke with a satisfying hiss.

I dipped my chin. “What about Pete?” Not a bad word, not called him annoying Pete, useless Pete, asshole Pete.

Maddie bit her bottom lip. “Are you going to laugh at me?”

“Probably, but you’ll tell me, anyway.”

She rolled her eyes, accepting the truth in my words. “When the landlord gave us notice, I thought Pete was going to ask me to move in with him.”

I hummed. What else could I say? That I also thought her boyfriend was going to be the first one to help her out? Or that I liked he didn’t? If she did move in with him, he’d turn into an annoying fixture in my life. And I definitely wasn’t ready for that. It was hard to escape him as it was.

“Not that I think we are ready for that.” She shook her head. “But I thought because it’s not something permanent and all…he has an apartment just for him.”

He did. A gigantic apartment right beside campus in a building full of amenities. His parents were loaded, and he never needed to worry about rent or bills one day of his pompous life. So yeah, it took me by surprise too he wouldn’t ever offer.

“Were you talking about it?” I asked, pointing to the phone on the table between us.

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