Page 44 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

I faced them. Aisha’s smirk, Jason’s wide blue eyes. I tried not to look in Nick’s direction much. Silence weighed on me. I wanted to fix the confused expression on Maddie’s face. I needed a confirmation that we were still us.

Maddie swallowed whatever she was feeling and beamed at me. “Beer?” I nodded, unsure if I was going to be trusted to talk ever again.

I watched rooted in the spot as Maddie walked away. My eyes followed her, my throat worked overtime. I couldn’t understand how she could walk and talk. Aisha and Jason moved along to do other things, too. My ears registered the music again. When I finally was able to step ahead, Nick was there, watching me with those severe green eyes.

I shook my head.Don’t, I pleaded silently.

He must have understood, because soon he was dipping his chin and following the rest of the group.

Ipushed myself, ignoring the steps following me. They kept coming, insistently, annoyingly, even after I told him I wanted to run alone.

Jason wasn’t someone easy to get rid of.

“Hey, jerk off, wait!” He was out of breath. Jay wasn’t prone to cardio. He liked to push weights. I could outrun him easily.

“Go home, Jason.” I kept my pace, sure it was sign enough that I wasn’t in the mood for company.

Frankly, I wasn’t up for company the whole week after the scavenger hunt. The only one I was going to pretend to be normal for was Maddie, and she was behaving weird as fuck.

As far as anyone could see, we were our normal selves. But I knew us too well to fall for it. Her thoughts simmered. I could feel her worries, but they never made it into words.

“Come on, I’m on your side.” Jason panted behind me.

I doubted that. Jay was incredibly in touch with his damn feelings. He had no problem talking about them. Constantly. So I was sure following me for a run was his way to me get in touch with mine.

I didn’t want to understand my feelings. I was glad they were properly repressed.

Not that it mattered. The whole damn campus had decided my feelings. Just as Aisha predicted, we broke Statham University. We got extra points for our kiss, and to Jason’s happiness, we took the lead. I was sure we were going to stay at the park afterwards and drink as we usually did, but Maddie wanted to play until the end.

Jason -who was whispering “Catalina Garcia is going down” under his breath like a psycho - agreed with her. So we finished the damn hunt for the first time, and of course, we won.

The picture of our kiss was everywhere. We had a damn couple’s name now.Zaddie. Apparently, people had been waiting for Zaddie for a long time and they were beside themselves it was finally happening. Between all that nonsense and Maddie being just plain weird, talking to Jason about it seemed like the last thing I wanted to do.

Escaping from Nick wasn’t much better. While he wasn’t as in touch with his goddamn emotions like Jay, his eyes followed me around the house like I was a ticking bomb.

I wasn’t.

I was happy about addressing the kiss or not addressing it at all. I was ok going in whatever direction made Maddie back to normal. Real normal, not that lie she was feeding everyone.

“This is stupid!” Groaned Jason. “I can’t believe you’re making me chase you.”

“Not making you do anything. You’re welcome to leave me alone.”

“Oh, he talks!” He said between labored breaths. “I’m trying to be a good friend and you’re causing my premature death.”

“Wrong on both accounts.” I replied easily.

“Wh-what?”

I rolled my eyes, pressed on, and ignored him.

“I know you won’t talk to Maddie. Why can’t you talk to me?”

“Because I’m running.”

“Youarerunning,” he said like the fake therapist he was. “Just admit it was a hell of a kiss.”

“Shut the fuck up, Jason. Go home.”

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